Values are the new currency. Purpose is the new paradigm”. – Carol Cone, Edelman.

For the last five years, the world’s largest PR firm, Edelman, has released a comprehensive study that explores consumer attitudes around social purpose and consumers’ expectations of brands and corporations.  Edelman’s 2013 study is due out soon.  Here is the 2012 study.

Their study shows that consumers now expect that organizations demonstrate a purpose that is greater than profits, that they  genuinely care for employees and their customers, and give back to their community. Where, purpose once differentiated an organization and brand, it is now expected as an integral component of the organizations’s activities and strategy. Indeed purpose, as Carol Cone, Global Chair of Edelman’s Business & Social Purpose states, has become a “business imperative”.

Edelman’s recent Trust Report further indicates that an organization’s purpose visibly demonstrates their integrity that in turn drives a consumer’s trust of an organization.

What is your organization’s purpose?  What do your customers care about? Answering these questions will form the foundation of your organization’s business strategy and lead to  marketing that matters.

The one thing you have is your uniqueness. So we hold on to that.”- Chris Martin

The other night, along with 50,000 others,  I shared in the uplifting experience of seeing Coldplay live. Renowned for being the best live band in the world, their bond with fans is incredible and strong.  It struck me that what the band does and how they do it reflects much to which we would all aspire,  in business and life.  In trying to define these qualities, here are some words that come to mind:

• Authentic
• From the heart
• Integrity
• Sincerity
• Passion
• Gratitude
• Talent
• Focus on

- creating a community
- satisfying their fans
- the people that do like them
- making a joyous and memorable experience for their fans

• Loving what they do
• Teamwork
• Working hard
• Commitment
• Creativity
• Saying thank you

Perhaps we could call it the ‘Coldplay manifesto for business and life.’  Do you agree? Which of these qualities do you hold close?

Viva la Vida!

Please contact us if you’d like some assistance. We’d love to help.

If you really need your marketing campaign to work in three weeks, you should have started two years ago,” Seth says.

Marketing requires focus. It’s about shaping your product to solve your customers’ problem.   It’s being clear and consistent in the way you communicate. And it’s about telling your story in a way that inspires other people to tell it too.

Here is a link to the original post: Seven Marketing Sins.

Follows is a short video interview in which Seth offers some more valuable marketing advice.

Have you given your marketing enough time?  Is your product remark-worthy? What is your story?

Please contact us if you’d like some assistance. We’d love to assist.

Related posts

Seth Godin has a new book on the way, and you can be part of it!  Here’s a link for more information:The Icarus Deception Why Make Art New ..
This might work ..(my new book)
More from Seth: Seth Godin’s books

Tom Peters [is] the Red Bull of management thinkers. If the economy has got you down and you’re feeling out of sorts, a shot of Peters is guaranteed to pick you up and put you back on the road to excellence.”— Bo Burlingham, Inc.

Tom Peters on: Story is more powerful than your brand

Described as the father of the post modern corporation, Tom Peters has been providing management wisdom for more than thirty years.  He has written more than a dozen international bestsellers including co-authoring the seminal In Search of Excellence.  His passion for Excellence is unrivalled.

Every two weeks throughout 2012, Tom Peters is releasing one part of a 23 part mega presentation entitled Excellence Now.  The presentation draws together material from more than 2,500 presentations he has given over the last thirty years.

This week the focus is Execution and how ‘Execution is Strategy’.   Visit the Excellence Now website to download.

Excellence now in  iBooks

Tom Peters has also released  a book series on Excellence  which is available for download on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iBooks, or on your computer with iTunes.  The books in the series are rich in inspiring content and beautifully presented. Here is a link to  purchase

How are you implementing Excellence in your business?

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss? Please contact us. We’d love to assist.

More on Tom Peters:

Tom Peters website

Business Communication: It’s a Little Big Thing

Food for thought: My three top takeaways from a day with Tom Peters

Now, more than at any other time in history, speed and agility are decisive competitive advantages.”  David Meerman Scott - “Real-Time Marketing & PR”

David Meerman Scott keynotes the 2012 NAMM show from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

Engage your market, connect with customers and create products that grow your business

Last week in our book update, we mentioned David Meerman Scott and his latest book “Newsjacking“ which describes how being alert and responding to breaking news in real-time can generate media coverage for yourself or your business.

David is a marketing and leadership strategist and a favourite marketing author.

The video above is a keynote presentation which David delivered in California earlier this year to a 1200 strong audience at The NAMM Show – one of the world’s largest music product and trade shows.

The presentation is based on David’s bestselling book “Real-Time Marketing & PR” and shows how to instantly engage your market, connect with customers and create products that grow your business now.

David is the author of eight books and the series editor of six.  His book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”  is now in its third edition and has been on the Business Week bestseller list for six months with over a quarter of million copies sold in more than 25 languages – from Bulgarian to Vietnamese.

David’s other international bestsellers include  “World Wide Rave,” and “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.”

The rules of marketing & PR have changed,” David says. “Now buyers are finding answers to their problems online. They search Google, read online portals and news sites and are active on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Your buyers watch YouTube videos, listen to bloggers’ advice and opinions, and visit company websites. Are you reaching them?.”

Enjoy the Keynote!

How are you marketing in real-time to engage your market, connect with customers and create products that grow your business?

David Meerman Scott’s books can be purchased here
David Meerman Scott’s WebInkNow Blog

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss? Please contact us. We’d love to assist.

Related Posts

Don’t ditch the marketing strategy
Marketing’s Old Rules & New

Chance favors only the prepared mind’ – Louis Pasteur

How better to ‘prepare the mind’ than reading. Here are a few recommendations from some of the great reading lists we’ve seen recently:

• 5 years of reading in 140 characters:  Co-author of New York Times bestseller, Trust Agents,  Julien Smith, has been reading a book a week for more than five years. He started wondering what he’d learned, so noted the lessons from 200 of them – in 140 characters.  A terrific list:  Lessons I learned reading over 200 books

• Seth Godin’s first reading list for 2012 : A few more here for the ‘to read’ list.

• And our recommendations:  Most of the following are available on the Kindle and all are quick, inspirational reads. (Amazon links provided):

• How to Win Friends and Influence People  - Dale Carnegie 

Originally published in 1936, this book and has sold more than 15 million copies.  

Tom Peters , co-author of the seminal In Search of Excellence  (and multiple other best sellers)  tweeted last week:

“Am re-reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People” cover to cover. Might well deserve:   “Only management book you need to read.”

 If time is short a summary is now conveniently available on Amazon as an appetizer.

And for this new era – an  updated version was released late last year:  How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age  

• Newsjacking – David Meerman Scott

Timing is everything.  In this book, marketing and leadership strategist, and best selling author, David Meerman Scott, shows how being alert and responding to breaking news in real-time can  generate media coverage for yourself or your business. Always ahead of the game, David is one of my favourite marketing authors.  Subscribe to his blog: WebInkNow

• The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle  – Steven Pressfield

Described by the author as: “Tough love .. for yourself;” and by Esquire as: “A vital gem … a kick in the ass.”

By the same author:  Do The Work – a manifesto, which shows it’s not about better ideas but actually about doing the work.

• The Flinch –   Julien Smith   

In The Flinch Julien  shows how mastering this instinctive reaction will help you and your organisation achieve your goals.

• Evil Plans – Hugh Macleod  

I really enjoyed this one. It’s about unifying work and love.   Hugh Macleod is a popular artist, cartoonist, blogger and speaker. His new book will be out in April.  See more of Hugh’s work at his website:  Gaping Void.

Happy reading!  What are you reading?

Related posts

From David Meerman Scott’s WebInkNow blog: Transformation of books

From The Marketing Is Us Blog:  What are you reading?,   You are what you read

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?
Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

For real change, we need feminine energy in the management of the world. We need a critical number of women in positions of power, and we need to nurture the feminine energy in men.” – Isabel Allende

Local Heroines and Global Inspiration

March 8 is International Women’s Day which celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women.  Whilst celebrating  successes – the day also recognizes that significant barriers to achieving women’s economic security and equality still exist.

For example – did you know:

• 80% of refugees and displaced people are women?
• Two thirds of the world’s work is undertaken by women, yet women own less than 1% of world’s assets?

According to futurist Faith Popcorn :

• Women control $12 trillion of the overall $18.4 trillion in global consumer spending
• By the end of the decade there will be more businesses started by women than men.

 Local  Heroines

Here are three organisations in my own local community doing a fantastic job in looking out for women:

 1. Micah Projects

Micah Projects  is a community based not-for-profit organisation with a vision to create justice and respond to injustice at the personal, social, and structural levels in church, government, business and society.

For more than fifteen years Micah Projects  has been advocating for vulnerable families and supporting them to secure housing, strengthen their parenting and be included in community life.

2. Second Chance

Second Chance Programme Fund Raising Group Inc (SCP) was established to address the distressing problem of women’s homelessness.

 3. Murri Sisters

The Murri Sisters Association  is dedicated to assisting women and children who are escaping and/or experiencing domestic and family violence. The Murri Sisters provide culturally appropriate support through advocacy, outreach assistance, training and education  Email Murri Sisters  or Phone:(07) 3217 3046.

 Global Inspiration

Follows are three TED Talks presented by three other inspirational women.  Each speaker urges the world to eliminate discrimination, inequity and lack of opportunity, enabling women to fulfil their potential, and transform their communities and the world.

“If we can find ways to develop the untapped potential of the millions of women who are now left uneducated, denied basic rights, oppressed and threatened’, says Sheryl WuDunn, ‘we’ll turn on a firehose of economic power that could transform the developing world.”

Three TED Talks - Empowering Women

1. Novelist Isabel Allende discusses women, creativity, the definition of feminism and passion:

2. New York Times journalist, author and Pulitzer Prize winner, Sheryl WuDunn, provides examples and stories of empowering women as a means of development. Sheryl WuDunn’s book – ‘Half the Sky’ – co-authored with husband Nicholas Kristof, investigates the oppression of  women globally. “Only when women in developing countries have equal access to education and economic opportunity will we be using all our human resources.”

3. Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions – and offers three powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite:

Happy International Women’s Day!   How will you celebrate?

Related posts
‘The Customer is She’

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?
Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist, who studies the interaction between humans and technology.  Amber says technology is evolving us.  Technology  (cell phones and computers) have become our ‘external brains’, but  Amber says technology is actually helping us to be more human.

Thought provoking, Amber’s insights are useful to marketers monitoring the impact of technology on our customers.

See her presentation here.

Interesting also are her comments on reflection which for me highlight the  marketing opportunity of enabling and encouraging our customers to reflect.  More white space required in all that we produce  and all that we do perhaps? What do you think?

Related Links:
CaseOrganic
Follow Amber Case on Twitter @caseorganic

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?
Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

Community, that real sense of community, where people feel like they’re connected for some warm reason or another, is much more valuable than cash. You can find cash. You can’t find warm bodies who want to help, who genuinely want you to succeed. Those, you have to earn.” - Chris Brogan

What is a community?  How does it benefit your business or cause?

I’ve just received an invitation to upgrade a free newsletter subscription to a paid monthly version. I value the information the author provides so am considering the offer. Their  initiative was a good example of a marketing strategy to leverage existing customers like myself who have purchased previously, and to capture  new ones.

As a customer though, I feel more than just a name on their database. Rather – I’m a member of their community – or as Seth Godin calls it, a tribe. In this community, like all communities, each member is connected by a shared interest, passion and importantly a means by which to communicate with each other.

Researchers Susan Fourier and Lara Lee describe communities as  “a group of ardent consumers organised around the lifestyle, activities and ethos of the brand’. Recognising individuals’ need for connection, organisations now seek to build communities as part of their business strategy realizing key benefits such as forging customer loyalty and achieving marketing efficiencies.

Business benefits of stong brand communities

Following are two ways this occurs:

i) Customer Retention
In 2003, Fred Reichheld of Bain and Company, showed that it is significantly cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one.

The marketing fundamental of understanding and meeting your customers’ needs, and nurturing their place in your brand community help garner customer loyalty and retention.

By looking after existing customers to maximise retention, less marketing investment is then required to find new customers to replace those who have left.

ii) Brand Advocacy
A strong community can become a brand’s  marketing army. As Chris says in the quote above, members who love your product, or are passionate about your cause, genuinely want you to succeed. And they’ll  tell others about it.

Ed Keller, CEO of word of mouth researchers and consultants – Keller Fay Group, says word of mouth, which is not a new phenomenon,  is now a key communications channel heralding a shift in control  from the marketer to the consumer. Keller  also cites research (Reichheld and the London School of Economics) that shows strong customer advocacy on behalf of a brand or company is one of the best predictors of top line growth.

A brand marketing army marching on your organisation’s behalf  lowers marketing costs – as they spread the word – resulting once again in greater marketing efficiencies.

These are themes which we’ll explore in greater depth in coming months.

Have you established a community for your brand? How do you nurture its development?

Related Posts

Intentionally Building Communities. (More Hallway) by Seth Godin

Fred Reichheld is visiting Australia in March:  Fred Reichheld – The Loyalty Effect 

Seth Godin on ‘The tribes we lead”: (TED, 2009)

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?
Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

Since 2001, the Acumen Fund has invested more than $65 million in enterprises that provide access to water, health, alternative energy, housing and agricultural services for low-income customers in South Asia and Africa.

In this TED talk Jacqueline talks of people she’s met in her work who have immersed themselves in a cause, a community and a passion for justice. We each want to live a life of purpose, but where to start?  Here, Jacqueline presents some human stories and several powerful moments.

Wishing you immersion in 2012.  Happy New Year!

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?
Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.
 

The initiative reflects a strategic alliance between the two non-profits –  a powerful partnership which will provide benefits to many.

The RFDS

Operating for more than 80 years, the RFDS was started in 1928 by Rev John Flynn, whose vision was  to provide a ‘mantle of safety’ for people living in remote areas,  where medical care and resources are shared across millions of square meters.

Today, the RFDS continues to fulfil that vision, delivering essential healthcare where it is needed most and taking doctors, nurses and specialists to remote communities on ‘fly around clinics’.  Last year the RFDS transported more than 40,000 patients across Australia.

About The McGrath Foundation

The McGrath Foundation raises money to place McGrath Breast Care nurses in communities across Australia as well as increasing breast cancer awareness in women. Founder, Jane McGrath, who sadly passed away in June 2008, dreamt that  every Australian family experiencing breast cancer would have access to a breast care nurse no matter where they lived or their financial situation.  Since 2008, the number of breast care nurses has grown from four to  71, and the Foundation has helped support more than 10,000 Australians.

RFDS & The McGrath Foundation

Thanks to the appointment of  the McGrath Elders Breast Care Nurse based at the RFDS in Broken Hill, families experiencing breast cancer and located in the rural and remote communities of Far West NSW, South West QLD and North Eastern SA, will now have access to invaluable physical, psychological and emotional support.

Jo Beven, the new Breast Care Nurse, will not only ‘take to the skies’ to travel across the country, but will also hold clinics at the Broken Hill RFD headquarters and participate in the regular clinic runs to remote locations across three states.

Strategic Alliances – The Power of Partnership

Not all strategic alliances have such valuable social benefits.   But for other organisations, strategic alliances can improve participating companies’ competitive position, help gain entry to new markets, supplement critical skills and share risk or cost of projects.

Management consultants Bain and Co define  strategic alliances as  “the agreements amongst firms in which each commits resources to achieve a common set of objectives.”

According to Harvard Business School Professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, successful alliances require not only a common purpose but also respect, values and ongoing communication.

Kanter likens strategic alliances and partnerships to  “modern marriages with separate careers, individual checkbooks, sometimes different names, but always the need to work out the operational overlap around household and offspring.”

Strategic alliances can be formed with a wide variety of players: customers, suppliers, competitors, universities or government.

How to form Strategic Alliances

Bain suggests the following methodology for companies to form Strategic Alliances.

To form a Strategic Alliance, companies should:

• Define their business vision and strategy in order to understand how an alliance fits their objectives;
• Evaluate and select potential partners based on the level of synergy and the ability of the firms to work together;
• Develop a working relationship and mutual recognition of opportunities with the prospective partner;`
• Negotiate and implement a formal agreement that includes systems to monitor performance.

Is your business strategically aligned with others to support  your mutual objectives? With which other organisations – for profit or not-for-profit – can your business conduct a Strategic Alliance?

