All posts by Jay

The Power of Now (or Yesterday)(or Tomorrow)

Creative Business Ideas

Marketing Now Yesterday Tomorrow

In your business marketing, what time frame are you targeting? You’re likely thinking that the right answer is “now” (you want your audience to see the message now and take action immediately), but not all offerings have the same time frame.

Is your audience facing a burning problem now? Perhaps they’re facing a medical or financial crisis that’s taking all of their attention. Of they just woke up and suddenly realized that they have a problem that absolutely positively must be solved by the end of the day. The audience of now is the most ripe to take action immediately, since your solution removes the pain or worry from their life. It’s the quick-fix they desperately need.

But what if the problem is coming up, perhaps tomorrow or next year? Your audience isn’t nearly in the same rush to solve the problem. They have time to weigh their options, do lots of research, and in some cases simply hope the problem resolves itself without taking action. Your marketing message for an upcoming crisis is best framed by contrasting the picture of the world with and without the problem, so people can understand what the future may hold for them. You want people to proactively solve their problems sooner.

And what if the problem already happened, and people are still feeling the ramifications of it today (and perhaps into the future)? You need to instead give them a reason to fix the problem. But you must first realize that the unresolved problem may not be critical to their life. If it was, they’d likely have fixed it by now. You need to focus your message on the cost for continuing to delay the fix: nagging worry, upcoming fear, distraction, or missed opportunities.

While we all want our prospective customers to want what we’re selling now, for the most effective results, we need to work with their time frame.

Rework

Book Reviews

Rework Book Cover

A quirky book that flies in the face of conventional business advice, Rework (by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson) talks about the bottom-line issues that you need to get your product out the door and your business launched. The writers speak from their experiences launching 37signals (maker of Basecamp) with such thoughts as: Instead of trying to do it “right”, do “something”. Instead of trying to make it “perfect”, just make it “good enough”. Stop talking about doing something and do something, then talk about it.

As a bonus, here’s the chapter about Marketing:

Marketing is not a department

Do you have a marketing department? If not, good. If you do, don’t think these are the only people responsible for marketing. Accounting is a department. Marketing isn’t. Marketing is something everyone in your company is doing 24/7/365.

Just as you cannot communicate, you cannot not market:

  • Every time you answer the phone, it’s marketing.
  • Every time you send an e-mail, it’s marketing.
  • Every time someone uses your product, it’s marketing.
  • Every work you write on your Web site is marketing.
  • If you build software, every error message is marketing.
  • If you’re in the restaurant business, the after-dinner mint is marketing.
  • If you’re in the retail business, the checkout counter is marketing.
  • If you’re in a service business, your invoice is marketing.

Recognize that all of these little things are more important than choosing which piece of swag to throw into a conference goodie bag. Marketing isn’t just a few individual events. It’s the sum total of everything you do.

X-Prize Marketing?

Creative Business Ideas

X-Prize Marketing

(Photo by Mark Krynsky)

You’ve likely heard about some of the contests that the X Prize Foundation has sponsored: Ansari (build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth’s surface, twice within two weeks), Progressive (build cars that achieved at least 100 MPGe in real world driving), and Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup (removal of test oil in a test environment with salt water). How can your business benefit from offering its own X Prize-like contest?

The key of the contest is that the winner get a sum of money to those that successfully complete an audacious challenge. No winner, no pay. Instead of paying people to solve these challenges, you invite public competition.  The goal is to remove your company’s risk – the risk is all in the hands of the competitors. The more the prize value, the more likely people will want to compete. The best part is if your stated goals aren’t met, then you keep your prize. But in any case, you’ll get a lot of free PR opportunities from both your competitors and the contest itself. You also get to learn from others what works (and doesn’t).

There’s a wealth of crowd-sourced online competitions for such things as graphics and logos. These likewise can provide you a similar experience to an X Prize.  However, the key difference is that these smaller competitions are based on appearance – not results. I don’t know of any competitions for logos where you pay only if the logo improves your business by a specific percentage. Therefore, be realistic in your goal-setting and be willing to toss the “prize” if it doesn’t truly pay off for your business.

