All posts by Jay

Event Ideas For Blue Collared Workers

Clubs + Associations, Publicity

My client is in the business of ‘instant money transfer’ and its offices are all over the globe.
The target audience as per the brief given by the client is ‘blue collared’ workers.
They would like to do a series of ‘low budget’ events ( about 8-10 events a year) and create awareness. Any ideas of any exciting events other than a fun fair…. ( or even a talent show which has been done several times over and it is loosing its charm..)

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Jay’s Answer: How about free calls around the globe (via Skype) from office-to-office on special days? Let people instantly connect to each other, not just with money.

Name My Woman’s Clothing Boutique

Names + Taglines

I need help naming a women’s clothing boutique. Looking to sell trendy contemporary clothing for women ages 20-45. Most of the clothing would be transitional – work to evening. The store will be located on Elm Street in Westfield, NJ. The two names I’ve been receiving good feedback on are “The Dressing Room” and “T.W.O on Elm” (the T&W are the first initials of names)

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Jay’s Answer: “The Dressing Room” gives a hint of what you’re selling, while “T.W.O. on Elm” could be the name of a restaurant. Instead of trying to incorporate first initials, focus on names that are likely to appeal (and your age range might be a bit wide – 20-year olds dress likely dress differently from 45-year olds).

Other ideas: “Trendy Nights” or “Evening Wear Boutique”.

Situations Where A Boy Of 8 Saves The Day For TV?

Publicity

I need some situations demonstrating a boys ability to save the day because he has had a special milk which makes him taller, stronger and sharper. Also a mother has to be seen in a passive role where she give him the milk. In addition to this like the example given below I need him to champion a situation displaying his Taller Stronger and Sharper qualities. One thought which is sort of ok is, there is a match being played and the boy cannot see past the people cos they are all taller than him. He tries in vain. Then we cut to the product window where we see the story of the special milk which is supposed to help children grow in many ways. When we come back to the situation with the boy he has now got an idea runs to the wall behind all the people and demonstrates the 3 qualities of Taller, Stronger and Smarter by trying several times to climb the wall managing it then swinging him self onto a tree from the wall and sitting in it to watch the match with a view that is now way above the heads of the people that were blocking him.

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Jay’s Answer: It sounds like you’re creating “Superboy”, a mild-mannered child who when things get difficult, drinks up and transforms him/herself into “Superboy/girl”. That could mean stopping traffic to save a puppy crossing the road, catching up to wildlife in a local park to get closer to them, etc.

How To Hire an E-marketing Expert

eMarketing

E-marketing is new to our company, therefore we have no “experts” on staff. We are looking at possibly hiring a candidate that claims to be a webmaster in programming and expert in e-marketing on his resume.

I’m looking for some interview questions (and answers) to ask the candidate to determine his true skill set and knowledge.

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Jay’s Answer: For the e-marketing aspect: Ask for ROI for past campaigns they’ve worked on. How much time was spent? How much money? What was the baseline? How did they measure how the campaign affected their bottom line? What worked (and didn’t)?

As far as webmaster role: The major cost for a website isn’t in building it, but maintaining it. Ask how they keep the costs down, and allow distribution of information (so that they’re not the only guru who knows how to do the “basic” things – like add content). Ask them about the various technologies in use (for example, Flash, CMS, HTML5) and which is best for what tasks.

Giftware And Stationery Tagline

Names + Taglines

I have started a company called Chatterbox.Its all about getting back in touch, communicating, and remembering what is was like to have a chat pre-Facebook and MySpace days. We will sell all funky stationary for letter writing, memory books, invitations etc. I am hoping to have a generic tag line that reflects conversation and how fun it is to have one. I have started my brand as quirky and fun and not too serious. Any suggestions for tag lines would be a great help.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • The Write Way To Make Friends
  • Reach Out And Write Someone
  • The Pen Is Mightier Than The Keyboard

Need Women’s Social Networking Group Name

eMarketing, Names + Taglines

Name needs to be memorable so peeps remember it. And a unique name so I can get a .com and .net . The group has events for women and we meet in person to try new things and make friends, women 21 plus yrs of age. It is not a non profit and I’d like it to be nationwide eventually.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Ladies2Ladies (.com and .net both available)
  • LadiesWhoNetwork (.com is up for deletion, .net available)

Marketing Idea For A Online Cookie Company

Starting Out

I’m planning on doing a online cookie business out of the house … I will be the only person running this business for now because I want to start small and work my way up. I need some marketing ideas and strategies to attract people across my country to come to my site and order from me. I’m doing cookies for regular household, gifts, wedding favours, corporate and other events. I’m thinking of adding a gift basket aspect to the site with a bunch of cookies, personal house coffee, tea & hot chocolate to generate more profit. Also i thought of ribbon that tie around the box like a christmas present-look can have the corporate name and/or logo on the ribbon to create a corporate gift.

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Jay’s Answer: Before you try to sell across the whole country, focus on your city or town. They’re the ones who’ll be able to eat your cookies the day you bake ’em. They’re the ones who you’ll be able to get photos and videos of them enjoying them. Those testimonials will be one piece of your marketing.

Secondarily, it’ll be easier for you to co-market with people who regularly either give gifts are are already in the gifting business (i.e., florists, salespeople, realtors, etc.). Instead of waiting for people to come to your website, contact them. Bring them a plate of your cookies face-to-face, and then tell them about your business.

Headline For A Habitat For Humanity Restore

Names + Taglines

This headline has to make the connection that they sell brand new home supplies (i.e. furniture, building supplies, accessories) these items have been donated from major building and furniture businesses. The restore store will sell the items for less then the normal price. The money goes to building new homes for families. I need a headline that will attract consumers to the store and feel good about spending money with Habitat For Humanities knowing that the money will be used to build homes.

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Jay’s Answer: Create Your Own Home Habitat For Less

Help Me Name My New Event Planning Business

Names + Taglines, Starting Out

I’m in a process to open an event and wedding company in UAE and i was looking for an attractive name with slogan and i want to start the business plan if you can help by sending the
step that i should use.

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Jay’s Answer: I always advise my clients to work on their naming at the end of developing their business/marketing strategy plan, rather than at the start of the planning process. Why? Because the naming needs to target your prospective customers, and unless you’re quite clear who you’re targeting (Where are they located? Men or women? Age? Income level? What problem of theirs do you solve? Why they’d choose you over the competition? Why should they trust you?) you’re hoping that the name will magically bring people to your door (or website). Sadly, names aren’t magical. In fact, the “boring names” (those that are descriptive, for example “UAE Event Planners”) are usually more effective than the catchy ones (“Fantabulous”); catchy names don’t “stick” in people’s brains and require a bit of education to describe what you’re offering (and to who).

So, the first step I suggest is interviewing 10+ people who you think would be great candidates for your clients, and find out their needs: the problems they have, how they solve them, who they trust, why they’d switch to someone else, and where they look for solutions. Once you understand their needs (and wording), you’re in a good starting place to develop a plan to attract people like them to your business offering.

While you could simply pick a name & tagline, create a website, print business cards & flyers, to get things going sooner, you’re likely to find that people aren’t contacting you because you haven’t figured out how to attract them to you.