Related posts:
15 Steps for Successful Strategic Alliances (and Marriages) by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Cause Marketing Pink Cricket
Marketing with Heart

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?
Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

(Originally featured by @guykawasaki in his post “How to unclutter your life”)

Further to our last post, design thinking in business strategy, I came across the video above.

In 2005, primary school teacher Eric Schneider bought a 450 square foot studio apartment in Manhattan. Architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson of Normal Projects then designed the apartment to pack more density into this tiny space.

They built a custom made cabinet which morphs with the changing activities of the day. By folding and unfolding the cabinet, several rooms are created – including a sleeping area complete with built-in nightstand and lighting, closets, office plus library, guest bedroom and living room. Closed up entirely – the room becomes an entertaining space for a dozen people!

Did the architects use design thinking in arriving at this innovative creation?

I don’t know.

But for businesses, design thinking can be integrated into their strategic processes as way to approach problems and innovation.

As mentioned previously, the design thinking process comprises a system of ‘overlapping spaces’ rather than a set of orderly steps. They are:

• Inspiration – the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions
• Ideation – the process of generating, developing and testing ideas
• Implementation – as the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives

Whether or not design thinking was used,  it’s certainly an exciting and innovative design which provides a solution to urban living space shortages.

For me, it scores well on the five criteria cited by Tom Peters  in ‘The Little Big Things’, by which design is always considered:

(a) usability

(b) simplicity

(c) aesthetics

(d) “cool”/”Wow”/”Gaspworthy,” and

(e) Excellence.

And after all, “Everything is design”. (Richard  - Richard Farson, “The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything)

Do you agree?

Related Posts
Tiny Origami Apartment in Manhattan on faircompanies.com

Unfolding apartment media coverage

 Tim  Brown’s TED talk  from 2009, in which he calls for a shift to ” local, collaborative, participatory” design thinking.

This week I attended an interesting breakfast to hear leading visual communication and corporate branding professional, Christine Moody talk about design thinking. In addition to her great advice, Christine had many stories to tell about her time studying at Stanford’s famed d.school.

Coincidentally, I had just finished, “The Dragonfly Effect“ by  Dr Jennifer Aaker, also of Stanford, (General Atlantic Professor of Marketing, Stanford University Graduate School of Business)  and Andy Smith  (Principal  of Vonavona Ventures.)

Using design centred principles, “The Dragonfly Effect” outlines processes for individuals, organizations and companies, to create social change by harnessing social media.  (Will discuss “The Dragonfly Effect” in a subsequent blog).

What is ‘design thinking’?

Design thinking is an innovative approach to solving problems. It’s  human centric – focusing on the audience – involves development and testing of hypotheses, and rapid and frequent prototyping.

Aaker  and Smith state that it’s a way of approaching problems that allows you to connect with your audience and solve problems effectively and creatively.

Origins of design thinking

According to Tim Brown  and Jocelyn Wyatt[1],  design thinking originated in 1991 when design and innovation firm IDEO was formed from a merger between David Kelley Design, which created Apple Computer’s first mouse in 1982 and ID Two which designed the first laptop computer also in 1982.

Brown  (CEO and President of IDEO) and Wyatt say that initially IDEO focused on traditional design work. By 2001, however,  it was increasingly being asked to tackle problems distant from traditional design.  IDEO moved from designing consumer products to designing consumer experiences.

The term ‘design thinking’ evolved after Kelley, who is founder of Stanford’s  d. school, (formally – The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford),  found he frequently inserted the word ‘thinking’ when asked about design and what designers do. The term stuck.

design thinking – spaces not steps

Not always undertaken sequentially, the design thinking process is a system of ‘overlapping spaces’ rather than a set of orderly steps.

The spaces are:

• Inspiration – the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions
• Ideation – the process of generating, developing and testing ideas
• Implementation – as the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives

For businesses not wanting to rely only on analytics or feeling and intuition,  design thinking represents a third way to approach problems and innovation.

design thinking insights

Back to the breakfast. In respect to innovation, Christine’s insights included:

• Get the CEO to drive it, to embed into the organisational culture
• Innovation must be aligned with the organisation’s vision and values
• Don’t go to market with a perfect product – ‘learn by doing’
• The design thinking process is ‘human centred’ – so listen to your customers before and after product launches.

More information about design thinking and a great tool kit can be found here.

Do you  integrate design thinking into your business?

Brands = Trust

In promising  an experience, brands are fundamentally about trust – the extent to which customers are confident that the  product or service will be delivered as promised. These days, trust, as global public relations company Edelman noted in their 2010 survey, is an essential line of business.

So, in rebuilding its brand, Qantas will really be rebuilding  trust and advocacy with its customers. Garnered from the collective wisdom of Edelman, Avi Dan and Fiona Pearman – here are some tips to do this:

•       Admit what went wrong. Honesty will foster trust.
•       Understand the customer
•       Reach them on many levels – use all available media platforms.
•       Focus on the customer experience at every touch point
•       Do well by doing good – focus on profits with a social purpose

Trust will protect a brand

Trust not only guards against brand erosion and  loss of customers, but aids any transformation required by the organisation. In this case, trust would help Qantas implement their plans to reshape their business.

As Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman, states in the following video:

“Trust is a protective agent, lack of trust is a barrier to change”.

Watch the  key findings from the Edelman Trust Barometer 2011 survey: (2:24)

Hopefully Qantas can recover trust amongst its stakeholders and rebuild its brand, enabling it to compete well and strongly  into the future.

How do you think Qantas can rebuild trust?  Do you think Qantas can rebuild its brand?

Related Links

Rebuilding brand trust on the Brand Illumination blog by Fiona Pearman.

It’s time to rebuild brand loyalty in Forbes by Avi Dan.

Edelman Trust Barometer 2011

The 2011 Australian Marketing Institute conference has just concluded.

Aligned with the conference’s theme:  ‘Focus on the future: marketing twenty-twelve and beyond’, the processes and issues surrounding marketing in a digital age received much attention.

“Essentially, the overarching themes from the day were a need for CMOs, and perhaps more broadly marketers, to deliver work with more intent and greater clarity around their strategies.”

The  video included here captures further comments.

As Michael Locke states  (at 1:36),  despite the changing technological landscape, it’s still all about the strategy  and answering the following fundamental questions:

• What is your market?
• How to reach that market?
• How to engage most effectively?

We recently blogged about the many non-profit organizations who are harnessing the power of social media to increase awareness, advocacy and ultimately donations for their cause.

They use these tools to build their community, whose members become ambassadors for the cause, spreading the message and responding to the community’s calls to action.  (See Social media powering nonprofit marketing ,  Cause marketing and  Social media for good).  Here are a few recent examples:

Activating your community:  RUOK?

 RUOK  has built and activated a growing community.  The campaign which promotes a national day of action to prevent suicide by encouraging people to connect with others, has more than 171,000 followers on Facebook,  almost 6,000 on Twitter and a YouTube channel which has attracted thousands of views.

The RUOK community has helped share and promote the cause’s important message. Although results for the most recent campaign are not yet published, last year RUOK  attracted the support of more than 700 organisations, and generated more than 2 million conversations.

Amit Gupta

Seth Godin for Amit Gupta

Recently, best selling author and marketer Seth Godin, whose blog is one of the most popular in the world with several hundred thousand readers, called upon his community to find a bone marrow match for his friend Amit Gupta who has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.   He asked for people to sign up to swab to help find a life saving match for Amit and invited people to share the message on Twitter with the hashtag  #iswabbedforamit.  See Seth’s post hereand Twitter activity here.

That request has been taken up since by others such as Gary Vaynerchuk whose community includes a Twitter following approaching one million.

Activating the Community  - The Horn of Africa

The drought and food crisis in the Horn of Africa has affected more than 13 million people.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd MP who visited the region recently, is one of Australia’s most socially engaged politicians with a significant community of more than one million twitter followers and 56,700 on Facebook.

A couple of weeks ago, Mr Rudd  announced on Twitter that until the end of November, the Australian government will match all donations for the African crisis to any of eighteen NGO’s.

Whilst not all donations would have emanated from the single tweet or the video placed on his Facebook page, in less than a week since the announcement,  Australians have given $200,000 .

For Business

Supporting a cause  which is close to the heart of your business, that is meaningful and relevant to your staff and customers, has always been good business.  It builds stronger and more engaged relationships between your business, staff and the customers you serve within your community.

As these examples show, harnessing social media to build a community which then advocates on behalf of your brand or cause, is powerful.

For a cause – it’s activating a community, for good.

Do you support a cause as part of the marketing of your business? Have you activated your community?

Related Links

Tweeting and gaming to save a tech entrepreneur’s life – CNN

Can social media save Amit Gupta? by Porter Gale in Ad Age Digital

Dollar For Dollar Initiative Boosts Donations for African Crisis – World Vision

Amit Gupta Needs You – Amit Gupta Needs You website

List of NGO’s supported by the Australian Government initiative

Steve Jobs sadly passed away this morning.

In a recent post, we highlighted the many pieces of wisdom he offered in an address to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford.  (See Inspiration from Steve)

In it Steve said:

Death is the destination we all share. Death could be the single best change agent in life. Your time is limited – so don’t be trapped by living someone else’s life.”

As news of his passing spread around the world, Steve’s call to action was echoed by two of my favourites:

Seth Godin:   A Eulogy of Action

Tom Peters:

As we mourn the passing of Steve Jobs and contemplate his legacy, we’re reminded to give it our best right now, while we still have the opportunity.

RIP Steve Jobs.

Related Posts:

Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visonary, Dies at 56 in the New York Times. (Includes excellent short video discussing his legacy from John Markoff.)
From the Wall St Journal

This week  Bryan Adams performed in Brisbane  as part of his ‘Bare Bones’ tour.

For some of the show, Bryan was accompanied by the excellent Gary Briet  on piano. Mostly though, it was just Bryan – his guitar and wonderfully distinctive voice. As the show’s title signified:  ‘Bare Bones’.  And it was great.

In this age of powerful amplification systems, it was terrific to discover that Bryan didn’t need a band to fill out his music.  The combined power of his voice,  songs and lyrics filled the theatre just by themselves.

It caused me to think about the basics – marketing’s own ‘bare bones’. 

What is ‘Bare Bones’ marketing?

Many companies try to amplify their message without sufficiently considering what they’re really offering and the customer problems their product is  solving.

By not focusing on this the ‘bare bones’, companies waste money trying to amplify  messages for  fundamentally flawed products,  products which are really no different to competitors, or which fail to solve customer problems in a unique and compelling way.

By getting back to basics – the ‘bare bones’ –  focusing on the customer first and shaping their products to suit,  companies create the soundest foundation for their marketing.

When they do amplify their message,  the results will be more powerful.  The power comes not from the amplifcation – but rather the focus on the core – the customer and a product which solves a customer problem.

Pure. Powerful.  Rather like an Adams acoustic set.

Do you practice ‘bare bones’ marketing?

Bare bones marketing – 3 key questions:

1. Who is your customer?
2. What are the key customer problems your product solves?
3. How does your product solve these differently, in a more compelling way, to your competitors?

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There’s a hole in the world tonight. Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.” - Eagles

I usually focus on marketing issues on this blog – matters that can be of assistance to other businesses – small to large.

However as today marks ten years since the attack on New York’s twin towers, I wanted to make this post a little more personal.

As a younger gal I spent almost two years living in The Big Apple. The time there is very special to me. Like all travel experiences, I learnt much about people, living in a big city and life in general. Friends I made during that time remain today – after more than 25 years.

New York has always seemed ‘the centre of the universe’ for ideas, creativity and energy.  I loved it and still do.

So like most other people on the planet I was shocked about the events of ten years ago.

I’d been diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Far North Queensland. We were coming to the end of our trip on a liveaboard. We’d been closeted away , without any tv or radio, and therefore unaware of the tragic events unfolding in New York.

On September 12, we motored our way back to land. The sea sparkled and we were watching for whales. One of our group had seen the blow heralding their presence, so our eyes were peeled. Then the captain switched on the radio. That was the first we knew that something serious had happened, though due to the crackly reception it wasn’t clear just what. All we managed to decipher was that the stock market had plunged.

A couple of hours later I was back in the hotel room and turned on my mobile to find a dozen messages from family and friends, which prompted me to turn on the TV. America Under Attack

I spent the next few hours tracking down my friends over there. Thankfully all were safe – although each had a story. Many knew of people who worked in the towers. One friend had just finished a job down there on the Friday before.

I also had friends stuck at airports at various places around the world unable to get home due to the grounding of planes.

Return to New York

On the first afternoon of my first visit back to New York since 9/11, I was compelled to visit Ground Zero, to pay some silent respects to the people lost and think again about the city that had given me so many wonderful memories.

New York seemed to have changed. I wasn’t sure if it was me – or, like myself, it had mellowed with age. It now seemed a kinder, gentler city to the one I had known years previously. I recently heard Australian writer Alison Summers, herself a resident of New York, say that the city is no longer complacent. Perhaps this is true. Perhaps it is also the realization that even New York is no longer invincible which is the difference.

Ten Years Ago

9/11 is poignant for me for other reasons. I had planned to take my second last subject of my MBA at a university in Milan. Having always loved travel, uncharacteristically, post 9/11, I didn’t feel like being on the other side of the world. So I cancelled, choosing to finish my course in Australia.

However a couple of months later, as a busy 2001 drew to a close, I decided to take a break.   On the spur of the moment, I booked a trip to Vanuatu . In addition to experiencing a 7.6 earth quake, on that trip, I met a very handsome Dane.

We married 12 months later.  He’s the love of my life.

We will always remember

For me, September 11, 2001 will always rouse mixed emotions. Feelings of sorrow for the unimaginable tragedy and loss. Heart ache for a city and world that will never again be the same. And incredulous wonder about how the sequence of events can lead to other things.

To all the people of New York and those who lost loved ones ten years ago, our hearts are with you. We will always remember.

(15:05)

With the news today that Steve Jobs has resigned from Apple as CEO,,  I thought it would be interesting to revisit this inspiring talk he gave at the graduation ceremony of  the Stanford  class of 2005.

In thee stories, Steve explains to the young graduates:

• Connect the Dots

“You can only connect the dots by looking backwards – and trust they will connect in the future.

Trusting  in something – whether it be karma, your life .. will give you the confidence to follow your heart even if it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

• Love and Loss

Steve states that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to  him.  It started a highly creative period in which he started companies including neXT and PIXAR.

PIXAR went on to produce the world’s first computer animated generation movie and is now  the most successful animation company in the world.

Apple bought NeXT and Steve found himself back at the company he started in 1976. He says:

“Sometimes life will hit you in the head with a brick – don’t lose faith.”

The only thing that kept him going was loving what he did.

“You’ve got to find what you love. .. true for work as it is for your lovers.”

“Do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.If you haven’t found it yet ..”

Keep looking. Don’t settle.”

• Death

“If you live each day as if it was your last, some day you will be right.”

“Ask yourself: if today was the last day of my life ..would I want to do what I’m about to do today?”

Steve says that remembering  we’ll all be dead soon removes obstacles such as external expectations, pride and fear of failure.

He says:

“What’s truly important to avoid thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. Follow your heart.”

“Death is the destination we all share. Death could be the single best change agent in life. Your time is limited – so don’t be trapped by living someone else’s life.”

“Love what you do …

Don’t be trapped by other people’s dogma which is other people’s thinking …

Have the courage to follow your heart and your own intuition – they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Don’t let others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

.Steve Jobs – visionary, innovator, artist.  Thank you.

How have you been touched by Steve Jobs?

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You might consider  ’white space’ a rather Zen like concept.

Noiseless. Calm. Uncluttered.

I first encountered the idea when dealing with visuals in advertising.

White space is about leaving room or empty space around a visual to enhance the viewer’s enjoyment, appreciation and uptake of the message. For these reasons, it’s therefore very important to communication.

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Give visuals room to breathe and focus readers’ attention

Some years ago while producing a catalogue, I had an interesting discussion with my  boss regarding a blank section on one page.  My boss was keen to pack as much product as possible into the pages and suggested filling the white space with more product.

Although not a designer -  designers with whom I’ve  worked had explained the concept to me.  So I explained to my boss the idea of white space.

I asked him to imagine how he felt at the end of a long day when he picked up his reading material. Would he engage with something that was cluttered, busy and overwhelming?

Or would he  prefer to look at something a bit more calming and  enjoyable – that was a pleasure to continue looking at?

Put in that context, he agreed, and the white space in this particular catalogue remained. It also increased viewers’ attention to the products presented.

It was a successful catalogue, with many of the featured products  selling out.

