 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Posts Tagged ‘food’
The Lots of companies use interesting and attention-getting ads with the brand name or major takeaway buried somewhere in the ad – completely divorced from the attention getting element. So what happens? Consumers remember this great ad, but for the life of them have no idea what it was for or who it was by. This is a huge waste of resources.
If we are dealing with a familiar product and we have a familiar message, maybe consumers can attend briefly to our message and brand name while they are doing something else. They can divide their attention because the ad and message are familiar and well-known. This is what reminder advertising is all about.
But if we have a new brand, a new message, or something complicated to say, consumers won’t possibly be able to attend to this message while simultaneously undertaking the complexities of a stressful, multitasking, interruption filled environment.
Does this mean we can’t develop new or complicated messages? No, it just means that we have to be all the more careful about making consumers attend to the right things and make sure our message is interesting enough to have them put aside something else and think about us alone.
What Attracts and Sustains Attention?
Psychologists and marketing academics have learned important lessons about what attracts and sustains attention. We list some of them here. Think about them as a checklist for developing your ad, email promotion, or website. They will help you make your marketing effort interesting and attractive for the right reasons.
On a very broad level, things attract attention if they are personally relevant, pleasant, surprising, or easy to process. There are a lot of ways in which we can achieve these things, as we explain below.
Is It Personally Relevant?
Consumers pay attention to things that that have implications or consequences for their lives, especially if they appeal to their needs, values, or goals. Mothers, for instance, pay attention to ads that feature kids because kids are relevant to their needs, values, and goals. We also pay attention to people who look, act, or seem like ourselves, perhaps because we think they have similar needs, values and goals, similar problems and perhaps, because they know something we don’t.
Are you attuned to who your typical target consumer is? Are you using people like them in your ad? On your web-page?
Another way to capture consumers’ attention is to ask rhetorical questions—those asked merely for effect. Questions like, "How would you like to win a million dollars?", and "Aren’t you glad you use Dial? Don’t you wish everyone did?" make the consumer think, "Yeah, I do"! It gets consumers to shift their attention to your brand or service and what it can do for them.
Is It Pleasant?
We attend to things that are inherently pleasant. No doubt this has evolutionary significance. We want to approach things that make us feel good and avoid those that don’t. So, for the marketer appealing to the more primitive desires in consumers, here’s what can be done:
First, use attractive visuals. Advertisements containing attractive models have a higher probability of being noticed because the models arouse positive feelings or a basic sexual attraction. Do you pay attention to ads with Cindy Crawford, Christie Brinkley and Mel Gibson? Of course you do. You also pay attention to beautiful sunsets, cute babies, enticing food, and beautifully decorated rooms. They are all pleasant to look at.
Music is another way of making something pleasant. Familiar songs have considerable attention-getting power, which is why some companies have used popular and familiar music and famous artists like Reba McEntire, Aretha Franklin, and the Beatles in commercials. Optimally, the chosen music fits with the message you are trying to send.
Humor can also be an effective attention-getting device. This is perhaps one reason why Clio award winning ads become winners. They have attracted the attention of the people who vote for them.
The problem with humor is that not everyone agrees on what is funny. And a good joke loses its punch after it’s repeated a few times. Companies misstep with humor when the joke is completely unrelated to the point of the ad. The result? People remember the humor, not the brand name or message.
Is It Surprising?
Consumers also attend to things that are surprising. Again, evolution explains this phenomenon. We are automatically conditioned to things that are surprising because we have to quickly judge how to respond to them (should we fight, run away, or approach this surprising thing?). Two things make a stimulus surprising: novelty and unexpectedness.
We attend to novel things — those that are new and unique — because they are different and require analysis. Of course, being new, unique, and different is hard work and requires creativity. Talking Internet ads, shockwave technology, pop-up ads and the like were all, at one time, novel ways of attracting attention. Unfortunately, once something new comes along, its very success makes others want to copy it, which makes it old, not new.
