Message from Garcia

Another legacy from Apple's Steve Jobs

2011-10-10T06:08:42Z

Many words have been put together in praise of Steve Jobs. I must confess that I have already done so in my facebook page and thought of doing so in this blog. But, allow me to do so in a slightly different way.

Before I bought my first Apple Mac, I had two PCs, one of which was the original IBM personal computer. Wow, what I paid for it then would buy me super computing power. 20 MB hard drive and 512 kB of RAM and a floppy drive. With a printer it cost me around $6700 in 1986. A lot of money then and compared to what you get for that sum, still a lot now.

And, I will never forget the sales guy asking, “do you really need that much RAM?” This was when 252 kB was a lot. Remember that only a few years previously 512 kB in a main frame was considered very good. But, I digress.

What I did with the computer is pretty much what we all tend to do now: word processing and spreadsheets. I looked at desktop publishing and wasn’t quite convinced with what was on offer. In the end, I went for the familiar and settled on a typesetter, complete with processor, with the chemicals to develop bromides. Again, I digress.

Well, this preamble brings me my first encounter with the Apple Mac. It was a Mac IIx, I think. The actual machine was not that important. What is important is the software, which only ran in the Mac then. It was Quark Xpress. This was desktop publishing that was pretty much WYSIWIG, and at a price that was within reach.

Previously, I looked at Ventura, which I believe ended up as Pagemaker, the precursor to InDesign. I also looked at ReadySetGo. Not bad, but what impressed me was a PC-based software which had very good WISIWYG but cost something like $5000 just for the software. I’m glad I didn’t go with that, as Quark Xpress has been the platform, I’ve carried through the years.

So, in 1991, I got my first Apple Mac. And, I have stuck with Quark, despite their really crazy pricing. Anyway, they came to their senses some 10 or so years ago. Most probably this was because of the pressures brought to bear by Adobe, with InDesign. Again, I digress.

Quark eventually went to the PC a few years later, but I have stuck with the Mac platform for DTP. I admit to getting a number of PCs through the years, but none of these were used for desktop publishing.

Now, to Steve Jobs. In one of his career/life’s moves, he studied calligraphy. Great. His love for this led him to appreciate typography and printing, including one of the many things involved in this industry which was measurement. Printing used the Imperial foot as a measurement. More importantly was the unit called pica
Pica is a typographic unit corresponding to 1/72 of a foot. Hence, the pica is 1/6 of an inch. The pica has 12 points (units) of measure.

So, where is this heading. Well, let’s cut to the chase. The Apple monitor to this day uses this measurement. Not as picas, but pixels. Hence, this consideration was front of mind for Jobs when he developed the first Apple Mac. Admittedly, it was a small screen (7”) but it had 72 dots per inch (dpi). This closely matches the printing measurement.

Believe me that this was very important to us doing typesetting. And, the legacy today is the look of the monitor more closely resembles the printed page. Note that PC monitors are on the main 96 dpi. I won’t go into the differences, other than to alert you dear reader of the differences in colour for Mac monitors compared to PCs. The latter’s images appear darker.

Anyway, Jobs’ forward thinking helped place Apple Macs as the tool of choice in DTP for a long time. A legacy that continues today.

Use of Flash animation on your website

2011-09-21T04:28:09Z

Like any tool in marketing communication, those used to develop a website have their particular purpose. One of those used in developing websites, is animation. I refer particularly to the use of Flash.

When bandwidth was limited and download speeds were still 56 kbits/sec, animation was limited in scope and very slow to download. One only has to look back at the slow speed of file download and the constant temptation to press the “skip” button.

With more bandwidth, faster download speeds and current state of the web, these problems are now no longer relevant.

So, do we just adopt the use of Flash on every website? I use a very limited version of flash on my website. One that more resembles a marquee, with a feel similar to a slide show.

With a number of clients, I use different types of Flash animation.

One I particularly like to highlight is fa division of a client of several years. I refer to Aztex Sodablast—a division of Aztex Pty Ptd. Note the unique way that the flash animation works, from the above photo of the home page. (You can check the site's flash animation, by clicking here.)

