The Rhino
August 4, 2010 by Pearl · 3 Comments
In a prior blog, you read about the analogy of an elephant to presentations. Now, letâs take a look at another similar example to illustrate the importance of integration in presentations.
In a recent Bayerâs commercial for womenâs birth control pills, six blind-folded women described a rhino by touch. One woman said it was a pillar, another a wall, another a rope, another a brush, and the last woman called it a pipe.
The women each removed their blindfolds to discover a rhino standing in front of them. What they described by touch were only parts, or elements, of the rhino.
The narration to the commercial added, âHaving only one point of view on anythingâŻcan be misleading. So before you come to a conclusion, make sure you get the full picture.â
The commercial demonstrates the importance of seeing objects (and objectives) from a birdâs eye view rather than just as component parts; to see the forest, not just the trees.
This same point can be applied in presentations. Most people in business view a presentation as the individual parts of the rhino. One person describes it as the story, another as the slides, another as the delivery, and yet another as the handling of tough questions.
As Jerry noted in his blog, âa clear story can be ruined by slides that are guilty of the designation, âDeath by PowerPoint.â A clear story supported by slides that follow the Less Is More principle can be ruined by the presenter who freezes like a deer in the headlights in front of the audience. A clear story supported by slides that follow the Less Is More principle delivered by a presenter who has the poise and confidence of Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama can be ruined by a tough question that throws the presenter for a loop.â
Every one of these parts, or elements, must be thoroughly managed by the presenter and carefully integrated with each of the other elements or any one of them can ruin the entire presentation.
The presentation is the rhino.
Sarah Says âNo!â
July 14, 2010 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, Sarah Palin and her political action committee, Sarah PAC, released its first campaign video of the year. According to a Yahoo! News article, the ad includes a vocal track of a speech Palin delivered in Washington in May, touting the rise of âmama grizzliesâ and conservative women.
Palinâs main message in the ad was to promote conservative female empowerment. But in the short one minute and fifty seconds clip, there were six instances of negativity, such as the use of ânoâ and âdonât.â References to mama grizzlies fighting and pink elephants stampeding, while promoting empowerment, also have a negative cast.
Sarah Palin says, “You don’t want to mess with the mama grizzlies,” but are we ready for another political campaign of mud-slinging? Wasnât 2008 enough?
Less Is More Choice IV
June 9, 2010 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
In a prior blog, you read about how Less is More when it comes to store-front displays through one of Professor Sheena Iyengarâs experiments, and how the same principle relates to presentations. Now letâs take a look at another one of Ms. Iyengarâs experiments to see how this concept also applies to toy selection.
In her new book, The Art of Choosing, Ms. Iyengar explores the science of choice through experiments and personal stories. She recounts the story of her parentsâ prearranged marriage in India, noting the limited amount of choices available to the bride and groom in that culture. She further discusses a study suggesting that Indians who married for love were less in love than couples who had prearranged marriage after ten years.
According to a review of her book in the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Iyengar âstumbled on this topic when she was studying motivation in 3-year-old children. She thought that giving them lots of different toys to play with and switch among would make them happier, but it turned out that forcing them to choose just one toy and stick with it resulted in more enthusiastic play. She tried adding more and fancier toys and running the experiment again, but she couldn’t make the paradoxical result go away.â
For the children, having fewer toys to play with mandated more focus on the one toy they were given, thus giving them more satisfaction with that one toy. The point to take away from Ms. Iyengarâs personal stories and experiments is the fact that Less is indeed More.
The same is true of presentations. No matter how elaborate or detailed the graphics are in your presentation, your audience can only absorb so much. As you saw with iPhone apps and in an example of the Trader Joeâs chain, people simply prefer fewer choices.
To prevent overloading your audience, take the Less is More route with your presentation graphics, but also with the core story that your graphics support. Your audience doesnât need to hear the entire history of civilization to understand your story or get your message. Keep it short and succinct.
