Monthly Archives: June 2008

What’s A Good Tagline For Recycled Glass Countertops?

Names + Taglines

I have become aware of a company in my area that uses recycled glass (that they pick up from local businesses themselves for a fee – another part of their business) to create 3 different lines:

1. beautiful, terrazo-style kitchen and bathroom countertops.
2. plates, glasses, and serving pieces
3. outdoor path lining (crushed glass) and stepping stones

They are completely green and sustainable product, since the glass would otherwise end up in a landfill, and the resin to hold it together is no VOC. It is as durable and comparably priced as granite. Also completely customizable in color of glass and resin, and also size of glass pieces.

I am obsessed with this product – it is so beautiful, plus it’s environmentally friendly, which is the “icing on the cake”! But the company has so far only been getting word-of-mouth business through local designers. This is a small, new part of their business, with the recycling part having been around since the early 90’s. I don’t think they realize what some branding and marketing could do for them!

I have a magazine publishing background in sales and marketing, and with all my past experience, I have been talking to this company about working with them on branding and marketing these countertops. I want to continue the discussion with them, and I need a way to bring it to life for them, with a memorable and descriptive name and tagline.

Now, for your brain:

I was thinking of calling it [name of town] Glass Collection (is the double meaning easy to “get”?)

The town is in the Southeastern US coast, a well-known travel destination, also known for it’s natural beauty.

So after the [name of town] Glass Collection, I need a tagline. I was thinking of something that mentions nature, and how great it functions, but also alludes to the sustainability of it (without necessarily using that word)

I was thinking of “Inspired by Nature, something something something”. “Durable by design, inspired by nature”. I just don’t know!

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Jay’s Answer: True “green” products will continue to be attractive to the marketplace for the long-term. However, people have 2 concerns about “green products” : added price and compromised quality/appearance. For most people, “green” isn’t a primary purchase point – it’s secondary.

[Aside: true green products are few and far between; this product is recycling glass (good) but adding resins which makes recycling the end result much harder. If you want to learn a lot more about this, I recommend “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things ” by William McDonough & Michael Braungart.]

As for name, “[name of town] Glass Collection” may work (the double meaning is lost for most people) – but who’s their market? Local, Regional, or National? Consumer or interior designer? The wider you cast your net, the more important great geographic names are. Also, is the “glass collection” name is for the entire brand or just the line of countertops? If it’s just for countertops, say so in the name.

As for taglines, again focus on the key benefits that people care about. They’re beautiful. They are recycled. They don’t off-gas. (Anything else?).[Aside: They aren’t inspired by nature, because glass is a man-made product]. Again, they need to speak to their demographic:

  • Naturally Beautiful Countertops
  • Don’t Keep Your House Bottled-up
  • Countertops For Counter-Culture People
  • Countertops That Are Pieces of Art. Naturally.
  • Live Better With Nature.
  • Luxurious Counters. Breathe Easier.
  • More Than A Counter. A Personal Statement.

What Is A Creative Name For A Health and Safety Fair?

Names + Taglines

I work at a 200-bed hospital and we will be holding a Health and Safety Fair. We need to think of a creative title for our fair. One that is not just called, "Health and Safety Fair," which I’ve seen many places do before.
Also our initials of the hospital are: SJH…So, if we could play a title off of those letters, that would be cool.

We want to attract families with their children. We will have different booths set up with health and safety information available, along with our local fire and police departments here as well. Overall, we want to open children’s eyes to health and safety issues.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Stay Healthy. Play More.
  • Play Healthy Fair
  • Child Safety 101
  • See Jane Healthy (SJH)
  • Fair Thee Well
  • Keep Your Children Well

How Do I Know Why Someone Did Not Buy My Product?

eMarketing, Services

We are selling an Enterprise software product and during the course of last year I had many contacts to many companies that evaluated the product, some of which ended up as clients, others did not. Usually I called the prospects asking why they choose not to buy our product if they decided against it.

