Focusing on strengths and differentiation is nothing new to marketing, but those basic tenets seem to get lost in favor of cleverness and “wow” factors.

Southwest’s latest campaign really resonates, though.

Bags are important to flyers.  How often do you hear horror stories about airlines losing bags?  I know my Facebook news stream is littered with stories this holiday season of airlines losing their bags.

Southwest recognizes bags’ importance to customers, and plays off of that.

“Bags fly free” isn’t just about saving the customer money. Where other airlines are saying, “your bags are 1) an inconvenience and 2) an opportunity for us to make a few more dollars”, Southwest uses bags as an opportunity.

Their latest commercial paints a picture of burly men handling bags personally, and getting teary-eyed when they get on the plane and fly away.

“Bags are my life,” one handler says.

“I love bags,” another says, waving goodbye to his traveling friends.

That message, combined with the lack of fees, is Southwest saying to its customer that bags are important to you, so they’re important to the airline.   The implication is they won’t lose your bags, because they care — and the humans behind the actual baggage handling care.

It’s a starkly different picture than that of the “stereotypical baggage handler” — an angry man that’s doing his best to test the structural integrity of your baggage.

And it’s a refreshing change.  Travelers are tired of the “same old” from airlines, which includes late flights, nickel and dime charges at every opportunity, and lost luggage.

Southwest’s message, which revolves around something as simple as the lack of a fee around the first piece of luggage, effectively points out that they are an airline intent on bucking the trends set by their industry. And of winning the customer satisfaction battle.

Practicality put aside by the magical mystical “unlimited money” clause, I’d buy a fleet of 12 of those suckers, and create some sort of sport based on them.

I haven’t worked out the details yet, but it would definitely be hockey-style, with rough play encouraged.  A few key points:

• 5 on 5 play, with 1 spare Segway per team in case of a disabled vehicle.
• Only stock Segways used; no performing-enhancing modifications.
• Players must stay on their Segway; if they get knocked off, they remain out of the play for a set period of time.  Stepping off intentionally is strictly not allowed.
• There will probably be a ball or puck of some sort, with sticks and a goal.  Maybe lacrosse baskets.

I see it like Whirlyball for the 2010 decade.  Someone needs to make it happen.

I’m not going to lie — I still harbor fantasies of being a rock star one day.  Sure, my odds are going down the older I get, but those fantasies are more alive than those of being a professional athlete.

Rock Band (and, right now of focus Beatles Rock Band) lets me, at least for a little while, pretend those fantasies have come true.  Sure, the instruments are plastic, and my TV doesn’t get nearly as loud as the ole Orange amplifier and a drum kit.

But, the tunes are fun to play.  And you really are singing, and you really are beating drums and strumming a guitar.

Of course, you’re not REALLY playing them — Rock Band guitar is easier than the real thing, and more forgiving of mistakes.  The vocals are real, but you can mix the game’s vocals higher so as to drown out the atonal mess coming from the room.  The drums are the closest to the real thing, minus dynamic control and lack of left foot action.

But, Rock Band comes close enough to providing the illusion that you are playing.  It comes closer than any other simulation I know: playing Rock Band puts you closer to making music than Madden Football does to putting you in the NFL; closer than Gran Turismo puts you to auto racing, and, luckily, closer than Grand Theft Auto puts you to being an actual deliquent.

For a few minutes, it’s easy to pretend you really are a rock star, singing, pounding, strumming, away.  Smartly, you can even practice your rock star moves — the guitar is wireless, making it easy to introduce the smooth moves.

Rock Band makes it easy to pretend.  And for that, is a successful game.

But, that having been said, the referees screwed the Mavericks in a critical playoff game. Again.

And no one should be surprised it was Bennett Salvatore and his crew. Again.

I even put up a concerned status on Facebook (or I commented on someone’s status, I don’t remember) worried about Salvatore. But, honestly, his crew was fine for 59 minutes, 58 seconds. It was just those final two seconds.

Before we look at tonight, though, let’s flash back in time to the 2006 NBA Finals, game 5. In that game, the criticism of Salvatore was that he decided to take the game into his own hands and call a touch foul (if you can even call it that) when Dirk Nowitizki happened to stand too near to Dwyane Wade with 2 seconds left in the game. The general rule of thumb in refereeing is that in the last minute of the game, you call hard fouls, obvious fouls — you don’t want to take the game into your own hands and bail a player out. You let them sort it out

One could argue that a foul is a foul is a foul, no matter what time of game — a valid argument. But given that line of thinking, if every time a player touched another player (which is all that Dirk did, if that), no basketball would get played between whistles. So, given any perspective, that foul was a bad call; I’ve never read any writer, national or local, that disputes that.

