I need to develop a branding platform. My personal and professional mission statement is to impact and improve the lives of others. In my real estate practice I have developed excellent systems and endeavor to bring real value by active listening, solid follow through, great communication, known power partners as service providers. My question is how to develop a tag line that conveys my sincerity, passion of service, value, etc without sounding cheesy or salesy?
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Jay’s Answer: The key for any tagline is that it needs to appeal to a benefit that your target market cares about. As a real estate professional, it’s assumed that you’re honest, sincere, available, etc. That’s not so unique. So you need to dig deeper about what your really offer people. You think you know – but ask those that chose to work with you in the past. Why did they choose you over your competitors? What would they say about the best reason to recommend/refer you to others. Start there.
Christopher Melville grew up in Mendocino County where he attended the Melville Montessori School, a school run by his parents. After years of enjoying roll-playing games like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Arduin, in 1994 he developed Fantasy Warplay – a local Live Action Role Playing (LARP) group where players (ages 8-60) can simulate sword play and be an adventurer, a wizard, a warrior, and even a monster. He holds a Montessori Teachers Credential for birth through age six from Montessori Western Teacher Training Program. Christopher also has two BA degrees, one in English and one in Theater Arts from Sonoma State University, as well as a California Multi-Subject Teaching Credential.
My training/consulting business has had very good, not great, success over the past 10 years. The business is growing and we need a tagline for our website as well as marketing materials that support our face-to-face presentations in front of decision makers (corporate, educational, governmental organizations). We provide professional team-building experiences using challenge courses, active-learning workshops (as opposed to “sit n git” lectures) that occur on-site or off. We are experts in train-the-trainer programs as well as delivering direct services to clients who want to energize their teams, learn more about formal team-building, explore leadership topics, or focus on helping teams move from good to great.
I’m about to be hired in a company that manufacture filters, in the marketing department, i have worked mostly in the cordination of promotional events in large supermarkets like Walmart. My questions are:
What are the best strategies that i can introduce in order to create an immediate impact in my superiors
What is the very first thing i have to do to to coordinate my work team?
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Jay’s Answer: Start by asking questions and listening a lot. Only once you understand the various issues and needs can you truly offer solutions that the company can benefit from.
Ask for help, find out how it’s been done, why the previous person left, and what milestones are coming up that you need to pay attention to.
I’m just recently setup a Etsy store to sell handmade body scrubs and I am seeking tips on how to effectively promote an online business to those not on the Etsy site. Could you assist me with promoting and/ or marketing my online business. My perspective customers are that of women, but not limited to. I have found a big marketing arena within the Blog world. Do you think there is a way to expand on that?
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Jay’s Answer: Start from the inside-out:
1) Make sure that you’re first maximizing conversions (people that visit your site become customers): How many of the people that visit your site currently purchase from you? Have you looked at the analytics? How many have started to purchase from you but stopped mid-order? Why?
2) Next, focus on how easy it is to find your store/site. How does your website rank on Etsy and Google? What words do people use to find your type of products?
3) Finally, get the word out. That means identifying specific websites, magazines, newspapers, and/or clubs whose members are likely to be your customers. Not just women, but women of a certain age, demographic, location, who are looking for a specific “edge”. If you’re trying to sell scrubs to anyone, no one will find you. By narrowly targeting a niche (say, women ages 40-50, with 2 kids, also has a day-job, and is looking for something to make her feel special nights/weekends, for example) you can talk to these people in the right way (and find them).
I am starting a website that is basically a directory catering to the Indian Casino Industry in my state and players alike. I am going to offer monthly/yearly subscriptions to casinos to be listed. Each casinos page content will change each month and will be a page each telling what all the casino offers, what is going on each month such as gaming contests, promotions, tournaments, entertainment, dining, etc. Currently most of the casinos each have their own website but there is no site where you can find all the casinos in one place and find out what is happening at them each month. I have yet to see a site similar to this, so I have no idea what to charge. I know the casinos in my state are very profitable…but I do not want to price myself too high or too low.
How difficult would it be for someone to copy your idea (including the Indian Casino Industry)?
It wouldn’t be difficult for someone to copy my idea…yet no one has even attempted anything similar, yet it would be difficult for an actual casino to do so.
What added value will your site have for them? What additional traffic for their sites can you realistically achieve?
Secondly, it is not so much that I am going to drive customers to their site as much as it is I am going to drive customers to their casino. Many casinos in my state do not advertise very well…a few billboards, radio ads…unless you know of them already there is no way to learn of them…I know if I went to the Eastern part of the state and wanted to go a casino, I would not have a clue of where they are, what the names are, what is being offered at them, etc..me being from the Western part of the state.
