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Archive for the ‘Just-In-Time lessons’ Category
Thought Leadership – The Concept That Will Propel Your Business
October 2nd, 2009 
Roderick 
Thought leadership on a marketing blog? It may not sound relevant for your corporate blog but really, it’s more than what you can imagine. Thought leadership, as define by Wikipedia:
is a company or a person who person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.““person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.
The truth is, thought leadership is an art of being the “go to” person (business) for a particular area of interest. (more…)
The Art of Using Interns In Your Social Marketing Program
August 5th, 2009 Roderick 
Developing a social media program is like building a house: You will need experts that understand the tools as well as leaders that craft it and interns can be a very important part of that team. With many companies dabbling in social technologies, it is easy to assume that social media is the domain of the young. While we talked to our customers, we are also hearing of more companies handing over their social media strategy to interns and in my opinion, I think that’s a bad idea. Using low cost interns can help get the program up to speed in house, but relying on them for strategic corporate communications is nd to be risky.
Get Your Stakeholders to Design and Distribute Your Products
July 30th, 2009 Roderick 
Social media is about getting your stakeholders fully engaged with your brand or marketing message and encouraging them to spread the word about the products. However, companies are starting to actively get their stakeholders to help come up with marketing campaigns. Introducing to you “Viralsourcing”.
Being Too Unique Can Kill You
July 24th, 2009 Dean 
You have heard it before: If you want to stand out, you have to do something unique. True, but not always.
I came across this article in RainToday.com talking about how trying too hard to be unique in business and marketing can sometimes be a silly thing. Here are the salient points:
Posted in General, Just-In-Time lessons 
Tags: business owners, consultants, Marketing, unique 
No Comments »AWARE t-shirt : an accidental PR coup for designer
May 7th, 2009 Dean 
If you are a Singaporean, you probably would have been following the Aware saga (unless you are a totally apathetic citizen). On 4th & 6th May, we had the story of a designer who came up with quirky slogan t-shirts taken from memorable and mostly infamous quotes from the AWARE EOGM. Vicki Lew, design director at Bionic Creative, was featured in almost all the major newspaper and radio and TV news. So how did all that happen?
Here is the story.
On Sat, 2nd May, at around midnight (the night after the results of the no confidence vote against the ex ‘new committee’) I was checking out my Facebook posting my elation at the results and reading what my friends are saying about it. And there was Vicki’s post on her Aware t-shirt.
Now, I have always known Vicki to be a damn good designer. But I was pleasantly surprised at what she had done! Who would have thought of such a clever idea of making commemorative t-shirts from the most memorable quotes? And very nicely done too.
So I started chatting with Vicki who happen to be online also and found out that she was doing it as a means to raise money for AWARE. Wow! I immediately saw this as hot news, and told her that the media must be notified. Poor Vicki had been cracking her head to get publicity for her design work for some time. Ironically she didn’t seem to realise she actually just created the perfect PR opportunity!
So I had to do what a real friend must do. I jumped into action, got her to give me all the necessary info and in 15 minutes wrote a press release (see below) and then had it sent off to my media contacts. It was already past 1 am by then.
Monday came and her phone began to ring off the hook from all these interested media. Walah! You go girl, Vic!
At the time of this post she was already featured in Channel News Asia, 938Live radio, My Paper, The New Paper, Straits Times Online. Her design will be featured in 8 Days. Her t-shirt featured and her design firm name mentioned. Good Stuff!!
Lessons we can all learn:
Sometimes you don’t have to try so hard to get publicity. Do what you do best and the opportunity might just come to you…but of course having a friend who does PR would help 
So if you want to be my friend, add me on Facebook. Click here. Or you can search for me: Dean Shams
Here’s the press release.
Time your sales right and earn PR points for your shop
April 9th, 2009 Dean 
I got this interesting piece of insight on customer behaviour from Marketing Profs.