Animation of the photos changing mimics the process of soda blasting. The disappearance of the photo to reveal another underneath is similar to the effects of surface blasting.

I’d like to think that this is similar to the use of onomatopoeia in poetry, where the sound of words mimics what the word represents. Anyway, you get what I mean.

Let’s not limit the approach of bringing animation to your website. There is just so much scope with today’s technology. And, there's pretty much no limit.

If you want to bring a great Flash effect to help highlight your products or services, JG Marketing Services can help.

If you're looking at refreshing your website, with or without flash, why not contact us to discuss your requirements.

New look makes a difference...for us, right?

2011-09-16T20:30:37Z

Sometime back I wrote about refreshing your website. Really, if you think about it, if your site looks the same everytime someone pops over for a visit, it looks the same and there’s no reason to visit again, right?

Well, not wanting to be guilty of saying do as I say, not what I do, I’ve updated my site ever so slightly.

BTW, note that with updates to this blog, the content changes on my website, but the look stays the same.

Well, now some very subtle changes to featured pics (with actual changes to some text) means that we now have a slightly different look to jgmarketing.com.au.

So, hope you like it.

Here’s a link to the site.

Again, I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Take care.

More on brand extension, let's look at Jamie Oliver again

2011-05-20T00:10:53Z

Jamie Oliver is more than a celebrity chef with a bankable image. At heart he is an entrepreneur. And looking at the many ventures he has been involved with, this entrepreneural vent is obvious.

He has gone from his initial television appearances and extended his brand by opening restaurant chains,f ood shops and taking time out to design consumer cooking products. He uses his name and his celebrity status by working this into a range of interrelated interests.

A The golden rules of brand extension use the strength of Oliver’s reputation and strength of his brand to extend this. Diversification allows you not only sell more products but also to spread your risks. As whatever you sell when you reach a point of saturation, diversification allows you some protection from that saturation by selling other products.

Of course, there are no guarantees of continued success. A successful television show may be axed if ratings fall or production companies want a fresh face. (Jamie Oliver’s early setbacks in television attest to this being something that is always back of the mind.)

Consider also that if a show is dropped, this will affect other products, e.g., book sales will suffer without the support of a television show.

Diversification offers a degree of protection if say Oliver’s television shows are dropped, as restaurants, consumer products and so on will still be there.

They also have a potential of developing a momentum of their own.

Brand extension also has some risks associated with it.

A known name can help achieve market acceptance. The Jamie Oliver brand helps sell his range of kitchenware, cookbooks and the like.

However, a brand given to a poor product or a good one that doesn’t excite the public’s imagination can damage the parent brand. And, by extension even ruin the goodwill that may already have been built into the original brand.

When you extend your brand, you have to control your affairs, you will have to build values people associate with around the branded products.

Oliver developed an image of straight-talking chef, who was passionate about good food being available to the public.

It is also important to note that it is important to stick to your knitting. Oliver concentrated on food and cooking. All his business ventures centred around these.

Brand extension is also achieved by partnering with others. Oliver always tried to hire talented people, develop them in his organisations and he looked at successful businesses to partner with to develop products that would carry his brand name.

Also, by diversifying into other products and business ventures, Oliver has created a platform that allows him to survive in business even his television celebrity status should begin to fade.

Headlines: another look at what this does in an advertisement

2011-04-24T23:20:00Z

It's been a while and am remiss updating my blog. Let me touch on a favourite subject: headlines.

I am reading a book on copywriting and the way the author presents this subject is different to other books I've read previously on the subject. In future posts, I will cover some new and some old points that I have rediscovered.

In a previous post, I harped about headlines, or rather, the lack of it.

Have your ever considered that just about any sales message, whether in print or on-line needs a headline--a good one.

Let’s face it, the headline of your sales message is what pulls a reader or visitor to your website. I would say that it would be responsible for up to 80% of the response from that sales message. So, let's face it, the success or failure of most marketing efforts rests very much on the power of your headline.

In a print advertisement, 10-20% of your prospective readers will read your ad. That’s it. So, if you have a so-so headline, you can lose pretty much all the prospective readers of your ad.

