Hello, my name is Heidi, I am an artist. I’m looking for a name and tagline for my business. Currently, I paint with acrylics on canvas, mirrors, and other unique surfaces. (Usually on the canvas though.) I also have charcoal and oil pastel drawings. I make mosaic as well. Usually in picture frames to hang in windows or as orbs. (So basically, Altered art.) I sell what I make and also take custom orders. I usually paint in representational abstract style. I do custom paintings as well. Price range from $100 to $500 dollars.
Episode theme: People who help others to find, grow, and magnify their passionate businesses.
Nancy Anderson is a career and life consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of the best selling career guide, Work with Passion, How To Do What You Love For a Living, based on her own and her clients’ experiences. In the years following publication, Nancy continued to refine the intuitive, practical approach that helps her clients to create the life they were born to live.
Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster’s(SMBC) mission is to create high value jobs in the North Bay by enabling and accelerating the success of technology startups within a dynamic sustainable and synergistic environment. They serve fledgling companies that have identified innovative solutions to a significant problem or under-served market opportunity, helping them succeed in developing, marketing and selling a unique, proprietary product or service. SMBC provides business expertise through its mentor program, in addition to hosting networking events, educational events, access to capital, and business services (legal, accounting, and business development). Their state-of-the-art facility offers plug-and-play office space, communications and support infrastructure at attractive rates. The SMBC community is an enthusiastic, collaborative and supportive environment.
John Hagel III is co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation, which conducts original research for new corporate growth. John has nearly 30 years’ experience as a management consultant, author, speaker, and entrepreneur and has helped companies improve their performance by effectively applying information technology to reshape business strategies. He recently co-authored the book The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things In Motion.
The owner is a current Airline Pilot and he saves clients money in a hassle-free purchase process. The integrity of the pricing structure is flat-fee plus the auction price of the vehicle.
The customers of the service are primarily composed of three groups:
Families that are dropping debt and new to strong cash/flow management and budgeting – Houston, Texas area.
Airline Pilots.
Friends and Family of the owner – Southeast USA
Current customers are driving a financed vehicle generally from a new car auto dealer/showroom. Most have never used this format of service but understand the potential savings of purchasing a vehicle from a commercial auto auction + service fee. Anticipate the average vehicle purchase price around $4000-$6000 but will fluctuate with the customer requests.
Small display ads in industry publications for pilots and might test radio for the 2nd group of ‘Budget Buyers.’ Internet Site and Programming focused for each group.
I have an idea for a new consumer product, but don’t know what to do first! Help!
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Jay’s Answer: The key to turning your idea into a success is making sure that:
there’s a need
you can easily identify those with the need
they are willing to pay you for the solution.
If you’ve done this homework, then everything else is straightforward: patents, prototypes, test marketing, and distribution.
These days creating prototypes is easier than ever. Start with cardboard and tape to work out the physical product’s look. When you’re ready, have someone create a prototype. These days, prototyping tools are inexpensive and quick – you can have a sample in a day or so.
When you’re marketing your product, who exactly are you appealing to? What specifically do you think would attract them to what you’re selling? Is it possible to market your product to the largest audience and simultaneously appeal to different subgroups effectively?
Let’s say you’re a baker selling pastries. What could you say about them?
They look delicious.
They taste delicious.
They cost $2.00 each.
They are made fresh each day.
They are made with organic ingredients.
They are made in small batches to ensure perfect flavoring.
They are made by formerly homeless people that you trained.
They have 250 calories.
They are made with fruit from your organic garden, harvested just before baking.
They are baked with solar-powered ovens.
They are made in a peanut-free environment.
They are vegan.
They can be delivered to your door within 2 hours of baking.
They can be customized with your favorite fillings.
They have a low glycemic index.
What’s the most important of these points to your audience? No doubt taste & looks are #1. But everyone says their pastries look and taste fantastic. So now what?
If you’re marketing to vegan restaurants, the fact they’re vegan is #1. If you’re marketing to socially-conscious people, who makes them is very important.
To appeal to a wider audience, have a different marketing message for each of the senses. Each of these senses combine into a larger message, but the individual message stand perfectly well on their own:
Sight: Instead of showing a photo of a lone pastry, show someone smiling and eating it (or licking it).
