I am finding myself with a creative block. The company I work for, MJ Harden, is a geospatial services provider – aerial photography, digital mapping, and GIS. We are exhibiting at an important industry trade show in April in Phoenix, AZ.

I am trying to develop a theme idea from either our tagline – which will appear in new panels for our pop-up booth or develop an subtheme that plays off the show’s theme which is “Not Your Father’s GIS Conference.”

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Jay’s Answer: Get a very small, battery-powered, remote-control, small camera-based airplane (or helicopter) with an onboard wireless camera. Run it during the conference, with a live feed from it running to displays in your booth.

Tie this into a contest – capture images of a person once an hour from the camera, and if that person comes to your booth within the hour, they get a prize.

I am looking to create a catchy, attention grabbing direct mail piece that is targeted at HR Managers and Business Owners. The piece will be promoting employee health screening.

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Jay’s Answer:

• An Ounce Of Prevention….
• Invest In Your Employees’ Well-Being

I am about to open a used, but rehabbed and painted furniture store. I have a few apartments and know several other landlords who end up with abandoned furniture that tenants discard. As an environmentalist, I cringe every time this furniture ends up in the landfill. I started a hobby of taking these odds and ends furniture pieces and painting them without regard of perfection. It’s a lot of fun, and I just let loose with the creativity. The result is uniquely painted pieces that hopefully, will find a new life outside of the local dump.

I’m trying to come up with a name for the furniture store, that is neither uppity or “used furniture” sounding. Any ideas for a catchy-sounding name? The storefront is small but there’s enough room for lettering on a huge window. I’d like to catch the attention of all income-levels and personal tastes, if possible.

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Jay’s Answer:

• FUNiture
• Furniture Reloved
• 2nd Chance Furniture
• 2nd Time Around Furniture
• 2nd Life Furniture

Photo by Cameron Cassan

When you’re just like everyone else, no one notices you. To make your business stand out, you need to be different…for the right reasons.

Being different for the sake of being different is likely to get you noticed, but create the wrong impression. You’ll create a marketing “double-take”, but what will be remembered is “that’s unusual” not “that’s unusual and incredibly important to me”. In fact, this is the problem with shock marketing – upping the “wow” factor, but not upping the relevance factor.

Being different takes guts. It’s safe to place yourself in the mainstream message (it’s the right thing to say, since all my competition is saying the same thing). Being different isn’t financially prudent. Being different is risky.

Being different takes leadership. You need to clearly articulate why being different is the right thing for your business and your customers. People want to feel special. If your business is likewise “special”, there’s a great opportunity for alignment.

Being different can fail spectacularly. Compare a slow slide down to obscurity as opposed to going out in a blaze of glory. You don’t want your marketing to kill your business, but look at the writing on the wall. If you don’t innovate, you’re likely to keep losing market share from those that do.

Being different is painful. You’re likely to suffer some ridicule from the pundits for saying something that no one else is saying. But if your message resonates with your audience, it doesn’t matter what the “experts” say. It matters what your customers do.

Businesses that are first-to-market or first-to-niche have a much higher probability of success than those that come later. Create a new opportunity for your business by sticking out in a way that truly matters.

Running for office involves a lot more than simply creating signs with attractive graphics. However, these seemingly ubiquitous signs do create impressions. Now that the recent election is over, let’s examine the effectiveness of various local politicians’ signage in this totally non-scientific analysis.

The first set of signs is for a new political office: Sheriff-Coroner. Who would you vote for (and why)? If you’re satisfied with the status quo, you’d likely vote for Robert Doyle, who mentions the key benefits “Keeping Marin Safe For 14 Years” and reinforces his insider-ness (“Re-Elect Sheriff”). If you wanted the image of bold/confident, then Ken Holmes’ sign (with the blue background and prominent shield) would suit you. Election winner: Robert Doyle.

Based solely on these signs, who would you elect for Assessor (and why)? The strongest graphics are for Bruce Raful. Shelly Scott’s background imagery reflects a stylized version of the community. Richard Benson’s is generic. None of the signs show any compelling taglines nor benefits to electing them. Election winner: Shelly Scott.

Based solely on these signs, who would you elect for Supervisor (and why)? Susan Adams’ sign is similar to Robert Doyle’s (above): a re-elect message and an endorsement by a well-known organization. Kerry Mazzoni’s stylized imagery shows the physical location of the civic enter, but doesn’t provide any message for why to elect her. Election winner: Susan Adams.

Finally, looking solely at these signs in this vote-for-three election for the Ross Valley Sanitary District who would you elect (and why)? Patrick Guasco & Peter Sullivan use the word “Keep” to imply incumbency. Bernie Del Santo and Rick Holland’s signs are pretty much interchangeable. Rick Holland makes his website’s URL prominent – for what purpose? People won’t look up a URL unless they have a compelling reason to do so, which his sign didn’t provide. Pamela Meigs sign stands out not because her message (which is equivalent to Bernie Del Santo and Rick Holland’s) but because of the font choice she made. It’s a lighter weight font that’s modern and non-corporate looking. Winner: Patrick Guasco, Peter Sullivan, and Pamela Meigs.

Photo by Mike Warren

Everyday we’re bombarded with product names and messages. As a business owner, we’re hoping our name rises above the marketing noise and is latched onto by our prospective customer. But the reality is, your marketing effort is more likely than not to fail.

Shouting louder won’t help. We’ve all been to parties where people struggle to be heard. What do you do? You try to talk over everyone else. At the end of the evening, you likely have a sore throat and pained ears, and the sense that you missed some important conversational tidbit.

Being unremarkable won’t help. Keeping up with your competition means you’ll always be seen as “me too”. People want to be aligned with leaders, not followers.

Being disposable won’t help. If people know that if they ignore this marketing message that it’s not a big deal. There’s a similar one coming soon after.

Being unconnected won’t help. The average person seldom buys from strangers. People buy because others have validated the purchase (whether that be Amazon customer ratings, Yelp scores, surveys, or magazine reviews) to ensure they don’t wind up with junk.

So what can you do to increase the chance that your marketing will succeed?

Study the marketing flotsam. What have been the results of similar campaigns been by others? Save your money and time by first looking  through the marketing graveyard.

View each marketing message as a part of the dialogue. A single message is unlikely to convince. Build your message over time, repeating the core values/benefits of your offering.

Measure ROI. Ensure that each action you take you can measure its results. Repeat what’s working.

To ensure that your message is at least noticed, make sure it’s relevant, consistent, and well-targeted.