Marketing

Five Steps to an Authentic Marketing Message

Five Steps to an Authentic Marketing Message

Do you get annoyed by the endless stream of sales messages, all day, every day? You’re not alone. Your prospects are being bombarded by emails, texts, and radio and newspaper ads, all trying to convince them to purchase stuff that they often don’t even want or need.
People have become immune to marketing. They’ve conditioned themselves not to respond. This is a problem with life-and-death consequences for your business.
So the question is:
How do you cut through the noise and connect with people who will benefit from your offering?
What turns people off is insincere marketing that’s clueless about their real wants and needs.
Here’s a simple five-step process to creating authentic marketing messages that will connect with your prospective customers. This is not…

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Filed in Marketing by on May 7, 2013 1 Comment
Planning How Your Business Communicates with Your Target Markets

Planning How Your Business Communicates with Your Target Markets

Save time, save money, communicate better.

Entrepreneurs know that a business plan is critical for funding. Marketers know that marketing plans are key to management and success. Sales pros have a plan to approach target markets, they wouldn’t dream of selling without it. But what about communications?
Yeah, we’ve got a plan for that.

A true communications professional will have a document that shows what they have planned, when it goes live, and how long it impacts their audience. Add budgets and hours, and you have a document that keeps every department in the company on track. With every dollar critical, it would be irresponsible to not have something in place.
This is how we do it.…
Developing a strategic communications plan is one of

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Filed in Marketing, Tools by on July 25, 2011 4 Comments
I am stylin’ | A Case Study on Content Marketing

I am stylin’ | A Case Study on Content Marketing

Sure you have a social media platform, but what are you and your fans going to talk about and how will it generate sales?
By now, most businesses have built a basic social media platform – a collection of social media sites and services that serve as the foundation for their social media communications.
But most have not realized that “join the conversation” does not mean “tell me about your products and services”.
It means there is a current conversation in progress and you’re welcome to participate – just like in a synchronous real world conversation between different people. The same assumptions most would make from this situation on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable is all too often overlooked my marketing and…

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Filed in Internet, Marketing, Multimedia by on June 21, 2011 3 Comments

Social Media

Three Essential Building Blocks of Your Social Media Presence

Three Essential Building Blocks of Your Social Media Presence

 

What’s changed? Everything and nothing:

There are 7 billion people on the planet now, and 34 percent of the world’s population, about 2.4 billion people, had Internet access as of late 2012. That’s a big ongoing change.

People still make decisions and live their lives through stories. That will never change.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
- French proverb…

So the planet is hyper-connected by wired and wireless networks, and more people are free to exchange many more stories. How does that change anything important?
If you’re running your own business, or trying to affect real change on any scale, you have greater access to people and markets than at any time in history. We’ve entered a new epoch

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Filed in Social Media by on April 30, 2013 1 Comment
Attitudes on the use of Social Media in Healthcare Communications

Attitudes on the use of Social Media in Healthcare Communications

Published in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare 2013 Vol. 6 No. 1
Abstract…
Social media has become a mainstay of communication between business-to-business and business-to-consumer endeavors. However, lacking is a fair and balanced discussion of the risks and benefits of utilization and implementation, in particular, within healthcare communications.
Our research objective is to assess current attitudes of healthcare, pharmaceutical and life sciences executives on the topic.
We conducted an online survey with 107 people from varying positions and perspectives within these industries. From CEO to CIO, from Marketing Director to Brand Manager, respondents are active in their positions, serve primarily the United States, and provide diversity to our sample.

When asked about whether or not marketers should be permitted to use social media to

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Filed in Research, Social Media by on April 24, 2013 1 Comment
Journal Article Studies Preference of Social Media Professionals for Healthcare Communications

Journal Article Studies Preference of Social Media Professionals for Healthcare Communications

YouTube preferred over Flickr, Facebook and LinkedIn rated equal.
San Diego – The FDA may not be sure about the use of social media in healthcare communications, but the professionals within the space report they’re ready to move forward.
Today the Journal of Communication in Healthcare… published a research study that measured the attitude of healthcare, pharmaceutical, and life sciences executives on the use of social media, aiming to correct the lack of a fair and balanced discussion of the risks and benefits of using social media in healthcare communications.
Survey respondents hold positions from CEO to CIO, from Marketing Director to Brand Manager, are active in their positions, and serve primarily the United States. When asked about whether or not marketers should be permitted

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Design

The Devil is in the Details: User Experience Design’s Impact on Customer Retention

