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Editor’s Note: This post was published in 2006. Stats were updated in 2016 to reflect Belichick’s current coaching record — and the CD and TiVo references were left for posterity.

Many of you who are football fans or are from New England probably know who Bill Belichick is. For the rest of you, he is the head coach of the New England Patriots. Since he joined the organization in 2000, the Patriots have won five Super Bowls.

As a student of business strategy, I find Belichick to be a fascinating character. His accomplishment of winning five Super Bowls is truly remarkable because the market (NFL) he competes in is “efficient” by design, and rebalances itself to increase efficiency in clever ways.

Every year, the teams that were top performers the prior year are penalized by getting lower relative draft picks than the teams that didn’t perform as well. In addition, the NFL has a salary cap, so even if your team sells out every game, has massive endorsement deals, and humongous TV deals as a result of winning all those Super Bowls, there is a cap on spending that puts you at the same level as every other team.

I had a chance to listen to the Bill Belichick biography by David Halberstam over the weekend on CD and also happened to watch his interview on 60 minutes that I TiVo’d awhile back. Here are some of the highlights I pulled out of the two that are both relative to his management style and his competitive strategy formulation.

8 Timeless Business Lessons From Bill Belichick

Lesson #1: Skills and performance matter more than tenure. [Tweet this]

Belichick does not believe in “tenured” jobs for his players. They are constantly evaluating and ranking all their players. Senior people are not “entitled” to their job — it’s a complete meritocracy.

Lesson #2: Focus on being better organized than the competition. [Tweet this]

Belichick believes that being better “organized” than the competition is the way to win.

Lesson #3: Always challenge the status quo. [Tweet this]

Belichick created a “modern, sophisticated” team that played by different rules and valued different skills/metrics than any other team. He exploited market inefficiencies much like a hedge fund would.

Lesson #4: Effective team management matters. Invest in it. [Tweet this]

After losing a particularly important playoff game to an injury-ridden Patriots team, Peyton Manning (MVP that year) commented that, “it doesn’t seem to matter who they trot out there, it’s their ‘system’ that wins them games.” It seems that winning football games is more closely correlated with smart management than talented players.

Lesson #5: Don’t let your ego get in the way. [Tweet this]

After having success, Belichick fought to keep the ego out. He feels like ego is a poison that kills teams.

Lesson #6: Team > individual. [Tweet this]

Belichick is all about the team first and individual second.

Lesson #7: Get to know your competition inside and out. [Tweet this]

Belichick’s father was an assistant football coach at the Naval Academy. His main role there was to scout opponents. Belichick literally grew up looking at opponent film with his father. He became an expert at finding weaknesses in his opponents’ offenses and defenses.

In particular, he became very good at identifying quarterbacks’ weaknesses. For example, he would track metrics on accuracy throwing left, right, center, short, and long while standing still, while moving out of the pocket left, and moving out of the pocket right. Based on those metrics, he would design his defensive schemas.

Belichick won five Super Bowls because he was better at understanding his enemy than anyone else. Not sure if he ever read The Art of War, but he’s Sun Tzu’s modern day poster child.

Lesson #8: Use data to drive your decisions. [Tweet this]

From the book and the interview, it struck me that Belichick uses a sophisticated information technology platform to help unearth counter-intuitive insights about his business to create competitive differentiation.

What business lessons did we miss? Share them with us in the comments below.

If it’s not clear by now, allow us to be the first ones to tell you: Artificial Intelligence [AI] is here to stay. There have been some mixed responses to this phenomenon. Forrester reports that AI will eliminate 16% of U.S. jobs by 2025, which understandably freaks some people out. But that same report also says it will provide some job creation, so the news isn’t all bad. In fact, we’ve found AI to be pretty helpful in certain situations, especially when it comes to boosting productivity.

Bots are becoming increasingly popular in this realm. Built to integrate with existing platforms — usually those used for messaging — many of them now automate tasks for which marketers have long lamented the time-consuming nature. Think: Scheduling and keeping projects on track.

We rounded up some of our favorite productivity-boosting bots and compiled them into a directory. Here’s what we have, organized alphabetically, following some helpful information about how this all works.