To capture your prospective reader, you need to grab him/her with a good, punchy headline.

As covered earlier and again here, a headline is just so important. Even poorly written ads have been successful because of the overwhelming power of a good headline. Your prospects will decide whether to read your sales message in only two or three seconds. That is all the time they will give you to scan your headline. Really, you and I are no different.

We do not READ a newspaper, we SCAN the headlines - article headlines and ad headlines. We are looking for only for what interests us at the moment we read.

Consider how you would read a newspaper. You scan the headlines and then proceed to read the body of the article, if the headline interests you.

A headline comprises the first words at the top of a newspaper ad. It is the title of your article, the subject line of your email or letter, or the top of your web page. Some quick pointers:

Make sure that your headline is the first group of words that your reader sees. I’ve seen fancy layouts with the headline buried in the body of an ad. So, subtle and yet so easy to miss. We’re not out to win awards for ad layouts, but to make sales is something that I believe in.

Ads that go against this point put their logo on the top, where the headline should be. If you just want to get subliminal messages through, without trying to get your reader to go through the body copy, this might work. Otherwise, it’s a complete waste of time.

The headline should pull in the reader with some sort of promise. Once, you get the reader’s attention, the eyes will be pulled down to your logo, as part of your signature.

Of the readers who will see your ad, something like 10-20% will have an interest in your message. If you miss out on these readers, you’ve just done your money.

The headline should not only have a promise, it should be catchy and noticeable. Some headlines just describe the product that’s advertise and that’s it. Ho-hum. “1 tonne widget”. So, what’s the promise. Mind you if someone is looking for a 1 tonne widget, this could be enough to pull him/her through the body copy.

Now, why not something like “You can save money with our 1 tonne widget”, better yet, “How you can save money with our 1 tonne widget”.

Note the use of the word "you" in both headlines, making the appeal directly to the reader. Also note the appeal to the hip pocket nerve, to get the reader’s curiosity going.

Let' not forget that we will not interest all readers, only the 10-20% who may be in the market for a 1 tonne widget. And, since the reader’s curiosity is piqued, he/she will read on.

Now lose the reader at this stage, and he/she will go no further.

So, some thought should always be put in a headline.

When I write ads, I usually put as much work in the headline as I do with the body copy. I will touch on body copy on another post.

Until then...

Branding, here's another way to do it

2010-12-28T21:27:00Z

Let's face it today, many things are becoming commodities. Generic branding which started not that long ago, is growing. Price is now pretty much the main deciding factor. Or, is it?

I recently read a book about Jamie Oliver, the chef and entrepreneur. In the footsteps of many ahead of him who extended his name and personal brand to other products and services, e.g., cookware, cookbooks, shows and the like, Oliver has expanded his now familiar face and name to other income streams.

With a friendly and affable persona, Oliver started his brand with an appearance in a TV documentary. His style and approach to cooking, plus his personality, of course, made him an ideal candidate as a TV personality.

He did three series as "The Naked Chef" and then came "Jamie's Kitchen".

Oliver then expanded to other areas from there including setting up his own production company, Fresh One Production Company.

Jamie Oliver made a few mistakes along the way, but he had his sights well set at expanding his brand. He also did a lot of work for the public, including a School Dinners campaign and Ministry of Food. The former effort was aimed at improving the quality of school meals. The latter was aimed at encourage cooking in a housing estate.

Not averse to controversy, Oliver used shock tactics to make consumers think about animal welfare standards.

Again, these efforts help build on his persona, his personal brand.

With the development of his name, his brand, his persona, Oliver went into partnership with different enterprises and manufacturers to build restaurant chains, a party planning business, "own brand" line of herbs, sauces, oils and kitchenware.

And, he even got involved in multimedia activities, which includes a video game and video downloads for mobile phone users.

So, the brand expanded and developed.

While it may not be the way to develop your business, it is a means of building a brand, albeit in a more personal and persona-based business.

I'll cover some of the lessons Jamie Oliver learned in building his brand in future posts.

Until then....

