I am in the beginning stages of offering marketing services to the clients of the cpa firm I work for. Our company name includes the names of the “partners & company”. I am trying to find a clever and catchy name for my consulting business that markets to their small business clients. Any ideas?
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Jay’s Answer:
I need to come up with a tagline for ‘BabyKind’ an online retailer specialising in cloth nappies and other environmentally friendly baby products. The current tagline is ‘the cloth nappy specialists’, but we have had this for a while and it doesn’t communicate the fact that we also sell a wide range of other baby eco products. The site also has extensive, free advice on real nappies so it provides a good information resource for customers/visitors too.
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Jay’s Answer:
Need your help to give some input on our Management Trainee Program.
We would like to start Management Development Program and the objective is to hire the best salespeople (area sales managers and sales sups). They will undergo 3 months training covering – credit application, sales, inventory management, financial management etc.
My question is – what commitment do we have to ask them since the training will involve some investment to mold them to be super star salespeople. Do we have to bind them into legal contract that they have to continue work for our company and are not allowed to resign before they are assigned to the branches across the country.
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Jay’s Answer: You can’t force people to work for you, no matter how much money/time you invest in them. You can require them to sign a non-compete agreement but that’s not legal in all US states and the courts don’t always enforce them.
Some other ideas:
We have a hotel opening up in the Dulles Airport area of Virginia. It is a Hilton Garden Inn which is part of the Hilton Family of brands. I need creative ideas on how to show our rooms, meeting rooms, fitness center etc. Also, I am sort of stumped on the theme of this party. The Hilton Garden Inn is unique in that is caters to business travelers.
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Jay’s Answer: (I’m assuming that the party will be for local government, larger businesses, and the Chamber of Commerce)
Given you’re a Garden Inn, you could focus on business/garden. For example, in each of the rooms you’re showing, have fresh flowers everywhere (being sensitive to people with allergies!). Provide guests with a “treasure hunt” game card. On the card, ask them to identify some key aspects of the rooms on the “tour”. For example:
The point is to highlight your new features by having them fill in the blanks visually. Each contest entry (with correct answers) is eligible for a weekend’s free stay at your new hotel. Grand prize might be a free weekend at any of the HGI properties.
Realize that your bigger goal is getting new guests, not throwing a party. That’s why each entry form should have not only a phone number, but full contact information so you can contact them after the event to get feedback on the property, their business travel needs, etc.
We sell ‘pre-loved’ merchandise. Antiques, clothing, jewelry, art etc.
Sick to death of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. Conjures an imagine in my mind of a recycling bin/crushed aluminum cans or something. Not an imagine for our upscale stores. But some of the standard fare seems so trite. No zip either.
Need an ad headline, tagline and a short blurb to put on the actual stuff (clothes and non-clothes) to tie to Earth Day and remind customers that by the nature of our business, we are one of the original types of businesses that were ‘eco-friendly’, ‘green’, etc. before everyone jumped on the band wagon! (Although that’s great – I think the consumer is becoming ho-hum?) Anyway,
Intend to place ads, as well as attach a label to the merchandise in the store to pat customers on the back for being so SMART to shop with us as by doing so they not only save money but help ‘save the planet’ with little effort on their part! (no separating/sorting/trade-offs/change of habit/lifestyle/extra purchases/sacrifice); as part of promo.
My brain is paralyzed. All I could come up with is ‘We Clothes the Loop’ – words in circle around the stupid, yet iconic recycle symbol. Even so that tag doesn’t cover the ‘stuff’.
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Jay’s Answer:
Trailer:
Michael McGinnis is an artist and craftsperson who has a wide range of interests. These include making sculpture, drawing with pastel, creating art installations, building furniture, and creative problem solving in general. Working on Superplexus and its derivatives is a lifelong passion. Michael has an MFA in sculpture and teaches at Santa Rosa Junior College, where he is also the Art Gallery Exhibits Specialist. He lives with his wife, Becky, and their two children, in Santa Rosa, CA. The entire family is of the same creative cloth. Michael has 11 siblings and 33 nieces and nephews.