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White space in words

I have also seen the concept applied to  written communication, where it’s suggested to create white space around your words.  It’s recommended to follow long sentences with short ones, letting the sentences and words breathe, allowing  the reader to properly take in what has been said.

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White space in marketing strategy

The concept has also been referred to in marketing strategy in respect to positioning. A business or brand seeking white space in the market is looking for a niche – a place in the market which no other brand occupies.

How do you find this positioning white space?

Your position in the market is determined by your customers in relation to your competitors. Their perception is your business reality.

You need to understand your competitors’ offerings and identify where your customers believe you are positioned in relation to your competitors.

Then assess your own offering.  What problems does your product/service solve for your customer? How can you do this differently, in a more compelling way than your competitors?

Finding the white space in the market – a niche position – can provide a sustainable competitive advantage.  A sort of commercial zen, perhaps.

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What do you think about white space?

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Niche it

Zen Habits

One Dream. One Goal. It’s A Kind of Magic.

What were you doing in 1991?

According to Wikipedia it was the year that grunge music made its breakthrough. Tragically, it was also the year that Eric Clapton’s son fell from an apartment 53 floors up, leading Clapton to write  ‘Tears in Heaven’. And 1991 was  the year that Freddie Mercury passed away.

The Web was born

For lovers of technology, it was a year to be celebrated, as August 6, 1991  heralded the birth of the world’s first website. Read more about physicist and website creator, Tim Berners-Lee in the Wired article here.

It’s hard to imagine life now without the Web.   Yet despite 2 billion users, a  significant percentage of businesses are still without websites and give little attention to their online marketing strategy.

Connect with customers

This can be rectified by thinking about your customer. The Web, particularly Web 2.0 and its interactivity, has made connecting with your customer so easy.

So put yourself in their shoes. Think about:

• How do your customers find you?

Do they go online? Read something about you? Find you via word of mouth? (now very much possible on online)

• Where do they go to learn  more information about you?

Ask your customers about their behaviour. It’s highly likely they will be searching online about your product category, a competitor or your own business. Comscore has reported more than 113 billion searches in one month alone globally – almost one third of these in the Asia Pacific region.  In February this year, they reported there were 11.9 million unique Australian searchers, conducting more than  1.3 billion searches.

• How can you as a business make it easier for them to do this?

Your business needs to be where your customers are. If your customers are searching online – then you need to be there too.

How?

1. Get a website
2. Focus your content on your customers – their needs and the problems your product or service solves for them
3. Share content that is of interest and value to them.

Remember  - it’s not about you. It’s about your customer.

And finally …

Can you make your products/services available for purchase online?

Since the 1990′s –  we’ve grown increasingly confident about shopping online.  In Australia, recent research shows that online retail will grow to $36.8 billion by 2013. So think about transacting online.

Go on, insert some magic into your marketing. Place your customer at the heart of your marketing efforts and take a look at your online marketing strategy.

Happy Birthday World Wide Web. What you’ve made possible is truly ‘a kind of magic’.

**And a very Happy Birthday to Mr Connect Gen - Iggy Pintado who fittingly shares his birthday week with the World Wide Web. Happy Birthday Iggy!**

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‘Lies, damned lies and statistics’

Who said that?

Apparently, Mark Twain and one or two others.  However, quotes aside, statistics are important in crafting an effective marketing strategy.

As we spoke about last week, statistics can help you better understand your customers,  identify trends likely to impact their purchase behaviour, and guide your response to shape  your products and services accordingly.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics, (ABS), the haven for Australian statistical information, will conduct the 2011 Census of Population and Housing next Tuesday, August 9.

Marking 100 years of national Census taking in Australia, the Census will provide an accurate snapshot of our population and its characteristics,  so useful to business decision making particularly strategic marketing.

eCensus option

This year, it is expected that 30 per cent of the population will use the eCensus option, a fast and secure alternative to the traditional paper form and protected by the strongest encryption technology available, according to Head of the ABS Population Census program, Paul Lowe.

What will the Census reveal?

We’ll have to wait to find out.  Information will be released in two stages, starting from June 2012.  Exact release dates will be published by the ABS closer to that time.

Here are some interesting  facts from previous surveys:

• The Census is the largest peace time operation conducted in Australia

• The Census Inquiry Service language helpline caters for 10 of the most commonly used languages in Australia (Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Korean, Persian, Turkish, Spanish, Greek and Russian).  Help is alos available for people without English language skills.

• Australians claim more than 250 ancestries and speak 400 languages at home (based on 2006 Census data)

The Census on You Tube

The ABS has established a You Tube channel dedicated to the Census which contains videos answering frequently asked questions and other information. Here’s a clip.

Will you shed some light on Census night? How will use the Census information in your business?

Update:
Yes, it seems a Census makes for happy demographers –  a ‘demographer’s Christmas’ in fact.  Read Bernard Salt’s column here .. singing happily all the way to tomorrow night’s Census.

Related links

ABS on Twitter

ABS on Facebook

Understanding customers, Bernard Salt and matters demographic

Cultivate your customers

Marketing lessons from gadget granny

Understanding your customers also involves identifying those trends which are likely to impact their purchase behaviour  in some way.

Bernard Salt is an Australian demographer who has been identifying trends for more than twenty years.

In his latest book ‘The Big Tilt’ Bernard explores where Australian society might be headed in the decade ahead, addressing the question:  ‘What happens when boomers bust and the Xers and Ys inherit the earth?’

He recently was interviewed by Valerie Khoo of the Sydney Writers’ Centre.  Here is a video of the interview in which he talks of his book and other matters demographic.

Are you anticipating those trends which will impact your customers’ purchase behaviour?

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It’s a  terrific story of a 67 year old grandmother who proudly owns and uses a Mac, an ipad2 and iPhone. A true ‘gadget granny’.

According to recently published data from AustraliaSCAN – a quantitative annual study which provides a view of Australians and how they are changing -  the penetration of selected gadgets among over 65’s is deepening:

As for every marketing situation, understanding your customers and shaping your products/services accordingly, are key to sound marketing strategy.

The AustraliaSCAN data is an example of the information already collected which provides greater insights into various markets.

And if you’re marketing to an older age group – opportunities abound.

As Tom Peters says – ‘we’re in an ageing tsunami’. He’s stated that from the 01 January this year (01.01.11) 7.5 baby boomers will turn 65 every minute, 10,000 per day, 4  million per year – for the next twenty years.

What will be impacted?  Everything.

Are you harnessing  the research to better understand your customers?  And, if you’re targeting an older age group, how have you adapted your marketing strategy to respond to this opportunity?

Thank you to David Chalke from AustraliaSCAN for the statistics.

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Awesome is always scary. The vast chasm between really good and extraordinary is filled with fear.  If you push yourself to the extent that you’re deeply uncomfortable, you’ll be fine; if you’re comfortable, you’re not pushing hard enough.”

- Ben Malbon, Google Creative Lab in Independence of Thought, Marketing Quotes 2011 by Valeria Maltoni.

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There is a wealth of marketing information  to be found online.  However in a time poor world, sometimes a recommendation or two can assist focus in finding the best gems.

So here is one.

One of my favourite marketing bloggers and authors is Valeria Maltoni. Valeria is a marketing strategist and speaker.  With more than 20 years experience – ten of which have been online, she’s held senior marketing roles, executing growth strategies at global fortune 500, mid-sized businesses and small start up companies in five industries. Valeria’s  blog, Conversation Agent, is consistently ranked amongst the top 30 marketing blogs in the world on AdAge Power 150.

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Personally, I  find her  capacity to continually produce valuable, thought provoking and  in-depth marketing articles and presentations, awesome.

So if you haven’t read any of Valeria’s posts – here are just three recent favourites.

How Content Rules
Independence of Thought – Marketing Quotes 2011
When Women Continue to be edited out

Enjoy!  (and molto grazie Valeria)

Spotted this the other day.  istockphoto provided advance warning to their customers that some of their payment processors would be disabled for a period.

As a sweetener, they provided a special discount offer  for a purchase of 50 credits or more – a saving of $8 on an investment of $81.

Although the saving was small –  the example  highlighted that opportunities to provide incentives that encourage customers to re-purchase, can be found at all customer touchpoints with our businesses; and  to an extent, can be  useful to allay customer inconvenience.

How are you seizing selling opportunities in marketing your business?

“The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous…[it is] to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker

An interesting exchange occurred this week on David Meerman Scott’s WebInkNow blog.  In a post, David mentioned how lucky we are to live in a time where technology has made it so easy for businesses to reach their customers, negating the need for enormous budgets. Here is David’s post.

In the discussion that followed, one visitor commented that the new social media tools, enabled by technology, have made marketing and strategy redundant. They asserted that it’s now just about tweeting, a facebook fan page and a monthly press release.  Here is David’s response: Marketing and PR must start with strategy

Strategy is still crucial and the marketing fundamentals remain the same

Whilst technology affords us seemingly magical access to information and renders exciting  possibilities, it hasn’t altered the marketing fundamentals.

It is still paramount for every business to  understand its market, customers and brand; and strategise accordingly.

Shaping products and services to suit customer needs, providing these products and services in a unique and more compelling way than competitors, and communicating with messages and via channels that are most suitable for their target audiences – remain  integral to all marketing efforts.

Social media are simply channels through which businesses can connect with their customers, if indeed customers are using these platforms.

Whether or not to use social media is a consideration after the fundamentals have been addressed – and therefore social media forms just one small part of the marketing story.

Technology has created many exciting opportunities for businesses, none moreso than enabling them to connect more easily with customers.

Technology however hasn’t eliminated the need for sound marketing strategy. Businesses  will always need  to understand their customers first and strategise accordingly.

So, understand your market and customers first. Don’t ditch the marketing strategy!

How are your customers using technology? Have you aligned your marketing strategy with your customers’ behaviour?

Do you have a marketing issue or question you’d like to discuss?  Please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

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Spotted this the other day.

What a great idea. Convenient, value for money dvd rentals.

The machine is from Oovie, a company founded six years ago and part of the Hoyts Group.  Oovie has more than 250 machines on the East coast states in Australia and expanding.

According to their company profile – they’ve rented over two million DVD’s to over 300,000 customers!

At the risk of sounding like an ad for Oovie – for customers –  Oovie provides:

Convenience: located in an easily accessible, retail space and  available 24/7.

Value : Cheaper than itunes and regular dvd hires (if you are good and return on time!)  And according to their Facebook page – on the first Wednesday of very month you can rent a DVD free.

Choice: all latest releases provided.

Great technology induced innovation.

Shaping products to suit customers’ behaviour and needs is integral to  sound marketing strategy. Harnessing the technology makes this  even more exciting.

How are you harnessing the technology in your own marketing strategy to provide convenience, value and choice to your customers?

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Oovie at our local.

With Linkedin’s IPO last week, there has been a plethora of posts of how to leverage this social media platform.

Here are a few we found.

• 10 things you can on Linkedin via Business Insider
• 10 More things you never knew you could do on Linkedin via Business Insider
• Use Linkedin Effectively from Chris Brogan

How are you leveraging Linkedin?

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Some Linkedin Lovin’

We’ve written before about the importance of real time marketing: the need for businesses to listen to online discussions of their brand or sector, and to respond accordingly in real-time.

Real-time marketing is a concept that one of our favourite authors and marketing strategists, David Meerman Scott, focuses upon in his most recent best-selling book ‘Real Time Marketing & PR’.

A colleague, Jen Frahm, has just experienced a great example of this and blogged about it. Read Jen’s post here.

The situation concerned Jen’s dear friends, Matt and Renae,  whose wedding and honeymoon plans were thrown into disarray early last week, after the tour operator went bust. Matt and Renae also stood to lose $10,000. They were due to marry in three weeks, and had originally planned an overseas wedding but following the devastating floods and cyclone, they changed their plans to support Queensland tourism.

The story has a happy ending thanks to Jen’s efforts and those of Whitsundays Online and Whitsundays based Marriage Celebrant, Susan Batty. News on the accommodation is just coming through from Hamilton Island. Fingers crossed.

These companies were listening and agile in their response.

As Jen says in her post,  for businesses:

It is never too early to set up listening platforms (searches, software etc) for keywords in your industry. Even if you are not sure how to engage at this stage, and what content to include, get listening.”

Good luck Matt and Renae. Best wishes for a beautiful wedding. Good on you Jen.

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Using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, they’re engaging supporters and building relationships by providing important information, and asking and answering questions. Here are three examples.

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Nonprofits  are also using social media in clever and entertaining ways:

Facebook Coupon Incentive

Last week Red Cross Australia launched their new flagship fashion boutique, Red Threads, in Sydney’s Paddington.  Their social media activity included a downloadable discount coupon, exclusive to Facebook, providing visitors to their page, further incentive to visit the new store.

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You Tube Old Spice Spoof

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New Platforms – Foursquare

Foursquare, a  location based social network,  is one of the newer social media platforms. But it’s set to increase in popularity as organisations incentivise users to visit their retail locations by rewarding check-in’s with special offers or vouchers.

With approximately 700,000[1] nonprofits in Australia alone, more nonprofits will soon be harnessing the power of social media as part of their marketing programs to connect with their supporters and grow advocacy and donations for their causes.

If you are a nonprofit – how are you using social media to  achieve your strategic objectives?

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Don't Band-Aid a product problem with marketing. Effective marketing starts with a product that solves customers' problems.

We recently commented on the creative campaign NAB launched at Valentines Day.  It was clever, well timed and sought to differentiate NAB from the other banks.

In recent days NAB has again experienced IT issues which have inconvenienced many customers.

From a strategic perspective, some of the marketing gains they won earlier this year will now be lost.

The NAB incident also highlights that no amount of clever and creative marketing can make up for a product that does not fulfill its customers’ needs or solve their problems.

As with all businesses, the marketing effort must start with the product. Does it solve  customers’ problem? Does it fulfill customers’ needs? Does it fulfill the advertised promises on each and every purchase occasion? For service organisations, reliability and consistency in delivering brand promises are key in building reassurance and trust with customers.

However, even when product problems occur, an organisation’s response can often turn a negative situation into an opportunity – and even stem customer loss...

On Friday and over the weekend, as NAB worked to correct the problems, they communicated progress on a resolution with their customers.  NAB answered customers’ questions and posted useful information on their Twitter stream.  They also opened their bank branches on Saturday to help affected customers.

NAB will no doubt work hard to win back customers who have been affected. And in the first instance identify the cause of the product problem and then formulate improvements to prevent recurrence.

For all businesses, product breakdown and customer complaints are opportunities to re-examine processes, design and implement new ones, and to  safeguard against repeat events, to ensure a better customer experience.....

Learnings from NAB – Three Questions To Consider

Here are three questions to consider in your business:

1. Do you have processes in place to examine customer complaints  with a view to improving the product?
2. Have you considered how you can improve your product to better solve your customers problems?
3. Have you considered product improvements before investing in marketing campaigns?

Marketing should never be regarded as a magic wand.  Business success is a result of many factors – not least having a product  which satisfies a customer problem.

However if problems do occur, having processes in place to ensure the organization responds to customers’ complaints can help stem customer defections and turn a negative situation into a positive opportunity.

Have you re-examined your processes recently?

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David Meerman Scott and Danielle Crismani (Baked Relief).

Marketing strategist and best selling author, David Meerman Scott has just completed his recent tour Downunder.

David is the best selling author of several books including “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” which has been published in 26 languages and his most recent book “Real-Time Marketing & PR”, which was ranked  #2 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list. David’s blog - Web Ink Now – is one of the most world’s most popular marketing blogs.

In “Real-Time”, David discusses how today’s speed of communication has meant that organisations don’t have months to formulate plans. Rather, they need to be agile and in a position to respond in an instant – the moment something happens – in ‘real time’.

“Speed and agility are the decisive competitive advantages today.”  David says.

Real-Time Marketing – Responding Now

Twenty first century technology which has provided the platform for real-time marketing, has not only impacted our customers’ behaviour but has also enabled marketers, using tools like social media,  to communicate and build relationships with their customers in powerful new ways .

David  points out that social media  also enables businesses to read their customers’ buying signals as they interact with their brands.

For businesses to implement a real-time marketing approach, they need to firstly research which platforms their customers are using online, then monitor and  engage them there.

Seven Real-Time Marketing Tips

Here are seven real-time marketing tips from David’s presentation.