And now, today. The exact opposite of 2006’s call happened. Salvatore and his crew had an EXTREMELY active set of whistles. They called 61 total fouls. They sent players to the line for 89 free throws. For the entire game, they were in complete control — even fouling out Chris Andersen in barely over 10 minutes of playing time. I remember being pleasantly surprised during the fourth quarter, saying to myself, “they’ve blown a lot of whistles… but they’ve been good calls. The calls are even against both teams, and they’re getting the calls right.”

I spoke too soon.

With 6 seconds left in the game, Denver called a timeout. The Mavericks had a foul to give, so Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told his players to intentionally foul the Denver player with the ball before he goes into his shooting motion, to take some time off the clock. It’s a common strategy at the end of NBA games — so much so that referees are made aware of it, and look for the intentional foul and call it quickly, so that no players get hurt. The player has to go for the ball and not use excessive force, or else they’ll get tagged with a flagrant foul, which means 2 shots and the ball.

Time and time again, this happens at the end of games. But not tonight. As the Associated Press described it:

Antoine Wright had a simple objective. In a game with 61 fouls already called, he was trying to commit another. Wright bumped Carmelo Anthony once, hard enough to knock him off stride. But not enough for a foul call. So he jostled Anthony again. Still no call — and now Wright was out of position, leaving Anthony a clear look at the basket. His 3-pointer went right through with a second left, giving the Denver Nuggets a 106-105 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, and a 3-0 series lead that has been insurmountable in NBA history.

And so, again, the Mavericks lost. After the game, the NBA admitted the officials blew the call. Empty consolation for the players and fans once again on the losing end of referee mistakes. Two years ago, it was a foul that never happened getting called. Tonight, it’s a foul that clearly happened not getting called.

Again, the Mavericks should have won that game regardless of bad officiating. They had their chances, and blew it. That shouldn’t mask the problem the NBA has with their officials. It’s plain and simple: players and fans never know what constitutes a foul and what doesn’t. One trip down the court, a player gets mugged driving the lane, and the referees say nothing. The next trip down, a player grazes some forearm swiping for the ball, and it’s a foul. There’s no consistency between plays in a game, let alone from game to game, crew to crew.

The NBA is hurting their game by not fixing this problem. I absolutely refuse to believe that on a planet of 6 billion people, the NBA referees are the finest referees available. Not with the number of mistakes and bad calls they make. Not with the showboating they exhibit, thinking they’re part of the entertainment show.

Thanks for the apology, NBA. Now go do something about it: fix the system.

.

Jason Kidd needs to step it back up — he needs to be the floor general he’s capable of being.

The Mavericks also desperately need Josh Howard to pick up the pace, injured ankle or not.  He keeps Dirk from having to score 45 to win.  This series proves Dirk doesn’t back down to playoff pressure — he’s averaging 31/game in this series — but also proves the Maverick bench is as important as the superstar.

I don’t think Dirk will be distracted in the game, despite all the news surrounding his personal life.  The game will take over, and as long as he got some rest last night (and he’s been staying with a Mavs executive, so let’s assume he did), he’ll be fine.

Fewer turnovers.

If Mavs turn it over a reasonable number in Game 1 (instead of 8 from their point guard, who’s here for his brain more than his body), I have little doubt they win the game.

Play game 2 like game 1 — solid defense, decent shot selection — and cut out the ridiculous turnovers, and I feel good about this one.

P.S. To the TNT guys.  Dirk is confident.  He’s just giving the guys that defend him some credit.  Relax.

The Mavericks got off to a slow start in game 2, much like game 1… but this time, no one was able to slow up Parker or cool down the Spurs shooting.

The Mavericks couldn’t figure out how to guard Parker, who worked off the pick and roll all night and was slashing, driving, and shooting at will.  He finished with 38 points — 10 more than Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki combined.  And when the Mavericks did collapse on him, he found the open shooter. The Mavs were consistently slow to rotate to Finley, Bonner, and Bowen.