While we have been talking about advertising and web pages, remember that products, packages and brand names that are novel will also grab attention. The perfume labeled "Dirt" is, you must admit, different. "Catalyst for Men," packaged in test tubes and laboratory flasks, will certainly stand out from other fragrances at Macy’s.
Something important to remember about novelty: things that are new are not always preferred. We often dislike food, for instance, that tastes different from what we usually eat. The same goes for new clothing styles and new and unusual music.
A second feature affecting surprise is unexpectedness. Unexpected stimuli are not necessarily new, but their placement is different from what we are used to. 3-M created attention with surprising ads that featured chickens with fluorescent, stick-on notes with words like "Rush" and "Copy" stuck to their bodies. One company showed a picture of a man and woman gazing intently at their wallpaper while their baby swung from the ceiling fan. Unexpectedness is a much easier thing to achieve than novelty.
Although unexpected stimuli attract attention, using things that are too unusual can sometimes be confusing. Thus, we might pay attention to them, but then decide they are so weird we don’t want to focus on them any more. This potential problem is illustrated in the Reebok U.B.U. campaign that used bizarre images like a three-legged man and a ballerina vacuuming the lawn. Though effective in getting the attention, the visuals were confusing and rendered the ad unsuccessful.
By Debbie Maclnnis
Several years ago, I got a call from a guy who saw my success story in the Dallas Morning News. He called because he had a dream to create a marketing agency and since I had one and one that was successful enough to be written up in the paper he thought I might be a good place to start.
What he didn’t know was that I established a strong working relationship with a reporter responsible for those stories and many of my clients appeared on a regular basis because I was willing to write good stories and pass them on to her. On deadline day, my client still had not approved ‘who’ the spotlight professional would be so I was forced to figure out a solution. Voila! I did one for myself.
Back to the guy who called me. I love to help people realize their dreams and he seemed earnest enough so I met with him. I shared as much as I could, gave him referrals to other people who might be a fit (he wanted to create a sports marketing agency), and encouraged him to ‘go for it.’ I said good-bye to him and didn’t have one thought more about anything else happening.
About a week later I received a call from another guy. This guy referenced the first guy and said that his friend thought I might be able to help. A few days later we were having lunch at a great local Thai restaurant (where he only goes on business lunches because his wife doesn’t like Thai food). As we ate, he shared his story about why he was a new business owner, how his last firm was a huge success but he had kids and his former partners spent mad amounts of cash on marketing, and how he had dreams for the future of being like the local hardware store where people know you and trust you. I told him to hold that vision and if he ever felt lost to come back to it and he would know just what to do in his business. I listened intently to what he had to share and reminded him of all the success he had experienced and encouraged him to never change who he is.
We walked out of the restaurant and he thanked me, and then said… "Do I owe you something? I feel like I got so much from our conversation." I responded that in all of my years in business that I have always shown up where I am directed and things have taken care of themselves. I added as I walked away, "If there’s ever an opportunity for you to tell someone else about me, you’ll know. I said good-bye to him and didn’t have one thought about anything else happening.
About a week after that I was with a client and the subject of a huge project came up. I mean a HUGE job – one that would be many hundreds of thousands of dollars. I just happened to be standing in the hallway when the conversation was taking place. My client and I both knew one other firm, but I also knew this new fellow I met just the week before. What did I have in my mind? Logic? No… I had a guy’s heart in my mind. A guy who wanted to be like the hardware shop – where people could come to him and trust that the job would be done right.
I told my client all about this guy and how successful his previous firm had been and how he was a guy you could really count on. Plus, he was local (the other firm was halfway across the U.S.) and with the size of his company could also be flexible. I gave my client that guy’s card and left. I didn’t have one thought more about anything else happening.
About a week after that, I got a call from the guy I referred to my client. He was ecstatic… this job was the biggest in the firm’s history… as big as many other firms 10 times their size… and they just won the bid. He was calling to thank me. And he wanted me to share in the success. He planned to give me a referral bonus. Since I didn’t refer him to make money, I felt fine with this because the referral was given with the best intention and the bonus was given after I referred who I thought was best to the company.