If you offer a sale, say 10% on a coffee maker, for a limited period. If a customer just missed the sale dateline and you wanted to be kind and extended the offer to her, there is a 87% chance that she will reject the offer. But if you told her that the sale for the coffee maker has ended and you offer her a 10% discount on another brand of coffee maker (probably as a ‘peace offering’) there is a 40% chance that she will accept your offer. Isn’t that interesting?
Possible reason:
“The researcher suggests that consumers may transfer the “negative affect” (regret at missing a sale) to the promoted product itself, leading to a lower opinion of the product.”
Lesson we can learn from this:
“time sales of different brands, or even of different items in [a] product line, to ensure that a consumer who misses a sale on one product can find another sale on a different yet similar product,” this researcher suggests….When one item goes off sale, consider offering similar products at a slight reduction, to keep latecomers happy.”
Now isn’t that easy way to make build a good reputation with your customers?
If you are offering services, would you be able to apply the same principles? get back to the drawing board, friends…
Are you talking nonsense? Stop the corporate babble
February 11th, 2009 Dean 
Time and again I come across corporate profiles written in a language that don’t seem to be English at all. They are so full of jargons and adjectives weaved into one tight nothing! I keep reading a lot of words which has no meaning to me.
Here is a fine example of ‘talking’ a lot and saying nothing. The business deals with flowers and gifts, but I shall not name the entity, just the initials will do.
HT is a floral design firm acclaimed for its bold attempts to inject vibrancy and excitement to conventional floral creations. HT is inspired to bringing dazzles to bouquets, inspiring emotions and joy to life. HT seeks to give the best by crafting warmth through its flowers to touch your loved ones and creating stunning floras to forge new relations, strengthen corporate ties or simply to brighten a dull day.
Woa! What??
All I can sum up is that HT is just a florist. Everything else is noise.
“acclaimed for its bold attempts to inject vibrancy and excitement to conventional floral creations” – acclaimed? did it win awards? if so, why not mention it?
“inspired to bringing dazzles to bouquets” — What does this mean, really?
“inspiring emotions and joy to life” – Do we need to be inspired to feel emotion and joy?
“seeks to give the best by crafting warmth through its flowers” — So HT craft warmth with its flowers and therefore they are giving their best? I am confused.
Oh dear!!
Here’s my humble attempt to unravel the corporate babble:
What do you want our flowers to say? That is the first question we at HT ask our customers. We all know that flowers are used for a myriads of situations and purposes. We at HT will bend our backs, and our floral arrangements, to give you stunning floral creations that send just the right message.
If it is a loved one that you are giving flowers to, we add warmth into our design. If you want to forge a new business relationship, we will add a touch of class and respect to your name with the right choice of flowers. Tell us the message you want to send, and we will say it with flowers.
Some of our customers are already referring to us as a design firm rather than a florist! Honestly, we can’t blame them. Come find out if they are right.
..…………….
Ah! the joy of simple English.
But that is just my opinion. Which version do you prefer? HT’s or mine? Why?
Posted in General, Just-In-Time lessons Tags: Consultant, copywriting, Marketing, PR, Public Relations, publicity, Small Medium Business No Comments »Tangs reaches out to consumers in Second Life
January 2nd, 2009 Dean 
Local retail store Tangs becomes the first retailer in Asia to set up a store in a virtual world Second Life, to be launched in March ‘09. This is amazing! A 76 year old retailer embracing Web 2.0 means that they are plugged into the changes in consumer habits.
In Tangs virtual store visitor will be buying clothes, hairdos and different looks for their avatars. As Straits Times reported:
Shoppers can expect to see items from Tangs’ ’signature lines … but with a tinge of fantasy’, in line with players’ desire for a ‘larger than life’ appearance for their online personas. They can pay for their purchases in Linden dollars, the game’s currency, or via a virtual credit card. Credit card bills are paid monthly in Linden dollars, which can be traded for real money. More floors, ’stocked with usable and desirable items by well-known Second Life designers’, will be added over time, said First Meta co-founder Aileen Sim.