It was the worst of both worlds: the Mavs would either step up and help on Parker too late, or they would be late to rotate to the open shooters.  The result?  The Spurs shot 53% for the night — and that includes a brief cold streak that allowed the Mavericks to crawl back into the game before slamming the door with an 11-0 run.

Defensively, the Spurs went back to their old their game of getting physical and pushing Dirk outside of his comfort zone.  The Spurs fronted him and brought help from over the top to keep the lob pass out.  It worked well — Dirk was clearly frustrated.

Also of disturbing note was the Spurs consistently outhustling the Mavs.  The Spurs seemed to get to every loose ball, and outrebounded the Mavs 44-28.  -16 on the boards isn’t going to get it done against anyone, especially a Spurs team that couldn’t miss in the first half.

JJ Barea also returned to earth, scoring only 5 points in 23 minutes — and he didn’t bother Parker one bit.  But then again, neither did Jason Kidd, Antoine Wright, or Jason Terry, who all took turns getting abused.

The Mavs luckily have two days off before their next game.  San Antonio made their adjustments and bounced back; the Mavs need to match.  All the optimism that filled the air after game 1 has been sapped.

It’s one thing to lose; it’s another to be blown out in every single facet of the game.

(Sidenote: I suddenly couldn’t remember if Barea had one “r” or two.  So I Googled “Barea.”  And JJ is the first entry.  Google juice for the little guy.)

His quickness needs to bother Parker — make him work for his points (which he’ll get).  And make Parker run around expending energy on defense.

And, most of all, he’s a spark.  He brings energy, takes charges, and makes good decisions for a young player.

If he can do the same things he did in game 1, the Mavericks will be in solid shape.

• Swimming was the most popular sport in the world, and Michael Phelps was running for supreme dictator of the planet — he gets interviewed more than the U.S. presidential candidates;
• Gymnastics was the second most popular sport in the world, even though it appears to be dominated by female children (arguably true in China’s case, apparently) and bulky, stocky men;
• Beach volleyball was the third most popular sport in the world.  By the way, can anyone explain to me that women wear next to nothing to play the sport, but men wear loose shorts and shirts?  Is it mandated by some volleyball governing body that the women competitors have to show off their caboose on national TV, while the guys can cover it all up?
• Bela Karolyi is some sort of international superspy, lagging behind only Michael Phelps (and his “flat behind” as described by NBC as giving him a swimming advantage) in camera time.  I think Bob Costas is getting jealous.

PS. I got an iPhone 3G. It rocks but isn’t flawless. More to come.

I’ll be the first to admit that hockey is not my favorite of the major sports.  I’m not sure which is, it varies depending on my mood.  But it’s not hockey.

But that having been said, dang, playoff overtime hockey is amazing.

It’s so, so tense.  Knowing that the next goal could come in 5 seconds, or it could come in 20 minutes.  It’s up and down, fast-paced.  It’s a real battle, and every possession is a hold-your-breath-nail-biter.  One little odd skip of the puck on an uneven piece of ice, and the game (and possibly the season) is over.  One misplay.

NBA overtime is tense.  NFL overtime is tense.  But in the NBA, it’s a full quarter — so each possession is huge but you can give up a couple of baskets and bounce back.  And in the NFL, the game rarely ends on a deep pass or long run.  It’s usually a slow, methodical drive to the 25 yard line that results in a field goal.

NHL?  Sudden death, and the goalies take their game up a notch.  Amazing stops on huge scoring opportunities.  Up and down, and anything can happen.

Too much typing.  I’ve got to get back to focusing on the game.

Go Stars!

But then there are the run of the mill banner ads.  Ones that have very little or no relevance to the content and whose sole method of gathering attention is being annoying.  Previously, this meant garish colors, annoying Flash animations or animated GIFs.  But, for some reason — perhaps file size limitations, perhaps content providers refusing to break a certain threshold of annoyance — sound had been blissfully missing from the majority of banner ads.  You saw it every now and then, but it wasn’t that widespread.  (At least, it wasn’t that widespread at the sites I was visiting.)

But now there’s a series of banner ads pointing out that I’ve won an iPod or a computer or a boat or something.  I don’t actually remember.  Nothing new, really.  The same ad has been around forever in some incarnation or another (which means it must actually be effective, which makes me worry about the IQ of the human race).

But this ad has added voices, now.  Sometimes, a perky female reads the copy to me, telling me I’ve won.  Sometimes it’s a fresh-sounding male.  Either way, it’s annoying.  Very annoying.