(Thanks to Olivier Fontana of the Microsoft Windows Embedded Business Unit for the original suggestion that gave rise to this Less Is More Choice series)
Continuing with the Flow
April 30, 2010 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
In Mondayâs blog, you read about the captivating effect of flow in Hondaâs commercial “Cog”, and how it applied in presentations. Today, letâs look into another example of the same effective use of flow in two popular music videos by rock band, OK Go.
The Rube Goldberg-influenced music video, “This Too Shall Pass”, begins when one of OK Goâs band members runs a toy truck into a domino, triggering a line of dominoes to fall one after another. Each subsequent part is then triggered into action. To date, there have been more than 12 million views of this music video on YouTube.
Another successful music video by Ok Go, “Here it Goes Again”, features a seamlessly choreographed dance on treadmills. According to Wikipedia, âThis video was viewed by over one million people on [YouTube] in the first six days. As of April 2010, the original video upload for âHere It Goes Againâ has been viewed over 50 million times, putting it in 42nd place for the most views of any video and 29th place for most viewed music video as well as the 7th most favorited video and the top favorited music video of all time on YouTube.â
Along with Director and Choreographer, Trish Sie, Ok Go took home Grammy award for “Best Short-Form Music Video” for their music video “Here It Goes Again” in 2006.
Both music videos effectively capture their viewersâ attention by creating a seamless flow. The same applies in presentations. To captivate your audience, create a simple and seamless flow in your story.
Honda and Flow
April 26, 2010 by Pearl · 1 Comment
Hondaâs commercial âCog,â is a two-minute long masterpiece created by Wieden+Kennedy, an international advertising firm. The production of the commercial required an astounding 606 takes and took 3 months to complete, including the engineering design of the sequence.
The total cost of the commercial was 6 million dollars. Yet, no computer graphic or digital manipulations were used in the creation of its images. Everything that you see happened in real time. Despite the high cost, Honda executives believed that âCogâ would pay for itself simply because of the free showings.
To date, there have been more than 470,000 views of âCogâ on YouTube. A step-by-step illustrated guide of the commercial has been viewed more than 10,000 times. One YouTube user noted that in the U.K., you can pick up a free copy of the âCogâ DVD which includes the illustrated guide as well as a âmaking ofâ video. Would you say the commercial has paid for itself?
The Rube Goldberg-style commercial begins when one cog rolls down a plank and touches another, sending it into motion. Each subsequent partâall of them from a disassembled Honda Accord wagonâis then triggered into action.
The commercial effectively captures its viewersâ attention for the full two minutes by creating a seamless flow. The same applies in presentation. To hold your audienceâs attention, create a simple and seamless flow in your story.
On Friday, youâll see another example of the effective use of flow in a popular music video.
(Thanks to Gino Giglio of New York City for his email which gave rise to this blog)
Less is More Choice III: iPhone Apps
April 5, 2010 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
At the beginning of this mini-blog series, you read about how the Less is More principle affects store-front product displays, and how it relates to presentations. Now letâs take a look at how this concept applies to the tech world.
There are more than 150,000 applications and counting available to iPhone users today. How many of these apps are actually found and eventually utilized by an end-user?
If you look at a teenagerâs iPhone, you are likely to see screen after screen studded with apps. But according to a recent New York Times article âWhen Phones Are Just Too Smart,â the average iPhone, or iPod Touch owner uses only 5 to 10 apps on a regular basis, regardless of how many they have downloaded.
As an iPhone user myself, I have downloaded 40 apps but use only about 5-8 of them. Unless Iâm looking for a specific app to download, I browse only the Top 50 offered on Appleâs Apps Store front page.