A Bit About Bots

What Bots Do

A bot is a type of automated technology that’s programmed to execute certain tasks without human intervention. That is, it might be prompted by a human to perform an action, but it can carry it out on its own.

Bots are one form of AI, and many of them answer questions like a human being would. For the purposes of this post, we’re covering the bots that work within platforms like Slack — a real-time messaging platform that many companies use for internal communication — and Facebook Messenger.

Slack

These bots are actually referred to as a type of app, in that they integrate with Slack to respond to commands and execute subsequent tasks. For example, the Giphy bot responds to keyword commands to pull up a carousel of animated GIF images that you can send to other Slack users, instead of making you search for them yourself:

Messenger

Here, Bots typically serve the purpose of answering questions or responding to customer service requests. With the HealthTap bot, for example, users can send a medical inquiry and receive an automated response that’s likely to answer your question. Plus, if you need to, you can speak with a doctor after your questions been answered, as prompted by the bot:

In other words, bots like these were developed to carry out otherwise human tasks, to save you time from doing them yourself. We developed a directory of those that have been proven to be some of the most helpful to marketers.

Directory of 18 Productivity-Boosting Bots for Marketers

1) Crashlytics

Free | Slack | Additional Integrations

A self-described “powerful and lightweight crash reporting system,” Crashlytics is designed to help users save the time they would normally spend figuring out where crashes come from, and what causes them — down to the exact line of code where a crash originates. It can serve as a stand-alone app on iOS or Android, but we love that its bot can integrate with Slack, to send these reports and crash updates in real-time.

2) Dbot

Free | Slack

Source: Botlist

Dbot was made for seamless security, and automatically monitors Slack conversations — quietly, in the background — for instances when users need to be warned about malicious content. That usually comes down to two functions:

1. Scanning files shared within these conversations.
2. Scaning URLs and IP addresses within these conversations.

Typically, many users would have to visit multiple sources to verify the safety of both things. Dbot makes it easier, by performing security checks from a platform you might already be using — when you ask it to, and when it discovers something potentially malicious in existing conversations.

3) Driftbot

$0 – $50 | Slack | Other Integrations

Source: Drift

Drift, a real-time messaging app for connecting marketers with customers and website visitors, is a master of integrating with other platforms — because “we don’t want to change the way you work — we just want to be a part of it.” That’s why its bot was designed to work with many of the other tools you might use to manage or reach contacts, like Shopify for retail, or in your HubSpot software. In the video below, Drift Product Manager Matt Bilotti explains how it works with the latter.

4) Growthbot

Free | Slack | Messenger

Meet GrowthBot, your personal sales and marketing research assistant. Integrating with both Slack and Messenger, this chatbot also connects with both Google Analytics and your HubSpot software to help you find the information you need in realtime — traffic data, company information, or even prospecting. Plus, if you need it to do so, it’ll tell you a joke. Have a look:

5) Jarvis

Free | Messenger

As much as I love to write about time management and productivity, I’ll admit it — I still occasionally fall victim to checking Facebook throughout the work day. But it’s not just that. As marketers, many of us do our work within Facebook, anyway, to update social media pages or work on campaigns. That’s why Jarvis is so helpful. It’s a personal assistant bot that can set and send you reminders within Facebook. Like so many other bots, it integrates with a platform that many of us are already using, to help us get more done and make life a little easier.

6) Kayak

Free | Slack | Messenger

Source: Kayak

Finding a great deal on airfare is something that’s enjoyed by many, but mastered by few. That’s why there are sites out there like Kayak — a one-stop-shop that scans across dozens of airlines to find the best price for a flight. Now, with the Kayak chatbot, it can be used for the same purpose on Slack and Messenger. It’s like having your very own travel agent, but without the fee.

7) Leo

Free | Slack

Source: Kayak

Employee satisfaction is no laughing matter. A scant 32% of people are actually engaged at work, and there are ongoing efforts to improve and measure those numbers. One of them is Leo, a bot designed to help employers survey employee satisfaction, without asking them to stray from tools that they’re already using. Questions and response choices can be customized, ranging from a star-rating system to user-specified text. Plus, like most bots, it does its job in real-time, helping employers “spot trends before they become problems.”