Contact: mmcginnis@santarosa.edu
We are about to open a new Fitness Gym and need a snappy, fun tagline for our marketing.
The fitness centre is based in a large sports centre called Te Rauparaha Arena (try saying that fast three times) and will be called Arena Fitness.
The points of difference that we have over other local gyms is that we have an Aquatic Centre attached, access to which is included in the membership cost. We also have a cafe on site.
We really want to promote that we are friendly, yet expert. We are not a big gym but we have the best and newest equipment in the area. And that we are T shirt friendly as well as welcoming the lycra wearers.
We are based in New Zealand.
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Jay’s Answer:
Photo by Daylight
Recently I was reading The Five Love Languages book and realized that the principles that apply to communicating love between people also apply to conveying the emotion of love in your marketing.
According to author Dr. Gary Chapman, there are 5 different ways that we each can feel love, and that each person has a preferred way to get the “love message”:
If your marketing emotional message involves helping people to feel more loved, then it’s important that your marketing materials speak all five languages to convey love so that your prospects can understand your message deeply.
For example, use phrases like “imagine looking better” (affirmation), “something that shows your love” (gift), “show you care” (acts of service), “spend more doing what you love” (quality time), and “feel your love in your body” (touch). Certain of the languages are easily shown visually, and would complement your marketing copy as well.
If your product or service doesn’t connect with the love emotion, don’t try to force the connection. But if the basic need that people are hoping to fulfill can be (partially) achieve by your offering is love, make sure that you’re speaking your prospective customer’s language.
Photo by Sheila Thomson
Here is a gem of an idea from Larry Olmsted’s book Getting Into Guinness.
The next time your organization wants to get some free media attention, consider breaking a record in Guinness Book of Records with the benefit to a local charity.
Everyone (including the media) is always interested in the biggest and the best, the most, the tallest, the highest, the largest and the greatest.
Everyone is always interested in the average person doing something curious or odd so long as it’s entertaining.
Finally if you also raise money for a local charity, then you have created the “perfect media storm” – something altruistic and something bizarre and wonderful all in one event.
For example, imagine 10,000 people jumping rope to fight colon cancer.
As a marketing strategist, I’m always looking for information to help understand human psychology. Predictably Irrational (by Dan Ariely) is full of wonderful insights (based on original research) on the surprising differences between logical thought and emotional consumer action. It seems that the world does not operate according to standard economic theories.
Each chapter explores different forces that shape our behavior in ways we don’t truly understand (or underestimate) – what he calls “decision illusions”.
For example, Chapter 1 (The Truth About Relativity) explains that our choices are not based on absolute thinking, but on relative/local choices. For example, would you rather purchase an online subscription to the Economist magazine for $59/year or a print subscription for $125/year? What if there was a third choice: print+online for $125/year (the same price as print-only)? It turns out that high-priced items on menus and in catalogs serve as decoys: by having a high-priced item, you see the lower-priced items as a bargain and increase your spending to the next-highest priced item.
Chapter 2 (The Fallacy Of Suppy And Demand) describes a different phenomenon: we quickly anchor to a starting value of a product/service and color our perception through this anchor. That’s why in an ad you might see a price initially stated, but then the advertising copy goes on to increase the value and drop the price. It’s a deal that you don’t want to pass up. But the initial value of the offering was arbitrary, and you’ve anchored your mind around the relative price difference. To get out of this thinking, you need to evaluate the produce/service not only to its competition, but also its true value to you.
Chapter 3 (The Cost of Zero Cost) describes the psychological power of FREE. People will jump on free offers (even though a low-cost offer may be an amazing deal, FREE is an offer you can’t seemingly pass up). The author encourages policy strategists to use FREE to drive people’s actions (healthcare screenings, electric cars, etc.).
The book is an easy/fun read, and humbly shows you just how much we don’t really understand about our actions. If you want some additional FREE insights (including videos and research studies), go to Dan’s website.