What is your faith?

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work", said Thomas Edison, he also said "I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward". Edison had the most important quality any businessman should have at any time; that is: "faith". He truly believed in what he was doing; he tried, failed, and kept going to reach his goal. How many great businesses were unsuccessful because of strategists’ lack of faith? Market researchers suggest that only two businesses out of five available today will survive in 10 years, the other three businesses will just fail to believe and get discouraged with the ups and downs of our lives. Strategists should always keep an attitude of optimism when businesses are falling, because that is only what will make them rise again and grow fortunes.

Is that not convincing enough? Here is a true story that will help clear the smoke on this complicated and important subject: The place was Chicago, the year was 1923, eight of the world's wealthiest and most successful men gathered for a meeting at the city's Edgewater Beach Hotel. Almost anyone living in that day would have loved to exchange places with any of those well-known executives. They were powerful and rich. The world was their oyster. They sipped champagne and enjoyed a nice dinner while praising their wealth and conquest. If you were a waiter or the dish washer, secretly, you would have wished to be in the shoes of any of those men.

But that was then, and now for the rest of the story. Twenty-five years later, their days at Edgewater were a dim memory and all but two were dead. None had lived the easy life their tremendous resources seemed to promise. Charles Schwab, the president of the nation's largest independent steel company, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died bankrupt. Samuel Insul, the president of a giant utility company, died a penniless fugitive from justice in a foreign country. Gas Company executive Howard Hopson suffered from insanity. Wheat speculator Arthur Cotton died destitute. Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange, was released from Sing Sing prison. Albert Fall, a member of the president’s cabinet, was released from prison so that he could die at home. Wall Street's greatest bear, Jesse Livermore, committed suicide as did Ivan Krueger, the head of a great monopoly. Bank president Leon Fraser also took his own life.

What happened to these great men? They simply didn't believe, they were overwhelmed with money and power that they couldn't take life easily anymore, they were stressed out and burned their nerves in day to day activities, in his book "Think and grow rich", Napoleon Hills studied the lives of 500 successful people to come up with one simple conclusion: "Faith is the first step in all accumulation of riches". He knew faith in something bigger than oneself is the key to success; by that people learn to let go. Living at a no stress level gives you faith; many people believe that stress gives them energy to move forward in life, but energy comes from our bodies as we live, eat, and love! Stress just pushes us to make emotional and subjective decisions. Blessed is he or she who can make stress-free decisions, but more frequent than none, people in working environments brag about their ability to work under pressure. The real problem here is if those people are motivated by pressure to work harder, because stress and pressure will eventually break them!

Find your faith; embrace it and that is the real motivator. Walt Disney had faith in a dream, he once said: “If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse”. If you find your faith, you will find an invincible supply of power that will carry you in your life. Just a few months ago, we all witnessed the stock market crash down in the Middle East, stories were told about people blacking out at the Saudi stock market for they lost some, or all, their investments; for many of them that was the worst time ever! And like them, we are often overwhelmed with pessimistic outlook at life, but the truth is: we are better fed, better clothed, and better housed than any other time in history! Statistics suggest that after each global economy crash, market always rise again and prosperity reaches all, businesses are actually getting better not worse, no matter how the media tries to darken the picture.

In my opinion, one of the greatest movies ever made was “Signs”/2002, it had a fantastic message: everything is happening for a good reason, you just have to let go and enjoy life. Businesses will always have their ups and downs; you should always live with an attitude of optimism towards life. Starve the problem and feed the opportunity, if you fail and feel too bad for a long time, you will be really scared to stand up and try again. You don’t have to be a victim to circumstances, keep your nerves when all others are losing theirs. Edison believed and had faith in his work, he had such an amazing attitude of optimism, this article will not find a better way to end than to quote Edison again, this outrageous businessman: “I shall make electricity so cheap that only rich can afford to burn candles”.

The Power of Slogans

Advertising Slogans, straplines, endlines, or signatures are simply statements of such merit about the company (or product) that is worthy of continuous repetition, is worthwhile for the public to remember and is phrased is such a way that the public is likely to remember it, they are the “sign-off” that accompanies the logo, it simply says: “if you get nothing else from this advert, get this!”

And for that Slogans must translate company’s Unique Selling Points; the qualities that differentiate a company or product from its competitors. The advert should address customers' perceptions and should stand out in their minds. The two most important elements in an advert are the way the advert is presented and the Unique Selling Point its slogan implies. Customers are selfish and only interested in what best meet their needs and wants. A great advert associated with a weak Unique Selling Point is indifferent to customers and will have absolutely no impact on their purchasing behavior.