8) Lyft

Free | Slack

Attention, Slack users — wouldn’t it be nice if you could use Slack to request a ride from, say, a on-demand car service app like Lyft? Without reaching for your phone and opening the app, that is. Now, you can, with a simple “/lyft” command. After you connect your Lyft account to Slack, you can use the bot to get an ETA, request pickup, and more — right from a platform you’re already using.

9) MarketSpace

Free to install | Fee per company followed | Slack

Source: MarketSpace on Medium

This app was created to help marketers follow the companies they care about the most. Whether they’re existing customers, prospects, or just brands that pique your interest, MarketSpace alerts you when these companies secure funding, make important new hires, or launch products. Plus, it’s got a bot to send you these alerts through Slack.

10) Meekan

Free | Slack | Other Integrations

Source: MarketSpace on Medium

Sometimes, it seems like scheduling a meeting can take more time than the appointment itself. That’s why apps like Meekan are so helpful. It syncs with everyone’s calendars to find a time when all parties are available. Plus, since it’s a bot, you know what that means — Meekan integrates with your existing programs to help you get this task done, without opening a separate app. But its capabilities aren’t limited to meetings; It’s automated to let users reschedule existing meetings, and can also help you search for flights.

11) Mya

Currently in Private Beta | Custom Integrations Available

Source: MarketSpace on Medium

Finding the best talent for your team is never an easy task. In fact, 84% of HR professionals report a noticeable shortage of the right skills from job applicants. In other words, it’s one area where all of us could use as much help as we can get. Enter Mya, “your recruiting AI,” which is programmed for users to engage and qualify prospective employees by asking applicants the right questions — so you don’t have to.

12) Nikabot

Free for first 30 days | $4.99 per Tracked User Each Month | Slack

People tend to favor jobs with a high degree of autonomy. But when teams become busy, keeping track of what everyone is working on can be a challenge. Apps like Nikabot exist to address that very problem, by automatically pinging employees each day to ask what they’re working on, then synthesizing that data into a single report for review. What do you have to do? Integrate the app, let Nikabot go to work, and read the report when it’s done. Yup — that’s it.

Source: Nikabot on Vimeo

13) Nurtz

$0.02 per word | Slack

Source: Nurtz

Even the most experienced writers need their work to be proofread — after all, that’s why we have editors. But interrupting an editor every time you need, say, an email to be looked over for typos isn’t exactly an efficient process. And that’s why there’s Nurtz, the proofreading bot. Just paste the text you need to be proofread into your Slack conversation with Nurtz, and it’ll send back your typo-free copy. It’s worth noting, however, that there are humans behind the bots who do a lot of the proofreading, so results from Nurtz take a little longer to return than many of the other bots we’ve listed here.

14) Simple Poll

Free | Slack

The marketer’s workplace is full of important decisions, and multiple options to go with them. What’s the best title for this blog post? What’s the best choice for our next seasonal promotion? Where should we get lunch today? Enter SimplePoll — the friendly bot that lets you pose these questions and answers to your colleagues within Slack, and allows them to select their choices with the simple click of a button.

Source: Simple Poll

15) Standup Bot

$20 – $40 per Month | Slack

If you work in an office setting, chances are, you’re familiar with the “Monday Morning Standup” — the weekly check-in meeting in which everyone fills the team in on their projects, questions, and concerns. Now, with apps like Standup Bot, you can do just that, but virtually. Similar to Nikabot, this bot is programmed to collect this information from employees and compile it into one report, making it especially helpful for teams that work remotely.

Source: Simple Poll

16) Tettra

Free for 15 Days | $5 per User, per Month | Slack

Source: Tettra

These days, many companies have an internal wiki — a place where employees can share knowledge, how-tos, and other helpful information with colleagues. The problem is that, with enough of it, this information can become overwhelming, and it might be tricky for everyone to find what they’re looking for. Tettra was designed to avoid that, and to help users contribute and find information right from Slack. Find entries with the “/tettra find [search]” command. Add them with the “/tettra new [title]” command. Yes, it is that easy.

