Small Business Marketing: Make an Impact With Creativity & Marketing

I am a visual person.  I respond to my visual surroundings.  I find I am bothered by sounds around me.  Music is a distraction.  Loud noises really disturb my concentration.  People talking annoy me if I try to focus on what they’re saying.  However, I can search through hundreds of images and get inspired.

Here are few images I would consider ordinary or even ugly things that I find either interesting, fascinating, and beautiful.  Some are very obscure.  I have focused in on the part that intrigued me.

Take a look and see if you can guess what these are (click on the image to enlarge it):

Adapted from an article by Seth Godin

Somewhere along the way meetings changed into events where we wait for someone to take responsiblity (while everyone else dives for cover). To quote Al Pittampalli, “Why bother going to a meeting if you’re not prepared to change your mind?” To which [Seth] adds, “Don’t bother having a meeting if you’re not there to change your mind or make a decision right now.”

When a building is burning down, firemen coordinate their actions, make decisions, and save lives.  They do it without Aeron desk chairs or Dunkin Donuts.  They do it without subcommittees, McKinsey studies or input from the boss in another city.

How would you do it differently if the building were burning down? (End of article)

I loved this because it explains WHY meetings DON’T work.  Why you need to have a facilitator to keep you focused, action-oriented – someone to help you get into the burning building and put out the fire.  Not just sit around with the usual … let-someone-else-handle-it-or-let-it-burn-I-can’t-do-anything… attitude.

When a meeting has guidelines, objectives and goals with accountability, fires can be put out.  Once the action is done, much like the fireman, action/creativity/movement becomes spontaneous.

For your next meeting try a different approach; try The Walsh Group approach to a more successful, action-oriented, measured results meeting.

Call Pat at 215-491-3448.

Colors aren’t as clear-cut as words, but there is a loose meaning for most.  And while color usage isn’t an exact science, be conscious of the message you want to convey and how you want customers to perceive your services and products.

• Blue-based reds (such as raspberry red) are associated with more expensive products.
• Yellow-based reds (like tomato red, which is imagined as less expensive) if you’re looking to downplay a high price.
• Use orange to play up affordability.
• Yellow is the first color the eye sees, and when used with dark colors for contrast becomes more powerful and easily read.
• Choose green to convey possibility and hope.
• Blue connotes confidence and safety.
• Purple is especially hot right now, but it’s typically used with high fashion, sports teams or sweet treats.
• Black conveys a strong sense of power, promise and the ability for high contrasts.  Add sheen to matte to black, and it becomes more powerful.
• White implies sophistication and formality – but also a high-end price point.

(Source: Color Communications, Inc.)

So, it’s summer. My two nephews ask if they can help in the garden. Sure, I’ll be the generous uncle, get some badly needed help, and give them a few dollars to put towards college. We decide to work on a particular Saturday at 10 AM. But, I ask, “Check in with me on Thursday to make sure we’re on; it’s not going to rain, etc.”

Thursday morning comes. I send out an email to both of them. “Hey, weather looks good; let me know if we’re still on.” No response. I send out an email Friday morning. “Hey guys, I need to know if you’re coming.” Nothing. Not a peep. I’m feeling like I’m getting the brush off. Friday night around 9PM I send a text, “Are you coming tomorrow?” Within 3 minutes I get a response, “Yup.”

Email is my generation. Text is their medium. They don’t check their email. They text everything. I realize every parent already knows that. But I don’t have kids. Lesson learned. Know how your target audience communicates. Then be sure to meet them where they live.

When something really clever comes across my desk or computer screen I like to share it.  That is how things go “viral.”

These tote bags really caught my eye.  Take a look:

Now, instead of asking for “paper or plastic,” you may be asked for “abs or butts.”

I must get at least 15 emails a day about “social media” and how it’s changing the landscape of marketing. Yikes! I don’t want to get left behind.  Yet, in the last two social media seminars I attended, almost all of the examples shown were consumer products and services. Most of my clients sell to other businesses.  So we’re still finding our way. 

That doesn’t mean social media has no role for business-to-business.  One area that stands out for my clients is using a blog, or even facebook as a support service medium.   Posting articles, photos, quick how-to videos, and answering questions can all happen in real time. You don’t have to wait to go thru the webmaster to post an article to your blog.   And a big bonus is you can have your customers help each other.  Now you’re creating a community. 

