Election Messaging to GenY

Talk about targeting your message and channels…

My GenerationY “first time voter” daughter got this clever postcard in the mail that mixes their world of texting into a traditional direct mail piece. Spot on to catch her attention! She took notice of it in the massive pile of 2012 election postcards, flyers and pamphlets. Not only did she notice it, but she even read it – short, to the point messages that come across as a Group Message so all the better so she’s in “the know”. 

When it comes to hitting your target audience – capturing their attention with both the right message, channel and tone they use everyday…and I mean everyday. Do you ever them without their iphone in a back pocket or clutched in the palm of their hand? 

TTYL

Your Social Media Strategy

Just about everyone has embarked on social media as an avenue for advertising/marketing.  How effective they are depends on the strategy behind the campaign.  Make sure to mesh your messages with your brand.  Figuring out the following before proceeding on social marketing for your business, will help keep your message on track:

• Decide what your profile should say
• Look at different platforms and decide on one
• Assign one person in charge of posting messages / managing content
• Don’t get coupon crazy – decide how often and be consistent, and prepared for extra customers
• Brainstorm with your employee pool on topics for fresh material
• Have a schedule for posting (twice a week, or every Monday for example)

A simple strategy will let you move on with your real work, while knowing there is a plan for social media messages.  You can also outsource your social marketing with some agreed upon guidelines.  Be prepared to outline your target market and what you hope to accomplish (solving problems, answer questions, giving discounts, etc.)

A brand we really like for their message and overall branding is Toms Shoes.  check out their social marketing through the icons on their web page: http://www.toms.com/

 

Finding Your Niche Market

  I re-watched an old favorite movie this weekend: Kinky Boots. 

Remaking your business to keep up with the times is what it’s all about – and it is funny with a bit of drama.  Kinky Boots is based on a real story and product/marketing shift in a bankrupt traditional men’s shoe factory… to successfully creating shoes for transvestites. 

Marketing Takeaway: if you can’t sell your product, re-tool and change it to fill a niche that isn’t being filled already.

Finding Your Niche Market

  I re-watched an old favorite movie this weekend: Kinky Boots. 

Remaking your business to keep up with the times is what it’s all about – and it is funny with a bit of drama.  Kinky Boots is based on a real story and product/marketing shift in a bankrupt traditional men’s shoe factory… to successfully creating shoes for transvestites. 

Marketing Takeaway: if you can’t sell your product, re-tool and change it to fill a niche that isn’t being filled already.

Soda Wars

Interesting that some companies are so huge in sales revenues, yet still see the value in advertising…a lot. 

Coca-Cola has more than 500 brands in 206 countries.  But the soda wars are so incredible that they all recently upped the ante by $500 million or more in addition to the billions each already spend on advertising, just to keep up with Coca-Cola.  It’s so incredibly interesting how soda companies see their marketing efforts.  And it should make sense to just about every product I can think of – A common mistake many advertisers make is putting their rational messaging ahead of emotional appeal – Brand a product effectively and we attached to that particular appealing package, message and image.  Check out this article for more marketing/branding takeaways from the soda wars –

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-12/a-marketers-homage-to-the-soda-can

 

QR Codes

They have been criticized for being ugly and overused, but as the novelty of QR codes wears off, there are some very useful ways they are being used.

1. Restaurants: include them on a menu or table tent for coupons or to advertise specials throughout the week (happy hour etc)
2. Wine Bottles: Found a wine that was delicious and under $20, scanned in the QR code and read about the vineyard and how I can purchase a case.
3. Storefronts: A local nail salon has one in the window, scan it in and get a coupon for your next visit.
4. Art Galleries: scan the little code in that is placed on the wall near the art piece and get a bio on the artist, pricing and inventory info for the gallery.
5. Business Cards: of course you want to lead those contacts to your website portfolio, or a map to your shop.

Do you see how useful these little codes can be?  Now I might try to inventory my garage with them!Places clearly not working for QR codes?  Billboards where traffic is moving too fast,  on websites or email addresses – this seems redundant, right?