17) Todoist

$0 – $28.99 per Year | Slack | Other Integrations

Source: Todoist

Scheduling meetings with others is one thing. Scheduling time for yourself? Well, that’s a separate issue entirely. There are apps like Todoist for that very reason — they use “smart scheduling” to automatically suggest times to work on projects and due dates for them based on your habits, task urgency, or upcoming tasks. But how does it know? It’s able to observe what you tend to do at a given time of day, or day of the week. Its bot can integrate with platforms you’re already using — like Slack — and helps you manage your own schedule, by finding the most optimal times for you to get things done.

18) Tomatobot

Free | Slack

Source: Slack API

Studies say that the most productive employees take 17-minute breaks for every 52 minutes of work they put in. But there’s a problem — how many of us actually remember to take these breaks? I can say that I, for one, struggle with that. Luckily, there are apps like Tomatobot that set timers for this very purpose. Once you start work with the command “/startwork”, you’ll receive a message from the bot (via Slack) to let you know when it’s time to take a break. It also allows users to record their distractions and what they’ve been working on during these breaks, to help you review certain patterns and improve the way you work.

There’s a Bot for That

Once upon a time, we used to go around stating in unison, “There’s an app for that.” And while that proclamation still holds true, it seems that there’s a new productivity boss in town — and it belongs to AI.

The market for bots is already quite crowded — just look at how many are listed in Slack’s full directory. We’re eager to see how bots continue to aid in the productivity of marketers, and will keep you posted on what we observe.

What are some bots that boost your productivity? Let us know in the comments.

Back in October, I wrote a piece on Medium that covered the numbers behind some of today’s top social media networks. 

From usage numbers to engagement statistics, it was incredible to see just how impactful networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become. For example, not only is Facebook home to 1.23 billion daily active users on average, but those users come from all over the world — with 85.2% residing outside of the U.S. and Canada. That’s a crazy level of connectivity.

As I put together the post, it became obvious just how fast these networks were growing — and I thought a lot about how hard is it to keep up with all of these changes, especially for marketers. To make things a little easier to wrap your head around, I put together a simplified list of some standout statistics for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instragram, and Pinterest. Check them out below if you’re looking for some guidance for your social media strategy this year. 

34 Stats to Help You Plan Your Social Media Strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & More

Facebook

• Organic reach of Facebook Page post is 2%.
• The average post reach of total audience is 10.71%.
• Facebook Page videos generate 16% more engagement per post than images.
• Videos secured the most reach, at 12.17% of total audience, followed by photos (11.53%), links (9.32%) and status updates (5.09%).
• Ideal length of a status update: 40 characters.
• 0.80% median viral reach per fan for post with hashtags, 1.30% for post without hashtags.
• Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. 

Twitter

• Tweets with images receive 18% more clickthroughs, 89% more Likes, and 150% more retweets.
• 60% of consumers expect brands to respond to their query within the hour, but the average is 1 hour 24 minutes.
• Ideal tweet length: 100 characters.
• Clickthrough rate is highest on Wednesdays.
• Tweet that doesn’t include a # or @ mention will generate 23% more clicks. When the tweet is focused on driving an app install, for going a # or @ mention increases clicks by 11%. But according to Quicksprout, tweets with hashtags get 2X more engagement — clicks, retweets, favorites, and replies.    

LinkedIn

• B2B buyers are turning to LinkedIn for content that will help them move forward in the buyer’s journey — and 57% are doing so on a mobile device.
• LinkedIn is home to 467 million members in more than 200 countries, meaning it’s a great place for global brands to distribute content. 
• LinkedIn has studied its own platform and found that including images in posts increases the comment rate by 98%.
• Updates containing links can have up to 45% higher follower engagement than updates without links.
• 16–25 words is the ideal message length for B2B, 21–25 for B2C.
• 20 posts per month can help you reach 60% of your unique audience.

