marketing garden

The potential customers. Who are they? Where are they? How to find them? Which is the right path to take, which will lead us in the right direction? Simple questions but sometimes so hard to answer.

Latest Web 2.0 ideas have influenced marketing: go online - twitter, blog, socialize - and your customers will come to you. But as Lewis Green mentioned in his blog post - if it will be our only way of looking for the new customers, it will lead us to the failure. Why?

Because many of decision makers are not exposed to social media, they do not know about twitter, they do not have time to read blogs, and they do not use social networks. All those tools are good, but they have to be part of integrated marketing strategy and communication. You can not wake up one day and throw all the “old” communication tools - email and traditional media - away. Web gives you one more option. It is complimentary.

Think of your potential customers: who are they, how do they look, what do they do, what are their needs, exactly how you can help them, where you can find them. Go out, meet people (personal contact is very important and it works). Send follow-up emails. Create informative newsletter that answers your clients questions and gives solutions to their problems but is not selling. Send them links to your blog posts. Only all those means together will give you the expected result.

(it’s an ad of a printing company)

design & simplicity

What can we learn about usability…

It’s 1.5 hour documentary about how the few curves can change our lives forever, and particularly about a birth of one font, its way to the worlds dominance, designers hearts and our minds and day to day lives - Helvetica.

In 2007 this font celebrated its 50th birthday. The film was created to mark this even. I had an opportunity to watch it yesterday and I enjoyed every minute spent watching.

Yes, yes I know, it’s a little bit too late for the happy new year wishes but from the other side it’s better later than never. And it’s never too late to thank all of you who have been reading me patiently all previous year. I hope from now on my posts will be more frequent and more regular So keep in virtual touch!

Brendan Cooper has recently posted an excellent PR blogs’ ranking list “The PowerPR Index for November” with an interesting overview of used methodology and tools.

Top 5 PR blogs for November:
1. Micro Persuasion
2. Online Marketing Blo
3. a shel of my former self
4. Center for Media and Democracy
5. NevilleHobson.com

More in the Brendan’s post.

entertaining?
original?
sexy?

YES.

Tokens, tokens, tokens. Tokens everywhere: on a tea pack, on milk, on crackers. Are they sufficient to make us buy that particular product? I think no.

They do not work as a motivator for buying a particular product or brand. Though they give a customer a small additional reason why to stick with the particular brand which he/she already likes. It gives that small bit to the customer, which is needed for him/her to justify and rationalize their own choice. But not much more.

an interview with an estate agent and his comment on his kind:

“if you, after a meeting, think that he is your friend, that means that he has done his job well but he is not your friend, he just wants your money.”

let’s be good salesmen and make a lot of friends (in every industry or area)

a smart move:

one of the contestants on the tv show Pete Burn’s PA was asked why she thinks she is the best candidate for the position. she had a simple but ingenious answer - “because I think you are the best person to work for!“

this particular answer is equally applicable to the interview at the personal level (it’s good to work for celebrity Pete Burn, or division manager Samuel Erickson) as well as at the corporate level (it’s good to work for Siemens), especially if you can continue your sentence with the list of “because” to ground your statement.