I am not alone. Stewart Putney, the founder and chief executive of Moblyng, a company in Redwood City, California, that develops applications for mobile devices, concurs. Interviewed for the Times article, Mr. Putney said, âFor all the tens of thousands of apps out there, the odds of being exposed to more than a thousand are very small.â He added, âBut most users will never see more than 1 percent of the total apps available.â
The latest addition to the Apple product family, the iPad, which was only just released on Saturday, has already triggered a flurry of development of new apps. Addressing this activity, Katie Hafner, the reporter of the Timesâ article wrote,
⊠that doesnât mean that people will change their habits. Actually, it may just make them feel a
tad more overwhelmed. The next generation of gadget users might prove different, but for now
it is clear that people prefer fewer choicesâŠ. Owners of iPhones are no different from cable TV
subscribers with hundreds of channels to choose from who end up watching the same half-dozen.
The same is true of presentations. No matter how elaborate or detailed the graphics are in your presentation, your audience can only absorb so much. As you saw with store-front displays and in an example of the Trader Joeâs chain, people simply prefer fewer choices.
To prevent overloading your audience, observe the Less is More principle in the design and, as you read in an earlier blog, the animation of your presentation graphics.
(Thanks to Olivier Fontana of the Microsoft Windows Embedded Business Unit for the original suggestion that gave rise to this Less Is More Choice series.)
Less is More Choice II
March 24, 2010 by Pearl · 1 Comment
In a prior blog, you read about how the Less is More approach applies to store-front product placement, and how it also relates to presentations. Now letâs take a look at how this concept applies to a popular chain of grocery stores.
Established in 1958 as a small chain of convenience stores, Trader Joeâs has expanded to 339 stores in 25 states. Much of its success is based upon their low prices.
A recent episode of Food Networkâs Unwrapped discussed how Trader Joeâs is able to offer high quality goods at such low prices. Marc Summer, the showâs host explained that the chain limits the variety of each product to keep stocking costs low, and in turn passes those savings on to their customers.
According to Trader Joeâs website, â⊠you won’t find a lot of branded items. Instead, you’ll find unconventional and interesting products in the Trader Joe’s label as well as everyday basics. We buy products we think are winners and thatâll find a following among our customers. [...] Itâs all part of the shopping adventure at Trader Joe’s.â
The chainâs website goes on to explain that individual products are discontinued more often than at larger grocery chains due to increased costs, poor sales, or to free up space for new items.
A BusinessWeek article, Trader Joe’s Recipe for Success stated, âToday Trader Joe’s carries about 2,000 products, vs. 30,000 at a typical supermarket. About 80% of Trader Joe’s goods are private label, compared with 16% for the rest of the supermarket industry. The chain doesn’t carry familiar mass-market brands such as Coca-Cola, Budweiser, or Pampers. You’ll find just one kind of laundry detergent, the âlow-sudsing,â biodegradable house brand.â
Trader Joe’s strategy is simpleâa Less is More approach: low prices, smaller stores, basic packaging, and a limited variety of products.
The same is true of presentation graphics. No matter how elaborate or detailed the graphics in your presentation are, your audience can only absorb so much. As you saw with store-front displays and Trader Joeâs product selection (and as youâll soon see in another blog about the iPhone Apps), people simply prefer fewer choices.
To prevent overloading your audience, observe the Less is More principle in the design and, as you read in an earlier blog, the animation of your presentation graphics.
You may read more about Trader Joeâs successful business strategy in The Trader Joeâs Adventure by Len Lewis.
(Thanks to Olivier Fontana of the Microsoft Windows Embedded Business Unit for the original suggestion that gave rise to this Less Is More Choice series.)
Death by PowerPoint
March 5, 2010 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
This Dilbert cartoon has been making the rounds on all the presentation blogs, so here it is for our readers. The reason for its popularity is, sadly, it is so true.
Hi, Iâm from Gen-Y II
January 11, 2010 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
Teenagers and young adults are constantly caught in a whirlwind of socializing via mobile phones, instant messages, online video games and social-networking websites. In my previous blog, you read about the decline of nonverbal communication among Gen-Y today.