Instagram

• On average, people miss 70% of their feeds.
• 1.1% average engagement rate of all posts (4.2% in 2014; 2.2% in 2015).
• Images with a single dominant color generate 17% more Likes than images with multiple dominant colors. Images with a high amount of negative space generate 29% more Likes than those with minimal negative space. Images featuring blue as the dominant color generate 24% more Likes than images that are predominantly red.
• Photos showing faces get 38% more Likes than photos not showing faces.
• Photos see more engagement than videos on Instagram.
• The red heart is the most frequently shared emoji on Instagram, which is shared 79% more than the next most popular symbol, a smiling face with heart eyes.
• 50% of captions and comments on Instagram contain at least one emoji.
• The most common posting frequency for brands on Instagram is 11–20 times per month.
• Instagram audiences are more engaged on Mondays and Thursdays at 2 a.m., 8–9 a.m., and 5 p.m.

Pinterest

• Product Pins with prices get 36% more likes than those without.
• 67% of Pinners consult Pins on their mobile devices while shopping in stores.
• Don’t be shy to ask : A call-to-action Pin description can increase engagement by 80%.
• 83% of users would rather follow a brand than a celebrity.
• Active Pinners have a 9% higher average income than non-users.
• Users who Pin 15 to 30 times a day get the best results.
• 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 1 p.m. are the best time to post, and Saturday is the best day.

What networks are you most interested in investing in this year? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Packaging has a profound impact on how we relate to particular products.

In a consumer taste test for 7-Up, participants reported tasting more lemon flavor when they drank the soda out of cans with 15% more yellow coloring in the package design.

The colors, textures, fonts, and compositions on the products we buy can really change how we feel, taste, and experience a brand.

Even in the age of social media, product packing and “shelf-presence” is still important for brands to get (and remain) in the consumer consciousness. For your inspiration, we’ve dug up the stories behind a few of the most iconic and recognizable packages, taking a look back at some of the surprising influences on their original designs. 

The Stories Behind 8 Iconic Packaging Designs

1) Bear-Shaped Honey Bottles

If you’ve bought honey in the last 60 years, chances are it came in one of these friendly bear-shaped plastic bottles. It seems like the majority honey manufacturers today choose to package their product in the instantly-recognizable shape, but have you ever wondered where the idea originated?

Ralph and Luella Gamber, the founders of Dutch Gold Honey Inc., first imagined the bear-shaped container while having dinner with friends in 1957. Winne the Pooh creator A.A. Milne had died just a year before, and there was still a lot of publicity surrounding his honey-loving protagonist, Pooh Bear. “We just figured a bear likes honey, why not a bear of honey?” Ralph Gamber told the Los Angeles Times in 1997.

The Gambers never actually patented their now-iconic design, due in part to concerns that it would resemble Winne the Pooh too closely and lead to a lawsuit. “We made it look as different [from Pooh] as possible. We thought we’d be sued … We didn’t know about franchise rights or whatever,” Ralph Gamber said. 

Image credit: Amazon

2) Kikkoman’s Soy Sauce Bottle

The Kikkoman soy sauce bottle is a stylish staple at restaurants, and despite its sleek, modern appearance, the teardrop design has remained completely unchanged for over 60 years.

The man behind the bottle’s unique form is Kenji Ekuan, a Japanese industrial designer who dedicated his life to creating positive, useful things after witnessing the atomic devastation of Hiroshima — where he lost both his sister and father. 

Inspired by the simplicity and elegance of classic Japanese design, Ekuan and his team created over 100 prototypes for Kikkoman before arriving on the quintessential bottle we all know and love today: a refined, transparent dispenser with a neck inspired by an inverted teapot spout. 300 million bottles later, the design is still an integral part of the Kikkoman brand.

“For me it represents not the new Japan, but the real Japan,” Ekuan told the New York Times in 2012. “The shape is so gentle. Of course, during the war, we were forced into acting differently. But for a long time, some 1,000 years, the history of the Japanese people was very gentle.”

Image credit: WebRestaurant

3) The Blue Tiffany & Co. Box

Since their first appearance in 1878, Tiffany & Co.’s simple blue boxes tied with white ribbons have become an international symbol of luxury and sophistication. Adweek even called the decidedly minimal packaging, “the most recognizable and most desired retail container in history” — and we aren’t inclined to disagree. 

So what made Tiffany & Co.’s founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, decide on this particular shade of blue back in the 19th century? No one really knows for sure, but it seems like more than a coincidence that this hue was desirable among wealthy women at the time, due to the popularity of turquoise jewelry. 