The Devil is in the Details: User Experience Design’s Impact on Customer Retention

When it comes to customer experience, the devil is in the details.
A Chief Marketing Officer can create a broad sweeping, exceptional branding program but can lose countless customers based on the smallest, tiniest interaction—even something as simple as an online password reset.
This concept became crystal clear on a personal level past Saturday when doing something as mundane as ordering more coffee. I have a Keurig and I order K-cups from them online. Unfortunately, this time I could not get into my account. I tried the password reset feature, but it wouldn’t work.
Needing to reset my password is not a reason for me to “leave” Keurig. How Keurig handled my password reset is why.
When I could not get in, I submitted a…

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Filed in Design, Public Relations by on October 13, 2011 7 Comments
Case Study: Branding a Volunteer Program for Global Metals Manufacturer

Case Study: Branding a Volunteer Program for Global Metals Manufacturer

Situation: We worked with the Foundation of a Global Metals Manufacturer specializing in the Aluminum. The Director lead a team of four in the formation of an employee volunteerism program that would contribute towadrs the communities in which they operate, as well as contribute towards an ongoing public relations program.
Critical Business Issue: Like any volunteer program, moving people to work without getting paid after there day jobs on an regular basis is difficult.
Reasons: …The program was a new concept for the company, and a personal effort by the President. Other volunteer programs had been presented in the past with varying success. The lack of presence and history also made it difficult to attract new talent, limiting their offerings to the same people who

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Lollapalooza: Just for Fun.

Lollapalooza: Just for Fun.

Back in the day I used to frequent the mosh pits of Lollapalooza, X-Fest and the countless bands who could facilitate a little frenzy at the base of the stage.
In my later years I realized that the crowd doesn’t like to catch the old kid, especially on his sixth dive (that’s another story ;-).
In the midst of my adventures I would crack out a little disposable camera to catch the perspective from the inside – eye of the hurricane, if you will. And if I got busted for taking pics by security it wasn’t too much of a financial loss. The images I caught we at times amazing. The introspection, the collision, the swift justice of a mob on a bully jock gone

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Filed in Design by on March 1, 2009 0 Comments

Sales

Gaining Your Experience Advantage with Three Quick Wins

Gaining Your Experience Advantage with Three Quick Wins

As you learned in the article, Improving Customer Experience, Where Do you Start?, a robust, strategic customer experience initiative can take years of planning and implementation and require an incubation period before the changes produce visible results. And while a long-term, strategic customer experience initiative is essential for building a meaningful experience advantage, there are three key customer experience quick wins that you can implement today that will bring about improvements tomorrow:

Immediately, and personally, address your unhappy customers’ complaints.
Reward your employees for customer-first behaviors.
Give customer feedback to the stakeholders who will take action.

When implemented together these three key quick wins complete a circle of customer care that will result in measurable improvements. Here’s how to get started:
The remainder …

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Filed in Sales by on April 23, 2013 0 Comments
Improving Customer Experience, Where Do you Start?

Improving Customer Experience, Where Do you Start?

 

By its nature, customer experience touches all aspects of your business – marketing, sales, operations, finance, and maybe even your legal team. It’s an enterprise-wide strategy that focuses your entire organization on putting the customer first. And, in its entirety, customer experience can be daunting. The enormity of what should be done to improve the customer experience paralyses some companies into doing nothing at all – a tragic mistake that allows their competition to pull ahead with an experience advantage.
Who has the advantage?
An experience advantage… can be hard to define in just a word or two, but if you think about Apple, Zappos, American Express, and Southwest Airlines it becomes clear. These companies were early adopters of the customer experience discipline

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Filed in Sales by on April 16, 2013 5 Comments
Understanding “What Great Salespeople Do”

Understanding “What Great Salespeople Do”

A review on Mike Bosworth & Ben Zoldan’s new book exploring “the science of selling through emotional connection and the power of story.”…
Disclaimer: Mike Bosworth has been my sales coach for more than a dozen years and has become a good friend. I’ve coached for Solution Selling, used the strategies at my own company, and participated in one of the first Beta workshop for Storyleaders.
That being said, I think I get a better understanding of the material because I know Mike Bosworth, and I know what he means when he says something.
And although I’ve only met Ben Zoldan a few times including the workshop, his writing style and voice he contributes to their book makes us seem like we been friends for

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Filed in Sales, Tools by on October 12, 2011 1 Comment