Website landing pages to link back to your site for higher rankings

2010-12-11T01:30:00Z

Recently we set up a couple of landing pages for our clients. Since they had the domain names of some brands, these were used as the URLs for single page sites.

These sites had various links back to the clients’ respective websites, to various pages, in fact.

The point of this strategy was to help improve search engine rankings.

How does this work? Quite simple, really. As the brand names were the site URLs, these would be highly ranked as the names are in a domain. That’s as high as it gets for the likes of Google.

Thus, if someone searched for “brandx”, if a website had the name “brandx.com”, this would rank higher than a site that had various “brandx” in the home page text.

Anyway, that’s the theory. I’ll let you know how we go.

These are the two sites that we have set up so far. This site This site carries the name of a principal, who the client represents in Australia.

This site is uses a long held trading name, which the client owns. A name already carried in the site, this will help keep the brand name up there in rankings.

Note that in both sites, how the peppering of various links back to the clients'main website is found in the landing page. And, these links are to different pages in that site.

As mentioned earlier, I'll keep you posted on how we fare with the different search engines. Watch this space.

Post Script: We just recently uploaded a new landing page for another client. Again, this one uses a well-known brandname to link back to the client's website, where the product is featured. The site is located here .

Web specialists, Pulse Solutions, set up AU site

2010-11-16T00:56:00Z

Pulse Solutions, which started business in 1997, has recently launched an Australian-based website. Since starting operations, the company has created over 1,000 websites, covering a wide gamut of industries and applications in Europe, USA and Australia.

Today, the company has expanded from the three founders to a team of over 100 specialist developers, technicians and SEO practitioners.

Pulse Solutions has always believed that "the internet should be working for you". Hence, their clients all have highly navigable and user-friendly sites that meet Web 2.0 requirements.

The company has clients around the world, ranging from small mom and pop businesses to multi-million dollar corporations. Pulse Solutions strives, at all times, to at least meet or preferably to exceed client expectations through unsurpassed service and attention to detail.

Their development processes are continually improved and honed to meet the ever-changing nature of the web.

In Australia, JG Marketing Services represents Pulse Solutions. At JG Marketing, we provide the benefit of our many years of experience in marketing services and communication and use this expertise, in collaboration with Pulse Solutions to provide web-based solutions for our clients.

Our web team works hand-in-glove with Pulse engineers in the development of practical solutions that are designed to meet not only current, but future needs as well. We specially insist on building the right architecture for websites, which allow a client's site to expand for future development.

We are very happy to continue our relationship with Pulse Solutions and look forward to many years of collaboration in the exciting work that the web provides.

Rush jobs: more pre-thought can give you great payback

2010-08-29T05:02:00Z

Today, marketing communication finds rush jobs are now par for the course. In fact, we can even consider them as a given.

"If I want it tomorrow, I'll order it tomorrow." This is not a real statement from a client, but many times, it feels that it may as well be.

As the pressures of making do with less resources hit harder, businesses are doing with less people. Many are wearing several hats and juggling more work at the one time. Multi-tasking is now a given at most workplaces.

So, you need a marketing communication and what do you do? Prepare the job on the last day before, or worse, on deadline.

Sound familiar?
It's no joke.

Last October, I got a call on my mobile from a client who wanted an ad prepared. I asked him when he needed it. "This afternoon," he said. I apologised that I was unable to help, I was out of town. I also did not bring a computer. But, even if I did so, my files are on my desktop computer, an Apple Mac, in one of several external drives.

It's hard to bring all of those files around when travelling. But, I digress.

Careful thought and planning will payback bigtime in making a marketing communication work.

And, I don't mean about getting the photos, background material and so on, but on more basic things. Who do you want to influence? What is the message? What do you want to achieve? This sort of thing.

Sometimes just preparing the message is the objective, when one should really consider, why the message is needed in the first place.

Are you after a simple reminder about your products or services? Do you want to start a sales campaign? Maybe, a corporate ad campaign? A one shot offer?

Whatever you want to achieve, has to be front of mind before doing anything. The message that is developed is based strongly on the purpose of the message.

If you booked an ad, which is due soon, or worse, now due, is not the reason for an ad. A better reason is the one you had when you booked it in the first place.

