Marketing

Friends and Family

When you’re down on your luck, who do you turn to?

When the world seems against you, who do you turn to?

When you want honest advice and ways to make things right, who do you turn to?

When you need to get rid of all the BS and be the person you need to be, who do you turn to?

I’m guessing friends and family. Not fairweather friends; not imagined family. But those you trust. Those you’ve grown with; feel comfort around; know only have your best interests at heart. Because they know you’d do the same for them.

Now.

Imagine if your customers were your friends and family. Imagine the trust you could build. Imagine the belief in each other. Imagine the greatness you could create together.

Imagine the potential.

Ready to make new, true friends?

Instant Coffee

Instant coffee is fast. Instant coffee offers the quick solution you need at that time. Instant coffee keeps you satisfied until you can get to the gourmet roast or Colombian dark coffee from your favourite bean.

As customers, we love full bean flavour but we don’t always need that – sometimes all we need to keep us happy is some instant coffee.

How’s your business at serving coffee?

All You Need is the Story

Creatives are often looking for the biggest bang for the buck.

Marketing; PR; advertising; a lot of the time these disciplines share the same questions – what cool way can we get our product in front of someone? How much budget can we allocate to this product launch? What celebrity can we get to promote us? What lifestyle magazine can we get to write about us?

All valid points, all part of the process. And there have been many examples of truly creative campaigns over the years.

But sometimes, if you really want to drive home your message, you don’t need the special effects. You don’t need the dramatic smoke machines. You don’t need the mini Hollywood budgets.

All you need is the story.

Reinventing the Wheel

James Dyson looked at the vacuum cleaner and gave people a different way to do things – no bags. Simple.

EasyJet looked at international flights and gave people a different way to fly – no thrills affordability. Simple.

Sony looked at video games and gave people a different way to view gamers – cool mass appeal chic. Simple.

We don’t always have to build something brand new. We don’t always have to spend millions on research when the audience is already there. We don’t always have to create from scratch.

Sometimes just reinventing the wheel is more than enough.

Note: This post originally appeared on my Posterous account. I’m still experimenting there and may remain using it, or move all posts here. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing the odd one here with you.

Do You Want Fries With That?

There’s a fine line between offering pre-project consultancy advice and actually moving into billable hours. Some clients get this; some don’t. Some clients keep moving the goal posts; some are grateful for your advice and experience and will pay for it.

If you’re wondering how to define this line and where it’s safe to instill a cut-off point, take a look at this video and see how much of yourself and your clients you recognize. If you’re nodding your head too much at the client/customer point of view, it may be time to re-evaluate just how you define your business relationship.

Advice and helping set the stage is fine; but it doesn’t pay the bills. You were approached for a reason; don’t be afraid to stand up for that reason and set your stall out from the start. After all, if you’re being paid for your success, surely your client’s enjoying that success with you, no?