Marketing Places, Spaces, People & Ideas

My brother is a shoe bomber (Or… context matters)

February 26th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

My brother is a 29-yr-old police officer in a mid-sized town in Kansas. He is also pretty close to squeaky-clean. Knowing those facts makes the following story even more funny. Trust me.

So…. my brother is in Nashville for an FOP convention (for the uninitiated, that’s the Fraternal Order of Police). While wandering around the sights after the convention wraps, the sole of his boot starts to separate. He, being the McGyver type and also a serious cheapskate, decides to use superglue to reattach the sole. He makes the repair, and satisfied with the results, winds up the trip, packs and heads to the airport.

As he goes through the security checkpoint and goes to pick up his belongings from the xray conveyor belt, he notices his boots are sitting atop the xray box and TSA agents are approaching him. They let him know that they’ve discovered a discrepancy with his shoes… can he explain?

He tells them the story of the separated sole and the resulting repair. They “uh-huh” him, ask for his ticket, photo ID, when his plane is supposed to be taking off and where his flying companion is (“Did someone just drop you off here, sir? Didn’t you arrive with anyone else?”) My brother points out his patiently waiting (and quietly laughing) buddy. More TSA agents arrive and escort my brother and his suspicious shoes to a little room for further questioning.

He tells the separated sole story another 3 times to various agents. He tells them why he’s in town… they “Uh-huh” him again and huddle in the corner of the room, discussing the suspicious boot. An agent explains that they’ve seen a round metal disc inside the sole of the glued boot and this is the problem. My brother, being the resourceful guy he is, volunteers to cut open the boot to retrieve/examine whatever the thing is… saying, “If I dropped a quarter in there, I want it back, of course!” The agents don’t see the humor and tell him they cannot cut it open to look (what if it blows up?) and they can’t ask him to cut it open, either.

Being a police officer, he understands that for what it is… we can’t ask you to do it, but you can do it yourself if you want. So, given that they are in a TSA area, no one has a knife. My brother takes a key and saws at the glue. After a while, an agent procures a knife, cuts a hole in the sole, examines the metal plate inside the boot, and returns the boot to my single-shoed brother.

He made his flight and is determined to repair the boot. But not with superglue and not right before a flight.

The moral of the story? No matter how sensible, logical, well-meaning or well-thought out your actions may be, in the wrong context, they’ll make a TSA agent cut open your shoe.

Always consider the context.

Tags: Communication, context, Lessons Learned, life
Posted in Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business, Social Media, Writing | No Comments »

Waste Management, PR and Reality TV

February 12th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

I don’t write as much about Public Relations on this blog because I write A LOT about Public Relations over on the Journal Record’s PR blog.

This week’s PR post is about Waste Mangement COO Larry O’Donnell’s trip to the trenches to experience what his employees actually do during their work day and the chronicling of that experience on the new TV show “Undercover Boss.”

This week’s episode, airing Sunday, features a Hooter’s exec doing the same thing. So… first garbage and portable toilets and second hot wings and hot chicks.

Aside from the potential PR benefits and pitfalls, which I talk about in the Journal Record post, consider for a moment the PR possibilities for the show itself by starting with something everyone thinks is awful (cleaning toilets) and following it with something highly controversial (hot pants or hot wings… why do you go?).

Undercover Boss is pulling out all the stops to launch successfully and letting the buzz in the leadership, management, business, environmental, feminist, manly men and reality TV camps and in social media drive the ratings. What do you think? Too much calculatedness on the part of the show? Do you “trust” that the experience matters to the companies?

Tags: Business, job, Journal Record, Lessons Learned, Marketing, PR, reality TV, Undercover Boss
Posted in Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business, Social Media | No Comments »

reBlog from altitudebranding.com: 3 Reasons Why Expertise Costs Money

February 10th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

I found this fascinating quote today:

Employers pay for that expertise in the form of a salary. Audiences pay for books written by people who have detailed their experiences or knowledge. University tuition costs money. And you can argue all day long about how to determine the value of learning and how to filter out the good from the bad. But the fact remains that experience and knowledge can be worth money, and those that have it have reasons to put a pricetag on it.altitudebranding.com, 3 Reasons Why Expertise Costs Money, Feb 2010

You should read the whole article.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Google Goes Social And Size Does Matter

January 28th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

Results from my Social Circle for "Marketing"

I noticed yesterday that new results were on my Google results page (entry on the page, above?). A bit stalker-ish, I guess, but its the beginnings of mainstreaming the relevant web the way we’ve been talking about on this blog and many others.

Google’s take on Social Search mirrors what I’ve been saying (or my thoughts mirror theirs, I guess… probably should go ahead and assume they thought of this whole relevance thing first… ) for a while: Results from people we’ve chosen to connect to are more relevant to us. Now that Google is showing me results from people I’m connected to online (Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, etc.) the size and quality of that network matters more than ever.