Image credit: Tiffany & Co. on Instagram

4) LaCroix’s Colorful Can

Love it or hate it, LaCroix’s kaleidoscopic design certainly stands out in a sea of otherwise minimal seltzer containers. With its jazzy font and vibrant splashes of color, you’d be forgiven if you thought this sparkling water brand hadn’t changed their logo since the 1990s. In reality, the current can design — which one designer described as “swirling hangover puke” — didn’t burst onto the fizzy beverage scene until 2002.

In an effort to differentiate themselves in a crowded market, LaCroix hired Lyle Zimmerman, the head of Alchemy Brand Group — the branding firm behind major campaigns for P&G and Coca-Cola. Zimmerman’s team mocked up a few branding options and presented them to LaCroix’s parent company, National Beverage.

Of the options presented, the folks at National Beverage most disliked the splashy, colorful design we all know and love today. But market research showed a completely different story: Comsumers overwhelmingly preferred this abstract neon monstrosity/masterpiece, so LaCroix ended up running with it. 15 years later, their unique design is partly responsible for their meteoric rise to the top of the seltzer space. 

Image credit: LaCroix

5) Toblerone’s Triangular Design

In a very literal example of outside-the-box thinking, Toberone’s original creator, Swiss chocolatier Theodore Tobler, decided to manufacture his honey and nougat-studded bars in a triangular mold back in 1906. Tobler and his production manager, Emil Baumann, were supposedly inspired by the Matterhorn, the Swiss mountain best known for its nearly symmetrical, pyramidal peak. 

There is however an alternative theory about where Tobler got his inspiration. While visiting the Folies Bergères in Paris, Tobler witnessed a cabaret show that ended with the dancers forming a human pyramid. According to his sons, this acrobatic grand finale was the real inspiration behind Toblerone’s iconic shape. 

Image credit: Ashley Pomeroy

6) Morton Salt’s Pouring Spout

Nearly all salt comes in a round package with a pouring spout these days, but did you know that Morton Salt was the first to use this design back in 1911?

At the time, most salt packaging didn’t allow for easy pouring — especially in damp climates. If the weather was humid or rainy, salt exposed to the air would clump, making it difficult to pour neatly into salt shakers. The folks at Morton Salt designed this round package with a closable spout as a way to keep the product safe from humidity, and allow consumers to pour salt in a precise stream. 

To introduce this new concept to consumers, Morton brought on advertising agency N.W. Ayer & Company, who suggested the now-famous girl with an umbrella image to illustrate that the salt would always pour — even in rainy weather. 

Image credit: Morton Salt

7) Heart-Shaped Chocolate Boxes

Around Valentine’s Day, you’d be hard pressed to find a chocolate manufacturer that doesn’t sell heart-shaped boxes of assorted truffles. But where did this tradition begin?

British chocolate company Cadbury is widely credited for introducing the heart-shaped candy box to consumers back in 1861, when Richard Cadbury was seeking a way to use the pure cocoa butter extracted during the drinking chocolate manufacturing process. He devised a completely new product: “eating chocolates,” which he packaged and sold in colorful, heart-shaped boxes he designed himself.

Among the Victorian elite, chocolate was frequently given as a token of affection, and Richard’s romantic boxes — covered in illustrations of cupids and flowers — became a popular way to give the gift of chocolate, plus a lovely keepsake box. For their major part in the commercialization of Valentine’s Day, Cadbury’s company experienced explosive success, and continues to sell heart-shaped boxes today.

Image credit: Cadbury

8) Campbell’s Red and White Soup Can

The Campbell’s tomato soup label that Andy Warhol popularized in his series of famous pop art paintings wasn’t always red and white. In fact, when the condensed soup first launched in 1897, the cans were wrapped in blue and orange.

So what caused the brand to switch their color scheme so dramatically? It turns out it was a football game. In 1898, Herberton L. Williams, the company’s treasurer at the time, attended a college football game between the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell. Williams was so inspired by the red and white uniforms worn by the Cornell team, he proposed Campbell’s change their packaging to match. Today, it’s difficult to imagine Campbell’s cans with any other color scheme. 

Image credit: NBC News