08/24/09
Newspapers, advertising.
It's no secret that newspapers are having a tough time. But smaller, more focused local papers are finding that their readership loyalty is stronger than ever.
We helped Booth Mid-Michigan create an outdoor campaign for each of their cities: Flint, Bay City, and Saginaw. These will help assuage fears and rumors in the community that the papers are disappearing. In fact, they are becoming stronger than ever.
08/13/09
The answer is simple.
Nearly every situation and organization we walk into shares a common theme: communications have become more complex, more layered, and the sales process has gotten murky and difficult to manage. The common problem? The company is way too close to the products and services, and the day-to-day operation and politics. More often than not, we are there to simplify.
Easier said than done? Absolutely. Stakeholders talk about the reasons why they cannot change using similar language and patterns. Generally, it is people who are so passionate about their one piece of the pie that they fail to see the other pieces and their own individual passions. Our biggest early challenge is getting people to see the big picture and understand the greater purpose of the organization.
First, we strip away the years of cobwebs: the politics, the outdated reasoning, turn over of people – all the things that lead to an inward-looking organization. Then we talk with customers: the current ones, some prospects, and a few that left. We find out the true pain points vs. the ones that seem to be prevalent from the inside looking out.
A common thing that we find is that the company is no longer capable of seeing past the day-to-day tasks. Even mission and vision sessions have diminishing returns almost immediately because of their lack of implementation and tangible results. Unless the outside world sees your reason for being, it really doesn’t matter at all.
Too many companies also just go through a cosmetic rebrand. That is, they paint over the cracked paint and think they have made a difference. A true rebrand goes deep: scrapes the old paint off, sands thoroughly, cleans up, and then starts to repaint once again
It takes a lot more work, but the result is always cleaner, simpler, more evident to the outside world, and far more sustainable. And it begins to pay dividends right away.
08/4/09
Stop marketing. Start “marking”.
In the traditional world, marketing has been all about push. Just send out as many things to an audience as possible and hit them until they start paying attention. But people have changed. Now, it’s about creating a brand that makes a mark in someone’s mind so that a customer is drawn to you. You must create a gravitational pull toward your brand – and leaving a solid mark in a potential customer’s mind is the only way to do it.
How can this be accomplished? It’s a change of mindset. You must think of your brand as a living entity, capable of conversation and engagement instead of just standing on a soapbox and yelling. It must have the ability to respond, react, answer, and build a relationship.
Where do you begin? Make certain you have something important to say. This happens just like any other conversation you have in life – you’d better understand your audience inside and out. Don’t assume they just care about “value” or “quality”. Maybe they care more about intelligence and consistency. Once you begin the conversation, you need to give people a place to respond and engage. This type of communication will help imprint you in their minds, building trust, and gaining entry into your psyche in powerful ways. Once you have this trust with customers, the sale has already been made, and you only have to be available instead of needing to inundate.
We call it marking. Which is much more complex and nuanced than marketing.
In many ways it’s much more complicated to execute. But once it’s underway, it feels far more natural and empowering to both you and your prospects.
Phire Blog