Social Media and Real-Time

1. Social media are tools, real-time is a mindset.

Real-Time Response

2. Act now before the window of opportunity vanishes.

3. Respond in the same media that the news or incident broke.

Real-Time and Media

4. Watch Wall Street Journal online today for stories which will be in print tomorrow.

Social Media Ethics

5. As in offline communication – give credit when using other people’s material.

Real-Time How

6. Implement systems and processes which allow your business to communicate and monitor in real-time.

Audience

7. Tell your story to an interested market.

Thanks David for a great presentation.

Are you engaging your customers in real-time?

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We saw Cyndi Lauper perform this week. I realized it  was the fourth time I’d seen her live – the first was back in 1984!  Like many artists, she has evolved over the past (nearly) thirty years. While her voice just seems to get stronger and more beautiful, her musical choices have also continually evolved.

This sort of evolution and transformation seems characteristic of great artists. Picasso moved through many periods. Brett Whiteley’s early drawings were very different to the paintings he created later in his life. These are just two examples.

Evolution and transformation are also fundamental  to marketing strategy. Shaping your products and services to better solve your customer problems is an organic process.

Today change in customers’ preferences is rapid and ongoing and businesses need to respond and evolve accordingly.

As futurist, David Houle says:

To create value for our customers . .. it’s fundamental that businesses are continually reinventing.”

How can your business evolve?

The first step is to understand your customers’ needs. Here are three ways to help monitor and understand your customers’ changing preferences.

• Maintain a dialogue

Talk with customers both online and offline. Take note of their requests and comments about your products, the alternatives available and other aspects of your customers’ lives with which you may be able to assist. Obtain feedback. Ask questions.

• Listen

It has been said we have two ears and one mouth and should use them in that proportion – good advice!

• Respond

How can you respond to the information received? How can you enhance your products and services accordingly?

Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter,  make each of these activities even easier.

And like the great creative artists, businesses too can smoothly evolve. Shaping products and services to suit customers’ changing needs is sound marketing strategy.

Are you keeping track of your customers’ changing preferences? How are you evolving?

David Meerman Scott

Best selling author and marketing strategist David Meerman Scott will be visiting Australia shortly to conduct a series of Marketing & PR Masterclasses.

Regular readers of this blog will know I became a fan of David’s work after reading his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR just after establishing my business.  It’s full of practical tips, insights and information on how to market in this new age.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR has now been updated to include new examples and information about Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

I love the way David has forged the path of marketing in the 21st century – urging marketers and businesses to focus on our customers, identify the customer problems our products solve; and harnessing the technology, to earn attention by providing content which is valuable and interesting to them.

Technology has changed our customers’ behaviour, and as marketers we need to ensure we are adapting our products and services and communication accordingly.

In a rapidly changing world, the fundamentals haven’t changed. The old rule of focussing on the customer still applies. However, David’s books provide valuable insights into the important new rules of customer engagement and instant, real time communication.

Which marketing rules are you applying?

Information about David’s masterclasses can be found here

Related Posts

Social Media and the Power of Real Time Connection

Real Time is Now

Deloitte Social Media Rock Stars (David did blog about Deloitte, a great social media case study – however this one is included because of the Grateful Dead clip!)

I mentioned some of the editions available including the collectable Deluxe edition:  letterpressed and handprinted,  with book plate and poster on a beautiful textured paper.

This week Seth also released a 52 pack  multi purchase – ‘designed to share’ – ideal for organizations wishing to purchase the book for their teams.

With Poke the Box available in Kindle,  hardcover, deluxe, and a variety of audio versions – including mp3 and cd  – Seth has cleverly ensured that there is an edition to suit every potential reader’s preference and price point.

He also reminds us about some of the important strategic marketing aspects of product packaging – and once again, if you produce something worth remarking about – people will talk about your product.

Have you packaged your product according to your customers’ preferences?

Can you produce a collectable version?

Related Links



Tom Peters on Design-from The Little Big Things
and Tom Peters 67 random thoughts on design

David Meerman’s Scott post and interview with Seth
5 Benefits of Being Customer Design Focused
Quiet the lizard brain – courage, creativity and creating value

Linchpins- you can’t get far without one

Linchpin reflections

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth. Not going all the way, and not starting.” Siddhartha Gautama (quoted in Poke the Box)

I’ve just finished reading Seth Godin’s new book – Poke the Box – the first from the The Domino Project – Seth’s new digital publishing venture connecting books directly with readers, without the middleman, in the domino like manner of people propelling ideas forward, quickly  spreading worthy ideas.

In his closing notes – Seth urges us to share. So I am!  (I would have anyway – I love his books. ☺).

Where one of the themes of Linchpin, Seth’s previous book was shipping – completing and dispatching projects – in Poke The Box – Seth focuses on the starting, and discusses the reasons why people  don’t.

Both books however are about nudging us to do the work we’re capable of, the work that matters – to be the best we can be.

From a marketing perspective, I love the various book formats  available. You will see in David Meerman’s Scott interview with Seth, these include a limited deluxe edition – letterpressed and handprinted,  with book plate and poster on what looks like deliciously textured paper. After seeing that, I felt a bit of a cheapskate getting the economical, digital version. However the Kindle makes it easy to store and subsequently access all highlighted passages, a function I love.

But it does make it more difficult to share the entire book. So here’s a small blog post instead. I will order a book to share with others. It’s a quick read. Here’s the link. Go!

Are you in forward motion?

Related references:

Poke The Box – The Workbook.

Seth talks about why it’s important to Poke the Box:

Poke The Box from Seth Godin on Vimeo.

The Linchpin Podcast Ep 12 Poke The Box (great listening, love MOMA!)

David Meerman’s Scott post and interview with Seth

Our own posts about Linchpin (yes, I am a Seth fan):

Quiet the lizard brain – courage, creativity and creating value

Linchpins- you can’t get far without one

Linchpin reflections

Today is the Global Centenary of International Women’s Day, celebrating the economic,  political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

The economic power of women was discussed in a recent presentation by Tom Peters (see last week’s blog post), and included the following:

• Women represent a growth market twice as big than China and India combined
• Globally women control about $20 trillion in consumer spending, estimated to grow to $28 trillion by 2014
• Women are decision makers in 83% of all consumer purchases including 94% home furnishings, 91% houses and influence 90% car purchases.

In a 2011 prediction paper, futurist Faith Popcorn continues this theme citing the following:

• Women hold 51% of managerial and professional jobs (Tom Peters says therefore women also make the majority of commercial purchasing decisions)
• Four in ten mothers are primary breadwinners; working wives are coming close to bringing in half of household income
• Single, childless women under 30 earn 8% more than their male peers
• The number of women earning six figure salaries has increased 14% in the last two years

Popcorn proposes that in 2011 we have entered an “unprecedented” period which will mark the end of our traditional gender divide, and  has named this The Year of EN-GEN or (End of Gender). This era is neither female or male. It will be ‘Just Human’.

She predicts that male dominated fields like construction and manufacturing will shrink and predominantly female sectors – education, healthcare and social services will expand.

Popcorn also describes “six gender turning points to watch”. Read more about them by downloading the paper here.

Every business will be touched in some way by the influence of women. How have you adapted your marketing strategy accordingly?

Related Links:

UNIFEM website

Tom Peters from The Little Big Things:

Food for Thought

Last month I was thrilled to participate in a six hour work shop with Tom Peters.

Like many other attendees, my first exposure to Tom was via his first book, In Search of Excellence,  which he co-authored with Bob Waterman more than twenty years ago.  A business bible and ranked “the greatest business book of all time”, In Search of Excellence, introduced us to the idea of Excellence as a daily business practice and source of sustainable competitive advantage.

One concept which has stayed with me has been that of Management  by Wandering Around or MBWA.  In my previous corporate life, a CEO with whom I worked was an absolute champion at it. Observing him ‘wandering around’ checking on the troops and the spirit of his team in a very non intrusive manner, always reminded me of this aspect of Tom’s book.  It was not surprising that this particular CEO was very much in touch with the mood of his large team and fostered excellence throughout the organisation.

From a marketing perspective, Tom has also commented across the twittersphere, that the supposed modern phenomenon of giving away material for free, is actually not so new. Pre-release, they gave away several thousand copies of the first sections of In Search of Excellence, much to his publisher’s initial concern apparently.

But back to the workshop!  Tom’s energy and passion, previously felt in his use of language, exclamation marks and fonts throughout his books and other written material, were apparent throughout.  It was terrific to experience this passion first hand and to share in his insight and vast experience of life and management .

The Take-Aways

To distil the learnings of the day is challenging.

I particularly loved the stories about Nelson Mandela and Edward VII which strongly underscored  how the so called soft skills of courtesy and genuine interest in people can be all powerful in overcoming great obstacles and building strong relationships. “Soft is hard.” says Tom.

However, as a marketer focusssed on the development, implementation and monitoring of sound business and marketing strategies – the following are my top three takeaways from our day with Tom.

1. Listening

Tom wants us to be obsessed with listening. Am sure he has previously said God gave us two ears and one mouth and we should use them in that proportion!

Tom believes listening is the ultimate market of respect, the heart and soul of engagement and the bedrock which underpins a commitment to Excellence. Listening, Tom says, is of the utmost strategic importance, is a proper core value and is trainable.

Inherent  is the ability to not interrupt.

I left the workshop with a renewed resolve to  improve my listening skills. (My husband is also pleased with this one!  ☺)

2. Women Rule!

My second key takeaway is the influence of women in driving economic growth.   HBR reported that globally women control about $20 trillion in consumer spending which could grow to $28 trillion by 2014. (Silverstein and Sayre, 2009)

Women represent a growth market twice as big  than China and India combined. (W>2x (C+ I)* (Love the equations!)

Tom provided various statistics testifying that: ‘Women decide. Women save. Women spend. Women rule.’

He states:  ”It would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer.”

3. The Ageing Tsunami

After working in aged care, I  was familiar with the significance  of the  65+ demographic. However Tom amplified its importance sharing several  key statistics and insights.

He states from the 01 January this year (01.01.11) 7.5 baby boomers will turn 65 every minute, 10,000 per day, 4  million per year – for the next twenty years.  What will be impacted – he asks? Everything!

From a longevity perspective – Tom presented a quote from Bill Novelli – “People turning 50 today have more than half of their adult life ahead of them.”

According to research, those aged 55+ are more active online than those under 55,  and  those in the 44-65 age group are  the “new customer majority”. (Wolfe and Snyder)

As marketers though, Tom claims we’ve been ‘miserably unsuccessful’ in reaching this over 50 market.

So – how do your products and services solve problems for these market segments? Are you communicating appropriately to them? Opportunities abound.

These are just three,  however food for thought is always the top take-away from Tom Peters.  Thanks Tom.

Related Links

• The complete slide decks from Tom’s presentations in Australia are available at Tom Peters.com.
• Purchase Tom’s most recent book – The Little BIG Things – here.
• Tom’s workshop was organised by The Growth Faculty-‘bringing the world’s best strategic thinking to Australian businesses‘.

“It’s 11 a.m.  Have you called a customer today?”- Tom Peters, The Little BIG Things

Your customers – both internal and external – are at the heart of your marketing efforts.

A  number of research studies have shown that it costs significantly more to find a new customer than to retain an existing one.

So when developing marketing strategies to grow your business,  look to your existing customers first.

For business growth you can entice them:

• to purchase a greater quantity of your products/service
• purchase more frequently or
• both

Like looking after your staff (your internal customers), taking care of your external customers requires communication, care and visible appreciation.

Here are three questions to consider:

Are you keeping in touch? Tools such as e-newsletter programs (we use Mad Mimi) make it easy to keep in regular contact with customers and build relationships.

Have you made it easy for your customers to provide feedback? Relationships are strongest with dialogue; and the understanding gleaned from the conversation paves the way for improvements to product and service and can also reveal new opportunities.  Make sure your customers know how to contact you. Asking for comments and feedback at point of sale, in follow up communication and on your website – are just a few ways to encourage this. Ensure your contacts are visible and well communicated.

How do you reward your customers? Demonstrate your appreciation. A simple thank you is powerful. In addition to providing a great product and fantastic service, making your customers feel special will build loyalty and ultimately convert your customers to ‘raving fans’ . Your customers become your brand advocates and your best marketers.

Check if you are cultivating your customers.  It’s sound, cost effective marketing strategy.

How do you cultivate your customers?

Related Posts

Tom Peters

The Seven Step Path to Sustaining Success

Brand You: Thank You Notes

Seth Godin

How Should You Treat Your Best Customers?

Other

The Secret of Engagement for Business Growth

“The narrative of your business now unfolds, minute by minute, in real time. And it’s driven by your customers, talking among themselves – no longer guided by the mass media – your ad budget can buy.”  - David Meerman Scott, Real Time Marketing & PR

In his book Real Time Marketing & PR, David Meerman Scott states:

“The new currency of success is the ability to gather, interpret and react to new information in fractions of a second – real time.”

The Queensland Floods disaster provides numerous examples and strong endorsement for the ideas proposed in David’s book, highlighting the usefulness of social media as people increasingly turn to online for real time information.

It also illustrates how mainstream media is responding to this activity; and how social media and its inherent ability to connect people,  are powerful tools in making a real difference to people’s lives. We call this “Social Media for Good”. (See also Marketing with Heart)

Social media as a critical information source

As the waters rose in various places around the State, and subsequently here in Brisbane – Australia’s third largest metropolitan city – social media provided up to the minute updates, warnings and critical information about evacuation, electricity blackouts and coping with the impending floods – to name just a few.

Faced with approaching floodwaters, the RSPCA was able to find foster homes for each one of their animals, thanks in part to the requests for assistance  circulated in social media.

QPS Media – a trusted source of accurate information  …

If I needed to know something – I could turn to Queensland Police Media (@QPS Media) for trusted and accurate information. And many others did too.

… and engaged followers.

QPS’s Twitter following grew from a little more than 1,000  to more than 10,000 followers during the period.  They linked their Twitter updates to the QPS Facebook page and directed their Twitter visitors to the more detailed information which appeared there.

The QPS Facebook page reflected keen community interest and engagement, with their following growing from 6,400 to more than 160,000 during the period,  and their posts attracting  significant numbers of comments as people responded to the information provided.

Interestingly, the QPS Facebook followers remain engaged.  The page  still receives  large numbers of comments – even though many posts are now not  flood related.

Nimble management of information

“What is harder to get your head around is the scope of conversation and the speed at which it now expands, flows and contracts”  - David Meerman Scott

With frequent and fast posts, QPS Media nimbly managed the flow of information to people affected. They also provided prompt clarification to many rumours  which occur during such events,  and designated these posts with the hash tag #mythbusters.

Social media facilitated the ability to speedily provide information and correct misinformation throughout the event.

The QPS Director of Police Media and Public Affairs, Kym Charlton was quoted as saying:

“We’re not relying on news bulletins. We’re not relying on journalists making decisions about newsworthiness. We’ve just been able to go directly to the people when we need to.”

Locating lost loved ones & unleashing a volunteer effort

Social media was also used to help people find loved ones who were missing or with whom contact had been lost. It was also key in unleashing an enormous volunteer effort including fantastic crowd sourced initiatives such as Baked Relief (#baked relief).

Support via social media continues

A plethora of websites linked to social media platforms were established during the event, providing support to those who have been flood affected and connecting those in need with those who can help.  Flood Aid is just one example. Their Facebook page already has nearly 1,000 followers.

Social in the mainstream

“As media tied to rigid production cycles decline … – real time media grow audiences and profits” – David Meerman Scott.

Interestingly, mainstream media picked up stories borne in social media with television, radio and print featuring stories which emanated from tweets.  The television coverage of one channel even included a regular, dedicated segment which reviewed the flood related tweet stream and information shared.   Stories first shared on Twitter and Facebook became the TV stories.

.
“The best time to influence a news story is now – as it is breaking.” David Meerman Scott

Television coverage of Premier’s regular media conferences was shared in real time on YouTube with links provided in real time on Twitter.

QPS Media reported that journalists were selecting information from their social media posts (Twitter, YouTube and Facebook) and advised that international media were just running with several clips posted on YouTube.

Real time for good

These are just a few examples – there are many more.  However, they show in the face of adversity and dire circumstances,  social media encouraged real time connection –  much of it for good.

How are you connecting in real time with your customers?

How can you use social media for good?

Donate here.

Related Posts

Baked Relief: Crowdsourcing help to feed those affected by Queensland flooding) (Webinknow blog)

Real Time is Now

Police tweet on the beat during flood crisis – Report by ABC journalist Kellie Riordan

After the devastating floods, the January marketing campaigns of Tourism Australia to boost tourism and business here, have never been more well timed nor welcomed.