What was the ‘referral’ bonus? A check for nearly 10 grand from a nice guy I met through another nice guy who didn’t know me from Adam until he saw me in the newspaper.
So, how does relationship marketing work?
- Give first and don’t expect anything. I’ve found over the years that there are people who give first, people who give nothing away, and those who think they give freely but really expect something in return. I recommend going where you feel pulled to go. I don’t meet with every person who calls me, there’s just not enough time in the day to do that. But, when my heart is pulled, I go. When I am there, I give all I am to the moment and share as much as I can. I feel like as long as I’m there I might as well be useful.
- Get to know good people. Birds of a feather flock together. Good people know other good people. When people I know, like and trust suggest I meet someone they know, I go. I don’t ask a lot of questions or question why, I just go. The only way to get to know more like-minded people is to get to know and connect other like-minded people. Be a connector yourself and you will find that others will be happy to reciprocate the kindness.
- Be ready to receive. Too many people complain about not getting enough sales or referrals or business they love and at the same time they just aren’t open to receiving what is available. If you are focused on what you don’t have then your mind can’t be open to seeing what is coming to you. Stay open to opportunities that will enhance your business as well as others. When people only think of themselves then they don’t have room to think of others. Receiving is all about being ready.
Relationships form when you aren’t working hard to make a connection. Give and help others get to where they are going and others will help you get to where you are going. Be sure you know where you are going!
I recently visited a restaurant that we love for its consistency and price point for good food. My husband and I have been dining there for more than 10 years. We visit regularly because we are a good fit for them and them for us.
Over the years, one of the only things that bugged us was that they served cold drinks, such as iced tea or water, in small glasses. These 16 ounce tumblers, when filled with ice, hold very little liquid. This caused several things to happen: 1. the wait staff had to make multiple trips to the table to refill our glasses, 2. we would stay longer than intended sometimes due to waiting for our glasses to be filled so we could wet our palette, 3. when we would get our iced tea just where we wanted it (with lemon and sweetener), the wait staff would fill ‘er back up in an attempt to save steps.
It seems like such a simple thing, yet my husband and I, on occasion, would speculate as to how much those glasses were costing the company. It all adds up. The extended stay of guests, the wait staff running back and forth repeatedly – sometimes at the cost of not properly attending to other guests, longer waits for guests waiting on tables, even increased usage of sweeteners (due to the number of refills, we routinely used more than we would have otherwise).
Given all of this, imagine our surprise when we found the restaurant moved to a larger-sized tumbler. This one was great. I think we had one refill each and used only one packet each of sweetener. The service was good, as usual, and we noticed that the wait staff seemed more attentive overall.
It is often the “little things” that add up over time. Here are areas within virtually every business that can hamper productivity, dampen profits and put a lag on morale.
- Exchanges too many hands. How many people does it really take to place an order? Look at your systems to see if it would be beneficial to reduce the number of people needed to perform a function.
- Employees don’t have all the information needed. When employees can’t remember the particulars, they often go seeking answers to their questions. This takes the employee’s time, the person’s time for answering the question and, sometimes, the customer’s time. Most businesses can benefit from documenting information in a common place, such as a notebook with guidelines, procedures, etc. This also provides a map for new employees to quickly learn the lay of the land.
- Chaos rules. Clutter around the office or business is one thing, but another is having a workspace that is unorganized. Supplies that are out of place, forms that are mixed in with other papers – all mean extra steps and more effort to achieve one task. It takes only minutes each day to keep workplaces in tip-top shape for doing business.
- Stopping and starting woes. It takes more time to perform a job when a person is interrupted and must begin again. While some people welcome interruptions throughout the day, this can wreak havoc on personal productivity. Eliminate unnecessary interruptions by breaking down job functions so time can be maximized, removing interrupters such as a candy bowl at a person’s desk (put the bowl in a common place for all to enjoy, but that doesn’t invite impromptu conversations throughout the day) and save time away from your desk or station by combining trips (restroom break with a trip to the supply cabinet, for example). Don’t forget to set a specific time each day to check e-mail, too!