The search page above is one for “Marketing.” Since I am connected online to a number of talented, prolific, smart and creative marketing people, the results returned for me were a list of awesomeness I could peruse. Blog posts I missed, white papers, web sites, all sorts of goodness. From people I’ve already chosen to listen to. In one place, regardless of how I’m connected to that person and where the content resided originally.

Some of the "Marketing" results from my social circle via Google

If I were only connected to a few great marketers, I’d miss out on some of the great resources I found. Social search filters the web through my definition of relevant and shows me more of who I trust. I am very, very happy.

Where do you see this going? How will it change how businesses view connecting with people? How they treat their web sites? Social results are on the bottom of the coveted first page… maybe the best new way to get first page placement is to be (drum roll…) RELEVANT to your prospect rather than merely the best SEO-’d web site out there. Here’s hoping.

Tags: Communication, connectivity, Google, Marketing, real time search, relevance, Social Media, web site
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media | 3 Comments »

Start with WHY – and Win

January 22nd, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

Go for WHY: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/318947873/

List posts have their place, and I know they are good for traffic. I’ve written them, too. But our super-connected world and the constant flow of information seems to be driving us to oversimplify complex subjects and interactions. By creating lists. Lots of lists. In some cases, lists of lists.
I’m not against all lists… I believe in a to-do list, a grocery list and have tweeted & retweeted helpful design tip, font and how-to lists. But not all things can (or should) be reduced to a bulleted list.

If it’s a complex subject, treat it with the depth it deserves. A marketing communications plan, encompassing goals, objectives, strategies, tactics and metrics should be more than a list of items. A public relations plan should be more than a list of ideas or publications and an editorial calendar. When we start to work with a new client we ask a lot of questions about their business… not just about what they sell and who they sell it to, but about things like:

Where does your money come from? Revenue? Profit streams and margins?

What is the recent history of the market segment you inhabit? Near future changes or evolutions you expect? Long-term future or potential?

Adjacent markets? Competitive markets?

What factors in the market and within your company’s revenue map do you control or influence?

We augment with our own research and then we tackle goals and objectives, clearly grounded in the business case for what we’re doing. The marketing communications plan addresses how the goals and objectives fit the larger picture of the business and where it wants or needs to go. When you start with a good WHY, all the WHATs and HOWs become much easier to define and later on to sell to the people who have to sign the checks to see them implemented.

Tags: Business, business development, Communication, Marketing, messaging, planning, PR, Writing
Posted in Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media, Writing | 3 Comments »

They Buy Because We Use These > Brand Audit, Pt 2

January 4th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

By now, you’ve completed all the steps in part 1 (previous post) and have a mountain of data…. random bits of impersonal knowledge. Next, we need to add some human insight to the data, season with some business sense and a dash of intuition and we’ll develop actionable information.

Talk to your customers. Especially your best ones. I don’t like lengthy, impersonal surveys for this. Customers are valuable and you should treat them (and their time) as such. Call up, go see, take out to lunch (depending on your business) your best customers and just ask them why they do business with you. Tell them you’re in the middle of trying to quantify who you are as a brand and that you value their opinion. In fact, you’d love to find more customers just like them. Ask them how they’d describe your company to someone looking for the service you offer (if they were selling your company to a connection, what would they say or do?) Encourage honesty… and look for telling information. Do you have a web site, but your customers don’t think of that as a way to tell people about you? If not… then perhaps how they think of your business isn’t reflected well on the web site. This happens when you THINK your market position and brand image are all about (A), and (A) is splashed all over your site (or brochures) but the perception in the marketplace is really (B).

Talk to your employees. Ask them how they describe who they work for… how they characterize your company. Ask them why they think customers buy from you. Don’t just ask your sales or marketing people. At one company, one of the guys out on the shop floor showed us a nondescript (to me) metal part. “These,” he said. “We use these. No one else does. At least, not in their regular line product.” I asked for some clarification… and found out that the company routinely uses a metal part two grades better than specs require in this particular product. It fails less often than comparably priced products. And this part shows in the product exterior. I talked further with sales, service, dealers…

The company was (attempting) selling itself on service… how they took care of customers and any problems that happened. Their service WAS good. But the real selling point, the reason customers recommended their products to other people, was that part. It meant (to the marketplace of people who actually USED the product daily) something to see that quality… though every part and bolt isn’t an upgraded version and the customers knew it. The product was a quality piece through and through, even so.

In their marketplace, long-lived equipment mounted to your truck was a badge of honor. Toughness and all that. Their peers could see the quality of their equipment and their investment… and that meant something to this market. Owning this brand meant you cared about how you did your job.

Service is great and all, but it’s even better to not need to call because the thing doesn’t break.

So the company’s web site, stuffed with service messages, and brochures with maps of authorized service locations, etc., weren’t helping their front line sales force (their current customers) sell. They needed to step back, go through the brand audit process and align their public messaging and touchpoints with what the marketplace told them was true… And arm their sales force, their employees and their customers with the right tools and information to share the message that toughness mattered.