The first show of Oprah’s tour Downunder, of which Tourism Australia was a partner, aired in the US last night.  It featured the Queensland destinations of The Great Barrier Reef and Hamilton Island, and Oprah made special mention of the floods tragedy.

Qantas also commenced promoting some special fares (US-Australia) – see below.  (They’re cheap as chips!)

Oprah’s show coincided with  G’Day USA Australia Week 2011, which commenced last Saturday and continues until 29 January. Produced by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,  Tourism Australia, Austrade and Qantas Airways, the 14 day event showcases diverse Australian capability and achievement in forty events across 10 American cities.

G’Day USA Australia Week has been running for more than seven years, and attracts an annual media reach of more than $100 million and media value of $10 million.

As industry analysts report that key infrastructure of our most beautiful tourism destinations such as Cairns, Whitsundays and Gold Coast are largely unaffected, it is hoped that this investment will bring the return required to support the economy.

So  if you’re thinking of taking a holiday Downunder – or if you’re an Aussie living here  …  please visit us.

We’re open for business.   We look forward to seeing you!

Important!  We need your help. Please click here, to donate to the Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal Thank you!

Related Links

G’Day USA – Calendar of Events

Australia Week

Tourism Australia

Qantas – USA

The rain might break our hearts, but it will not break our will.”  Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland

As I write, thousands of people are now helping as volunteers in the clean up following Queensland’s devastating floods. They’ve been called an “army of angels”.   People helping people, where no one is a stranger and everyone is a member of a larger family – the Queensland family.

Like many other Queensland residents, my husband and I were not born here.  Yesterday we were at the popular inner city tourist precinct of Southbank sweeping away  some  dirty water from a high pressure clean, and I thought about our first Brisbane date at one of the nearby restaurants. This is now our city and our home.  By helping in some small way we feel a stronger ownership and connection to it than ever before.

We’ve had a great family matriarch this week – our Premier’s leadership has been inspirational, so strong and compassionate. Her first call was to remind everyone to check on friends, family and neighbours.  As in all things it would seem – attending to  the people and matters closest to you – makes the larger (more macro) situation less difficult. Because of this focus, many of those problems can be already solved or at least reduced. The micro before the macro.

It also occurred to me, imagine if we could harness this goodwill, generosity of spirit and energy on an ongoing basis in our daily lives – both personally and professionally. Nothing would be impossible.

If you’re reading this and have been affected by the floods – I wish you strength and support in your recovery. You are not alone.

If you haven’t been affected – and would like to contribute – here’s the link to the Premier’s Floods Relief Appeal.

Thank you.

Related items
A Trailer Full of Help – Sally Foley Lewis
The Little Tug Boat That Could
King Wally Survives the Flood
The Real King Wally Lends a Hand
If you can – please help the flood victims (Jan 10)

It hasn’t stopped raining.

Tragically the floods have claimed lives.  Many people  have lost homes, livestock and  livelihoods.  The full extent of the damage caused by these floods is unknown but one estimate is $5 billion.  The heartbreak will continue long after the rain ceases and the water subsides.

We need your help.

Here’s how you can assist:

Queensland Flood Donations

Salvos

Thank you!

Updated:

Brisbane in flood:

Brisbane – near Rocklea markets (from the Premier’s chopper)

The first two of the following videos were taken approximately 1040am, 12 January with water levels at approximately 4 metres. Peak level is anticipated at 5.25 metres.

Flood Photos here and here

Important Contacts

Salvos

Red Cross Australia

The cricket – or at least The Ashes – is over for another series. Whilst the result was rather sad for Australia, but gleeful for England, a highlight of the final test was its third day when the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) turned pink  in support of The McGrath Foundation. It was also a great example of the outcomes made possible by a strong integrated marketing effort.

The McGrath Foundation raises money to place Breast Care nurses in communities across Australia and increases breast awareness in young Australian women.  The Foundation was re-launched in 2005 by Glenn McGrath, one of the sport’s most highly regarded champions and his wife Jane, after Jane received the support of a breast cancer nurse during treatment for secondary cancer.

Following their experience, the McGraths believed that every Australian woman diagnosed with breast cancer should benefit from the support of a specialist breast care nurse who help women navigate the terrifying experience of breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery.

The McGrath Foundation now funds 61 breast cancer care nurses around Australia, supporting 6500 families.

Traditionally Ladies Day, the third day of the final Ashes test was renamed Jane McGrath Day in 2009, in honour of Jane, who passed away in the previous year after a long battle with cancer.

The Jane McGrath Day – Integrated Cause Marketing

The integrated mix of activities which harnessed public support and assured significant publicity included:

• television and radio coverage in connection with broadcast principals
• sponsorship and further donations from organisations such as Vodafone
• a pink High Tea event attended by survivors, nurses, dignitaries and celebrities
• promotions such as a pigeon race (‘pigeon’ is reportedly Glenn McGrath’s nickname).  Each pigeon represented one cricket commentator
• a volunteer team who sold bandanas and collected donations around the ground
• the ultimate visual – a sea of pink (Jane’s favourite colour), created by  many of the SCG’s 40,000 attendees wearing something of that colour on the day
• updates  provided on the Foundation’s website and in real time on their Twitter page.

The results

$360,000 was raised in the first four days of the test, bringing the total raised over the last three years to more than $1 million. 50,000 bandanas were sold.

Generosity transcends cricketing rivalry

And the English have proved that they not only can play cricket!  Their dedicated fans – affectionately known as The Barmy Army -  raised more than $3000 for the Foundation and provided support throughout the series, holding a series of Pink Days around the country.

Good on them!

Are you integrating more than one element in your marketing and promotional efforts? Why not take inspiration from this fantastic example.

More information can be found at: The McGrath Foundation

Follow the McGrath Foundation on Twitter @McGrathFdn and Facebook.

Wishing you prosperity and happiness in the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

Buy the Books!

Tom Peters’ The Little Big Things available here; David Meerman Scott‘s Real Time Marketing & PR available here. (The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott is also available here) Seth Godin‘s Linchpin available here.

• 5 trends that will shape small business

“Small business owners don’t care what’s cool. They care about what seems practical and what seems obvious – and that’s not always what gets the buzz.” says John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.

Read John’s predictions here

• 5 design trends for small business

“In the past 12 months, we’ve seen a lot of changes in the world of web design. Growing popularity in the mobile device space — including smartphones and tablets like the iPad — have refined the way many users access and interact with content.” Christina Warren.

Some great insights here about web design.  Read more in: Small Business Design Trends from Mashable.

• Online Marketing Trends

2011 will be the coming of age year for social media, according to Courtney Mills, a search marketing specialist. Read more here

Which of these trends are key to your business?

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Art is the act of bring humanity and connection to somebody else .. not following rules but your gut and soul. It’s about creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo” – Seth Godin, Linchpin

Last week, I was thrilled to participate in a workshop with Daniel Pink, the  author of several bestsellers including his most recent Drive and A Whole New Mind.  Dan also writes for several newspapers, magazines and journals including The New York Times and Harvard Business Review; admits to having attended law school – and has been a speech writer for Vice President Al Gore.  His blog is always enriching.

In A Whole New Mind, Dan proposes that we have entered the “Conceptual Age” where right brain qualities of inventiveness, empathy and meaning predominate.  Although still required, left brain qualities such as number crunching and analysis are no longer sufficient.  Dan states that we need to complement our Left Directed reasoning by mastering six essential Right Directed aptitudes.

Here are three:    (quotes from A Whole New Mind)

1. Not just function but also DESIGN.

“It’s no longer sufficient to create a product, a service, an experience or a lifestyle that’s merely functional. Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that is also beautiful, whimsical or emotionally engaging.”

From a marketing perspective, clever and unique design which solves a customer problem and is emotionally engaging, provides a product a point of difference.

As Seth Godin said in his book Purple Cow:

“Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service”

Tom Peters says:

“If no WOW, … then no go!”

Whether we’re selling products, services or experiences – these days we’re all in the design business.

2.  Not just argument but also STORY.

“When our lives are brimming with information and data, it’s not enough to marshal an effective argument.  ..The essence of persuasion, communciation and self understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative”.

The story behind a product, business or person humanises, adds interest and engages customers. Stories are how we learn. For all these reasons, but particularly the emotion inherent, stories can be a powerful differentiator.

So, what’s your story? Think about the reasons for your product, the processes, its history and future. And what about your own  as the business owner?  Can you craft your story in seven words or less?

Tom Peters:

“Stories are 100 percent about emotion – and emotion, far more than dynamite moves mountains”  and

“He/she who who has the most best/most compelling/most resonant story wins … in life! ..in business! In front of the jury! In front of the congregation! .. so work on your story”.

Seth Godin agrees.  Here are three of Seth’s posts about creating and telling stories:  Creating Stories, How to tell stories, Telling a story on the label (combines design and story!)

3. Not just focus but also SYMPHONY

“What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis, seeing the big picture and crossing boundaries, being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole”

A symphony is  grasping ‘relationships between relationships’, identifying trends and  looking for patterns.

In business, this approach will identify opportunities for new products and services. Consider some of the opportunities Richard Branson, a symphonic thinker,  has identified such as value for money, pay as you go, fun airlines and gyms without rigid membership contracts.

You’ll find the other three abilities in Dan’s book which I urge you to read.  They’re skills which will help us realize our potential both personally and professionally.

Are you employing more ‘right brain’ abilities in your business activities and your life?

Image Credit: Xedos4

Tania de Jong AM is a leading Australian soprano, speaker and social entrepreneur. Amongst the many organisations she has founded, is Creativity Australia, which has developed the “With One Voice” program. The Program  assists migrants and others to develop a sense of belonging, new networks and employment pathways. The outcomes have been transformational.

Tania believes we need to work on nurturing our talent and inventiveness – in short our creativity.  She cites a new study by IBM of one on one interviews with over 1500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries, which investigated what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.  The research showed that for CEO’s, creativity is now regarded as the most important leadership quality for success in business, outweighing even integrity and global thinking.

Creativity and innovation are now considered core competencies for leaders and managers and crucial, Tania says, to the future of our nation and the world.

Tania offers ten tips to unlock your personal and organisational creative potential. Here are three:

• Create for Value: Unlocking creativity leads to ideas that create value in individuals, teams and organisations. Focus on the benefits/value of your idea, not its newness.

• Be a Creative Leader: Unleashing creativity leads to greater wellbeing, engagement and sense of meaning and purpose, as well as innovation! Remind others that stepping outside your comfort zone is important and change is necessary for progress and innovation to occur.

• Courage: Be prepared to take a risk. Don’t follow tradition or the group. Be a creative leader and support others who are.

How will you unlock your creative potential?

Related Links:

Further information about Tania –  here

Creativity Australia

Watch this inspiring video about the “With One Voice” program.

It’s Tom Peters’ birthday today.

Tom is my favourite management thinker and author, who through his books, blog and twitter stream, provides daily inspiration, knowledge, reminders, wisdom, insight and WOW.   I’d call him a ‘guru’ but I don’t think he likes that too much.

To honour Tom’s birthday – here are 68 favourite quotes.   Happy Birthday Tom!

And THANKS!

1. You don’t want to be merely the best of the best. You want to be the only ones who do what you do. (Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead – p 443 Little Big Things)

2. The rarest (and most powerful) of gifts:  “Thank You”. (p466 Little Big Things)

4. Hire enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the ultimate virus. (p 467 Little Big Things)

5. Hire for good manners.  (p 468 Little Big Things)

6. Decency pays off. Big time.

Thoughtfulness pays off. Big time

Kindness pays off. Big time.

Integrity pays off. Big time.

Respect pays off. Big time.

Appreciation pays off. Big time.

Courtesy pays off. Big time.

Listening pays off. Big time.

“Decency,” “thoughtfulness” etc. are the true language of Excellent-Sustainable Relationships – and hence the true language of “profit maximisation”.  Period. (p471 Little BIG things)

7. Become a student of all with whom you meet. ( p 471 Little BIG Things).

8. Excellence. Our ultimate aim is always … Excellence. Nothing less.  (p 492 Little BIG Things)

9.  MBWA or “Managing by Wandering Around”.  Get the hell out of the cube!  …Slow down. Stop. Chat.  (pp 256,257 Little BIG Things)

10. “Do one thing every day that scares you.”  Eleanor Roosevelt.  (p 339 The Little BIG Things)

11. “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Helen Keller (p339 The Little BIG Things)

12. “The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated”.  William James (p339 The Little BIG Things)

13. “Blame no one. Expect nothing. Do something.” Bill Parcells, football coach.(p 340 The Little BIG Things)

14.  “If you don’t listen, you don’t sell anything.” Carolyn Marland, MD, Guardian Group. (p340 The Litle Big Things)

15. “Have you invested as much this year in your career as in your car?” Molly Sargent, OD consultant and trainer. (p341 The Little BIG Things)

16. “If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti, race car driver. (p342 The Little BIG Things)

17. “Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm” Samuel Taylor Coleridge (p342 The Little BIG Things)

18. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” Karen Lamb (p343 The Little BIG Things)

19. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon (p342 The Little BIG Things)

20. “A man without a smiling face must not open a shop” Chinese Proverb (p343 The Little BIG Things)

21. “If you can’t describe your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position” Seth Godin (p75 The Little BIG Things)

22. “Working on your R.POV8 is far more important than any “strategic planning” exercise.” (p75 The Little BIG Things)

23. “Whatever amounts to “sensible communication,” 3X it!” (p205 The Little BIG Things)

24. “She or he who tries the most stuff …wins!” (p216 The Little BIG Things)

25. “Experiment fearlessly” BusinessWeek (p216 The Little BIG Things)

26. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” Wayne Gretzky (p216 The Little BIG Things)

27. “Work your ass off on your writing “ (p 357 The Little BIG Things)

28.  “Is it “Lickable”?  Lickability and Radically Thrilling are the standards worth shooting for!” (p379, The Little Big Things)

29. “Excellence knows no bounds” (p378 The Little BIG Things)

30. “If no WOW, Then …No Go.”  (p441 The Little BIG Things)

31. “Is It “Gaspworthy”?” (p 447 The Little BIG Things)

32. “…how are you going to make … the next 15 minutes matter?” (P464 The Litle BIG Things)

33.  “When the going gets tough … get excellent” (p12 The Little BIG Things)

34. “Remember that …Training Trumps Equipment”  (p 48 The Little BIG Things)

35. “Reward Excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes.” (P 53 The Little BIG Things)

36. “You Are Your Product – Develop It” (p63 The Little BIG Things)

37. “Enthusiasm (the likes of those jumping jacks) begets enthusiasm” (p63 The Little BIG Things)

38. “You Are Your Story! So Work on It!” (p70 The Little BIG Things)

39. “Kindness is Free!” (p77 The Little BIG Things)

40.  “Pronoun Power! – Or: The Customer Is “She” p293 (The Little BIG Things)

41.  Success at GTD/Getting Things Done Is a Function of …

S=f(#TY, #TNT)

Number of “thank yous’ today, number of thank-you notes sent today

42.  Success at GTD/Getting Things Done Is a Function of …

S=f(SU)

Show up!

43. Success at GTD/Getting Things Done Is a Function of …

S=f(#OF)

Number of oddball friends.

44.   Success at GTD/Getting Things Done Is a Function of …

S=f(PDL)

Purposeful, deep listening – this is very hard work.