Branding

Case Study: Branding and Recruitment for EMi Technology Services

Case Study: Branding and Recruitment for EMi Technology Services

“Ideahaus helped us re-package our 30 year-old family company into a high-tech contender with customers and recruiters -  exactly what sales and recruitment needed.” – EMi President
Situation: We were working with the President and CEO of a company who provides SAP consultants for short and long-term outsourcing requirements.
Critical Business Issue: The company had changed leadership and wanted to expand, but steady revenues would not sustain the growth. They would also have to increase recruitment, and current efforts were not meeting recruitment goals.
Reasons…: The family-owned business had maintained the same image for 30 years and was perceived by clients and consultants as very “predictable.” The new president was looking to grow existing markets, and to move into new markets. Sales

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Filed in Branding, Research by on April 5, 2009 0 Comments
Case Study: Branding for Executive Recruitment Firm

Case Study: Branding for Executive Recruitment Firm

“You know why this worked? Because people always care what you look like.” – Partner
Situation: We worked with the Partners of an Executive Recruitment Firm specializing in the Real Estate, Construction and Hospitality industries. The Partners share responsibility for the sales and marketing of their services.
Critical Business Issue: As with many new businesses, they were not meeting sales and recruitment goals.
Reasons…: The Company was two years old and had not presented a corporate identity within the marketplace. Salespeople utilized stationery and reprints of industry articles as marketing collateral because there were no formal communications tools to assist their sales efforts. Their on-the-fly marketing program required each salesperson to start from scratch, developing tools as the sale went on, extending

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Filed in Branding, Research by on March 1, 2009 0 Comments
The Ideahaus® Name and Logo

The Ideahaus® Name and Logo

The name “ideahaus” is actually the second name for the business.
Originally called “kevin popovic image design”, the name was changed the first year after more people began contributing towards the creative product.
The name came from two different inspirations. The first part (idea) came from a client secretary who could never remember our names. She would always yell into our clients office, “those idea guys are here!” The second part (haus) came from experiences we had in the South Side (Pittsburgh) studio. With a street level entrance and a decor that mirrored any Real World set new arrivals would walk in then leave, calling us on the phone saying that they entered the address given but it looked like someone’s house, so they left.

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Filed in Branding, Misc., News by on March 1, 2009 1 Comment

Advertising

A Commentary on Bad TV: Who’s writing this stuff anyway?

A Commentary on Bad TV: Who’s writing this stuff anyway?

Did you ever watch a television commercial and wonder, who wrote this stuff? I do. Every day.
I watched Al Roker (ala The Today Show) on-camera for The Office Depot open with, “Who helps businesses and kids succeed?” Really? The Office Depot help kids and business succeed? Are you giving away school and office supplies for free because you’re a commodity retailer and customers can buy what you sell from any competitor, a grocery store, a drug store or by bulk at Costco. And are you tutoring or offering free consulting because that’s what kids and businesses need to succeed, not another pen supplier. And the close – “Life’s good when the kids are happy!” Really, Al? Really?

Lipton Iced Tea… details their three

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Filed in Advertising by on August 20, 2011 3 Comments
Case Study: Recruitment Advertising for Sony Electronics

Case Study: Recruitment Advertising for Sony Electronics

“This work was the single biggest successful effort we ever did, until the Radio hit the following month.” – Director of PR, Sony

Situation: We worked with the Director of Public Relations of an Electronics Manufacturer in the business of building large-screen television sets sold throughout the world.
Critical Business Issue: Although a market leader, the company’s greatest challenge was not being able to meet sales projections because they were not able to respond to dramatic changes in staffing requirements.
Reasons…: The company had expanded their global manufacturing plant capability and needed thousands of additional staff to run the new lines to capacity. Not running the lines at capacity meant not meeting the production projections. At times they would be required to

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Case Study: Advertising Campaign for Retail Convenience Stores

Case Study: Advertising Campaign for Retail Convenience Stores

“Looking as good as the competition is important for us. I think Ideahaus did a good job of getting us in the game.” – VP of Marketing
Situation: We worked with the President and the VP of Marketing of a Convenience Store Chain operating 65 stores throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
Critical Business Issue: Most of the stores in the chain were having difficulty meeting sales goals on a consistent basis. Many stores had missed projections impacting profits of the entire company.
Reasons…: The stores were perceived as a “local” chain and not on par with national competitors. Customers surveyed perceived no differential advantage over other convenience stores. Surveys also reported their customers’ perception of them as a Gas/Bread/Milk resource, although

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