If you’re thinking of creating your own contest, first determine the bottom-line value is to solving the problem. If you’d likely see a yearly increase of net income of $100,000, then offer a similarly large prize purse. What do you have to lose?

Need A Tagline For Corporate Event Planning Biz

Names + Taglines

We are a corporate event planning business located in the heart of relaxing tourist-country. Our focus is to provide companies and groups with a unique location for team-building, training, product launches, retreats and seminars. We see ourselves as facilitators of events that are productive and extraordinary. Our business name is Indulge. We’ve ‘tried-on’ a few ‘slogans’, but I think we need something that doesn’t explicitly say ‘indulge’, rather expresses that our clients’ teams will be re-energized, focused and impressed with each signature event we create. Please help!

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Jay’s Answer: Since “Indulge” doesn’t say what you do (or for who), your tagline needs to make things explicit. For example:

  • Corporate Event Extravaganzas
  • Extraordinary Corporate Experiences

Name For My Muslim Boutique

Names + Taglines

i am opening a boutique on Facebook and eBay for now, plus i will do exhibitions and trade shows here and there. i couldnt decide on catchy and trendy name, i will be selling abayas ( Muslim/Arabian outer garment for women, scarves and modest full sleeve full length maxi dresses). i named it ARABIAN MUSK but it still doesn’t tell what i am selling and isn’t hip and catchy enough for young girls or women to want to shop and buy my stuff.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Modern Abayas
  • Beautiful Abayas
  • Abayalicious
  • Abaya Attitude Boutique

Need A Tagline For Promoting Business

Names + Taglines

I have a small business called “All Laced Up”. I am a Certified Athletic Therapist, Registered Massage Therapist, and Personal Trainer. I need something short, grab peoples attention and go with the massage therapy side as well as athletic therapy. Any suggestions would be great.

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Jay’s Answer:  Since “All Laced Up” doesn’t give a clue of what you do (or for whom), it’s better to keep the tagline focused on the message. For example:

  • Certified Athletic Therapist
  • Therapy/Training for Amateur Athletes
  • Weekend Warriors’ Best Friend

Words To Describe A Strong, Successful Woman?

Names + Taglines

I am trying to come up with a name for a social group for female golfers and would like to incorporate a word that describes a strong, successful woman who is also feminine and girly. Words that I don’t want to use (or can’t use because someone else already is) include diva and sassy. I’m also not crazy about the word “glam” because I feel like it’s overused these days. Any other ideas?

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Bold
  • Brazen
  • Saucy
  • Confident
  • Pert
  • Jaunty
  • Cheeky

Tagline For A Serviced Apartment

Names + Taglines

Hi, I owned a serviced apartment in Bali that cater to both family and business travelers. I want to let my guest to know that they can feel like home because we are ready to serve them 24/7 for what ever they need. But I am not sure how to express this into a marketing tag line.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • We Cater To Your Every Need
  • Relax. We’ve Got It Covered.

 

Slogan Needed For A Fitness Business

Names + Taglines

I am starting a small business that will offer fitness classes to apartment residents on their apartment grounds. The name of the business is AM Fitness, which stands for accessible mobile fitness. So far I have come up with the following slogans: “delivering fitness to your door” and “getting fit is as easy as 1, 2, 3”. I looking for a slogan that describes what my business does. Thanks for your help

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Jay’s Answer: To answer your simple request requires a deeper understanding of who you’re trying to attract:

  • Who are you trying to sell your classes to: the apartment residents or the apartment facility?
  • Where are you located?
  • Is your business name already filed, or are you open to changing it (“Accessible Mobile Fitness” isn’t a clear name – isn’t by being mobile, it’s accessible as well? I generally think of “accessible” as handicap-friendly). For example, can you morph the name to “I Am Fit” or “Fit To You”?
  • Are you teaching movement classes or weight classes?
  • To what sort of person (age, fitness level, price point, etc.)?