Category Archives: Publicity

New Mind-blowing Icebreakers

Publicity

I’m scheduled to do a 15 min. icebreaker  – before a 9 hour vision session, and I really want to do something unconventional. I had originally planned to show one of the “Did you know” video – but I think a lot of people have already seen them. Any suggestions? I really don’t want to do one of the traditional: hug your neighbor, tell a funny story about yourself etc.

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Jay’s Answer: Have people pair up. Give them 5 minutes to come up with 3 things they have in common. The catch? They can’t speak or write – it has to be with body language only.

Headline For Motivational Campaign

Publicity

Last year we broadcast weekly mailers featuring cross functional team work across geographies and named it Synergy Success Stories – The mailer was designed in a shape of diary with a pen on the mast head & spiral bond & the edges & each week a new story being unfold & team members pictures in star shape with their names & work details being flashed who worked on a particular project.

This year we have frozen on the theme – Transcend – beyond all boundaries, breaking all barriers – dare to go beyond the limits. To attain the company GOAL of growth.
The idea is to project teams & projects who have come up with out of the box ideas/innovations & gone the extra mile in the contributing towards the growth of company & Business excellence.

Can you suggest what should these weekly mailers called to replace Synergy Success Story, so people are engrossed & do not lose interest in these weekly mailers being flashed ?

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Stories Of Transcendence
  • The Next Level
  • Inspiring Success

The Joys of Negative Marketing

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity

Negative Marketing
Image by David G. Klein

The NYTimes recently (Nov 11, 2010) published “A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web” which describes someone who’s figured out that really bad customer service can be its own reward. In a nutshell, a discount designer sunglasses online store lures people to their website with great prices, but seldom delivers. How can they survive? By the numbers game: a legion of unhappy customers post complaints online, which create backlinks to the online store, driving up the store’s online ranking (wash – rinse – repeat).

The store owner has figured out how to “game the system” by doing the exact opposite of great marketing techniques. The search engine software hasn’t yet been tweaked to “fix” this loophole. In the meantime, the owner continues to take orders and aggressively fight customers’ returns. We watch from the sidelines and are frustrated – someone’s got a business edge by not “playing by the rules”.

The sad reality is that scammers stay in business because they’re used to working one step ahead of the law. If the credit card merchant shuts them down, they can use a friend’s merchant account. If their webhost closes their website, they can go to another host. If they get sued enough, they can declare bankruptcy, and spring up another business elsewhere.

Why not follow this lead and take business shortcuts? Because ethically we couldn’t live with ourselves, nor would we strive to be in community with people who do. There are always people who do well by living on the edge of morality. But if you want to sleep well at night, not worry about your next phone call (or knock at the door) –  run your business the way you want to be treated.

How To Brand My Haircare Business?

Branding, Publicity, Starting Out

I am re-entering the world of haircare/styling as a result of being laid off for the fifth time in the last ten years. I will be renting booth space in a salon. The salon is nice and has a great, peaceful atmosphere. I need a name and I need to leverage myself as my brand and have a catchy tagline. My name is Dawn and the salon I will work at is called Ambiance Salon. As I am a booth renter, I want to focus more on me and incorporate the salon somewhere but I am not sure where. I have even thought of using my middle name (Rachelle) or a form of it to create another image or just use another name all together. I specialize in cuts, color and extensions. Any help would be appreciated.

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Jay’s Answer: Don’t try to be a brand – be a stylist. Let word-of-mouth (and some beautiful model headshots) help to bring people to you. Your tagline can be simply “Specializing in Cuts, Color, and Extensions”. That clarifies who would most want to seek you out. As for a name, why not use your name, such as: Dawn Does Hair, Dawn Of A New Hairstyle, or simply “Dawn Moore Dixon”?

New Retail Store Headline?

Publicity

I am one of the graphic designers for a retail woman’s clothing chain. We have 200 stores nationwide and are opening another in a few months! This new store will be in Tennessee and we really want to kick it off in a BIG WAY. I am talking billboards, direct mailers, live remotes, web pages, etc. TONS AND TONS MORE! We are working on quirky, catchy, tongue in cheek type marketing message to use throughout all our marketing pieces. The kickoff for these marketing pieces will be the billboards throughout the Tri-City area in Tennessee. For the billboard we are thinking of a simple photo, quick/clever tagline and logo. Any help or ideas on what direction to take for the verbiage?

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Jay’s Answer:

  • If The Denim Fits…
  • Denim That Flatters…
  • We’re Tops In Denim-ing Bottoms

Reaching Top 30% Students?

Products, Publicity

Based on feedback and other data it appears that the top 30% of college students welcome my product most. So, the question is how to perform a differentiated or focused targeting of this specific demographics (liberal arts freshmen and sophomores)? Working with universities directly might be the most effective way to go. Other than that, any thoughts?

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Dean’s List
  • College Awards
  • Faculty Recommendations

Tips To Market Gym/Products To Baby Boomers?

Publicity

Do you have any good tips on how to market gym products and gym membership to baby boomers?

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Jay’s Answer: If someone already is a member of a gym, then you need to identify why switching to yours’ would be better: location? cost? extras? effectiveness? community?

People generally don’t enjoy going to a gym – they enjoy the results from going. Whether that be the endorphins, the appeal of a toned body, or the chance to meet people – that’s the message you want concentrate on.

Business Lawyer Marketing

Branding, Publicity

I’m putting together a marketing/PR proposal for a 3-person law firm. I’m coming up with various ideas to promote any of the three of them, but particularly need help with the one who does business law. She’s thinking she’d like to speak at business conferences (what kind? no clue), as she’s a good public speaker. She obviously needs to develop more relationships with more businesses.

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Jay’s Answer: Who would be her ideal client? That’s who she needs to talk to. It may be local small businesses, larger corporations (who may have representation in-house but need specialization from time-to-time), franchises, etc. Once you better understand what type of law & for who, then find opportunities for her to be in front of many of these people at the same time – conferences, magazine articles, webcasts, etc.

Tenth Anniversary. Need Innovative Ideas!

Publicity

We are a marketing communications/public relations company celebrating 10 years and would like to have an anniversary celebration. We don’t want to do the same old, same old, but want to offer our clients and potential clients an “experience.” Any ideas on how we can have a celebration that stands apart from the rest?

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Jay’s Answer: Your anniversary isn’t really of interest to your clients – your results are. Why should they take their time to attend your party? How will you make the time not just “fun”, but ultimately continue to position yourself as the marketing communications/public relations company with vision/results?

How about taking your party on a private bus, and drive to locations of businesses that are #1 in their field and talk about them (especially if they’re your clients) from the perspective of their message and the top things your party-goers can learn about what they do right. End by taking the bus to a fun venue to allow them to relax, but also talk about the experience.

A Special Event For Our Clients And Hot Prospects?

Publicity, Services

Our clients can be great advocates for us. As such, we’d like to reward them by creating “in-the-loop” special evening events for our best clients. During these events, we’ll gave them a “taste” of some of the new “value-adds” to the service they receive. I’d also like to invite some of our hottest (in terms of buying urgency) prospects to get a taste of being a client and perhaps speak with some satisified clients.

What sort of agenda would you recommend? Ideally, I’d like to have it in-house so they can meet our employees, etc. Budget is fairly small, but I’d like to make it fun/somewhat informal.

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Jay’s Answer: If you want your clients to feel like VIPs, don’t just try to sell them more services, teach them something about how to use your services more effectively. For example, have one of your clients that recently had “wow” results, share their tips with the other clients. That’ll position you as the expert, and give extra exposure to one of your clients. That’s a great win-win.