Smell: Describe how the smell of a fresh pastry can transport you to another time or place (a Parisian cafe or your grandma’s kitchen).
Taste: Your mouth will dance and your diet won’t be compromised.
Touch: Feel how the pastry springs back in your hands – it’s a sign of just-made freshness.
Hearing: The only sound you’ll hear will be silence, from the concentrated pleasure of small-batch perfection.
(Bonus) Mind: Feel good knowing that each bite of the pastry is full of organic freshness and made by people who were formerly homeless in solar ovens.
Finally, if you don’t know why people buy them, ask them. You might be surprised by the answer.
As a non-profit, you’re constantly looking for opportunities to increase both your donor base and the average donation. In Dan Ariely‘s book The Upside Of Irrationality, he details the three triggers necessary to boost donations: closeness, vividness, and “drop-in-the-bucket” effect.
Closeness refers to how similar your feel to someone. You naturally share a feeling of closeness with people that share your background or zip code. Someone halfway around the world living in vastly different conditions doesn’t encourage my normal empathy.
Vividness refers to how much detail you provide on a problem your organization is solving. If you’re telling people about statistics (“every day, 10 people get infected …” ) or general conditions (“throughout the village, people are drinking polluted water …”) you’re not engaging their emotions fully. Instead of giving me the big picture of the whole problem, give me the scope of how the problem affects a specific person (“7-year old Jamilia has trouble waking every day. Her mom cries herself to sleep each night watching her only daughter slowly waste away from the parasitic infection that changed her from a bouncy girl into a …”). The better you can paint how one person is affected, the better your potential donor can feel how the problem feels.
Drop-in-the-bucket asks the question, “Will this action really matter?”. What will it matter to heal one person when 1,000 other people in their city are dying each day? People want to donate to a cause that can fix the root cause of the problem. They don’t want to fix the problem one-person-at-a-time.
In your next non-profit marketing effort, develop these 3 marketing strategy points to help your (potential) donors empathize with your fine work and share their generosity with your organization.
Have you ever imagined exactly how your ideal business day would unfold? If you’re like most people, you spend your business day reacting to phone calls, emails, and customers. By planning for your ideal day, you’ll start the process of making the day happen (and not just once).
Start with the basics: When do you wake up? Where? What’s the weather like? What do you eat? Where do you eat? Who will you eat with? What will you wear?
Next, the business: When does your workday start? How does it start? Do you contact others or do others contact you? Are people calling you because they read an amazing review of your product in that day’s New York Times? Is there a line outside your business waiting for your new product that’s this season’s gotta-have? Perhaps a movie executive wants to hire you to lend your skills for an upcoming big-budget movie starring your favorite actors. Or maybe you get a personal letter from a child, thanking you for making their home such much nicer.
What about the money? Exactly how much money do you really need? For what purpose? Does it come in daily, monthly, or in sporadic royalty checks? Is it hand delivered or direct-deposited?
What about the customers? Who is your ideal customer? Where are they located? What do they look like? What do they say to you? Are you looking to have your customers as friends or simply anonymous consumers? Are they raving about you or keeping you as a special secret weapon?
By focusing on an ideal, you’ll naturally work towards the pleasurable goal (whether intentionally or not). The trick for making it happen is regularly visualize how wonderful the day makes you feel. Of course, this same technique can be applied to the rest of your life as well. If you don’t dream, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.
I am opening a new gourmet market that will be selling locally produced organic foods in addition to European imports. The shop is located in a high-end shopping center in a wealthy suburban area. I have read a bit about color and how it affects consumers, but thought I could get some advice from you. I am starting with a blank slate and need some guidance on a color scheme for the interior of the store as well as for the logo. I have a 6 month time frame before the store opens.
I need to put a budget together for university research. Participants will be limited English speakers therefore their maybe translation cost, recording, transcribing? Really not sure what else I need to include and what these items may cost. I’m considering 3 groups of 15 and again no sure if these groups are to large. I would really love some advice so we don’t undercharge. Also what complications should I watch out for?
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Jay’s Answer: Running a focus group requires a fair bit of skill, since it’s easy to have the group basically come to agreement on something (bias) especially based on the group’s facilitator ability. You may be better served by doing 1-on-1 interviews (of 15 mins each). It takes less time, you get information that may not come up in a group setting, and can focus better on their questions/needs/concerns/thoughts.
