Start to finish

This photo should be a reminder that you must finish well.

The meeting is not over until you are out of the parking lot.

The interview doesn't end with the handshake--it ends when you are off the premises.

People are always watching and your story, your pitch, your theme continues until the very end. And not just when you want it to. Maintaining composure and prose completes your theme. 

In short, you could have the best interview, best sales pitch ever; but if you stick your tongue out at the end--what is that saying about you?

Parade ready: what's your company float?

On July 4th I walked in our parade.

When was the last time you walked in a parade?

What if your company decided to enter a float in this years parade? Could you do it? Sure, you could get a hayrack or some trailer and fancy it up, maybe put a band on it. But is that your company? Is a band what you stand for (unless your a music store)?

Here is my challenge for you: if you had to sum up your company, your motto, your credo, in one float-- could you do it?

(Incidentially, I am in that picture somewhere.)

I am reading labels again

I like the trend I am seeing in marketing copy for products today. Gone are days of boring promises that a product will do this or that.

That's old school.

New school today is all about the story.

Yesterday, while out for a ride on my bike I stopped for some fuel. Both for myself and my bike. As I perused the cooler filled with energy drinks and the usual gatorade type-super-carbo sports drinks. I came across Vitamin Water. It looked so un-pretentious in its simple two color label-as opposed to the flash and glam that seem to be the norm for sports drinks. So I picked it up. And on the back was story.

"in soccer (excuse us mexico, spain, and italy, we mean 'futbol'), there isn't a more exciting moment than when the announcer screams 'goooooooooal' (yelling 'oooffffsiddde' never quite caught on).

with that said, we added b vitamins and guarana to give you an extra kick (pun intended). so now when your watching soccer, playing soccer, coaching soccer, driving kids to soccer or doing anything that starts with 'socc' and ends with 'er', you too can have the energy of a raving lunatic to yell 'goooooooooal.'"

Now I don't listen to too much futbol as an American, but I know what they are talking about. And the few times I have listened to futbol its quite exciting when a goal is scored.

So for $1.69 + tax I got an exciting little vignet in my head to think about as I passed the two minutes it took to drink my Vitamin water. Perfect. In the 84 words they carefully placed on the bottle only 12 actually spoke to its benefit! And did so in a beautiful way.

Do I know what guarana is? Nope. I am just glad that someone does and they tell me it gives me a kick.
Works for me.
I don't need the encyclopedia version-just the Cliff notes version will be fine. And if you frame it in a good story so that I can remember it- all the better. Now every time I see guarana as an ingredient I will think kick.

And while I am thinking about places to find inspirational copy. I have to point out woot.com. It's a great little site that only offers one item for sale everyday. That's it, just one item. And when it sells out you can check tomorrow for a new item. But more importantly, its the copy that sells the items. Depending on the day, it can be anything form a cooking set to flash drive. But one constant is the story they tell you, the story that makes you want to buy the product.

Here's an Idea for you

Telling a story isn't a new idea. Fables have been around for years (remember Aesop). And the idea that consumers need to be told a story isn't a new idea either (Seth Godin-the modern day Aesop brought it to my attention). But in a time of ever increasing sales goals, and demanding margins what ever happened to the story?
I suggest you start telling more stories with your product. That way consumers like me can pass the story on to our friends-and on to their friends- and so on. By giving me (the consumer) a story, I feel more connected to the product and thus more likely to recommend the product.

So next time you stumped for good copy. Run out to the store and pick up a bottle of Vitamin Water and go Woot.com. In nothing short of a few minutes you will be revitalized and inspired to write good copy. And you might get a great deal on a universal notebook dock, or maybe t-shirt.

Technorati Tags: Creativity Branding Packaging Aesop Seth Godin Vitamin Water Woot.com creative copy

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[Note: this is part of a webwide series of blog posts about compact fluorescent lightbulbs. January is the darkest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (December might be a bit darker, but with all the candles, trees and dropping balls, we work hard to light it up). To fight off the darkness, bloggers everywhere are invited to create a post with their own riff on why CF bulbs are cheaper, better politically, harder to market or just plain cute.
I first read about this by the remarkable Seth Godin.]





I want you to buy me. I am a bit more than your traditional light bulb, and to be honest a whole lot uglier. But when have light bulbs ever been sexy?