I am sure many small business owners and retailers are not even aware of the power of using Second Life to reach out to their consumers. Before you say you are just too busy running your shop, note the statistics:
- There are 16 million registered users from all over the world in Second Life
- There are many shops in Second Life set up by individuals
- It has amassed a gross domestic product of US$402 million.
You might be saying to yourself that it is too much of a hassle. Here are three reasons why you should seriously consider it:
Do it for brand recognition
With people buying stuff from virtual Tangs for their characters it becomes a brand people will recognise and grow to trust. Tangs is a local retailer and has been for a long long time. But with Second Life, people from all over the world will get to know the brand. Should they visit Singapore, they will go “Aha! I know this store.” They are more likely to step into the store. Should Tangs want to expand overseas, the brand recognition gotten in Second Life would definitely be beneficial.
Abacus, a Singapore based travel agent, already has a virtual store. I doubt they are a big company.
Do it for brand loyalty
If you want your retail brand to achieve a cult status, with strong consumer following, you can’t achieve it in a few months. With more and more people getting an avatar in Second Life you can expect their virtual experience to affect their buying decisions in real life.
Do it to get another cash register
Buying and selling on Second Life is done using their local currency, Linden dollars, which is really pegged to the real dollar value. Your virtual store might be another revenue generating machine too. Who knows?
Start small
If you are a B2C kind of business, don’t think too much. Get your toes wet in Second Life. Get yourself an avatar. Play around a little. Once you are comfortable, start working on your virtual store. It will take a while, but who is keeping score…..Of course, you can always hire a techy undergrad to do it all for you.
Till then, hope we bump into each other in Second Life!
Or maybe you are just happy being an old school mom & pop store like this below. Discovered along River Valley road.
(the pic is rotated to the left) It’s no surprise that I found the old lady sleeping in the middle of they day…you can see her leg sticking out
Two PR Benefits of a Money Back Guarantee Policy
December 29th, 2008 Dean Came across this letter sent in to Straits Times (27 Dec) about Botak Jones, the restaurant that serves ‘damn good American food’. The letter reminds me once again how easy it really is to build an authentic business and in so doing win the admiration of our customers. What better way to build customer loyalty!
Lessons we can all learn from this:
Consumers love to deal with authentic business. One that has a ‘heart’. To be an authentic business, all you really need is (a)passion for your business and (b)to provide service with sincerity. When what you delivered is below expectation, like what happened to Edwin Neo in the letter, then let your sincerity guide you to take the necessary action.
If you are proud of the quality of food (or any other product) that you sell, it makes complete sense to provide a complete refund and, like what Botak Jones did, take a step further and give them something better at no charge.
Unfortunately, from my interaction with many business owners in Sg, a complete refund and free replacement is such a bizarre concept! They are very resistant to implementing a money back guarantee policy. I find this strange.
Two PR benefits of a money back guarantee policy
When you offer a guarantee like what Botak Jones does, then
1. it lowers the risk to the customers and therefore they are more likely to buy your product than your closest competitor
2. the bad experience of getting a bad product/experience will be downplayed by the sincerity of your response. Customers will more likely to say good things about your company despite the bad experience.
I understand that many business owners in Sg are too afraid that customers will take advantage of their money back guarantee and that their profit margin will be lowered.
People are generally nice and sensible. Customers who exploit money back guarantees are always in the minority. If you experience such a customer, would you want to hold on to him? I will rather drop him and never deal with him again.
As for lowering profit margin, this can only happen if a significant percentage of your customers are asking for refund. If this happen then all signs points to a poor service/product quality. It’s time to do a business review or drop the product altogether.
I managed to get my hands on Botak Jones’ brochures. I was not surprised to see them proclaiming their guarantee. The owner even wrote a personal letter to the reader and signs it off! How nice! What an easy way to show their sincerity and providing “damn good food”. I bet he didn’t need to pay branding consultants to do that. It’s just common sense.
Your comments please:
What is your opinion on money back guarantee? Is it worth while? Is it effective in fostering a good reputation for business?
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