45. “To-Don’ts” Are More Important Than “To-Dos”. (P196 The Little BIG Things)

46. “Reward excellent failures. Punish mediocre successes” Phil Daniels (p 53 The Little BIG things)

47.  “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so” Mark Twain (p25 The Little BIG Things)

48. “It’s Showtime. All the Time!” (p114 The Little BIG Things)

49. “Why not just tell the truth?” Raymond Carver (p161 The Little BIG Things)

50. “Everything is design” Richard Farson, The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything (p373 The Little BIG Things)

51. “She or he is always …”over” prepared … has one hell of an advantage” (p139 The Little BIG Things)

52.  “Most of us try to use everyday language such as “the way we make a buck” (instead of “business model”), “let’s grow this sucker” (not “Is it scalable?”), “hire good people and treat ‘em well and give ’em a chance to shine and thank ‘em for the stuff they do” (rather than “strategic talent management”), “bust our asses to keep our customers happy and keep ‘em coming back” (instead of “customer retention management”), and “share the stuff you learn with everybody ASAP, don’t hoard it” (rather than executing a knowledge-management paradigm”). (p21 The Little BIG Things)

53. “ ..a few tentative lessons on how to deal with emergencies:

(4) Park egos at the door. (Boot egoists from the inner circle if they don’t shape up very quickly). (p30 The Little BIG Things)

54. Tough times?  Matchless Opportunity  (p33 The Little BIG Things)

55. “So-called soft factors – which are the true “hard” factors” – rule” (p104 The Little BIG Things)

56. “Put the “Eye-Sparkle Factor” on Your Menu” (p103 The Little BIG Things)

57.  “Beginnings are overwhelmingly important – and surely count as “strategic substance” in any interchange” (p118 The Little BIG Things)

58. “Some people look for things that went wrong and try to fix them. I look for things that went right and try to build on them.” Bob Stone, aka Mr ReGo (p220 The Little BIG Things)

59. “Emotion matters.” (P247 The Little BIG Things)

60. “MTMMOT” – “Manage to Memorable Moments of Truth” (p250 The Little BIG Things)

61. “Empowerment! Respect and appreciation rule! Always ask, “what do you think?” Then listen1 Then let go and liberate! Then celebrate” (The Little BIG Things)

62. “Expectations! Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it”. Amen! (The Little BIG Things)

63. “Enthusiasm! Be an irresistible force of nature!” (The Little BIG Things)

64. “Emotion! The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.” (The Little BIG Things)

65. “Ears. Effective listening: Strategic Advantage Number 1” (The Little BIG Things)

66.  “Our most beloved products were developed by hunch, guesswork and fanaticism, by creators who were eccentric – or even stark raving mad” Jack Mingo (p359 The Circle of Innovation)

67. “Expose yourself to the best things humans have done and try to bring those things into what you are doing.” Steve Jobs (p354 The Circle of Innovation)

68. “Say yes to WOW!” (P309 The Circle of Innovation)

What is your favourite Tom Peters’ insight?

Related Posts:

Business Communication It’s a Little BIg Thing It’s Everything

Going for the Guru

The Best Damn Marketing Tool

The Little BIG Things by Tom Peters is available at our E Store

All Tom Peters’ books available here

I’ve been a fan of David Meerman Scott since reading The New Rules of Marketing & PR a couple of years ago, just after establishing my business.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR is packed with practical tips and advice about how to harness our 21^st century technology and implement effective and lasting marketing campaigns according to the new rules.   It’s been  an invaluable resource.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR remained on the Business Week bestseller list for six months and has since been published in 25 languages – from Bulgarian to Vietnamese.

Since New Rules, David has written World Wide Rave and this Summer, with Brian Halligan, co authored Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History. (Our blog post here)

I was fortunate enough to participate in a workshop run by David in September last year when he last visited Australia.  (Thanks Jen Frahm).

As a self described  “recovering VP of marketing”, David  has led the charge into marketing’s new realms.

So yes – I’m a fan.

Today David launches his new book Real Time Marketing & PR How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now.

My copy has just arrived so I’ll blog more about it once I’ve read it in full. However David has published a terrific e-book as a taste tester. Just click on the image to download.

Some key points contained in it include:

• “The Internet has fundamentally changed the pace of business, compressing time and rewarding speed”
• The need to create a business culture that encourages “speed over sloth.” We live today in a “quick response” world where consumers can receive immediate information or responses from their friends. There’s an expectation to receive the same quick response from companies.

• Real time companies are more successful

David conducted research with the top 100 US companies as listed in the Fortune 500, the annual list from Fortune magazine that ranks by gross revenue of America’s top 500 public corporations.  He sent an email to each of the media relations departments with the question:

“In the last year or two, has the structure of your corporate communications team and/or communications processes changed to embrace the real-time digital era? If so, how?”

David included an email signature with a link to his blog and his Twitter ID for those people who wanted to find out more about him.

David heard back from just 28 of the Fortune 100 companies he approached. Three quarters of these companies couldn’t be contacted  or they failed to reply.

David then conducted a comparison of 2010 stock prices of the companies approached. He found that on average, the publicly traded Fortune 100 companies that responded to his inquiry (those who engaged in real-time communications) beat the S&P 500 stock index while the others on average underperformed the index.

“This is the ROI of real-time engagement.” David says.

Times have changed. Technology has altered both our customers’ behaviour and the tools and processes we, as marketers, need to use to reach them.. The old ways – typically with a mass media ad buy at its heart – no longer apply.  Consumers are wanting (demanding) information when they want it – in real time.  If we’re truly customer centric marketers – we need to respond accordingly.

Real Time Marketing & PR How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now. promises to show how we can do this.

Quick – I’m off to read the book!

Do you have a real-time story to share? How have you embraced this media?

Related Posts

If you’d like to download David’s ebook: Real-Time How Marketing & PR Speed Drives Measurable Success click here

Here’s a link to David’s launch post: How real time communications drives measurable ROI at Fortune 100 companies

Here’s a link to purchase on Amazon.

David’s other ebooks are available here or here

'The key to my heart' Image:Nina Mathews Photography

To kick start your marketing plan, think about the following three questions. The answers will be key to the design of your marketing strategy.

.

1. Who is your customer?

Your ideal customer is profitable, easy to reach and your product makes a significant difference to them.

What do you know about your ideal customer? What are their interests? Which media do they use?

Identify your ideal customer then design your marketing strategy to reach more of them.

2. Which customer problems does your product solve?

Think about your product’s core benefit in terms of the customer problems it solves. Then integrate this  information in your marketing communication.

3. How do you solve these problems differently to competitors?

Why should customers choose your products over other suppliers? Think about what makes your offering different and unique. Then once again communicate this.

A marketing plan contains other elements that will build on the answers to these key questions. What are your answers to these key questions?

Related Posts:

Clever Cost Effective Marketing Strategy

The Planning Panacea

Ten Tips to a Great Marketing Plan

Vision is the lifeblood of any organization. It is what keeps it moving forward. It provides meaning to the day-to-day challenges and setbacks that make up the rumble and tumble of real life.  -  Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers in Seth Godin’s ‘What Matters Now’.

Image Credit: joka2000. Some rights reserved.

Australian swimmer Geoff Heugill’s successful return to world swimming after losing 45 kilos  has resulted in three medals at the recent Commonwealth games, a personal best time and the prospect of  several sponsorship offers, estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

Stories such as these highlight  the power of  a vision,  creating a plan and  committing to it’s implementation.

They also highlight the value of surrounding yourself with a team to provide support and other skills to ensure the plan is realized.

We’ve posted previously about these themes. Once again, the  lessons and disciplines of sport are directly transferrable to our businesses.  And like Geoff Heugill’s story, they also provide inspiration.

Good on you Geoff!

Related Posts:

Vision Softens Strategy Landing
The Virtues of Values & Vision in Cost Effective Marketing Strategy
Marketing Strategy Just Try It

Seth recommends the definition be expanded to include more outcomes than exist currently, describing  seven different types of failure to be considered in our businesses.  (They’re also applicable to losing football teams. For background  – see  last week’s post.)

Dimensions of Failure

Rather than  a singular definition of failure such as “lack of success”,  for me,  these descriptions represent different dimensions – each on its own  is a failure. Combined, they would result undoubtedly in significant failure.

In diagnosing a business failure, or when looking for ways to improve the likelihood of success, the dimensions could be used as a check list.  Indeed Seth writes, if we truly care about our companies, customers and the value we’re creating we should consider them.  Not doing so would be failure in itself.

What do you think?

Seth’s Seven Dimensions of Failure

(my football team application appears in brackets following the description)

• Design Failure: Is the product/service mis designed so that people don’t understand it, purchase it or may harm themselves?

(Football team: Is it  structured correctly for success?)

• Failure of Opportunity:  Are you destroying your assets by poorly deploying or ignoring them, or allowing them to decay?

(Football team:  Did they execute correctly? Has the team been properly maintained, supplemented with new talent and replacing old talent?)

• Failure of Trust – Are you wasting stakeholders’ good will and respect by taking shortcuts in exchange for short term profits?

(Football Team – If they’re not giving 100+% in all ways, they’re shortchanging fans)

• Failure of Will – Are you prematurely abandoning work because of internal resistance or temporary delay in market adoption?

(Football Team – Not seeing something through.)

• Failure of Priorities: Do you focus on work that doesn’t create value?

(Football Team: Are they focusing on the right things in training and the game?)

• Failure to Quit – Sticking with mediocrity: do you keep an idea, facility or team too long because you don’t have the courage to create something better?

(Football Team:  There’s no sentiment in sport. The best players are chosen for a game.)

• Failure of Respect – Have you achieved success without treating your people, your customers and your resources with respect and honesty?

(Football Team: Fair and ethical play on and off the field, rather than winning at any cost)

The failure to quit –  to have the courage to create something better is personally  powerful – whether it be applied to my business  - or my football team!

Which ones resonate with you?

Related References:

Redefining Failure (Article by Seth Godin, HBR September 2010)
Happy Birthday Seth
Linchpin Reflections

Footy fever has hit with a vengeance Down Under. The National Rugby League grand final is scheduled this Sunday and for the first time in its history (the third time in VFL/AFL), the AFL Grand Final is to be replayed after a draw.

This weekend’s drawn result has attracted much comment about the extra time rules. Traditionally no extra time is allowed in AFL Grand Finals. If the game is drawn a replay will ensue.

The AFL is resisting considerable pressure to change the rules beyond next Saturday’s game. From a strategic marketing perspective, it’s a great example of knowing and adhering to your Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.) – that is, how your product is uniquely different to those of competitors.

The AFL’s USP

In his weekend media conference, AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou  commented that the AFL is uniquely differentiated from other football codes by the shape of the ball, the oval and its scoring system. Demetriou seemed keen to maintain the AFL’s differentiation from other codes in which games including World Cup soccer finals can be decided by  penalty shoot-outs.

Although a resolution has been passed to permit extra time and ensure a result next Saturday, it remains to be seen if the AFL will maintain its differentiation in respect to extra time – or if the rules will eventually be changed.

Personally – I’m for maintaining the differentiation. It distinguishes the game from other codes and in this instance has provided even more excitement for fans – particularly St Kilda supporters who are keen to see their team win a premiership for only the second time in a lifetime.

Do you know your own USP? Why does it matter?
In a world full of similar products and time poor consumers, identifying and communicating your USP, helps your brand stand out from the crowd, making it easy for customers to choose.

Seth Godin talks of products being ‘remark-able’ – that is worthy of remark. Providing products that solve your customers’ problems in ways uniquely different to your competitors, can help your product become remark worthy.

So how do you identify your USP ?

• Think about your product’s benefits. What customer problems does your product solve?

• How do you solve them differently to your competitors?

• What is the most compelling reason to purchase your product?

• What is the evidence for this?

Your answers to these questions will highlight what makes your product unique. Can you summarise in less than 15 words?

The RPOV8
In his book ‘The Little Big Things’, Tom Peters continues Seth’s idea about remarkabilty, and speaks of  RPOV 8: “a remarkable point of view captured in eight words or less”.

To paraphrase Tom: “Is what you’re up to remarkably different and can it be captured in simple, compelling language (4,6,8,10 ..no more than 15 words)?”

Tom regards working on your RPOV8 far more important than any strategic planning exercise.

It can also encourage innovation if uniqueness is not apparent.

So what’s your USP?

(And Go Saints for next Saturday! ☺)

• Clearly defined business and marketing objectives

In building relationships with existing customers, attracting new ones and ultimately increasing traffic into their Centres and sales (via frequency and size of spend) – the promotion will be powerful.

• Part of  comprehensive and integrated marketing activity

The promotion is just one aspect of an integrated,  comprehensive marketing program. Other elements include  tv, events, catalogues and e marketing.

• Relevant to target audience

The promotion is perfect for an online, fashion loving demographic. In building relationships with existing and potential customers, Westfield has harnessed  the interactivity of  today’s technology, and engaged customers by inviting them to apply and vote online  for their favourite candidate.

• Tourism Queensland

The Westfield promotion was likely inspired by The Best Job in the World campaign which was devised  to launch the new Islands of the Great Barrier Reef brand to Global Experience Seekers. From 34,000 applicants, Brit Ben Southall won the $150,000, six month role in a campaign which generated media coverage globally exceeding $400 million. Read more here:  Great Job Great Publicity TQ Award Entry

• Nando’s – Fake Sacha Baron Cohen

Nando’s generated buzz last year when a fake Sacha Baron Cohen arrived at the Sydney premiere of Bruno. The fake Bruno was accompanied by models who doused themselves in Nando’s Peri Peri sauce.

What is your potent promotion?

You don’t have to have sizeable budget to make promotions work. They just need to be considered, targeted and planned. Sometimes, the simplest activity can effectively increase awareness of your business, engagement with customers and generate incremental sales.

What potent promotion will you undertake? We’d love to hear.

Westfield Hunts a $100,000 Shopping Blogger
Westfield on the Hunt for $100,000 Fashion Blogger
$100,000 to Australia’s best shopper

Support of a cause that fits well with your brand, that aligns to the interests of your target customers,  and is close to your heart, has several benefits.

It helps you better engage with your customers, is motivational for your employees and differentiates your brand from competitors.

It’s not only  good for your brand but adds to your community too. However, like all marketing strategies, commitment is required to realise objectives.    So, if you’re seeking to integrate  a cause in your marketing activities – here are some which you might find inspirational:

• LOVE 146

PR Warrior, Trevor Young highlighted LOVE 146 – a cause focused on ending child sex slavery and exploitation. It’s a powerful example of communicating the story behind your brand – and how,  as Trevor says – linking to a cause adds humanity.  Here is Trevor’s post:  How LOVE 146 Uses Stories to Rally A Movement behind its cause

• 12for12K

In December 2008, Danny Brown and several friends started the 12for12K project. They’ve since raised more than $100K for thirteen different projects and used social media as the key communications tool.  A new phase of activity for 12for12K is about to commence. Read more here:  Caring Across Continents – 12for12K, and our previous posts about Danny and the project: Social Media for Good – Businesses Making a Difference and More on Non Profits Use of Social Media

The following  posts  detail the benefits of a marketing audit in an organisation’s marketing strategy:

Spring Clean Your Marketing Let’s Audit

More on Auditing – I Love A Good Audit

So if you haven’t audited your marketing activity in the last twelve months – now is the time to do so!

Happy Auditing!

Image Credit: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

They're not gone. We're still learning (and enjoying) them. 

(Had to choose this one - from a concert in Denmark)

The Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead is the new book, co-authored by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan.

David is the best selling author of several titles including The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

Brian is founder of online service and software provider, HubSpot, and author of the super informative Inbound Marketing.

Both are self confessed Deadheads!

Why The Grateful Dead?

The Grateful Dead did things differently. Their approach included a business model based on live concerts not album sales. (They played over 2,300 live concerts from 1965 – 1995, becoming the most popular touring act in rock history). They built genuine relationships with their fans who formed a dedicated community with whom they collaborated to co-create the ‘Deadhead’ lifestyle. They gave away content – encouraging their fans to record their shows and trade tapes.

In so doing, The Grateful Dead applied many marketing techniques championed in business today.

Here are just three “take aways” :

Create your own landscape: create a unique business model

“Products that are highly differentiated can still succeed today, but it’s much harder to win if your business model is the same as your competitors’. .. research your industry in order to build a killer business model. ..break free from the competitive landscape and create a cascade of unique benefits for your customers.”

Which model can you create that is different to your competitors’ and based on the unique ways that you solve your customers’ problems?

Free up your content

The Grateful Dead were pioneers of the ‘freemium’ model. They encouraged concert goers to record their live shows and even established ‘taper sections’ at the concert venues, where fans could set up their equipment for the best sound quality. A huge network traded tapes and built exposure leading to millions of new fans who purchased tickets to shows.

“The Grateful Dead teach us when we free our content, more people hear about our company and eventually do business with us”

What content would be useful to your customers? Think about blogs, videos, ebooks or white papers. Each piece of content is like a “mini magnet that attracts potential customers to your business”.

One of David’s e-books The New Rules of Viral Marketing has been downloaded more than one million times.

Give back

“When a company carefully chooses a particular charity or cause to support and makes it a part of their corporate culture, continuing the commitment over many years, the accrued benefits to both the brand and the recipient charity can be enormous”.

Read more about the band’s generosity and commitment to causes, and the Ronald McDonald House case study here: <Give back to your community.

How  can you  give back to your community  that are consistent with your brand?

These are just three of the marketing lessons. There are many others – but hopefully we’ve whet your appetite to read more! How will you apply these marketing lessons? We’d love to hear.