- Take a break. Taking a true break from the workplace will deliver you back to the office or company in top mental performance. Working through lunch at your desk, while it may seem productive, actually lessens your productivity throughout the afternoon. Take a break – even if it is only to walk outside for 10 minutes – to improve concentration and achieve peak performance.
Most everyone working in any type of business hardly has time to set goals and objectives, let alone do any short-term daily planning. Walking into the office with a preset list of daily “to-do” items will surely go to the bottom of the in-box within a matter of minutes. And, in the long-term, matching quantifiable outcomes with goals and objectives just isn’t part of reality. Or is it?
An increasingly demanding marketplace coupled with the need to get more done prevents some from planning, setting business goals and measuring outcome. Yet other business owners make time for this critical process. These entrepreneurs have experienced, firsthand, how applied business projections can turn dreams into currency.
The need to plan for the future of your business dates back to the Stone Age. As elementary as it may seem, cave men who hunted for food found they could not transport much on their backs or in their hands, so they planned for the future by inventing the wheel. Once a vehicle to carry food was available, the goal was achieved, and life was much sweeter.
Our business environment isn’t much different. We realize an end result through a goal- and objective-setting process. For example, your goal might be to increase business in 2008 by 10 percent. How are you going to get there? What’s keeping you from reaching that mark now? Asking the right questions generates the critical information you need to turn action into results. Even more important is accessing the data needed to set your goals. If you’ve never attempted this kind of planning before, you aren’t alone. Properly executed, this type of planning can significantly impact a business, but most entrepreneurs aren’t sure what to focus on, so they focus on what is urgent. Often, though, what is urgent is not a priority in the lifespan of your business.
It’s much easier to begin the process by thinking of the task in small, easily reachable segments. Following a streamlined, eight-step approach to planning keeps you focused. Even though you may already have taken on some of these points and begun the planning process, revisit them for a fresh perspective.
1. Make sure you are looking at the right numbers. If you are looking at financial statements, you may be looking at what we call lagging indicators. These numbers tell you what has already passed. What transforms action into measurable results is setting goals based on leading indicators – specific measures that give you a real-time snapshot of areas within your business. This gives you the power to make changes now rather than later. Often, what seems to be the area of concern is actually a symptomatic sign of another area that needs attention.
2. Assess the company’s strengths and weaknesses. Even the most advanced, revenue-generating businesses can benefit from assessing strengths and weaknesses. Gather your teams and create! First, you’ll quickly realize you have as many weaknesses as you have strengths. Second, if the group is given creative freedom without pressures of being watched by the boss, you’ll receive honest feedback.
3. Conduct a thorough market segment analysis. Who are you trying to reach? The same customer or client you had just a few years ago may have morphed into someone completely different. Perhaps you’re going after an audience that no longer has a need for your services. Consider generational differences (Gen-X, Baby Boomers), demographics (age, race, gender) and any other indicators that match your company’s mission.
4. Analyze competitors. You can’t begin to make any headway without determining your competition. The answers “we don’t have any” and “we are the only ones who provide this niche of services” isn’t viable. Everyone has competitors; yet, they may not be apparent at first glance. If you can’t come up with a short list, talk to your customers or clients and ask their opinions. Chances are they’ll tell you who the competition is, but more importantly, they’ll tell you why you’re different than the competition.
5. Create company goals and objectives. This task may very well be the most fun, but again, be careful not to be too aggressive with your goals and objectives. It’s far better to concentrate on two to three specific items that can be accomplished, rather than a long, complicated list that sets the company up for failure. Of course, setting simple goals that don’t challenge your team won’t yield the results you truly desire.
6. Formulate strategic options and select the appropriate strategies. What are your options on reaching your goals and objectives? How are you going to organize your teams to accomplish your end result? Weigh factors like budget, people and staff time when planning your strategies. If you plan for 10 percent growth, what are your options – do you have the staff, money and time to reach this goal?
7. Translate strategic plans into action plans. This is the most creative step in the entire process because of the progression involved in coming up with action plans. The most productive meetings with the best outcomes come from dynamic, group sessions in which everyone offers their suggestions. Most companies are amazed at the creative knowledge inherent within employees during this stage.
