Listening To The Little Voices

Your customers are talking! Are you listening?
Every where you go you find user reviews about everything from apricots to zoos. You can even review other people's reviews. Everyone has an opinion they want to share, but does it matter if you're not listening?

Companies spend millions of dollars every year trying to get customer ratings and feedback on their products, but they've missed the freebie in their own backyard.

Do a search on your product or company, set up a blog and ask for reviews, list your product on Amazon and then take advantage of the time other people have put into reviewing your product. They are probably more realistic than putting someone into a dark room for hours before bombarding them with questions in the hopes of generating an unbiased response. Whew! That was a long thought... maybe more of a rant. *smile*

A Doggie Dog World

I walked into my favorite groomer's the other day and as I was presenting my little beast for his nail trimming I noticed that my groomer was reading an article about branding.
I realized when your dog groomer starts talking about branding you know that word is no longer just an ad agency buzz word, but a word that deserves some attention.

So branding. What is it?

dictionary.com defines brand as: kind, grade, or make, as indicated by a stamp, trademark, or the like.
Of course it also defines brand as: a mark formerly put upon criminals with a hot iron.
Considering that branding seems to have originated out of the ad world, that second definition probably isn't that far off the mark, but I think we can look a little deeper.

Your brand is how other people see you, it is your worth in their eyes. Take the Starbucks brand - for all of the ups and downs, this is a multi-million dollar company based around a slightly exotic cup of coffee. When you think about Starbucks you think about their logo, that distinctive green you see in all of their shops and depending on how you feel about the company, a few other adjectives will come to mind.

When you go to build your own brand you need to consider what you want it to say about your company. The first step is choosing a good name. There are thousands of books written just about picking a good name. My suggestion? Don't stress over it, just think of it as a tattoo. This is something that you are going to have for the rest of your life, so make certain it is what you want.

The next thing you want to consider is what your overall feeling is going to be. Are you a straight laced, business suit kind of company? If so, you'll probably want to consider more conservative colors, such as gray, maroon, dark blue. If you're a jeans and flip-flops place than consider something a little more festive.

And once you pick your colors, use them! Everywhere! These are the steps towards creating your brand. There are more and there will be more posts in the future, but this should give you enough to think about for now.

Plan of Attack!

"You've got no direction with your lives.
No plan.
When there's no plan, there's no attack.
No attack, no victory!"
- One Crazy Summer (1986)


One of the biggest mistakes most companies make is not having a well-defined plan of attack for their advertising. I write about this concept frequently because I see it almost everyday.
A business owner doesn't want to commit to a plan for advertising, doesn't want to spend the money and yet he still thinks that customers are going to magically appear. Well, I hate to break it to you, but the advertising fairy doesn't give a crap about your company unless you're ready to hand over some cash and be very creative in doing it.
If you have no direction in your company, no set branding practices, no plan, you cannot "attack" your rivals, you cannot "attack" future customers with your amazing product or service. And if you can't even attack (INFORM PEOPLE!)in the name of your business, there can't be any victory (MORE SALES, MORE CUSTOMERS!).
In case you missed the point here, let me be clear - If you don't have a solid advertising plan designed to inform people about your business, you won't be able to attract new clients and customers in a manner that will not only ensure success, but will also be the best use of your money.

So the next time you're thinking of spending that $5,000 on an ad in the Yellow Pages, Stop! Plan first! Attack next! And achieve victory!

As for the advertising fairy - he does exist.