Related Posts:

Feel like another The Grateful Dead hit?   See and listen to them here:
Deloitte Social Media Rock Stars

The new book of popular political commentator Annabel Crabb was launched just prior to Australia's recent Federal election.

During the week before our recent election here in Australia, I noticed the launch of several books written by either political journalists or authors with a political connection.  It got me thinking about about timing.

So much of business and marketing strategy success is about execution, and in this respect, timing is everything.

Never forget implementation, boys.  In our work, it’s what I call the  ”last 98 percent” of the client puzzle.” – Al McDonald, former Managing Director, McKinsey & Co, to a project team, reported by subsequent  McKinsey MD, Ron Daniel  (from Tom Peters)

In marketing strategy, timing is not only the planned sequence of activity, but is also the “when”: the precise time of execution to leverage and maximise opportunities which appear in the market place.
These opportunities can provide the perfect time  to launch a product (eg a book), distribute content related to your product and tailor that content to suit the opportunity.

They may also be perfect for a special  promotion.  Indeed Borders (more books) conducted some cheeky election related promotions  – such as offering discounts to customers with red hair or those presenting in their “budgies”!

The Nandos ambush promotion of the Bruno premiere last year is another example of well timed activity to seize an opportunity and promote their product.

So, how do you secure perfect timing?

1. Do your situation analysis – understand and anticipate the activities occurring in the market place  which are relevant to your customers. Keep up to date with current events, movies, books  which can provide opportunities that your brand could potentially leverage.
2. Consider your objectives What are you trying to achieve? Does seizing the opportunity help you achieve your overall marketing objectives? How does it complement other activities in your action plan? Will the activity add value to your brand?
3. Review your action plan. As the business environment is dynamic some opportunities can only be leveraged if an organisation is sufficiently agile  to seize them. Do you have the resources (time, finance, human) to seize the opportunity, and to track and measure the results?

Sometimes the thought and consideration required to seize an opportunity and implement a well timed activity,  needs to be done quickly if an opportunity  arises suddenly. As we noted in a previous post “Marketing Strategy: Just Try It”:

“If you hesitate when an opportunity presents itself to you, it may be the fear of failure that makes you procrastinate” – Donald Trump

However as Tom Peters says:

Try it! Try it! Try it! If a suggestion is made, your instinctive response should be ‘Try It’. In 40 plus years of study and practice, I sometimes think I’ve only learned one thing:  ”He or she who tries the most stuff wins”

Great timing can result from  a mix of planning, agility, commitment to seize an opportunity and a little bit of luck.  However,  well timed marketing activity will enable  more powerful results and a greater return on your marketing investment.

Have you an example of great timing?

Mark Levy’s book Accidental Genius (recommended by David Meerman Scott) promotes the technique of freewriting.  One method Mark suggests is writing about a jargon word from your particular industry . The word which sprang  to mind for me, probably because of its seeming pervasiveness, was “guru”.

Formal definitions  of  ”guru” include: “Hindu or Sikh religious teacher” and “leader or adviser of a movement”.

For me,  a “guru” is a leader – an influential expert. Someone with great knowledge.

One of my favourite management  experts, Tom Peters, is frequently referred to as  a “guru”, yet despite his massive contributions to the world of management thought and practice,  he resists the name.  See Tom’s tweets here:

Some people believe it’s up to others to assign such labels – that professionals should not  tag themselves. I think live and let live.  However, isn’t it more  important  that  business owners  searching for a “guru” find the assistance they seek – a professional from whom they can learn and be guided?

Five Tips to Vet Your Guru

If you are searching for a “guru”– whether it be management, finance, marketing or other – here are five tips to help  vet your quest:

1. Assess qualifications Are real credentials provided to support the proposed wisdom? Credentials are just a start but they provide evidence of the tools available in the particular professional’s tool box.

2. Assess experience What is the experience?  How many years? In what  industries?  Is the experience  relevant to your business? What are the transferrable outcomes of that experience that can be applied to your business?

3. Client testimonials What has been previously  achieved in real terms?  What have other people said?  If case studies are provided – are there real names provided of people and companies?

4. Price “Gurus” or industry professionals don’t come cheap. Nor should they.   In his book ‘Outliers’, Malcolm Gladwell spoke of  10,000 hours as the minimum investment of time required to acquire true world class expertise. Whether  an artist or a humble marketer (like myself),  fees charged should reflect the customer value created from the previous and ongoing investment in education and practical experience.  Fees can be flexibly packaged. So ask for this.

5.  Do you get on  with them? Is there a personal connection? Let’s face it,  life is short and sometimes business is challenging. Shouldn’t we enjoy the journey and have some fun along the way?  Working with people with whom you can mutually learn and enjoy enriches the business experience.    If you are choosing from a range of service providers  who appear equal on other criteria, go with the one with whom you connect. Business can be fun.

So  if you are seeking a “guru” or just professional assistance – I hope these thoughts assist!

In the end though, it is the value created for you the customer – not the label – that matters.

What do you think?

History Never Repeats? Not True.

My favourite interview this week was with actor,  writer, documentary maker (and from his twitter list – a cricket fan), Stephen Fry who is currently visiting Australia.  The question about Oscar Wilde  arose  in a discussion of the modern digital world .  I’d previously wondered about Shakespeare and blogging - so was keen to hear more.

Stephen believes that it’s impossible to understand digital technology without a grasp of history. He uses the development of print media as an example of how old ways are replaced and eventually accepted as the new.  In the 18^th century Stephen says there was a new kind of technology as hand presses and printing became increasingly cheaper. The hand presses led to magazines, journalism and political pamphlets with names like “The Rambler”, “The Idler” and “The Tattler” – considered by many people  as trivial and  not “earnest debate”  – similar to the way Twitter is regarded by some today.

So what are the implications of remembering history for those of us currently exploring digital in business and marketing?

Whilst history reflects patterns in  acceptance of innovation: the old eventually replaced by the new which in turn  is superceded; for businesses it is simple.  We just need to focus on our customers, identify what they are doing and respond accordingly.

The statistics show that increasingly people are moving online – using the web to search, purchase or communicate socially. Facebook has just hit 500 million users world wide, Twitter has more than 100 million users.

Businesses should identify where their customers are, and  ensure they have a presence there.   They need to be easily found when their customers search online and if  customers are using social media platforms, engage them by building relationships – not selling.

If you are a business unsure about these platforms – look to your customer first and foremost.

And in respect to  innovation –  as Stephen says –  history shows that frequently the new ways spread, are eventually accepted as the norm and later replaced as “old”.

History it seems, does repeat itself.

Related Links:

Stephen Fry: In Defence of the Modern Digital World (Interview with Mark Colvin from ABC Radio)

Stephen Fry’s Website

Stephen Fry on Twitter

David Hockney’s iPhone passion: In the interview Stephen mentions David Hockney’s iPhone passion.  See more  here – by Lawrence Weschler of The New York Review of Books

David Hockney’s Website

Facebook hits 500m social media by numbers

Related Posts:

Marketing 2.0 impacts and opportunities in a tech savvy world

The Beautiful Benefits of Business Blogging

What is Your Online Marketing Strategy?

The 1-2-3 of Managing Your Social Media – A Beginner’s Guide

In Memory of Netscape – The Transformation of Business Marketing

Some Linkedin Lovin’

Social Media For Good – Businesses Making A Difference Using Social Media 12for12K

Opened by the passionate Minister of Small Business, The Hon Dr Craig Emerson MP, the Summit was a jammed packed day and evening of learning, inspiration and networking.

In addition to the pollies  (the Hon Leader of the Opposition presented an energetic address  which aimed to be ‘non political, non partisan!’),  the morning commenced with a conversation with Australia’s top public servants about the regulations that affect small business.  Included on the panel was ASIC Chairman, Tony D’Aloisio and the Australian Tax Commissioner, Michael D’Ascenzo. This was the second time I’d heard Michael  speak – and he continues to strike me as a very marketing oriented Commissioner – with his focus upon putting the “taxpayers and the community at the heart of the ATO’s thinking. “

Ben White, Director Optus Strategy and Corporate Development highlighted the real value of the national broadband network. However, for me the morning’s highlight was  the Kochie’s Business Builders’ (KBB) Panel Session: “Red Hot Sales, Marketing and Social Media Strategies”.  Passion abounded.

Some of the great insights from the panelists included those from Dell’s US social media executive, Richard Binhammer who said:

“Share the passion for your business and connect,” he said. “The reddest, hottest thing about social media is that in fact it allows you to connect more strongly, in a real way.”

Richard encouraged businesses to share the good news stories.

Telstra Business Award winning entrepreneur Valerie Khoo, founder of the Sydney Writers’ Centre, is passionate about leveraging technology to build business.  She urged businesses to collect contact information via their websites, then communicate with customers in the way promised.  Valerie also encouraged businesses to consider social media – particularly blogs and Facebook – to engage with customers.  She advised businesses to not be deterred by the time required for this medium.

“You’re in total control of how much time you spend,” she said.

The afternoon featured some streamed workshops.

In the ‘Small is Beautiful session’, Robert Gerrish, founder of Flying Solo, Australia’s micro business community with more than 25,000 members, discussed the findings of ‘Understanding Micro Business’, a comprehensive survey of over 1,300 business owners and stated:

“The more we work the happier we are.”

In the same session, small business consultant and KBB marketing guru, Linda Hailey reminded:

“Passion is what makes you beautiful.”

The “Truly Tech Savvy’ was one of the most popular sessions, highlighting the increased consciousness amongst business owners of the opportunities created by technology.

The workshop ‘Cash is still king’ explored cash flow management techniques small business can use to drive revenue and improve debtor management and provided some invaluable advice.  Angela McDonald, Director of  Optimum Recoveries spoke of the value of obtaining credit checks for clients and your own business, whilst Chartered Accountant, Susan Milicevic of Aspire Consulting emphasized  the importance of having a Cash Flow plan.

The program’s other significant recurring theme was price.

Julia Bickerstaff, Owner of The Business Bakery and KBB finance expert urged to price strongly and confidently.

‘You can’t win by being cheap” she said. “Talk price early and talk price often.”

Julia suggested:

“Position away from price – be different, special, unique.  Make yourself different.”

Linda Hailey agreed:

“Think positive. Don’t chase the volume,  chase the value.  Don’t discount – value add.” Linda said.

Michael Derin, Managing Director of Azure Group summed up:

“Small business is about the customer. Surround yourself with clients who appreciate and will pay you for what you do. Value yourself as a small business owner,” he said.

According to Mike O’Hagen, Founder and Owner of Mini Movers, a company with more than 500 employees and $30 million annual turnover, the outlook for small business looks good.

“In 30 years of business there have never been so many opportunities,” Mike said.

The Summit concluded with a dinner which featured several inspirational small business success stories. My favourites  included Leanne Faulkner, Founder of Billie Goat Soap which after only  five years  has been named as Supplier of the Year to Myer.  A beautifully produced  and packaged product – you can feel the passion in its making.

Also inspiring was John Sharpe, Managing Director of Riverlife, an innovative company based in Brisbane, dedicated to providing “dynamic, fun and heart pumping adventure experiences”  which embrace Brisbane’s culture and history.

Roseanne Anderson, Founder of another success story, Cyber Hair,  reiterated the now familiar theme:

“My business is my passion.”  she said.

We departed with new contacts, knowledge, inspiration and renewed passion – matched only perhaps by David Koch’s amazing energy still evident at 11pm after his 3 am start!

Thanks COSBOA, PinStripe Media and all sponsors and supporters for a great event.

Related references:

The Sydney Writers’ Centre

Flying Solo

From the MyCharity:Water website: "This is Caroline. Beautiful smile, right? She's smiling because she's drinking clean water for the first time. .." Read more by clicking on the picture.

Regular readers of this blog will know I am a huge Seth fan.  And it’s his birthday .. (a special one!). However Seth doesn’t really want to engage in the regular ‘birthday hoopla’ ..  Rather (and in typical Seth fashion) he has given his birthday to MyCharity:Water.

We can make a difference.

Happy Birthday Seth!

Read Seth’s post ‘It’s Not My Birthday’ here.

Download it here: Remember-the-Customer

What do you think?

Updated:
Further response: Mark Cameron: Twitter ain’t Twaddle in BRW 15 July 2010

Related Posts:
Deloitte. Social Media Rock Stars
Social Media at Deloitte Australia (Webinknow Blog)

Image: Salvatore Vuono, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For businesses, blogs engage  customers, share information, feedback and most importantly, build relationships.  The following provide more information:

The Beautiful Business Benefits of Blogging and The Best Damn Marketing Tool

Blogs are  also a great source of information  to your business.

I recently asked several esteemed colleagues to name their favourite blogs. Their responses with my own favourites are listed below.

Valeria Maltoni, Brand Strategist – Conversation Agent

Valeria Maltoni built one of the first online communities associated with Fast Company magazine.  A brand strategist with 20 years of real world corporate experience, 10 of which online, she’s worked with Fortune 500 and small start up companies in 5 industries. She specializes in taking companies to what’s next in their business cycle through marketing communciations, customer dialogue and brand advocacy.

Valeria’s blog Conversation Agent is ranked among the top 25 marketing blogs in the world on AdAgePower 150 (and is one of our favourites!).  Read more about Valeria Maltoni here.

Valeria Maltoni’s favourite blogs (for SME’s):

Jennifer Frahm, Jennifer Frahm Collaborations

Deloitte Australia. More Grateful Dead than Barry Manilow.

In a connected world, power shifts to those best able to connect.”

Dov Seidman, Ethicist

If likened to musical styles,  some may think of accounting firms more as Barry Manilow than the Grateful Dead!

However I recently heard about the social media activity of Deloitte Australia, a member of the global Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu network and one of the big four accounting firms.  Their activity includes Facebook, Yammer (a type of in-house Twitter), Twitter and YouTube. They’ve achieved  significant results. It’s a remarkable story – and if you’re a larger organisation, it may just get you rockin’ toward social media!

Recognising Opportunity

After a decade of particular turbulence with fairly rapid, consecutive changes in leadership (CEO’s), Deloitte Australia was seeking new strategies.

The firm had identified the consumer shift towards accessing information when, where and how they want, and consumers’  increased use of social media.

Deloitte regard social media as :

… about socialising in communities online – sometimes leading, sometimes connecting and sometimes following … to be where people are and to participate in a way that speaks to them directly.”

Cognisant that many of their stakeholders use social media, they recognised the opportunity:

Companies are ignoring a valuable media communication outlet that targets a generation that has time and money to spend on technology”.

As innovation, relevance and connection are hallmarks of the Deloitte brand, it was a good fit to embrace social media.

Objectives

Increasing brand awareness and engaging their staff to present “an authentic, user generated impression of Deloitte for prospective candidates and clients” are key for the firm.

The Strategy: An Inside Out Approach

To achieve this, Deloitte’s social media strategy implementation was aligned to their ‘inside out ‘ approach to new ideas and innovation.

At the end of 2008, they launched Yammer ( ‘the best inhouse sandpit available’) to shape value and develop a way of being relevant to the firm as a whole.

Initially an in-house social chat room, it soon became the platform upon which problems are posed and solved.  Deloitte has found Yammer a great way to seek input, test ideas and gather feedback quickly. They also state it has been powerful in disseminating information, collaborating on a large scale globally and connecting with undiscovered communities.

More than 50% of Deloitte Australia’s 5000 people have now  signed up and recent statistics show a correlation between retention of staff and the Yammer leader board.

Deloitte says that the tipping point though for Yammer was when their Digital CEO, Peter Williams, called for videos and tag lines for a new advertising campaign, known as the “Green Dot Campaign”.  His call triggered 1000+ new members of Deloitte Australia to join Yammer, the formation of 38 groups and  creation of  1184 original concepts.

Other Initiatives

• Recruitment : “JoinMe@Deloitte”

Deloitte has established a JoinMe@Deloitte Facebook application, which links  the firm’s employee referral program to their employees’ Facebook network.

The idea came through their innovation (ideas) program.

To date more than 25% of Deloitte’s 4,000 employees have added the application to their Facebook profile and almost 3,000 (2,793) potential referees have viewed the application, generating 150 requests to be referred for hire.

Leveraging employees’ existing networks and mobilising them to act as recruiters makes financial sense for the firm and necessitates a committed, trusting and respectful environment.

• You Tube

At the end of 2008, Deloitte established a dedicated  YouTube channel ,  which to date has generated more than 40,000 video views. (Click on the link to go directly to the channel).