Further on this subject, Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal suggests that âthere are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home.â
Among these new questions is, âhow much work can âhyper-socializingâ students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?â
According to Zaslowâs article, The Greatest Generation (of Networkers), there are some that argue that this generation can accomplish a great deal because they are gifted with the ability to multitask. Their attachment to technology and willingness to remain connected can serve their employers well.
Ben Bajarin, a technology analyst at Creative Strategies in Campbell, California, argues that âbecause young people are so adept at multimedia socializing, their social skills are actually strengthened. They’re good at âmanaging conversationsâ and getting to the pithy essence of an issue, which will help them in the workplace.â
While their older colleagues waste time stuck in fruitless meetings or engaged in long phone conversations, young people can express themselves in one-sentence text messages. Mr. Bajarin says. “They know how to optimize and prioritize.”
The operative word is âprioritize.â Multitasking is productive, but this new generation of hyper-socializing young adults should take advice from older generations by putting aside electronic connection devices and connect interpersonally. As the Bible tells us, âWhen I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things.â
Multitask and priortize.
Less is More Choice
December 14, 2009 by Pearl · Leave a Comment
Itâs that time of the year again when dĂ©cor shops spring to life with all the glitters and sparkles for the rapidly-approaching holiday season. I donât know how you react, but as soon as I set foot in such a shop, I canât help but to perform a full 360 degree twirl on my feet; just as I did when I was a child walking into Disneyland for the very first time. As much as I enjoy taking in all the glory of the holiday season in these stores, the experience can also be a bit overwhelmingâŻespecially if I am trying to decide what to buy.
Although such holiday shops fill me with delight, I rarely buy anything in them. I found that it was always easier to make my selections at a department store with fewer holiday goods.
A study conducted by Sheena S. Iyengar of Columbia University and Mark R. Lepper of Stanford University helps explain my behavior. The authors believe that it is difficult for people to manage complex choices with numerous options.
In their article, When Choice is Demotivation Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?, Iyengar and Lepper argued, âConsumer research suggests that as the number of options and the information about options increases, people tend to consider fewer choices and process smaller percentages of the overall information regarding their choices.â
Iyengar and Lepper referenced three studies in their article. One took place at Draegerâs, an upscale grocery store in Menlo Park, California, where a table was set up with tasting samples of various flavors of jam. Once every hour, researchers at the sampling table switched their offering from 6 flavors to 24, and then back to 6.
The study found that more consumers were initially attracted to the table with more offerings. One would think that consumers given 24 choices would sample more flavors compared to those given only 6 choices. But all consumers tasted on average one to two samples regardless of whether there were 6 flavors or 24 flavors displayed.
Researchers also concluded that while 30% of the consumers who were offered 6 flavors made a purchase, only 3% of those offered 24 flavors did.
As a result, âThe findings from this study show that an extensive array of options can at first seem highly appealing to consumers, yet at the same time, can subsequently reduce their motivation to purchase the product.â
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Walgreenâs cash flow from operations increased 55% for the quarter ending August 31, mainly because of lower inventories.
A recently remodeled Walgreenâs store in Chicago benefited from the less is more approach:
Shelves were lowered to 66 inches from 78 inches high, so aisles look brighter and less cramped.
The vitamin area has new shelf signs that promote the supplements’ health benefits. Well-
organized displays of mouthwash and paper towels help customers find departments easily.
The store looks so much less cluttered that a few customers discovered for the first time that the
store has windows, said Bryan Pugh, Walgreen’s vice president of merchandising.
This less is more approach also applies in presentations. While an elaborate slide with fancy animations may induce âoohhsâ or âahhhhsâ from your audience, it doesnât necessarily mean they get your point. They are simply doing the same thing as twirling their feet in awe of the beautiful holiday dĂ©cor in shops. The appeal is temporary.
To prevent overloading your audience, take the less is more route with your presentation.
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