The most importance thing to do is to listen to the dialogue.  Reply.  Get involved.  Show you care.   If you want to purchase an aerospace gizmo, the website provides all the specs.  But if you want to join a conversation about engineering that gizmo, then a blog may be right for your company.

If you want your associates to blog, it has to be done by the ones who know about the company, and it has to be done in real time.  They need to provide answers.  But what if they say something wrong?  Just apologize and make it right.  

However, it may be smart to provide some guidelines for your associates.  That’s what a “social media policy” really is. It says things like, “Remember you represent the company,” and, “Use no offensive or unprofessional language.” 

 Maybe this is common sense, but it gives everyone the chance to take a sigh of relief and know that there are some guidelines.  Just like there are guidelines for email. 

 Here’s a link to IBM’s “social media policy” you can use as a model and adjust to your company.

While I was driving the other day, I passed through a residential area and two boys were sitting at a table with a pitcher and large styrofoam cups.  It’s not a well trafficked road, and I could feel their eyes on me as I approached.  Of course, for me it was a nostalgic flashback to my sister and I sitting in front of our house with our own lemonade stand, waiting for the magic moment when we would land a sale.  We’d wait till we made 50 cents (10 glasses at 5 cents each), then we’d close up shop and go down to the Dairy Queen to eat our spoils.  Naturally, I pulled over. It was inevitable. I had to pull over.  I could not pass by the dreams, and the hopes.  I pulled up to the curb and one of the boys, ran right up to the car and said, “Would you like a small or large?”  Impressed with their sense of product offerings and different price points, I asked, “What is the price difference?” 50 cents for small, $1 for large.  I’ll take a small (I don’t even like lemonade).  With a look of seriousness and determination, he went back to the table to give his partner the order. I watched as, with great purpose, they poured lemonade into half of the cup and then delivered it carefully to my car.  I paid the boy 50 cents. “Thank you,” he said.  As I looked in my rear view mirror, they were both gathered around the two quarters like magic had just happened. I was flooded with genuine emotion, as I thought of all the adults who stopped to buy my ragtag lemonade.  Knowing now they didn’t do it for the lemonade, (God knows they had Kool-Aid at home), but to support my sister and I.  Just like I was doing for the two boys.  And for that reason, I entreat you to never pass up a kid’s lemonade stand.  You could be nurturing the next Bill Gates. Pass it forward.

I am often asked what certain colors “mean.”  Or, what kind of emotional reaction do people experience when they see certain colors?  Personally I use colors and color combinations that I like so I could not be objective in answering these questions, therefore I did my research.

I purchased several books on color usage, for print and for the web.  One book that caught my attention put colors into “emotional categories.”  It is called Color Harmony by Cailin Boyle.  I have pulled a few examples from this book to share with you how various color combinations have been classified into these emotions.  Here are just a few I felt were right on!  I would love to hear your feedback.

Bottom line… I think colors are a personal preference that each person associates with their own likes or dislikes.

Oh, there is a “Color Story” I have to share.  One St. Patrick’s Day my Mother-in-Law had a great idea and made scrambled eggs with green food coloring.  Now, scrambled eggs were a really big treat in a family with 12 kids.  However, not one kid touched these “green eggs.”  No matter how many times she read Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, the entire batch went in the trash!  So, what did we learn about color… that green conjures up rotten, unappetizing eggs!

We all love a good joke or story. Think about all “forwards” you get during any given week. How many do you pass on to your coworkers and friends?

Sometimes humor can get an idea across faster then a lengthy narrative. Here is a cartoon we recently created. The concept is for a webinar. The topic is about the unnecessary added costs to your pharmacy benefit plan, and how you can get control and reduce these costs. 

The cartoonist, Pat Achilles, has worked with us for years, actually as long as we’ve been in business. Here are the first caricatures she did of Pat and me when we first started in the 80’s. Notice, I’m still on the drawing board, rubber cement and all. Pat has an electric typewriter…do they even make them anymore??

It is great to work directly with such a talent. If you subscribe to her email, she will send you a weekly cartoon. Also, check out her line of greeting cards.

http://www.achillesportfolio.com/