I have to admit that I quite enjoyed my own open letter to Starbucks, so I thought I’d bring back the format in this my open letter to Motorola.

Dear Motorola,

I don’t work for you and to be honest I haven’t owned one of your products for a while, but I know enough to know that you are undoubtedly the leader in bluetooth headsets for mobile phones.  I say this not to flatter you but to remind you that your market dominance is always at stake and that you can and should use your power in the market to continue to dominate. To that end, I’m here with a little suggestion for you and it goes something like this.

With all the states, provinces and other jurisdictions enacting laws that prohibit the use of cellular phones without a handsfree option there are going to be a mass amount of people who need to get in the market for your products quickly. Now of course you could take the traditional approach and offer some deep discounts right around the same time these various pieces of legislation pass, and I suggest you do. But here is where I think you can use your deep pockets to both make yourself look good and garner new customers. First why don’t you reach out to every law enforcement agency that is going to have to hand out tickets and offer them a coupon for $25 off any of your bluetooth headsets and $50 off any of your in-car setups. Talk about Guerrilla Marketing, you end up making the boys and girls in blue your street team, literally! Now while, we’re at it, why not tell the same police and governments that you will do a joint awareness campaign with them and get them to foot 50% of the marketing campaign that you were going to run anyway?

Nobody (just ask Maria Shriver) is going to be happy getting pulled over for using their phone, but I’m pretty sure that those same people will be picking up a bluetooth device sometime shortly after getting the ticket. So there is a completely new customer base up for grabs and I’m happy to give you what I think is a leg up. Since you don’t pay me and I’m quite confident that I’m not going to get any swag in the mail from you as a result of this suggestion I’ll let you do the math on the budget and break-even for this type of campaign, but I’m a betting man and I’m betting you can’t go wrong.

So with that, I thank you for your time and if you’re feeling generous after reading this letter I am happy to take any and all payments for the marketing campaign suggestions contained herein. You know where to reach me.

Michael G. Cohen

Rarely does a human being come along that changes a profession, industry or game the way that Michael Jordan did. The man invented the shoe deal, he is the reason you drink Gatorade and if you don’t own Michael Jordan To The Max you really can’t consider yourself a basketball fan. So here is my favorite YouTube video of the weekend that was a YouTube tribute to MJ.

Check out just one of many insane videos on YouTube – and this is considered an “out-take” video…

As if he were not an inspiring enough speaker alone, at the end of his first speech to Congress Tuesday night Barack Obama did something that every CEO should take note of – he took the time to not only shake the hands of named Congressmen and women, but seemingly as important to him he stopped shook hands with and even engaged in brief conversation with the “pages” who had attended.

This is the leader of the free world and nobody had to remind him that those young pages were a huge part of the movement which elected him. Nobody had to explain to him what a thrill it would be to be 20something and have the President shake your hand and ask what you thought of his speech. Which is why it was both natural and so very classy when Obama took the time to seek out the pages.

Take this lesson outside of the political arena and bring it to the corporate arena. Every CEO claims to have some sort of open door policy and each will tell you that they know and value their workers. They might even have a corporate communications person write thank you emails for them, but now stop and ask yourself a question – When was the last time the CEO walked the floor of your company? Does the CEO know anybody at the company (outside their inner circle) on a personal level?

If you work at an organization where the CEO is at the top of a large group it’s a good idea to ask yourself these and related questions and if you are the CEO of a company you shouldn’t have to ask the questions, rather you should know the answers and be proactive about ensuring the answers to the questions are always yes.

The point is that it is really simple to espouse an “open door I’m in touch with the workers on the ground level” policy but it is much much more important to walk the walk than talk the talk.

Barack Obama has a love fest going with the American public right now, he certainly did not need to score extra points by including the pages in his historical evening but the fact that he did so in such a seemless way makes you really believe him when he says he values every voice and is thankful for every vote.

Not every CEO can inspire the way Obama can simply through his presence, but you can certainly inspire by showing your team that you value them, care about them as people and that they can approach you any appropriate time. If Obama can spend an extra few minutes being a true leader, so can you.

I’ve got to admit that I am really impressed with the way that Starbucks has been able to utilize the “halo effect” of the American Presidential election and specifically the renewal of promise brought by now President Barack Obama in a way that is not gimicky or based on novelty. Starbucks has effectively been able to bring a network of its customers together through a combination of online/offline marketing efforts like the I Voted or now Pledge 5 programs. At the same time the company has built much brand equity by discretely attaching themselves to all that Americans (and the rest of the world) have come to hope for in Barack Obama.

While it is obviously the execution of any marketing program that makes it worth doing, with these two campaigns Starbucks has been able to utilize the halo effect from Obama as the reason to call its consumers to action and in doing so has been able to use the Internet to connect the brand to its consumers and consumers to other consumers through their ideas, ideals and sacrifices.

Americans are fiercly patriotic and during the Internet Era never before have they been so encapsulated with a President or even the idea of the Presidency. It is easy to capitalize on this with novelty items, even some big companies that are terrific marketers like Ben & Jerry’s, Kripy Kreme and Jones Soda have gone that route. However it is much more difficult to craft a smart campaign that is not built on novelty but is built on the actual marketing principles of wanting to connect the brand and consumer with mutually shared ideas, ideals and experiences. Starbucks has found a way to get in the side-car next to the momentum train called the Obama Campaign and eventual Presidency with two separate yet connected campaigns that never directly reference Obama but absolutely grasp onto the emotions that his Presidency evokes in Americans. While this could have come across as a cheesy way for a big corporation to pretend they care I don’t think it has that connotation at all and kudos to the marketing teams who worked on these campaigns for that.

I think that the lesson for me is that if you find a way to connect with your customers over a subject that you are mutually passionate about (and is not controversial) it can be a tremendous way to engage them and show them that your brand’s support for their passion is genuine and not simply a marketing gimmick.

You can check out the latest Pledge 5 ad below, I would love your comments and thoughts.