Today is my Dad’s birthday. He would have been 87 years old. When growing up Dad was always tall, strong, and invincible. Well, in a way he was invincible to others too. 

John Hawthorne Kirwin was a WWII Navy hero. Here’s what the President wrote when the prestigious Navy Cross was presented.

“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to John Hawthorne Kirwin, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, U.S. Navy (Reserve), for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Torpedo Plane in Torpedo Squadron NINE (VT-9), embarked from the U.S.S. SHAMROCK BAY (CVE-84), in action on 7 April 1945, while deployed over Kyushu, Japan. His outstanding courage and determined skill were at all times inspiring and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

Dad flew the Grumann Avenger, a legendary torpedo bomber. He and his mates were deployed from the U.S.S. Yorktown to go after the Yamato, the largest battleship in the world. The Yamato had been engaged by fighter pilots for several hours and they had caused a lot of damage.  

John Carter, TBM Avenger pilot, said, “Stetson’s four TBMs came in ahead of us and dropped their fish on her beam. As luck would have it, the big ship was turning to port, thereby exposing the full broadside expanse of her enormous hull to the converging torpedoes. I saw the first ones hit even before I had a chance to drop my own torpedo. Three explosions sent up geysers of water from amidships to bow, two of the torpedoes hitting so close together that they made a single blast.”

Dad was piloting one of those four TBMS. He had told me that the flak for these missions was intense and on some missions he flew so low, to get under the fire, that the waves slapped the belly of the plane. 

That battle marked the end of the Japanese Navy in the Pacific Theatre. 

Dad went on to live a quiet productive life as businessman, husband, father and community activist in Union City, Indiana. He never talked much about the Yamato nor about any of his other achievements. That was not that generation’s way. Below is one of his favorite pictures with my father-in-law, Kent Child (on the left) and me on a pheasant hunt. He was over 70 at the time and still the best shot in the group. 

At Dad’s funeral a gentleman approached, looked hard at me and said that he was Dad’s commander off the Yorktown. He said ” I was there with your father when we sank the Yamato.” His name was Herbert Hauck and he tore off a piece of paper and wrote his phone number down. I would later learn he was air group commander, Lieutenant Commander Herbert N. Hauck, a guy who is now in the history books. 

So two weeks ago, I’m having one of the best powder skiing days of the year and my cell rings. I never ever answer when I’m skiing powder. This time I did.  It was a man who wants to have a John Kirwin day in Union City, Indiana. He said, “Paul, your father never talked much about himself but he was a real World War II hero.” 

Yes, yes he was.

Okay. I’ve thought a lot about this post. The Smartwool Experiment. If you don’t know what it is go to Beck Tench’s blog, The Smartwool Experiment .

You should read up. Why? Because if companies don’t learn this lesson it will happen to them in the outdoor recreational space. 

First, SmartWool is a very good company. Have followed it for years and have had personal dealings with many in the organization. Good product. Well managed. Environmentally progressive. A star in the Timberland Group. The company thought it was handling everything with the Smartwool Experiment just right. And then BOOM…things went wrong in a hurry. 

Here’s the short story. A young woman, Beck Tench, is a SmartWool fan. She buys the socks. Pays the price. Recommends them to others. However, she did notice that her socks were wearing out faster than she thought appropriate for the 18 dollar price tag. She started a blog and called it The Smartwool Experiment.

She writes a song.

She writes SmartWool. Someone in customer service writes back saying the socks should last about a year. Good response. Honest. To the point. And then SmartWool writes another post to her, apparently from the product development or marketing department. 

“The SmartWool Experiment is a very interesting project. It feels good to see this work reinforce what we’ve observed, and validates all we’ve done in recent years to produce both more comfortable and more durable SmartWool socks. We’re going to try and do a better job at REALLY answering the question, “How long should my SmartWool socks last?”    

(EDITED BY KIRWIN HERE)

“Ultimately, we could never predict how long any sock will last, as there are so many people using our products in different ways, with different habits, with different feet, with different shoes, in different climates, with different washing machines. . . you get the picture.

Here’s a list of things we’ve found can impact how long it takes to wear out a SmartWool sock:

• Wearing them outside without shoes – Not recommended (though we’ve been caught doing it ourselves occasionally)
• Wearing multiple times without washing in dusty environments – the grit they pick up will wear the fibers faster
• Long toenails – This one is a killer, keep them smooth and trimmed
• Wearing socks with footwear they are not designed for – Look at the wear pattern above the back of the heel in the “Evidence” video. These socks were designed with a heel zone that is much more durable than the portion of the sock above it. We see this type of wear when people wear socks that don’t match up with the footwear profile. A classic example of this type of mismatch would be a Converse All Star high top where the tight fitting top of the shoe is higher than the heel reinforcement in the sock. A sock and a shoe are a system, they need to work together properly.
• Bleaching – Don’t do it. They’ll never feel the same again.
• How often is it worn? – We wear our favorites more often. That means we wear out our favorites more often. We guess you will too.
• Does the shoe fit? – Loose shoes will create more friction as you move.
• Body chemistry – pH varies from person to person and during exercise”

Personally, I thought this response was fine. Explained why the durability of socks rests with individuals and their habits. 

Beck Tench replied in a video saying that she felt manipulated. In its first response SmartWool wrote that the socks should last a year. Now the story has changed and its up to the wearer.  She said SmartWool made her feel like she should take responsibility for the socks wearing out. And she should buy Smarwool’s new PHP socks for 19 bucks, which last longer. 