But I do make the world cleaner by using less energy.

However, you will walk past me everyday in the store, and buy the cheaper bulbs won't you? You think its really all a lie, and how can one bulb actually make a difference? You believe that by purchasing me I will only end up costing you more. Plus your not one of those hippie-tree huggers anyway.

I am sorry that my marketing manager didn't tell you a better story about me. About how I last 10 times longer and provide the same amount of light.

Its really a shame that he didn't give that warm fuzzy feeling about saving an average of $30 in energy cost over my lifetime. Or some of the other benefits listed about me on this PDF.

I can't make you change your mind about me, or the environment. No, you already have it predisposed in your mind that global warming isn't happening. And you could be right. But what if your not?

The Selling Point: Your not going to run out and change a light bulb until one burns out. (Unless your like me and decided to do it for the good of mankind.) No, your mind is already made up and there is little I can do to change it until something drastic happens. So I won't try. As a salesman I can't make you think any differently than you have your whole life. I can educate using facts. Not opinions, but facts. So as a sales manager or member of a sales team make sure that you are educating your customers using facts to paint an entire picture for the customer.

So in the meantime, when that bulb burns out, and it will. Buy a CF bulb. Just one, thats all I ask. And see if you like it. In the meantime, you don't have to make a drastic change in your life.
But awareness is the first step.

It Really Satisfies!

I have been eating Snickers ever since I was kid. Since then I can't recall any of the advertising they have done that really caught my eye. Not that I was looking at advertising from the same perspective I am now. But anyway.
Recently I was in Chicago for a conference. While walking around the city I could help but notice all the cabs with Snickers advertising. I kept reading Snickers when in fact some of the cabs actually said " substantialiscious, satisfectellent, peanutopolis, nougatocity, hungerectomy" I had been so associated with the look of the logo that I actually didn't read the words. the logo and words had just all became synonymous with Snickers for me. Way to go! You get a kudos in my book for excellent branding!
Check out the Snickers website to see what each of the sayings mean.

The Gas Station Marketer

From a marketing and advertising standpoint the gas station sign has always intrigued me. From its early days of the flashing arrow, harkening you to come in and purchase trinkets including the occasionally over-cooked hot dog. The gas station sign has become a part of Americana. It not only gives us the price of gas, but reminds us that a slurpy is only $.99 and is for a limited time only. The funny thing about the gas station sign with its pre-spaced letters is the limited amount of space you're given to convey a message. Companies will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year looking for way to incorporate a theme into every inch of packaging. (Which to be honest, the gas station sign is packaging.) Need an example? Take for instance Snapple, with its phrases underneath the cap. Bingo you just been sold to! So the fact that a company would spend thousands of dollars on a sign and then let someone who makes like $8 bucks an hour use it for advertising is beyond me. None-the-less. While driving back from lunch one day I made it a point to drive by this gas station whose sign always gives me a chuckle, and usually causes me to think. But usually not think in marketing terms. So today’s sign was:

Chicken
Tenderloin
Pizza

That’s it? What's so special about that, I thought. Are they now selling the worlds first chicken-tenderloin-pizza? And if so, good god how gross could that be! Or are they selling chicken, tenderloins, and pizza? More than likely its probably the latter, as they mostly get construction workers in and hand held food is the way to go for lunch. ( I don’t mean that in a derogatory fashion , but it is true.) Then I thought, way to go $8 dollar-an-hour-gas station-attendant-wanna-be-marketer! You just got me so intrigued about the product your selling that I almost want to check it out. And you did it without the use of flashy billboard style advertising. Of course he must still bow his head to the greatest of all $8 dollar-an-hour-gas station-attendant-wanna-be-marketers, that person resides in Cleveland, just north of downtown. Where in his infinite wisdom he placed the words:

Fried Chicken
Baked Fish
Praise Jesus

Not only did he get product placement its due justice, but reminded me to be religious. And the whole time I thought. I probably would need to praise Jesus after eating any of the first two.

The Selling Point: No matter what your budget is, take a cue from the gas station in Cleveland and BE CLEVER! The best advertising is one that causes conversation and not amnesia.

Sales Quote: Today, many companies are reporting that their number one constraint on growth is the inability to hire workers with the necessary skills.
-Bill Clinton