For years Orange has used a weak slogan that stated: “with you, for a better life” That was preposterous and pointless, their new slogan is even worse: “Life is better without boundaries” however on the other hand, Fastlink came up with a fantastic line: “Menna wa feenna” (come together), that line clearly stated a strong unique selling point: “we are the biggest mobile operator and joining us is joining a one big family”, people ate it up, even they used to refer to the company by its slogan, but when Fastlink launched their new branding campaign, they changed their brand name to Zain and the slogan to “a wonderful world.” A Slogan that makes no sense at all!

According to Maslow, everyone is motivated by needs and wants. He defined his hierarchy of needs to range from physiological and safety needs, to feeling of belonging and love needs, to self-esteem needs and finally self actualization needs. One product can satisfy more than one need at one time; such as hamburger and Burger King: eating hamburger in social environment, it is in the interest of the marketer to associate company’s slogan with the higher level needs and to capitalize on its Unique Selling Point. A good example would be Mountain Dew; the soft drink certainly satisfies the need of thirst, but oftentimes it tries to establish an image of a more sophisticated need; the entire campaign is built on broadcasting one message: “the person who drinks Mountain Dew is daring”, and they use a nice slogan doing that: "Do you dare?”

In the past few years, Al Jazeera TV Channel passed to viewers the following slogan: "Al Jazeera, because time waits for no one", by time viewers came to believe Al Jazeera brings the news first. Al Jazeera beat all news agencies by satisfying the need to be the first to know. When Al Arabiya were planning to launch their news services, they couldn’t compete with Al Jazeera’s Unique Selling Point because even if they are faster, customers' perception was in favor of Al Jazeera. So they came up with another strong slogan to differentiate themselves: "Al Arabiaya, Closer to the Truth", they even created this fantastic advert that shows a live scene of a battlefield that turns out to be set up by actors. Nevertheless, the two TV channels were successful in their communication slogans because they advertised Unique Selling Points that met different needs for customers.

Furthermore emotional slogans are sometimes used in advertising, like Sanioura's campaign: "Life time companionship"; all used advertisements are of grown-ups having flashbacks about childhood memories with Sanioura. Another example is the "Red Bull gives you wings" campaign, the slogan presents the energy drink as mind and emotion stimulator to a high level of feeling or activity, both Sanioura and Red Bull try to meet the self-esteem class in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, sometimes a slogan is typically focused on attitude change toward a product or brand; few years ago Americana Corp products were boycotted for using American brand name, causing huge losses for the regional group, so they launched a big advertising campaign with one simple slogan: “100% Arabic”, it took them many years to change how people feel about their brand name. Favorable attitudes towards a product, service, or company have an undeniable effect on customer decisions, and changing attitude requires great advertising efforts.

On the other hand, sometimes marketers make terrible mistakes in their slogans; a good example would be Al Madina Weekly Newspaper that was launched last year. The slogan they communicate in their advertisements is: "Al Madina, too precious to be sold", a slogan that is completely inconsequential for customers, while Al Waseet uses “Your answer is at Your door” excellent unique selling point that positioned Al Waseet as a market leader for years! But the words are not enough though, having the slogan message address customers’ needs is just not enough, it should be sincere, honest, and true. Bank of Jordan's main slogan in its advertising is brief and simple: "Excel", but do customers really excel when dealing with the bank? On the other hand, Housing Bank launched a campaign few years ago that was so successful, the slogan was: “we have the largest network of ATM machines in the kingdom”. This Unique Selling Point directly caught the attention of customers because it fulfills the need to withdraw cash from anywhere, anytime and it was true (at that time), businesses should look inside for their best unique selling point and come up with a slogan that establish a perception to support it, what is the use of launching a slogan that neither implies any unique selling point nor entices the public to remember it?! Everybody remembered “menna wa fenna” of Fastlink but none recognized “a wonderful world” of Zain.

Slogans are important and may make all the difference, C-Town has this fantastic slogan few years ago: “C-Town, we save you more!” the unique selling point here is clear, Carrefour in Amman now uses similar slogan, both C-Town and Carrefour did the right thing by adapting slogans that serve customers’ best interest, save money that is, they are not ashamed of offering “cheaper prices”, rather they took that advantage and put it in a nice way to conquer the perception spot in people’s mind, Carrefour is more expensive in many areas than any other supermarket in Amman, but that doesn’t really matter, people believe it is cost effective then it is cost effective! Axes deodorant makes young males feel sexually attractive, without a shadow of the doubt Axes don’t make people sexually attractive, it simply is completely untrue. But the advertisements created this perception in the back of human minds regardless how factual it is. Slogan messages are flying all around us, whether we like it or not; they affect our perception and by time, perception becomes more important than reality.