8. Establish accurate controls. As in any business, controlling expenses and resources is paramount to any process. You can’t sell the farm if the farm isn’t for sale! Be sure to outline during the action plan stage just exactly how much the company is willing to commit to the effort, and attempt to stick to that whenever possible. Of course, there will be some deviation, but more likely than not, a well-defined set of controls will go a long way to ensuring goals are met in a timely, cost-effective and efficient fashion.
In addition to these eight steps, companies must evaluate the effectiveness of its plans throughout the process. Assessments must be reviewed and thoroughly analyzed to determine what’s working and what needs to be changed. You won’t want to wait a whole year, for example, to rethink your goals. Plan a mid-year review.
In five years, where do you want to be? What does your company look like? Put the incremental plan in place that will get you there and stick with it until you reach your destination.
Hi all-
I really have to be in awe of how things work with the world. I wrote about iJustine.com last week and THIS week she was on the front page of www.TalkShoe.com where she is being boasted as the largest TalkCast EVER! If you want to get to know this really cool, truly talented young woman a little better, pop in to hear her live (next Sunday evening)!
Every year clients ask me what they should do for holiday gifts. Is food a good idea? Should I get something with our name imprinted? What about holiday cards? Will my gift get lost in the shuffle?
This week I combined a few holiday topics into a nice soufflé of holiday marketing advice. Enjoy!
Hugs-
Tina
P.S. This holiday season, consider breaking out of the mold – the jello mold, that is!
So you want to think the way I do. Be able to tackle any problem or issue that may come your way. From a very young age I have been able to figure out just about any situation or problem. You can say I was born that way. I am one of those people that people go he can do anything. Well the truth is, I can do almost anything because of one main reason.
I know my options!
You can start doing the same thing in your life with just a little help. If you are already an expert feel free to email me your ideas for being more of a creative problem solver.
Here is a simple little exercise that will help you expand your brain and how you look at the world, so that no matter what the situation is you will be able to creatively come up with a solution. The game is called bubble gum and is the key to heading down the road to unbelievable problem solving.
Bubblegum
Rule 1 – there are no set rules only guides to help you.
Rule 2 – Have fun and keep it positive. Once you start thinking this way automatically, your brain some times can show you all the options in a negative fashion. So, please don’t think of options to harass your neighbor or that.
Get out a piece of paper and pencil\pen or if you have a good memory you can use it as well.
Now imagine you have a piece of gum.
Think to yourself all the things that you can do with the piece of gum. Limit your self to only your body right now. Write down every answer you can think of.
How many did you come up with?
Expand your mind to include anything you can do with the piece of gum; including with other objects around you. Write these down in another list on your paper.
How many more did you come up with?
I will provide some of my quick thoughts below. Please try it yourself before you clog your brain with my thoughts. To increase your ability let your mind find things to do with other items you see every day as well (cars, chickens, cows, toys, food, checkbook). Practice often and enjoy your growing skills. In no time you will automatically be able to see solutions without thinking at all. Email if you have questions about this process. I am trying to keep blog entries shorter.
Few of my answers.
Just me and the gum.
- Chew it
- Blow bubbles
- Pull it out with my fingers
- Stick it in my hair
- Stick it up my nose
- Stick it in my ears
- Put it under my arm
- In my eye…ouch
- On my chest
- Swallow it. Kind of ends the game LOL
- Throw it
- Bite it in half
- Stuff it in my cheek
- Stick it to the roof of my mouth.
- Stick it in some crazy places. Use your imagination.
You get the idea…..
The Gum and my imagination.
- Freeze it and shoot it out of a sling shot
- Stick it on the window
- Stick it on neighbors window
- Put it under the desk, in the couch, under the sink, in the microwave, on and on.
- I wont put everything because it would take a long time. You know I am an expert
So the next time something comes up in your life remember “Bubblegum.”
PS. Nothing in your life will happen if you know all your options but make no decision. Remember, you get there faster in a row boat when you actually row.