So… now you are ready to sit down with the data from part 1 and the human insights from part 2. Really think about what all that stuff can tell you. Even if at this point you decide you want professional help or insight (let me know), you’ve already done a great deal of work and saved that time, effort and dollars. If you’re game to tackle it yourself, just remember that sometimes the biggest insight comes from the smallest details. Be not afraid.

Tags: Business, business development, Inspiration, Marketing, marketing places, planning
Posted in Economic Development, Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Small Business | 1 Comment »

Pause For Station Break…

December 29th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

I was getting ready to write the second post in the DIY Brand Audit for Businesses post when I wondered… since the first one didn’t exactly generate conversations, comments, crazy sharing… maybe I’d better evaluate.

I’m just wondering what you would like to see/hear/explore in this space. The blog is going to evolve in the new year as I evaluate what posts seem to have been the most interesting or useful to you guys (based on traffic, comments, shares…)

What do you want to see in this space?

It feels like more “how this connects to that” posts and more posts about marketing trends and how they affect businesses.

I know everyone, at some point, does a “What do you want me to write about?” post. It’s not so much about the writing as it is about finding topics and ideas you want to talk about… because the best posts are the ones where we all learn from each other through the conversation.

Thanks for sharing some of your time, attention and thoughts with me. I truly appreciate it.

Tags: blog, community, question
Posted in Economic Development, Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Small Business | 3 Comments »

DIY Brand Audit for Small Businesses

December 28th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

This is the first in a series of posts about how Small Businesses can perform a Do-It-Yourself brand audit.

Overheard:

“You can’t embark on any new marketing until you’ve had a brand audit done!”

“I don’t even know what that is… seriously.”

“You hire a marketing firm or ad agency and they come in and tell you how people see you brand.”

“You mean, what they think of my logo and my ads?”

“Yeah, and then what you need to do to meet your goals.”

Assumptions (before you read further): You understand that your brand and your logo are NOT the same thing. You understand that while advertising is a form of marketing, all marketing is not advertising. And that branding is more (much more) than either one of them.

A brand audit is a good idea for all businesses, but unless you have many locations, lots of employees, multiple campaigns across multiple channels… you can do at least a preliminary one on your own. Here’s how:

Accept that you’ve made mistakes - begin with the attitude that you will discover some things about your brand and company that might be painful. Decide (now) that this is a voyage of discovery and the end result will be a stronger, better-positioned company.

Map your touchpoints - Every way you interact with your customers and every place you attempt to influence them. Obvious ones include ads (yellow pages? online? TV? newspaper? Football booster poster?) and brochures. Less obvious ones might include the signage on your company van, envelopes, invoices, how the phone is answered, what your front door looks like, employee uniforms/appearances, online presence, community involvement… Really think about this. It doesn’t matter what the INTENT was (ad on the football booster program to support the program, not to gain customers). If it does or potentially could touch your customers or prospects, include it. Visuals work well here (take a snapshot of your front door, your van, one of your employees on the job, etc.). Ask your employees to help you think of ways you touch customers that might be out of the ordinary.

Gather some opinion - If you aren’t tech-savvy, a friend who knows how to help you set up Google alerts, search social networks and generally do some listening is really helpful for this part. If you are interweb-friendly, take a look around the web. What are people saying on sites like Yelp, Epinions and CitySearch? Look up what local sites have to say about you… if you’re a dentist, for instance, search for common phrases like, “dentist in [your community]” to see what’s being said, on what sites. Many sites exist out there purporting to be “portals” for people to find information on services (like dentists) but really are just scraping the web, listing what they find, and making money off of serving Google ads (for dentists, teeth whitening, etc.) when people visit the “listings page.” If inaccurate info is out there (wrong phone numbers, work hours, specialties, etc.) then try to get it updated or changed.

Gather your financials, invoices, etc. - You need to know where your money comes from… and from whom. Where does the profit in your business really live? Many businesses we’ve worked with have started the audit process telling us they want to move their brand to “x” but when we delve into this part… their money, lifeblood, where people trust and connect with them, is “y.” Unless there’s a very, very good reason, trying to change y to x is a difficult (at best) and disastrous (at worst) proposition. A better one is to see where in the y space you can expand, improve or illuminate new markets.

This is a good time of year to begin an audit process… you’re dealing with your end-of-the-year financials anyway, and most businesses are thinking about next year’s marketing initiatives.

In the next post in this series, we’ll be talking about what to DO with all this fabulous info you’ve gathered. If you think of/know of other types of info you think would be relevant to beginning a brand audit, please share them in the comments. Also… have you been through an audit? Good outcome? Bad outcome? Please share!

Image credit from Flikr user tiffanyday

Tags: Business, business development, Marketing, marketing places, planning, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 5 Comments »

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