The Results – Harnessing Collective Wisdom

The results have been impressive.  As a firm focussed on innovation, David Redhill, Chief Marketing Officer of Deloitte cites several positive outcomes of their social media activity including:

• Revenue driving new products developed from using the media
• Tangible business improvements resulting from harnessing the collective of wisdom of their people
• Engaging 4500 people in the process of building a marketing strategy;
• They’re now the largest Yammer network in the world
• The blitzing of the competition and grabbing share of media and government mind with their innovative use of Twitter during the last Federal Budget.

Managing Risk

Many businesses contemplating social media activity are nervous about potential risks to their business.  Deloitte has addressed this.

Like  marketing strategist and best selling author David Meerman Scott, who  talks of the need for organisations to ‘lose control’ when spreading ideas and creating world raves,   Deloitte believes in   ‘unleashing energy and not trying to control it’.

The firm has  developed a framework around how it manages social media risk. They’ve defined acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, monitor use and deal with any inappropriate use. Their focus is upon education:

‘The central idea is for people to understand how social media works. Their national social media council has developed guidelines that put focus on education.”

Deloitte’s social media activity internally is supported by two of the firm’s key values – empower and trust.  Employees are counselled about personal and professional responsiblity for both their own and the company’s reputation.

Social Media Rock Stars

Social media as a communications channel is relevant for business if their  stakeholders are online and participating. With 400 million active users on Facebook,  24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and an estimated 5-10 thousand Twitter accounts opened per day, it is likely that for  businesses,  many stakeholders are active in this realm.

In addition to being described as ‘rock stars’, Deloitte has established themselves as Web 2.0 thought leaders and as a top employment brand in technology and business.  As they say “not bad for a firm of accountants!”

Rock on Deloitte!

This content is drawn from a presentation by David Redhill, Chief Marketing Officer of Deloitte Australia, provided in May 2010  and their publication: Social Media at Deloitte. Participation, communication, transformation

Update:

Just posted: Read David Meerman Scott‘s post from the WebInkNow blog here.

(Thanks David!)

Follow Deloitte on Twitter: @green_dot

Linchpin - Raise The Flag!

Following the great success of Seth Godin’s book Linchpin, more than 5,600 people in 90 countries will attend one of 791 meet ups today. It’s a way of Seth fans to meet and connect in person and to ‘talk, challenge and inspire’.

In honour of today, we feature five of our favourite Seth Godin blog posts. It was hard to choose!

(To  sign up to Seth’s blog click on the link above or on his head below!).

Hope you find the posts as inspiring and informative as we did! Thanks Seth!

Five Favourite  Seth Posts

Breakthroughs and Drips - about delivering consistent benefits over time
Hope & The Magic Lottery - looking after your customers and walking your own path, one step at a time
Cheating The Clock – rethinking the productivity of our work hours

How Big Is Your World? - about Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen - a non profit global fund which uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve global poverty, and her book - The Blue Sweater.

You Matter - some beautiful words of inspiration.

Which is your favourite Seth Godin post?   (Can you choose? )

Related Posts

• Linchpin Raise the Flag Day here.
• Quiet the Lizard Brain – Courage, Creativity & Creating Value – Seth Godin’s Linchpin (Apologies for the ‘scrunched’ title on this post .. we’ve had a couple of technical issues due to exploration of the technology which went awry! It’s being fixed currently! )
• Preview Seth’s New Book & Assist a Good Cause
• Linchpin is available for purchase here

1. How can we market our products with limited resources?

Resources are always limited for businesses regardless of size, necessitating careful allocation of expenditure for the best possible return. How to market with limited resources?

Read: Clever Cost Effective Marketing Strategy

Why is implementation so important? Picasso said:  Action is the key to foundational success‘. Plans must be implemented or they remain just plans.

Read more in: Marketing Strategy – Just Try It

2. Why blog?

Web 2.0 has facilitated interactivity never before possible. Blogs (or weblogs) have several benefits for business. Read more here:

The Beautiful Business Benefits of Blogging

To Blog or Not to Blog

3.  Why social media?

90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change whatyou’re doing today to be ready for that? - Seth Godin, April 20, 2009

Social media has become a powerful additional communications channel for building relationships with customers. Managing Social Media is as easy as 1-2-3!

Read more:   The 1-2-3 of Managing Your Social Media

4. What’s branding?

A brand is often thought of as a mark or distinguishing element – the company identifier, almost like a personal signature. However this is just one aspect.

A brand represents everything your organization offers.

Read more about branding here:

Your Brand So Much More than Your Logo

Branding Values Vibe & Synchronicity

Romancing The Brand (A discussion of Lovemarks – much loved and respected brands)

5. Can you recommend a great marketing book?

Of course!

Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

I highly recommend this book written by the two founders of 37 Signals – a trailblazing software company. Rework so nicely complements Seth Godin’s Linchpin and contains the same no nonsense ‘just do it!’ attitude of Tom Peter’s. You can read it in one afternoon and will be inspired afterwards to tackle your best work!

More about Rework here. Rework is available for purchase  here

What is your most important marketing question?

The Little BIG Things by Tom Peters

Tom Peters has been described as the “uber-guru” of management and “the father of the post-modern corporation.”

As a consultant, writer, columnist, seminar lecturer and stage performer—Tom Peters’ energy, style, influence and ideas have shaped new management thinking. Read more about The Little BIG Things here .   (Our post- Business Communication It’s a little BIG thing is included in the ‘Media Sightings’ of The Little BIG Things – page down on the link here )

Linchpin by Seth Godin

Seth Godin’s books brim with inspirational marketing ideas and motivation – and Linchpin is significant in both.

Amongst the themes that Seth explores are the ‘lizard brain’ – which holds us back from realizing our potential; and the plea for individuals to be true to themselves – to work hard, avoid compliance, and go above and beyond.

We’ve blogged previously about Linchpin.  You can read our thoughts here: Quiet the Lizard Brain, Linchpin Reflectionsand Linchpins You Can’t Get Far Without One.  Subscribe to Seth’s blog here.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR  and World Wide Rave  by David Meerman Scott

OK .. I actually read these last year but refer to them often.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR -How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases,Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, is now in its second edition.

For practical P.R. in the age of Twitter, see…The New Rules of Marketing and PR-The New York Times

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel

Joel says: “Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business To Everyone.”

Six Pixels of Separation integrates digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship with case studies and practical tips for application. Read the Huffington Post Review

Connection Generation by Iggy Pintado

Iggy Pintado is a master of connection. We’re all connected!   Connection Generation reveals how individuals, groups and networks have progressed beyond their intent to communicate to a tangible connection between people, information, experiences and ideas. It proposes that anyone who had access to a computer or mobile device since 1995 – regardless of age – is part of the Connection Generation.

Why People Fail by Siimon Reynolds

This book by renowned Australian advertising entrepreneur, Siimon Reynolds, is full of tips and rituals to help confirm and enact your life and work purpose, be more organised, productive and creative .. to name just a few.

And next …  (on the pile):

So what are you reading?

Related Posts:

You Are What You Read

An Escape Velocity Bookshelf – Chris Brogan ( a great list!)

Most books featured here are available at our E Store

Established as a site where anyone can upload and share their videos with the world,YouTube today is a thriving community, attracting more than two billion views daily – nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined.

YouTube has become an increasingly important marketing tool to build customer relationships. It’s also a great resource for businesses.

Here are five of our favourite YouTube videos which we hope you find both interesting and useful.

Tom Peters: On Reading For Success

Tom reminds us that a key to success is reading. Staying informed and developing analytical skills are essential in business today.

“Read wide, read long, read deep” Tom says.

David Meerman Scott: Five Questions

Best selling author, David Meerman Scott, asks five questions at workshops across the world and finds the responses to be remarkably similar, highlighting The New Rules of Marketing & PR

Seth Godin & Tom Peters: On Blogging

Seth and Tom provide their thoughts about the value of blogging. Blogging since 2004, Tom concludes: “It’s the best damn marketing tool I’ve ever had … and it’s free.”

Elizabeth Gilbert: Creativity

Best selling author of ‘Eat Pray Love’, Elizabeth Gilbert, provides inspirational insights into creativity.

The Real Meaning of Success: Deepak Chopra

Providing a service that is needed .. having fun along the way ..these are just a couple of Deepak Chopra’s thoughts about the real meaning of success.  The Real Meaning of Success

Harnessing You Tube

This article provides some great tips to get the most from YouTube.

Top 10 You Tube Tips for Small Businesses

What’s your favourite YouTube?

Update:

Just posted – read (and see) David Meerman Scott in his post: Online Video Rocks As A Global Marketing Channel.

‘The linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create and make things happen” Seth Godin

We blogged a little while ago about Seth Godin’s Linchpin. (You can read the posts here and here)

Everyone who knows me, knows I am a huge Seth fan. (It’s also probably  fairly evident if you are perusing our blog for the first time!)

I loved this book.

Recently Seth asked those of us who have read Linchpin, to continue to spread the word, and pass our copy to someone who hasn’t yet read it.

I must admit – I can’t do that!! I have a strong attachment to my books (particularly the ones I love) and this is one that I will re-read. However I will happily purchase copies as gifts – so hopefully that will make up for my attachment.

Marketing Linchpin
The marketing of Linchpin was fantastic. It became a NY Times bestseller in less than a week following release – without any paid advertising.

The buzz was caused not only by Seth’s existing fans (like myself) who eagerly pre-ordered their copies but by the enormous amount of blogging and interviews that occurred surrounding the release. Here is a list(which doubles as a brilliant blog list) and Seth’s post.

Strategically, Seth’s existing fans (brand advocates) spread the word to other fans and new customers. This week, Seth wrote about the value of fans compared with the costs of marketing to strangers  in The Circles (No More Strangers).

Cause Related Marketing
Our appetite was also whet when Seth distributed a copy (or chapter if residing out of the US) one month pre release in return for a donation to Acumen – a non profit global venture fund which uses entreprenurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.  The limited pre release raised US$108,000 for Acumen, which focuses on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.  We got a taste and helped a good cause in the process.

Click here here to see an interview with Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen CEO and Linchpin.

Inside cover of Linchpin 1st edition.

Calling All Linchpins!

The buzz continues.

One of three ideas detailed in a new call for linchpins is The Linchpin Vook , a Facebook page  where  people can post videos and stories of their own linchpins.

Linchpin Marketing Lessons for Business

• Harness your existing customers’ passion and advocacy for your brand. These customers will do your marketing for you and spread the word.
• Give something (many things)  of value away. (Seth not only provided the book/chapter early on but has since given other e-books and downloads)
• Tie in with a cause for which you’re passionate. Our businesses are just one aspect of a bigger community.
• Say thank you sincerely and often.

Linchpin Extras

Linchpin was published without an index.  Josh Bernoff, another fan, kindly organised one!  Here it is!

Another great discovery from reading Linchpin was the art of Hugh Macleod - Gaping Void . Here is an interview Hugh did with Seth.

So .. if you haven’t read Linchpin yet .. go do it!   It could be the difference in creating and realizing your dreams in 2010!

Thanks to Robin Dickinson who asked if I read the book and inspired this post!

You can purchase Linchpin at our E Store.


Related Posts

Preview Seth’s New Book & Assist A Good Cause
Quiet The Lizard Brain – Courage, Creativity & Creating Value – Seth Godin’s Linchpin
Linchpin Reflections
You Are What You Read
Developing Talent Through Personal Branding

* Title from Linchpin – p49

Lovemarks. ‘We will always LOVE you.’

Trademarks were products that learned to crawl; brands are trademarks that learnt to walk upright. What’s next in the evolutionary chain? Lovemarks: brands that soar. How to give them wings?  There’s nothing as elevating as love.” - Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi

I’ve recently become romantically involved!  Not with a person (I’m very happily married) but with an idea. It’s called Lovemarks, and it’s the the work of Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Much is  written about branding.   It’s everything a company does, represented  by the ‘name, term, sign, symbol or combination thereof ‘,  identifying and differentiating  products and services.  Lovemarks takes this concept so much further.

What are Lovemarks?

According to Roberts: “Lovemarks are those brands built on respect which make emotional connections and suffused with the most powerful emotion of all – love.”

Connecting with customers emotionally and forging long term relationships with them will amount to increased business.

As Kevin says: “ It’s the ultimate premium profit generator . … it’s about selling more at higher prices more frequently to more people because you have exclusive relationships with them based not only on trust and respect, but on that most powerful of emotions – Love.”

The Love/Respect Quadrant

Since 2000, Kevin has been using the ‘Love Respect’ quadrant , a perceptual map positioning  Fads, Products, Brands and Lovemarks according to their levels of Love and Respect.

Fads are depicted as high love and low respect; Products – low love, low respect; whilst Brands fall into the ‘low love, high respect’ quadrant and Lovemarks: ‘ high love, high respect’ .

What Makes a Lovemark?

The characteristics of  a Lovemark can be correlated to those of  an enduring personal love. The relationship is between the brand and the customer.

For me, great personal love is underpinned not only by respect, but also care, commitment, interest to the success of the other person and trust.

A Lovemark brand shares these qualities in its customer relationships.   Our brands become Lovemarks when we inject this type of love into what we do.

The Transition to Lovemarks

Commitment to customer satisfaction, constantly striving to innovate and shape our services to our customer needs and communicating in a way which resonates with customers,  combine to demonstrate a brand’s love for its customers.

The vigour with which this is done could be called passion –  described by Tom Peters as  ‘enthusiastic fixation’ (or ‘obsession’). Perhaps Lovemark brands are enthusiastically fixated upon the care and satisfaction of customers. The passion and care of our brands is matched only by the passion and care of our customers. Perhaps it is passion reflected by a brand’s energy  and commitment to consistency which keeps the customer love light burning.

And like any great love, perhaps this feeling cannot be forced. To be true, love must be mutual – only shared if both parties are interested in partaking.

7 Questions: How to Romance Your Brand & Transform to a Lovemark

Assess the following. Ask your customers their perceptions – as it will be their perceptions which ultimately transforms your brand into a Lovemark.

• How much love goes into your brand? Are you nurturing it, committed to it’s growth and success?
• How much do you care about satisfying your customers?
• Are you passionate about shaping your products/services to  your customers needs?
• Are you looking for new ways to satisfy your customers’ needs – enhancing your customer relationships?
• Do you care as much about your brand as you do of our customers?
• Are you committed to the long term welfare of your customers?
• If you answered yes, to all of the above – do you communicate this passion and commitment to your customers in a way that connects with them?

Are Lovemarks Linchpins?

In Seth Godin’s terminology, perhaps Lovemarks are Linchpins – indispensable brands that delight and challenge; that are passionate, believe in themselves, are honest, trustworthy and most importantly, connect with their customers.

Favourite Lovemarks

Here are the Top 200 Lovemarks. (Vegemite is #26!)

Amongst my favourites, is anything by Baz Lurhmann for the consistency, passion and care in creation and nurture.

As Nicole Kidman sings “How wonderful life is with you in the world”. Perhaps, that’s how we feel about Lovemarks.

What do you think?

Further Information & Official Websites:

The Story Behind Lovemarks
Lovemarks The Future Beyond Brands

Related Posts

Your Brand: So Much More Than Your Logo

Branding Values Vibe & Synchronicity

Branding Innovate don’t Imitate

The problem with communication … is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

George Bernard Shaw

From Metroactive.com - 'A Talking Heads album cover that never was' by Anita Kunz

In our recent post Business Communication. It’s A Little BIG Thing. It’s Everything. we talked of  David Meerman Scott’s research into ‘gobbledygook’ – those frequently used but meaningless, nonsensical words.

In conjunction with Hubspot, David has created a Gobbledygook Grader, which evaluates written content (press release, brochure copy, etc.) checking for use of gobbledygook, jargon, cliches and over-used, hype-filled words. Run your content through the grader and you’ll receive a grade together with a full report.

It’s a great tool to check and eliminate  those words and phrases which have crept into our communication –  the ‘gobbledygook’ which holds little meaning for our intended audience.   The site also provides some handy links to other useful resources.

As we’ve said before (but it’s worth repeating): simple and clear business communication –  is  a little BIG thing. It’s everything. (Thanks Tom Peters!)

Related Links and Posts

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott and The Little BIG Things by Tom Peters are available here.

David Meerman’s Scott Gobbledyook Manifesto is available for download here.

Business Marketing Insight: Peter Drucker 100 years On

5 Benefits of Being Design (Customer) Focused