Monthly Archives: September 2011

Tagline For African Events Management Company

Names + Taglines

I’m a young lady who wants to start an events management company specialising in wedding events. i need a catchy tag line for my company ‘makoti wedding parlour’ and makoti is a ndebele term for a bride. thank you.

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Jay’s Answer: Rather than try something “catchy” I suggest you pick a tagline that effectively describes what you offer. Ideally, you’d put something in your tagline that indicates how you’re different/better than other wedding event planners. For example, you could specialize in weddings in a region, weddings for young people, second weddings, religious weddings, mixed cultural weddings, etc. The reason you want to identify a specific niche you serve is that you want to be seen as the clear best choice for a specific type of wedding (we all know that you can’t do everything well – so instead, showcase what it is you do best).

Here are some suggested taglines to get you thinking:

  • Zimbabwe’s Wedding Planning Specialists
  • Planning Your Wedding? “We Do” it all.
  • Have More Fun At Your Wedding

Evolutionary Versus Revolutionary Marketing

Creative Business Ideas

Evolve Your Business

Photo by Craig Finlay

In a recent interview for Life & Style Magazine, Simon Cowell said that “he would have kicked Lady Gaga off the American Idol stage if she’d auditioned for the talent show before becoming a superstar”. Whether or not you’re a fan of Simon Cowell or Lady Gaga is immaterial – what’s important to notice is that a person who’s an expert at spotting talent wouldn’t have spotted her. If you’re looking for marketing advice for your business, be careful who you ask.

If you’re simply trying to evolve your marketing by doing such things as: improved website SEO, an updated logo, new business cards, a better newsletter, etc. – then by all means talk to the experts. They’ve seen lots of businesses like yours, and know which changes to your marketing can result in big results to your bottom line. Their advice will give you a needed reality check and you’ll understand which changes make sense, and why.

However, if you’re doing something revolutionary, then be prepared to hear a lot of people try to dissuade you from taking action. They might mean well, but if you’re doing something truly new/different, then the experts might not be the best judge of your plans. By all means, consult with them to understand where your ideas diverge from the commonly held best practices. Then, test out your different ideas yourself on your target market. Be prepared for a lot of confused people. But be ready for those that “get it” – they understand what vision you’re painting.

Evolution is easy. Revolution is hard and risky. Make sure you understand your goals and then use the right tools to achieve them.

Speak With Passion: Become Super Human

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

Be a Super Human Business Speaker

Photo by JD Hancock

If you’re giving an instructional talk, you need to position yourself as an guru, someone who knows all and sees all to make your audience trust in you. But positioning yourself in this way will limit your ability to give a speech with passion, something that is remarked upon, remembered, and shared.

When you first start speaking in public, you’ll likely to feel comfortable talking more about what you know (your self) and less about what your audience is interested in (your content). You’ll soon realize that people invested their time and money to listen to your wisdom, and you’ll quickly remove your personal stories from your presentation to get to the “next level” of speaking.

The next level of speaking is all about your information. It’s packed with great tips and techniques that you’ve learned by doing and researching. You’ve got a lot of great set of slides that highlight your points. Perhaps you’ve even taken an extra step of finding stories about people who followed your advice and seen the results of your wisdom for them selves. This type of speech is likely to be fundamentally useful, but not memorable (except for those that came to learn specific academic techniques).

The highest level of speaking is about sharing your information, but in a way that’s memorable. And to do this, you need to go back to your roots. Why is what you’re sharing personally interesting to you? What excites you day-to-day in doing this work? What personal challenges have you faced trying to implement these ideas (both failure and success)?

Ultimately, people aren’t really interested in learning something new. People crave vicarious experiences. They want to see the world through others’ eyes and be excited to feel what they feel. To speak with passion, you need to be vulnerable. Don’t try to be a superhuman speaker (with no flaws). Be a super human speaker (who is believable). Share your passion, and let feeling imbue your presentation.