Starting is hard. It’s hard because if you haven’t done it, you won’t know what it’s going to take. Or where it’s going to lead.

A case in point comes from the eMarketer webinar I attended earlier this week – “Measuring Social Media Success.” 39% of worldwide retailers don’t measure social media marketing.

I’ve not talked to those 39%, but I would bet they haven’t started because they don’t know the right way.

Here’s the secret: There isn’t one way.

Now, there is a right way for your company. But your organization’s culture, available resources, strategic vision and short-term goals – among other things – must all be considered. And the only way to figure out that “right way?” It’s simple. Start.

Prototyping isn’t just for products. It can be used for research methodologies. For ideas. And even for processes. Processes like “Measuring Social Media Success.”

Start by being clear on goals and objectives. Start by articulating the right questions. And then start figuring out the right answers from there.

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But be honest – Have you ever turned to a thesaurus to choose words that are more complex to give the impression that the content is more valid or intelligent? Nearly two-thirds of Stanford undergraduate students answered – admitted? – “yes.”

Using new or interesting, formal or complex language can make you feel smarter. But does it make you seem smarter to others? A study in Applied Cognitive Psychology suggests no.

“Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly” makes the case the simpler writing is better writing. Simpler writing is judged as more true. It’s judged as more confident. It’s even liked more.

The lesson is simple. Want your writing to be liked more? Don’t just mean what you say. Just say what you mean.

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It’s a new year. A new beginning. A fresh start.

Start simple.

Simple demands a premium price.

Simple builds loyalty.

Simple creates clarity.

Simple encourages authority.

Simple facilitates buy-in.

Simple cuts through clutter.

Simple sparks action.

And, yes, simple can move mountains.

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From messaging to product design, brands that add value are the ones that have the most enviable relationships with their customers. Brands that simplify the experience are the ones that engender loyalty. Brands that pay attention to both their look and their feel are the ones we’ll feel good about without knowing why.

Sure, you can cut a little here and a little there. And you should. But doing so won’t get you introduced to people who have no idea you exist. It certainly won’t get you re-considered by those who have written you off. It might not even change the way your current customers think, much less behave. Clearly defined value can get the attention that can get you all three.

Finding efficiencies can make your sales funnel more efficient. And that’s important. But adding value can change your funnel. Fundamentally. And for the better.

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People pay attention.

To pay is to give. For work done or goods received. Brands can’t forget this.

If people pay attention – to your message, to your brand – what are they going to get? What value will they receive?

And will they be willing to pay their attention again?

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I enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s recent piece in the New Yorker on Steve Jobs. It’s titled “The Tweaker.” Gladwell’s thesis can be summed up by a single line from the article: “Job’s sensibility was editorial, not inventive.” I tend to agree. And you can’t argue the results.

Small changes – meaningful changes – can make a big difference. Our culture has taken Richard Carlson too literally. We’ve stopped sweating too much small stuff. Two brands that haven’t:

The Pret A Manger brownie. I love Pret A Manger and their “Made Today, Gone Today” philosophy. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of this approach in years to come. But its brand position is more revolution than evolution. Instead, let’s focus on the brownie I enjoyed there recently. The note on the back of the packaging says it all: “The never-ending development of our brownie is typical of Pret. We’ve improved the recipe 36 times over the last few years. Each change is minuscule but detectable. John D Hess said, ‘A race horse that runs a mile a few seconds faster is worth twice as much. That little extra proves to be the greatest value.’ Same with our Brownie we think.” It’s paying attention to details that makes a big difference. This is true… from brownies to brands.

The CrayAngle triangle crayon. How many times has a crayon you are using rolled around – and then off – the table? What about at a restaurant with a table with a wobbly leg and a maple-syrup-infused four-year-old? There is no reason this simple idea had to wait this long to make a difference. Except for the very likely facts of “Because we’ve always done it this way,” “This is the way we do it,” and  “There is no reason to think about doing it differently.”