Are you using QR codes in your marketing? Do you see any great examples of QR code uses?

QR Code

Are you using: Google+ ?

Last week I went to a PRClub seminar and the speaker was very convincing that Google+ is the hot ticket for the future of SEO for business sites.   I went onto my gmail account and clicked through creating a profile and really tried to add people to my “circles”, but it appears a lot of people I know are not using this tool yet.  Google+ feels more intuitive than Facebook that’s for sure, and it has a clear understanding of having several private groups, as it touts, communicate some things with your bicycle friends, and other things with your boss – just like in real life.  Facebook has a private group feature, but it isn’t a main feature as on Google+

What I like about Google+ and understand the future in it, is that I already use Google Maps, Google Search, Google analytic reporting,  and I have a gmail account mostly to use Google docs for traveling – so it makes sense that my social communications would all be integrated in the same platform.  But even more than that, we are told it will help our SEO when we become popular on our Google+ accounts, as it tracks who is following and communicating here.

We will see how it all plays out, but it sounds very attractive to be this efficient for social interaction, and branding/marketing your business at the same time.  We will see how long it will take people to click away from facebook and click on Google+ a few times.  Check it out!

 

Wonders of Taglines

Funny, we write a lot of these, and frankly it’s our favorite creative thing to do! We’re working on a 35th anniversary tagline right now for an entertainment client, and now deciding if it’s time to change up our own tagline (Results. A Shared Vision) is truly our philosophy as we put it all over our marketing, so it’s hard to change because it still rings true. If it works don’t fix it right? A well-crafted tagline is part of your unique business identity and meant to be used for a very long time- decades even, and build an emotional connection with your consumer.

Since a good tagline is a word or phrase that helps people readily identify with what you do or what you sell, we’ve listed a few that came to mind.

Got a favorite or downright hate one? Let us know

FIAT - Driven by Passion, FIAT

HOME DEPOT - You can do it. We can help

MASTERCARD - There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, Mastercard

NYSE - The world puts its stock in us

EPSON - Exceed Your Vision

SKITTLES -Taste the Rainbow

BMW – The ultimate driving machine

ING DIRECT – Save Your Money

Endangered List: Good Customer Service

 

Have you ever felt like a nuisance when walking into a store rather than a paying customer?  Call me crazy, but this experience has become commonplace in about every aspect of my life, and really great customer service is so rare that I’m surprised when it occurs.  I brag to friends when I get truly good customer service.  I think in today’s business climate, retail or business to business, customer service can make or break a company’s survival rate.

In my community we have an outstanding Radio Shack – for one reason; the staff.  They are very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.  They greet me with a hello when I walk into the door and say “can I help you?”, and they continue to listen and always come up with a solution. 

The new norm for customer service is more like walking into the door of a business and not seeing anyone there to help, then when an employee is found they are involved in a personal conversation with another employee or worse on their cell phone.  Their eyes glaze over when you explain what you are looking for, and they ultimately send you away with a comment like “whatever is there is all we have”

I’m really shocked at how some people stay in business at all!  Have you made a call out for a lawyer, accountant or even a caterer, and never heard back from them? 

Every employee is your company’s face – and each one should have a basic understanding of their representation and lasting influence on a customer’s experience.

If managers teach some basic rules to their employees, excellent customer service skills can be achieved:

Listen to your customer,  don’t interrupt with defending yourself or the company. Truly find out what the customer is asking for.

Don’t take complaints personally, avoid becoming angry or defensive.  There may be something you don’t know and can be improved by taking a complaint seriously.

Have compassion, put yourself in the customer’s shoes to figure out what you can do, and offer an apology if necessary.

Offer a solution, never let the customer end the conversation without finding a solution, even if it might not be in your job description.  You can always lead the customer to someone who might help out, take an extra step if you need to.

Answer the phone! Or at least return the call for goodness sake, it might be a paying customer!