So, I’m sitting here listening to some tunes and reading a website that will remain unnamed and unlinked because it carries this ad.  Then the perky female starts reading the ad out loud while I try to read some content.  The ad runs its course while I’m reading and find a link that I decide to follow.  I click the link, a new page loads, and the ad reloads.  Which means… guess what!  I may have won!  I repeat this process one more time before running away from the site with my speakers muted.

To recap: I click on the ad exactly zero times and leave the site and am very reluctant to go back.  Was it worth it, content provider?  I’m probably not the only reader thinking this.  Remember content providers — make sure the ads on your site won’t cost you readers.

I was awakened a few minutes ago by the sound of something pitter-pattering across the hardwood floor.  I had my suspicions, so I turned on the light and sure enough, there it was: a cockroach.

Now, a little background about me.  I’m terrified of roaches.  My top five fears, in order goes something like this:

1. Nuclear armageddon
2. Death by asfixiation after being buried alive
3. Roaches
4. Complete global economic meltdown resulting in return to hunting and gathering society
5. Destruction of the universe via rogue science experiment

I had to summon all my courage to go to my closet for a shoe with which to try to take care of the problem.  It would be my luck that my adversary would foresee my manuevre, and run over near my shoes.  The roach was clearly saying, “You have to get past me first.”

Luckily for me, I had forgotten to put my sandals with the rest of my shoes.  I grabbed one and methodically stalked my prey, waiting to strike until he was away from areas where he could hide and potentially escape.

I attacked with a single, potent strike, and felled my foe.

That is, of course, the easy part — cleanup is even more challenging.  I had to gather all my fortitude again, and made a makeshift broom and dustpan out of some junk mail sitting on my desk.  (But not until I did some extra prodding, to make sure there would be no surprises from a playing-possum counter-manuevre from the roach.)

A flush of the toilet was the sound of official victory.  I had handled the first roach situation in my house, and did it without screaming once and without calling for my roommate Mike for tactical backup.

That got me to thinking, how do I define success?

Life-wise, that’s a tricky question.  But career-wise?  Easy.

Flexible hours, an office with a door AND a window, and the ability to afford furniture made out of real wood instead of particleboard.

I’ll get there one day…

Of course, calling tax time an annoyance is like calling a leg amputation a minor medical procedure.  But the point stands.

The current system of taxing, deductions, and 9,000,000 pages of tax laws on the books is arcane.  Do I have a better solution?  Probably not.  OK, no, definitely not.  But I’m tired and grumpy from doing my taxes, so really the point here is to complain, not to fix things.  I’ll let people much smarter than me fix things.

But, on the bright side, I do live in Texas, so there’s no state income tax.  But I am paying 8.25% sales tax.

And on another bright side, there is the federal economic stimulus package.  I think that since over the past year I have proven that I will not be wasting my money not stimulating the economy and sticking it in savings accounts but instead driving business by purchasing critical items such as Rock Band for the PS2, I should get a bonus stimulus package. 

After all, if you get taxed more based on your income, you should be rewarded more for your frivolous purchases, right?  I think the logic there is as sound as any.

(Note: This originally was going to be a well-thought-out post discussing the economy, taxation, and solutions to an outdated system.  Or as well-thought-out as any of my blog entries. But instead you have this drivel.  And I apologize for that.  I encourage you, dear reader, to bring some intelligence to this topic in the comments section.)

But, rules are made to be broken.  And I have to share this important NCAA basketball update:

I won my office pool, picking not just the final two but the champion, Kansas.

It was quickly pointed out to me that this wasn’t such an impressive feat, since I picked the top two ranked teams to finish one and two, in that order.  And that the office pool had a total of five people in it.

While those minor details may be true, I still have finally broken my tradition of losing heartily in NCAA bracket office pools, dating back to an internship with Micrografx in 2001.

So, I’ve decided to go ahead and brag to every soul I can find.  Didn’t play in the office pool?  Don’t care.  Don’t even work with me?  Don’t care.  Don’t even know the difference between NCAA and NBA basketball?  Don’t care.  If I run into you, I’m going to brag about this for a little while.

I think I earned this one.  And if not, fine.  I’ve never claimed to not have a hypocritical side.

Feel free to consult with me for my opinion on the NBA playoffs, 2008 NFL football season, and eventual World Series Champion.  My crystal ball is nice and polished.