I would now like to have a more structured approach to get some understanding what we do right or wrong with our offering – is it the product, is it the service, is it the price or anything else (what should I ask?). My goal is to convert more prospects into clients.

My initial idea is to conduct on online survey and send an invitation to all the people I had contact with last year. Do you think this is a good approach? If so, which questions do I need to ask? (I am assuming there is a typical set of questions to ask). I would like to keep the set of questions as small as possible in order to make answering the survey more attractive.

Or should I take another approach? I am also glad about any additional pointers.

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Jay’s Answer: I don’t know how many people you need to contact (and the lifetime value of the prospect), but if it’s under a couple of hundred people, I would call them. An online survey request is all to easy to ignore. What you really want is a dialog.

Before contacting any of them, create a script that could use either for a survey (should you wish) or a phone call. The script would be very similar to the one you would use when you initially contacting them: 1) confirming that they are a decision maker for this service/product, 2) finding out their current solution to the product/service, 3) confirming that they would be interested in a better solution, 4) determining a budget for it, etc.

When you contact them the first time, you needed to learn about their organization’s needs first, then you could sell them your solution. If after testing, your solution was rejected, I would go over the answers that they initially provided to see where their answers and your solutions didn’t "match up".

How Can I Syndicate Automotive Articles?

Starting Out

I have a client who is a well-known writer in the automotive industry. He would like to syndicate his series of articles to a few specialty mags, local and community newspapers, etc., but this isn’t something I’ve done previously. Does anyone have experience helping a writer become syndicated? What would be my first step in helping this client to accomplish his goals?

We have considered a blog or web site, but his articles have previously been used without permission, so he is hesitant to do this.

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Jay’s Answer: He could go forward with his blog and if he generates enough traffic, he can approach media with his "built-in" audience numbers.

He could write a book of his articles and (self) publish them. A book conveys additional expert status.

He could approach the specialty magazine with samples of his work.

He could write for a manufacturer’s newsletter.

Writing can generate some income, but most writers make very little. Help him to figure out how to leverage additional visibility of his articles into other offerings – consultations, seminars, etc.

What Is A Good Name For A Yoga/Feng-Shui Business?

Names + Taglines

I am a yoga teacher combining a feng shui consultation practice to my business. I like nature, gardens, trees, green….I would like the name to be holistic or mindful. Something to do with the wellness industry. Easy to remember. Feng Shui brings peace and harmony to living spaces. Yoga brings clarity and focus to the mind.

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Jay’s Answer: You actually have two businesses now. While I’m sure I can create names that bridge your two specialties, you’re targeting different people with different needs. I don’t care if my yoga teacher does feng shui – I want a yoga teacher. Likewise, when I’m looking for a feng shui expert, I don’t care if they know asanas.

Yes, your markets may overlap, but trying to tell someone in one breath that you do two different things is very hard. In your marketing materials, have them focus on the one message you’re selling.

How Should I Organize A Regional Event?

Publicity, Services, Starting Out

I’m making a 10 minute presentation to answer the brief: “You have a £5,000 budget to activate your own regional event (Small Fire). What is your event concept, your implementation plan and how would you leverage it?” I’d like to know what points i should think about, what should the money be spent on, methods of promoting it, a good implementation plan and any other helpful points to make it an excellent presentation.

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Jay’s Answer: Once you have the product/service idea, focus on the marketing strategy. Who are you trying to sell it to? How does your product/service solve a problem of theirs? How much better is your product? Why should they trust you?

Once you have the strategy, figure out how to attract your target audience. It might be anything from a talk (10 ways to reduce your taxes), to a party (new moms night out), etc. The key is to match your activity with your target demographic & their needs.

What Are the Ingredients For A Great Ad Agency?

Services

I recently took a job at an agency that has not had the best reputation (bad management re finances), they are now trying to rebuild and I thought that it would a challenge and wonderful accomplishment to bring it back to where it used to/ should be.

