Yes we can

Posted on December 31, 2008 in: Current Affairs, Intellectual Property, Travel|Post Comment

Shepard Fairey‘s designs in support of Barack Obama continue to enjoy success in France, where they are recycled in remarkable ways.

I was surprised to find Fairey’s work featured on sweaters … for dogs. Then I was astonished to see Fairey posters recycled to draw French president Sarkozy’s attention to environmental matters.
Now a remarkable campaign uses elements of Fairey’s images and Obama campaign literature to promote consumption.
vacancesyeswecan
The Nouvelles Frontières travel agency in my neighborhood put up a poster advertising “crisis prices,” with a stylized stock market ticker –with plenty of ups and downs– points to an airplane. The poster proclaims: Go on vacation during the crisis? YES WE CAN!*

A crisis of some sort has been going on in France for as long as I can remember. But this poster manages cleverly to wrap turmoil in the financial markets and Obama’s electoral triumph.
I was tickled by the asterisk. It tempers the emphatic affirmation. But the qualification is especially endearing because it’s basically impossible to read whatever the asterisk points to: there’s some very small print, written sideways in the margins of the poster; if you can read it from the street, bravo.

Cultural differences that matter

Posted on December 29, 2008 in: Europe|Post Comment

"We've made a mistake, and we're sorry."

These are words one seldom hears in France.

Words that you may hear instead include:

"It's not my fault."
"It's not our department."
"We don't have the budget for that."
"It's too bad that you feel that way."

This is more than a customer service issue. Unwillingness to accept responsibility and to apologize starts at the executive floor and permeates whole organizations.

Is this unique to France? Of course not, but this kind of reflexive avoidance is especially prevalent here. I think that it's a cultural attribute that matters because it generates costs. The most obvious cost is having disgruntled, unhappy customers. But I see two, more pernicious costs in the background:
  • reasoning in terms of fault usually is unproductive, often is no more than a rhetorical disculpatory ploy by the speaker, and always postpones the effective resolution of a problem;  
  • a bureaucratic response –moving blame to an institution or organization– reduces the likelihood that anything will actually be done to correct the underlying problem.

   

Holiday wishes

Posted on December 25, 2008 in: Current Affairs|Post Comment

At the holiday season, a memorable word from Sir Isaac Newton:

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

(As is so often the case with quotations, although many sources corroborate Newton as the source of this quotation, I'm challenged to find where, exactly, he wrote it (probably in Latin).)

Gas factory

Posted on December 24, 2008 in: Current Affairs|Post Comment

The "Rube Goldberg device" means nothing to French people. Of course, the concept of a comically over-engineered device, conceived to do a simple task, does exist. The closest French term for it is the usine à gaz, the gas factory.

I recently encountered such an endeavor.

France, like other countries, regulates advertising. In addition to statutory rules, the advertising profession also self-regulates. This self-regulation revolves around accepted principles. The principles are uncontroversial, for example that advertising be truthful, not misleading. There are lots of principles.

To enforce these self-regulatory principles,a Jury of Advertising Ethics (Jury de déontologie publicitaire) was born on 12 November, 2008. The Jury is set up like a court, with all the vocabulary of the judiciary: lodging a complaint, judges, investigations, judgments. All that's missing are lawyers!

But the Jury is also a gas factory or Rube Goldberg device. It doesn't do much. Mostly, it creates an appearance of concern for standards. This is reasonable, and I don't mean to belittle or ridicule the Jury or its work.

But doesn't this illustrate what can make doing business in France so frustrating? Setting up an ersatz institution: was this really the best way to self-regulate?

If I were a brand-holder, I'd think less of institutions and more of my market, and ways in which a handful of people, otherwise unconnected, can organize quickly and effectively over the web, including to condemn a misguided ad campaign. Such people don't need the Jury, but If I were a brand-holder, I'd want to find ways to engage them, responsively and responsibly.

Trust, but verify

Posted on December 23, 2008 in: Current Affairs|Post Comment

The New York Times received and published a letter from Paris mayor Betrand Delanoë that criticized Caroline Kennedy's efforts to win a vacated U.S. Senate seat.

It turns out that the letter was a hoax; Bertrand Delanoë had nothing to do with it.

The New York Times has printed a note of correction and apology.

But the New York Times couldn't resist adding a paragraph of explanation or justification about the hoax. (There seems to be a powerful impulse in such circumstances not to show restraint, but instead to launch into a disculpatory explanation that almost never convinces.)

It seems that the newspaper received the letter by e-mail. To "verify the authenticity" of the letter, the news paper wrote back to the e-mail address that sent the hoax. The New York Times never heard back from this e-mail address. And it never tried to call Delanoë's office.

I don't want to add insult to injury, but the Internet puts the phone number of Delanoë's office within anyone's reach within two minutes, and the cost of a New York-to-Paris phone call is basically free. The newspaper seems to have been the victim of indifference as much as of poor procedures.

Four takeaway points:
  1. Think through procedures. Here, is replying to the sender's e-mail really the best way to confirm submission of a letter to the editor?
  2. Select carefully and motivate the staff that handles verification. Like luggage inspectors, the verification job will involve lots of negatives (no problem) punctuated infrequently by a problem.
  3. Accidents happen. This is especially relevant in the due diligence context. There are always unpleasant surprises after an acquisition.
  4. Keep a sense of humor. It is funny to think that the mayor of Paris would write in to criticize Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid. The hoaxters did clever work.

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