And The Smartwool Experiement continues to grow. Beck has published her 10th Episode in which she tries out Bridgedale socks that have been sent to her. Darn Tough socks have already arrived in the mail. Beck has published some consumer defenses of Smartwool, but the damage has been done. 

SmartWool had an opportunity to strongly participate in the Smartwool Experiment. Should have sent Beck socks and had her test them. Made her a part of a consumer product testing team. Hell, made her chairperson of it. Had her get others on board and build the team. Had the team report back about durability, design, comfort.  What a golden opportunity. 

Why did Beck feel manipulated? Why did she take it personally? Because she had a personal stake in SmartWool. She had bought many pairs. Had recommended them to others, and no doubt had many discussions about the socks. She believed. And she wanted to talk to her sock company about durability.  

Had SmartWool continued the dialogue, engaged Beck and explored durability together, the company would now have a disciple with a growing blog. An influencer who is spreading the good word about SmartWool.

If your a good brand, sing out for all the world to hear.

Time Magazine came out with a recent article about the continuing devaluation of content. In short, publishers are not getting paid as much for content because content has lost much of it’s value. Here’s the article. Time’s take on content.

So, if content has been devalued why is everyone in new media addressing the importance of content?Because there is a difference between packaged content to attract a mass audience and the major advertising dollars that go with it, and content that serves a much much narrower market. 

Traditional magazines and newspapers are broadcasting in a traditional media format. They write about Obama, recession, weather tradegies, wars, and the latest movies. Stuff that millions may be interested in. But it is general, and the information is pushed to the reader without the option of the reader responding. It is not dynamic, and the reader must pay for it in this traditional format. Ironically, the reader can go online and get much of this content for free. So, of course, they exercise this option. 

New media is narrowcasting…writing to a very specific audience, an audience that highly values the content. Let’s take weather, and more specifically tornadoes. Those interested in that topic, search, find the blogger experts, and opt in to read their stuff by email, rss feed, yahoo, etc.  And they can’t get enough of it. Because this writer is writing directly to them, and their tribe. And they respond with posts, and the author responds back, and a community begins to form about tornadoes: how they build, what precautions to take, tons of pictures, and most importantly, personal experiences. It is dynamic. 

Now, next time a tornado happens in the midwest, these passionate followers will be living it. Reading the tweets, getting hourly updates, seeing the latest photos…all well before traditional media can deliver it. 

That’s the new world. People find their hobbies online, find others with the same passion, and connect. Communities are built, and those in it…live it. 

People do want an overview, so broadcasting will stay with us, but it will migrate to being even more online. It will also shrink because consumers want the latest news and then they move on. Consequently large advertisers will only spend so much money with traditional media. Now the big money is searching for viable ways to connect with new media. 

And how about the outdoor recreational brands? What can be learned here? Consumers are in control. They know what they want, how to get to the information, and how to discover who writes it. The brands that learn to listen, post good content, engage with consumers, and build communities will reap the benefits. These brands will get massive help with product development, customer service and sales. 

How? It starts with finding the unique humanity in your brand. And once you’ve found that, you build a strategy, and begin to produce authentic content.

As I’ve written in this blog, new media will die if an ROI is not attached to it. In this environment, it is not good enough to tell prospects that their brands must engage in the online conversation because it’s the “new marketing thing.” CEO’s will ask the question, “what is our strategy behind all of these conversations?” And that answer better have something to do with sales.

So, let’s start with some basics. I am borrowing some thoughts from Connie Bensen, Community Manager for Techrigy and a good brain on the subject. 

using-social-media-monitoring-to-show-roi

I’m adding my thoughts for outdoor recreation companies who are considering moving into new media. Okay, let’s start.

1. Compare Your Brand with Competitors who are more established in New Media than you.  Using a new media monitoring device, measure a close competitor against your brand. If that competitor is getting more positive buzz, then you can assume that you may be at a competitive disadvantage.

2. Begin by Establishing a Baseline. Again, using a new media monitoring tool you can measure a competitor’s performance by breaking up the data into key areas such as brand perception, product acceptance and customer service performance. How? By breaking down each area into the number of online conversations a competitor is having with consumers. 

    Now we set a value. The estimated total cost of implementing your new media program is divided into the key competitor areas; brand perception, product acceptance and customer service. You divide again by the number of competitor conversations in each area to attain a cost per contact. Let’s just throw out an example using some out-of-the-air numbers for customer service.

• 1000=your monthly cost in dollars of implementing new media customer service
• 200=the number of online consumer conversations a close competitor is having on a monthly
• basis
• 5=your cost in dollars per conversation. This is your baseline for customer service.

3. Set Your Company Goal. Using the baseline of $5 a conversation set your customer service goal by approaching it from the number of conversations you hope to make.

•     5= cost in dollars of each online conversation
• 200= competitor conversations a month
• 150= your goal in conversations in the first 30 days. 

This means your ROI in customer service will be -$250 for the first month. (-50 calls below the baseline X $5= -$250.)

4. The ROI. Measure all performance areas in 30, 60 and 90 days.  Remember your goal should be going up each month because your conversations will be going up. Your baseline, for this 90 day period, remains the same. Set up a graph and measure the difference between the baseline and your company goal. The difference is the start of measuring return on investment.

Okay, let’s be clear. In new media an increase in conversation volume will need to result in an increase in sales volume. When a company establishes a 5% increase in conversation volume over the competition, then does that result in a 5% increase in sales? Don’t know. Let’s find out.