An old printer friend, many years ago once told me: "Price, quality, speed. Pick two."

I'm not saying that you can't have all three, but usually if you are in a hurry, you should allow for something to give. Quality may suffer, or be prepared to pay more for a rush job. Or, wait a while, but take advantage of a less costly job. You get my drift.

If you brief a marketing communication practitioner to help with a job, plan your brief. Make sure you cover all bases. And, give him time to execute the job.

A good practitioner should be able to fill in the blanks when receiving a brief, no matter how sketchy. But, think of how much better a job you will get if you give him a better brief and enough time to do the job.

And, it won't hurt to step back and consider the why's and wherefore's. In the end, a different communication piece may be called for. Or, maybe not required at all at this time.

Worth considering, isn't it?

New look website for JG Marketing

2010-07-20T02:52:00Z

A few months ago, I decided that a new image to celebrate our 30th year in business was appropriate. Doesn't seem that long ago when I decided to get into marketing services.

So, the first project was to redo the logo.

Keeping the folded paper symbol was the starting point. We went back to colours we used in the early 80s, green in particular. The pixelisation effect made the folded paper work and become more relevant in a Web 2.0 world.

Then, the next step was to make the website more looking more up-to-date. The use of people in the home page was an important starting point. Why? Simply put, people relate to people.

Plus, since our products are services provided by people, this made sense.

In B2B advertising and other marketing communication, practitioners and their clients focus on product. While a reader or website viewer can relate to a product that is unique, they have more empathy with people. After all people buy from people, not from companies. (Sorry, just a little aside, which I thought was worth mentioning.)

Anyway, back to our new website. The new site is also a good means of exposing our expanded service offering. The flash section centres on websites, which is our main focus in the coming months.

We will be looking into expanding the SEO part of our services, as well as present a DNN shopping cart, which is entirely new to us.

The latter is the product produced by our colleagues at Pulse Solutions of India.

Well, like I mentioned in earlier blog posts, updating a website, in look and content is a given. It should be done regularly to give it a fresh look. Admittedly, we have been a bit remiss. But, in the last five years, this is the third major upgrade.

To view our new site, please click here . I hope that you like the look.

Please feel free to email me with your comments.

Until my next post.

It's good to remind people who you are and how you can help them

2010-04-11T04:36:00Z

An ad ran by McGraw-Hill Magazines many decades back summarises the need for advertising, especially in the business-to-business field.

The ad showed a very stern looking man sitting on a chair, looking straight at the reader. The text was quite short and stated:

I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s record.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.
Now—what is is you wanted to sell me?

Moral: Sales start before your salesman calls—with business publication advertising.

When a sales person calls on a prospect, if the latter has never heard of the company, or its products, the former is automatically at a disadvantage.

Having been a sales representative in a previous life, I know that feeling. It’s not really a good one, comparable I suppose to being behind the eight ball from the start.

Now let’s add to the mix a fallacy that I’ve come across with some marketers: Everybody knows us! Yes, I have had a client of two tell me this.

Unbelievable, isn’t it? Many people, maybe. Most, again, maybe. All, I don’t think so.

One doesn’t market in a vacuum. Products come and go. Marketers come and go. As well as do customers. And, the newcomers who maybe newbies to your industry or just fresh out of university. Can, you really say that they know about your company and its products.

I must admit that most of the advertising material I prepare for clients is brand awareness stuff. Flying the flag, putting the company name and brands out there. Reminding the market place that “Yes, we’re here and we want to help.”

So, even if most people know about you and your products, remind them of who you are and what you stand for. Oh, and that you are after their business.

Ignore at your own peril.

Preparing a marketing communication, what's the focus? Where's the promise?

2010-03-26T04:56:00Z

Like everyone today who goes to work and comes home at the end of the day, I am bombarded by marketing/selling messages throughout each working day. And, add to that what I work with during the day going through PR articles, ads, brochures and so on, this comes to quite a lot.

How does one get noticed with all the messages bombarding you each day?

Going through the trade media as most of my clients are B2B marketers, I read or go through a lot of ads everyday. Many of which, i find disappointing.