Thing is when I walk in, there is no organisation…none. Staff going on four hour lunches, coming in whatever time in the morning, breaking as much as possible the companies policies…e.g. entertaining your boyfriend at your desk and you handle the company’s finances…to name one that irked me in particular.

The staff here can work they have just been so demotivated by all the bad publicity that one man brought, some have no idea about what an A.E should be… they think its administrative or "gofer"…and when I try to explain what they need to do and should be doing it falls on deaf ears (and I’m assertive) I don’t mind walking them through each job ( the few we have left) what worries me is the fact that I have to bring in new clients with MY name associated with this company…if the home is in trouble how can we effectively do our jobs? I can’t do everything all at once…they seem contented to just collect a salary without putting the work in…its as if they have no pride in what they do.

SOOO any ideas on how to motivate this bunch before they’re all fired… I believe they can do the work…its the drive they don’t have and education as to what an Advertising Agency does.

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Jay’s Answer:

  1. Why should they care? and
  2. Are they doing the work?

If the work is being done (but internally, unprofessionally) then consider instituting performance reviews. It’ll document the problems so you won’t have legal problems later.

If people don’t care, then you need to give them a reason to care. Everyone has different motivations, but pride in accomplishments is good (public acknowledgement). Focus on the positive things you’re seeing, and applaud that. You’ll get more results than attempting to punish the negative.

How Can I Grow My Opt-In List For Our Webinars?

eMarketing

We are a small B2B that specializes in creating tradeshow exhibits and other marketing displays. We would like to develop an opt-in database for e-marketing our free educational webinars. Subject matter is highly relevant and helps position us as expert resources in the field. There is little sales pitch involved and so far we have had a good response. The problem is we have a small contact list and want to grow this quickly. We can buy good strategic lists and use them for e-marketing for a limited period of time, but need to know the best tools and steps to capture an interested audience, build up a good clean database, and move forward positioning ourselves in this market with prospective clients. We’re late adopters to all of the new media, so please keep your responses in lay-terms.

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Jay’s Answer: The best way to build is a list is to give the reader a compelling reason to sign up. That means you need to target your list and identify their pain (and position yourself as having the solution). To sign up with you, you need to give them something of value that they need (for example, price the webinars at $39.95, but provide 2 free webinars for those subscribing, etc.) Also, the more information you request for sign up, the fewer the sign ups you’ll actually get.

How Can We Increase Shopping Mall Store Traffic?

Publicity

Like most retailers, we, a small lifestyle retailer selling premium home decor products, also rely on shopping centers. Being small, we lack bargain power. A few of our stores are buried in those big shopping centers and customers complaining it hard to find us. We have some marketing initiatives to increase store traffic, but center management won’t support saying they have a center to look after not just one particular store. Being small again, we have a tight budget. What suggestions would give us to bring more people to our shops.

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Jay’s Answer: Co-market with your fellow hidden mall gems. Instead of approaching the center management individually, approach them as a team with your smaller gems. The goal is to get people to see the mall as containing more than the "usual" offerings.

If you don’t have a budget, then consider some guerrilla techniques in the mall itself. For example, get some friends to dress to get noticed carrying bags around (or their entourage) that has your store name clearly printed LARGE on the bags with gift wrapped items.

Create in-store seminars for how to dress or find gifts for the holiday season (etc) and send out free press releases.

Just because you don’t have a big budget doesn’t mean you can’t achieve big things. It just takes a bit more creativity.

How Should My Web Company Do Software Escrow?

Services

We are almost done with the development of our web project. There is more work to be done, but we want to change providers because our current company can’t meet their own target dates (we’re looking at a November launch of a project that was promised by last June.) Our contract has an intellectual property clause that gives us control of the code for our own further development with other contractors. My question is how and when does one go about setting up a software escrow? Once this contract is fulfilled, will we necessarily need a software escrow to access the code for further development? Are there any recommendations for choosing a software escrow company?

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Jay’s Answer: Here’s a good article detailing the whole escrow process including recommendations: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=236193