I see a great opportunity for me, the casinos, and players. This idea was generated due to me being a player who likes to travel around to various places, and saw a definite need. Over 100 casinos in the state, just have no idea what monetary value it actually holds…I want to say that I could easily charge $150 a month…less than $5 a day for the casino, and if 1 player came to the casino because of it, would get their return on their investment! Will they pay $150 a month, or much more or less?
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Jay’s Answer: From their perspective, the casinos care about the additional prospects. If you can show how your site can help them get more customers, it’s worth a lot to them.
I’d suggest starting small, getting some casinos on-board for a very minimal fee. Then, measure the traffic. Ideally, have a way of tracking # of customers that show up at the casino because of your website (for example, can you provide free drink card or chips that the casino will redeem on your behalf?).
Once you’ve shown the ROI of your site, the value for other casinos will become quite clear and easy to price.
A new travel/tour/safari company in Tanzania is looking to rename their travel/Safari company. They would like to have fairly short and memorable name & nice slogan that will connect with people wishing to travel to Tanzania. The company deals with adventure and safari business such as hiking, mount trekking, Tours, Cultural tours, safaris, adventures for both internationals(from USA, UK, etc.) and local. Hence we need very catching name and slogan to be able to accommodate both local and internationals.
Main trips will be in the following attractions: Serengeti National Park, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro crater, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru, Maasai cultural tours, etc.
I need a tagline for a niche market for Indian Market . My restaurant sells an Indian cuisine.There are many competitors around. And our point of difference is we deliver more quality food and friendly service.
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Jay’s Answer: A tagline should reflect a unique benefit you offer your clientele. “Quality food” and “friendly service” are expected in any restaurant/market, and therefore you can’t build a strong tagline from it. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
Voice of Assurance is my company name. Coactive coaching is empowering, inspiring, motivating the client to come up with their own path and choices through questions. My target market is parents of highschool kids that are going to college and don’t know what they want to do or women in transition..widowed, divorced or just entering the work force. This is not career counseling. It is life coaching.
Three Stone Hearth is a worker-owned community supported kitchen (CSK). It offers nutrient dense foods to homes and families around the San Francisco Bay Area. The founding worker/owners are:
Porsche Combash has been in the food business for many years. In 1997, Porsche completed the professional Chef Training Program at the Natural Gourmet School of Cookery in NYC. There she was introduced to the Weston A. Price Foundation and the principles of indigenous diets. After graduation, Porsche completed a cooking internship at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland and went on to teach at the Ballymaloe School of Cookery in Ireland. She has traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico and Sicily to study their regional cuisines.
Misa Koketsu’s love of eating began early in life around the kitchen table set for her family of eight and topped with delicious meals her mother prepared daily. Her enthusiasm for cooking, however, developed during her junior year abroad in France, where food is a national obsession, cooking an art form, and la sieste provides the time to relax after savoring a good meal. Following graduation, Misa attended culinary school and has since baked in hotel pastry shops and bakeries in and around the Bay Area, including Auberge du Soleil and Grace Baking Company. In 1999, she began work at the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, where her background in cooking merged with the work of the Center’s Food Systems Project. This experience provided an introduction to, and gave her an appreciation for, the social, ecological, and political issues associated with local, sustainable food systems.
Catherine Spanger was born and raised in the East Bay. Her grandparents were farmers in Brentwood, California, where fertile land produced a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Her grandmother, an immigrant from the Dust Bowl, taught her to live modestly and be resourceful. Later travels abroad exposed her to families and cultures that shared these values, where a variety of nutrient-dense and delicious foods were produced from local ingredients. A desire to share these life-lessons led Catherine to become a professional cook at Green’s Restaurant in San Francisco, and she has also cooked for many Bay Area catering companies. For the past five years, Catherine has worked in Water Conservation, helping families develop an appreciation for the precious resource of water and its vital importance in producing our food.
Larry Wisch has been interested in ecology and community his entire life. He received a degree in Urban Human Ecology from Antioch College 1975, a Certificate of Horticulture from The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1977, and began working as a horticulturalist and horticulture instructor. In 1980 he co-founded San Francisco’s first limited equity housing cooperative. From 1985 to 2004 he expressed his entrepreneurial spirit by starting and running two different market research companies: Larry Wisch Associates and Blarry House Research. In May of 2009 Larry celebrated the ninth anniversary of his victory over lymphatic cancer. He is also a leader in the Alive and Well HIV alternative movement. Larry’s lifelong quest for healing and wellness led him to the Weston A. Price Foundation, and in 2005 he became the San Francisco Chapter Leader.
Address: 1581 University Avenue in Berkeley, CA 94703
Phone: (510) 981-1334
Website: www.ThreeStoneHearth.com