Now these ads are probably produced sloppily in-house and quite a good number are professionally-prepared by professional communication practitioners and advertising agencies. And, I put myself as guilty of these same transgressions in marketing communication.

I personally make no excuses as I usually just follow client instructions, especially when clients supply the copy. And, my only input is by way of layout. In these instances, I do make suggestions as to the copy, if appropriate. (But, I must admit that sometimes it is easier to take the path of least resistance, and just give in quietly).

I refer to the ad message and what is set out in the ad. This is what will set a marketing communication apart from the surrounding messges.

Many ads feature the client logo on top, with ad copy being either a company mission statement or an enumeration of products and services offered—the classic tombstone ad, or ”name, rank and serial number ad” as this is also known. Really a larger version of a business card, with maybe an addition or photo/s or other visuals. And, when you are faced by an array of business cards, who really bothers about the message.

These ads are of value only as subliminal reminders of an organisation’s presence in the marketplace, at best. Unfortunately, at worse, these are not only ignored, but could be a way of proving to the market that the staff of the company concerned is just too busy to take time to prepare the right message or really is not interested in getting more customers.

Well, maybe. But consider this: when putting out a marketing communication, the point of view is not “I” or “we”, but should really be “you”. Yes, you the customer or prospective customer.

And, to really make an impact on the reader, the aspect certainly should be what’s in it for the reader. Yes, think about it, when you read a communication piece, one of your first questions is normally, what's in it for me, right?.

Every piece should have some sort of promise.

Dr. Samuel Johnson (18th century English author and lexicographer) noted that " promise, much promise, is the soul of an advertisement."

A close friend of the Thrales and executor of their estate, he expounded when selling off Mrs Thrale's brewery: " we are not here to sell off vats and boilers but wealth beyond dreams of avarice." (Now, that is a promise.)

A more up-to-date example which comes to mind after so many years is Volvo.

The slant of the Volvo ads some 15 years ago was on safety. The focus was not on the car itself, but on the safety shell, built into each vehicle. Volvo now has another slant, but the “Staying Alive” message is still at the back of my mind because it was memorable. And more importantly, the promise was safety, not just the driver, but the driver’s family who are in the vehicle with him (her).

Yes, drive a Volvo and you and your family will be safe. Again, a great promise.

(Funny though, that the safety cell was not invented by Volvo, though the company would certainly be remembered for relating this with its cars. It was developed by Mercedes Benz, who did not patent the technology as the management of the company wanted to share this with the rest of the world.)

Excuse my digression, but let us remember that the principal consideration is not that you as a marketer are there put a message across because you love your organisation or your job, it’s because you as a marketer exist because of your customers. No customers, no you.

And, your customer doesn’t care about your company, your mission statement, your product (or service) offering, but on what your company can do for him or her. Yes, what’s in it for me (the customer).

So, the point of view and the message is a promise of something that must just be too good to pass up.

And, put simply the more enticing the message the greater the interest the reader will have to go beyond the headline, read through the body copy and then contact you for more details.

A call to action in a print ad is asking for the order, really

2010-03-06T06:13:00Z

One of the better definitions I’ve come across on selling is: "Saying the right thing, to the right person person at the right time”. After that happens a sale transpires.

We raise the buying temperature of prospective buyer, by saying the right thing, building up on earlier statements. As we sense the buyer’s temperature rising, we feel for the right time to make a close.

Yes, we have to make a close. We ask for the order. This can be done in several ways, from the straight, “Can I have your signature on this order?” to a choice like, “Which colour do you prefer, red or white?” and so on.

But, we have to ask for the order. There is no point in making statements which gets the buyer going and then just leaving it at that.

This post follows on my previous one, where I mentioned that it is a worthless exercise, if we don’t ask for the order.

In print advertising, we do this by a call to action, asking for a phone, asking the reader to email or go to a website and so on.

By the way, I had one client, remove the line “Why not give us a call NOW?”. He wanted to keep the copy short. As I was on deadline, I didn’t argue and left it that.