Bye Bye Abu Ghazaleh !

Last week I was passing by Abu Ghazaleh headquarters in Abdali only to see few workers removing the logo off the building, by then I came to realize that Abu Ghazaleh Group has lost the battle against Al Hariri Sons in which Amman Municipality became a party.

To put it briefly, the Jordanian Government supports Al Abdali Project for the sons of the late Rafik Al-Hariri, the latter intend to tear down the historical Abdali and rebuild it in the form of complexes, exhibition centers, malls, and theater houses similar to Lebanon’s Solidaire, however Abu Ghazaleh headquarters and its prominent businessman Talal Abu Ghazaleh became an obstacle in the face of the project even though Talal is less powerful and financially capable than his opponent, the sons of Al Hariri. Unluckily for Talal Abu Ghazaleh, he founded his companies years ago in the Abdali City. The headquarters of Abu Ghazaleh Group features four buildings and their facilities, all located on one of the edges of Al-Abdali Project.

What was required from Talal Abu Ghazaleh back then was clear: vacate the place so that his headquarters are torn down and annexed to the area, for a price of course, however the latter refused and declared a war against Amman Municipality and Al Hariri Sons, the war became up close and personal when Abu Ghazaleh reportedly asked Shaikh Baha’ Al Hariri if he is willing to sell his land in Koreitim/Lebanon for the same price, and Al Hariri refused saying he wouldn’t sell his birthplace, to which and Abu Ghazaleh replied “me neither, Al Abdali is my birthplace!”.

Anyone that would read the last paragraph may become supportive to Talal Abu Ghazaleh, but that is not the big picture.

Rumors suggest the battle with Abu Ghazaleh was all about the money; Al Hariri sons didn’t pay Talal Abu Ghazaleh enough and therefore Abu Ghazaleh had to stand up and fight. The problem with Abu Ghazaleh Group is they were fighting a losing battle, or at least this is how it looks today. The truth is: it is in the best interest of Amman to have a modern new Abdali with the fantastic beautiful buildings Al Abdali Project promises to deliver, Al Hariri Sons tore down mid Bairot and made Solidaire, they will do the same for Abdali and Abu Ghazaleh buildings are/were too small to occupy this significant location.

This is what really matters, it is not who owns the location at the end of the day, be it the government, Abu Ghazaleh, or Al Hariri, what the owner will do with this location is really what matters, obviously Al Hariri Sons will give more to Jordan through owning this land than Abu Ghazaleh!

Jordan is opening for a new era, foreign investments are flooding into the country and unfortunately a lot of people are too shortsighted to see what lies beneath, let’s face it; we are a poor country with limited resources, according to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) our GDP per capita is less than USD 4.8K comparing to USD 5.5K for Egypt, USD 11.3K for Lebanon, USD 23K for Saudi Arabia, USD 80K for Qatar, and even USD 25K for Israel, the only countries around us whose citizens make less GDP than ours are subject, or part of, political instability, like Syria and Iraq, we faced declining growth rates as per the UN reports during 2004 and to 2006. We are a poor country and we must digest that to deal with it. Abu Ghazaleh case is not an exception, the government gives business to whoever gives back more value to the country, we don’t have many millionaires who are willing to invest in huge project like Al Abdali after all.

On a second note, Al Hariri sons, of course, are not doing this for the nice color of our eyes, they are businessmen and are looking to return the money they have invested in Al Abdali, but why do we care? If they are doing a good job for us then they must be rewarded, ever wondered why almost all governmental, or semi-governmental, companies in Jordan that were privatized in last ten years grew more revenues and profits after privatization? Not to mention the quality of service and support private companies are obliged to offer in order to satisfy customers and sell more.

I was one of those who did follow the battle between these fighting parties and for some time I thought Abu Ghazaleh Group was going to win, perhaps in another Gulf rich and prosper country, but here we are passing through desperate times that require desperate measures, Abu Ghazaleh used the pin to fight, the government used the sword, and we all thought that the pin is mightier than the sword, but it turned out that money is the mightiest of all.