For example, a few days ago I decided that it probably wasn’t going to be cold anymore here in Dallas this season, so I folded up my heavy comforter and put it away in the closet.  I jumped the gun a little bit, though — because last night it was chilly and I woke up in the middle of the night cold with only my sheets and a light blanket.

Now, had I had my thinking cap on, I would have gotten up, walked five feet to my closet, pulled out my comforter, and resumed my slumber.  This would have taken all of 20 seconds, probably.  If that.

Instead, I decided the better decision would be to stay in bed, rather cold.  And laying awake thinking, “Hrm.  I’m rather cold.”

So, I’ve decided I have to come to grips with my stubbornness and better learn when it is an asset and when it is just silly.  I started by pulling that comforter out of the closet this morning.

He went ahead and proved that he is as tough as they come — and, as John Hollinger of ESPN Insider wrote, “a freak of nature” by bouncing back from a high ankle sprain after an unheard of 5 games off.  That type of injury can take months to heal, not days.

Dirk wasn’t 100% against Golden State, but the way he made the surprise start really woke the Dallas basketball world up.  The crowd was more electric than it’s been since the 2006 Finals run.  And most importantly, the players had a swagger I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Dirk’s inspiration was the MVP of the game.  Jason Terry played with hustle and energy we haven’t seen from him, and Josh Howard was being a good garbage collector inside.  The Mavericks were just getting to more loose balls.

This season will come down to how well Josh Howard, Jason Kidd, and Jason Terry will play.  Against Los Angeles tonight, Dirk was spectacular — but Howard, Kidd, and Terry all disappeared down the stretch.  The Lakers were able to double and triple team Dirk, and Howard and Terry missed badly on some open shots.  And Kidd wasn’t able to get out in the open court and orchestrate in space like he’s so adept at doing.

Dirk’s defense is better than it’s been: he’s getting a lot of key blocks coming helpside and he’s rebounding well.  And Dirk’s toughness can’t be questioned.  And he’s playing efficient, spirited basketball.  But the team keeps losing close games.  They need to figure out how to win these close games — when the open court game shuts down and things tighten up at the end, the Mavericks tighten up and take bad shots.

They’ve failed at getting to the free throw line late, and I think that will help them.  Of course, referees are more reluctant to call that foul late in the game, but you’ve still got to drive the lane and try to draw that content to have a chance late.

I feel like this team is close to figuring it out.  But they’re running out of time this season to get it figured out.  The playoffs are around the corner — and if the Mavericks aren’t careful, it could happen without them.  I don’t think that will be the case, but it’s possible.

I think Dirk will be able to get this thing on his back and carry them into the playoffs.  He’s shown he’s tough enough.

I understand that when two celebrities date, the paparazzi will show up and everything the couple does is “news.”  Fine, whatever.  I think the coverage is overblown, but people are eating it up, so it will continue being covered.  I can understand that.

Tony Romo made his choices, and it’s his right to do what he pleases in his free time.  I don’t think the city of Dallas, or the rest of the country, should criticize what he does in his free time.  I know that if it were me, I wouldn’t appreciate the media and every Joe on the street telling me what they think I should do with my free time.

Which brings us to the Tony Romo / Jason Witten / Simpson family weekend in Mexico.  Yes, Tony’s job is to be prepared for the Giants — and it’s his coach’s job to help him get prepared.   That coach told the entire Cowboy team, including Tony Romo, to take a couple of days off and re-energize.  Tony works hard to prepare, and every teammate that’s gone on the record about the subject has said as much.   He earned the break.So, what he did on the break doesn’t matter.  No one is criticizing Jason Witten for going to Mexico, so why criticize Romo?

The city will blame Jessica Simpson and Romo’s relationship if the Cowboys lose vs. the Giants, no matter how irrelevant the subject is.  In a way, I feel for them — I know I wouldn’t want that scrutiny on my relationships.  And I know I’d feel awful if my girlfriend was blamed for any shortcomings I might have.Which means Tony has put a lot of pressure on himself to win this game.  If anyone can handle that pressure, it’s Tony Romo.  He is who he is, and has confidence in his abilities and his team’s strengths.  I wouldn’t be comfortable with that pressure, but that’s reason #18931 I’m not an NFL player.  (Reasons #1 – #18930 have a lot to do with my athletic ability).

The only solution to this situation?  The Cowboys winning the Super Bowl.  Go Cowboys!