Love it AND Leave it

Welcome to Lebanon!

What has this land become? .... A party land. Our awaited vacation destination. A place no one can afford unless of course, he gets his income from, well, elsewhere.

A paradise with a double folded glory, so controversial that it can be heaven for people with different, even opposite, values.

Lebanon is ruled by the skies, bound by religions, a place where satanics and gays are sentenced to death. Rough, you might think... but you haven't digged into the reality of it all, that's only the icing of the cake... but the bulk is just as juicy, and, boy, are you in for a surprise.

With wars and political unrest, this heaven has maintained its sanctity, safe from the media and the tourists, it has kept its cultural purity.

Life! You know not what it's like, if you have never been there. Try booking a table in any restaurant any time of day, any day of the week - full house. The pubs, the night clubs, the night life, unbeatable... and it's not just walls with nice decorations, it's the people!
Beauty! The city lights at night look as festive as a christmas tree. The sound of the waves crashing on the rocks, the wind, the sun, the sand... can only be knocked down by the snow covered mountains.

What did it all bring us? An over-educated population, with a living standard it cannot keep up with. A local inflation in prices of goods and real-estate that cannot be constrained. An additional dose of freedom that others would have done without. The safety to dress up and look stunning every single day with absolute innocence... and without standing out in the crowd. A socially defined set of standards we all abide to, unconsciously, the will to strive and succeed and meet communities' unreachable requirements. Consequence? Brain drain, immigration, temporary working visa...etc.

Lebanon has fought its wars from abroad and left many dazzled by its unmoved economy despite the local security issues.

That's Lebanon! We love it, and we leave it, swearing we'd be back.... WHEN the situation calms down, and we all see the irony in that.

Measuring Your Marketing Efforts

I have been reading about economics in relation to marketing. In general, the marketing effectiveness is measured as a relation between the marketing budget invested and the sales returns. The formula is simple MR=MC.

Sounds logical? Maybe, but it isn't quite so.

Marketing efficiency depends on the marketing campaign's success. A marketing budget is only relative to the marketing costs (graphic designer, medium, marketing research... etc) which in their turn change under different settings. Meaning? The same marketing budget can be translated in campaigns of different sizes, depending on the market costs. Thus, a marketing budget is irrelevant in the calculation of marketing efficiency.

Moreover, sales in $ is not representative of the response to the marketing efforts. The same amount, let's suppose $3,000 of total sales, can be a sale of 3 products of a value of $1,000 each or 300 goods costing $30 each. Moreover, the profit margin on the products can be different; thus looking at the sales profit makes things even more complicated.

The real criteria that one needs to look into are frequency and reach of the campaign...

Lord of the Wings

...So I am in love with this concept!
A new restaurant opened in Lebanon, a special fast food chain. They called it "Lord of the Wings", sounds like "Lord of the Rings" and it is intended to. Great catchy name created to grasp the young target audience.
First opened in a trendy street in Beirut where pubs abound, now in a mall. The name says it all! They serve chicken wings with different flavors! The only other choice would be a burger... could they have done anything more cost-effective?!... and talk about differentiation and specialization, they're right on track!

But let me tell you what else they did right: a keen attention to details.

• The menu is handed in on a sheet for the customer to fill; definitely makes you want to tick more than one box! i.e. more sales.
• The chicken wings are served with gloves and wet wipes in a well-presented basket. What's more is an additional glove, which you might take for a mistake; but make no assumptions, they're only considering your needs in case yours got ripped.
• You know what else they correctly anticipated? Customer behavior! The first thing a customer seems to ask is which flavor is which plate. Only to notice a small tag on each. well-sought!
• Add to this a friendly staff and free-refill for your soft drinks...

I bow down to the Lord. The Lord of the Wings!

Conditional Marketing: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

Once upon a time, advertising meant the brand is successful, what the consumers translated as “the product is good”. That is in a far away reality, which we now doubt ever existed.

Later on, people looked for confirmation from a second source. While they often relied on a friend’s advice, they also trusted a credited source: what they’d label an expert. Trial and error taught them that experts are not always honest; they often have their own reasons for praising.

Now, with the increase in interactive marketing a new way of doing things has emerged; a "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” type of marketing. If you have a blog or are member in a community, you’ve probably already witnessed this: “you link to me, I link to you” or “I commented on your text, come check out mine”. However, this activity is not limited to the digital world, and this is what most of us ignore. It is everywhere.

I was recently reading a book called the Black Swan. It’s author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb pointed out how the academic world has become a “you quote me, I quote you” type of place.

If I say I am great, no one will believe me. If you say I am great and I say you are great; then the world is fooled to think we both are indeed – that is – if the same person does not stumble upon both sentences at once. It is even the basis of social interaction.

I recently realized how little value we have for real “merit”. We trust other people’s judgments blindfolded. If I was to buy a book, I would not pay attention to its content, as much as who commented on the back cover or which book got better reviews from the big sources.

Consequently, a business book published in India, for instance, has less chances for success than one published in the US; “country of origin effect”? Not quite so. If an Indian author would publish his business book in the US, he’s as likely to be acclaimed, as is an American author. The trick would be getting reviews from the big CEOs and the renowned business magazines: Businessweek, Financial Times and the likes.

What some people might attribute to luck, is logic but in a non-mathematical sense; and not everyone grasps this. Some people are born in the right place; others just understand how the customer functions, the latter are the marketers... and both find the way to success.

"Underdeveloped" Label

How did the world come to overrate some countries and undermine others? ...better said, how did the nations labeled "underdeveloped" came to accept their tagged inferiority?

Being drained in a multi-cultural environment for quite some time now, I have realized that the people coming from the third world have a beautified image of the west; which clashes very strongly with the actual reality in those countries. Vice versa, the western world has a low regard to the developing nations and an outrageously wrong perception of the rest of the globe. What was once probably due to propaganda came to be assimilated by education. Status is a learned attribute.

It is revolting to see the capabilities of the developing nations being wasted due to limited opportunities and learned low-esteem attitudes. It saddens me to see a defeatist behavioral pattern. Let the rest of the world label you as they please, but once their labels become socially acceptable in your own communities, you create a self-learned helplessness that deepens your defeat and creates roots to your current position blocking your hopes for a better future.

if "made in China" was not perceived to be of inferior quality by the Chinese themselves, wouldn't the world gain a better image of the products?...

I can't help but wonder whether those negative attitudes were self-inflicted and came naturally, or whether they were part of a global well-crafted plan to maintain the west's leadership... Politics and international economy can as well be products of marketing. Maybe I am just imagining that the developed nations can be that shrewd and tactful due to the brainwashing; or then again, maybe not.