What if you thought about your business this way? What if you picked a product and made 36 improvements? What’s currently circle but could use three sides? What changes can you make for the better?

Sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff.

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As with most things, there is a second side to this coin. Change is not always the right choice. Certainly not change for the sake of change.

As data becomes more real-time and more omnipresent, it will be easier and easier to justify tweaks, evolutions and outright changes. But while optimization is essential, consistency matters.

The best change is sometimes the one you don’t make. Struggling brands, especially, tend to lack an organizing concept they can own. Which results in more changes. Which results in less of a cohesive reason for being. Which likely leads to more changes. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Change is a concept that is too often feared (ex: “It ain’t broke”) or too fully embraced (ex: Bright Shiny Object Syndrome). My bottom line? The ideal is decision makers who feel comfortable enough making changes that they can be confident not making them.

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That complexity is now being complimented by greater transparency. You can find out even more just by scanning a code. Or by simply asking Siri. As shoppers with mobile devices continue to realize they literally have the world at their fingertips, the world is going to change drastically. More and more, shoppers will know exactly what all of their options are.

The results are predictable: The drum will be banged for the importance of price. Take Mary Meeker’s recently released Internet Trends 2011 Report. According to the report, the #1 and #2 reasons for “in-store purchase abandonment among USA smartphone users” were “I found it online for a better price” and “I found it at another store for a better price.” The results appear to come from a comScore survey. But it appears that in asking about in-store purchase abandonment, they asked only about price – not value.

I won’t argue that pricing matters. It does. But there can only be one low-price leader. And its benefits are far fewer and farther between than just about any other position.

Value matters, too. Or, in the words of the presentation slide, Value Matters A LOT! And, for marketers, I’d argue that value matters more. Nielsen’s 2011 Global Online Survey found that consumers favor value over price.

In this changing, mobile-ized, transparent world, marketers still have two basic paths:

1. Invest in lowering price. And then, likely, someday soon, lowering it again.
2. Invest in increasing value. This can be done in any number of ways, including the product, perceived value, community of advocates or experience. It’s worth noting, price wars don’t have to be a negative. They can be fun for the consumer, but that’s as much about experience as pricing.

I think we’d see more brands investing in the latter if we also invested in a new survey – one that considers value alongside price.

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I also had the opportunity to see National Geographic writer and best-selling author, Dan Buettner speak about his concept of Blue Zones. Blue Zones are the parts of the world where people live the longest and report the highest levels of well-being. His passion for the topic and ideas about how to turn the tides of public health were inspiring and, as importantly, actionable. Buettner had nine keys for living longer and living better.

One of his keys in particular got me thinking about Blue Zones for brands. Buettner reported people who Know Their Purpose live an average of seven years longer than those who don’t. And they don’t just live longer, they live healthier lives. I think the same applies to brands.

Author Jim Collins would agree. He found that purpose-driven companies outperformed traditional ones by up to 7:1.

Defining your purpose needn’t be complicated nor, necessarily, pious. Knowing your purpose comes down to knowing your values, your passions and your talents. Figure out how to share them consistently. And start enjoying a longer, healthier “life” than your competition.

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“What are we going to do?” (don’t stop here)
“How will our competitors react?” (don’t stop here)
“How might we react to that?” (repeat step two)

Physics teaches us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But what a lot of companies don’t do is anticipate how competitors will react to what they do so they can counter react. You cut your price, competitor cuts their price. You add a feature, competitor adds a feature. But what comes next?

Focusing on the short-term is a necessary part of any account or brand manager’s job. The day-to-day is designed to fill up your every day. The short run wins. A lot. But most winning brands keep an eye on the horizon. Seth Godin has a great line:

There really isn’t much a of ‘short run’. It quickly becomes yesterday. The long run, on the other hand, sticks around for quite a while.

Being proactively reactive? It can mean the difference between “becoming yesterday” and “sticking around for quite a while.”

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