What a waste, after all one the better definitions I’ve come across for advertising is “selling in print”. Mind you the last word can now read any of the electronic media, including the web, TV, radio and so on.

The point I want to make is that the AIDA formula mentioned in my last post has the last point as ACTION. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. That’s how it works and dropping the last point, is like what I have propounded before, we need to ask for the order.

BTW, in the web, we may ask someone to click here. The presence of a hyperlink to an order page, contact page or other is usually enough.

Selling and advertising are similar and have pretty much the same objective. It's good to remember, when sometimes we just want to put up our selling points and forget to ask for the order.

Just a thought.

Running copy in print ads: this is still the way to go

2010-02-28T21:04:00Z

Last week, I redid an ad for an old client, whom I hadn’t done work for in over ten years. This was the first ad done for him in 12 years. (How I reconnected with the client, is a story by itself.) The gist of the thing is that the client wanted the text changed from running copy to point form.

I did the alterations as he wanted and when I saw him a few days later, I explained why I use prose, or running copy in the body of all my ads.

Well, let’s face it, when you read a newspaper, a book, a blog, or other stuff, you will find that the text is usually in prose, as running copy. That’s how you learned to read and that’s how things have been set out from eons back.

So, we are used to reading things in that way.

Now, I must admit a few things:
-    we are bombarded by hundreds of messages everyday
-    we are all busy, so reading copy, especially long copy may be hard to undertake because of lack of time
-    most of my clients are engineers and they like stuff set out in point form
-    some people tend to think in that way and want to see text set out similarly.

However, let me posit a rationale for running prose.

Other than the fact we are used to reading stuff set this way, running prose allows the writer to do a few things:
-    present his story, as just that a story, a narrative
-    a narrative allows the writer to build up a case with one point building up on another
-    corollary to that is that this method of writing allows the author a means of following the AIDA principal: get Attention, build up Interest, create Desire and call to Action.

In contrast, a shopping list of points doesn’t build up interest, nor does it create desire. When you explain selling points, that build on one another, you bring up the reader’s interest, one point at a time, so that he/she gets not only more interested to know more, but then has the desire to do something (go on the internet to get more information, call the advertiser to get this information, or even better, order from the advertiser.)

Finally, a call to action is like asking for the order. You may have experienced this, as I have: a sales person give his spiel, gets your interest, builds up your buying temperature and leaves without asking for the order.

That would have a been a wasted exercise. When I write ads, I usually ask the reader to ask for more information. This way a reader, who has been piqued with interest, will call up and talk to someone in the advertiser’s office and allow the latter to follow-up with a personal call, other phone call, quotation or whatever.

And, to finish my story on the ad I was working on. In the end, he conceded that he should follow my suggestion, as an expert in my field. (This is that quip used by advertising agency creatives, “Why buy the dog and do the barking”, right?)

I rewrote the text as a narrative, but also included some bullet points in the body copy. It was a most satisfying exercise in the end, especially since the client acceded to following my suggestion because of my experience in the field.

Hopefully, the client is happy with the result.

Knowing our customers needs in today's market

2009-11-30T03:51:00Z

In a previous post, I noted "Don’t assume you know what your customers’ needs are."

So you’ve been in business a while and in the same industry for many years. you call on the same people everytime and you know the industry inside out. So, you know what your customers’ needs are, right?

Can you truthfully answer yes?

Calling on the same people doesn’t mean you know them well enough to know what they need. I don’t think that one can equate familiarity with individuals to familiarity with their needs.

Let’s throw the current economic uncertainty into the equation.

An article in Marketing Week recently held in Adelaide expounded on one of the speakers, Dr Peter Steidl of Mindshare, (Sourced from an article “Delivering resutls through the downturn”, in Direct September/October issue, pp 14-15) He said that economic recession is not driven by inability to spend, but by the uncertainty about the future. “In fact, during a recession, consumers have more discretionary spend, due to lower interest rates and lower petrol prices. But they are motivated to re-examine habitual purchases (which account for 85 percent of purchases) both in a consumer and a B2B environment.”

The article went further to say that the downturn is a “time of opportunity for marketers looking to expand their market share, because consumers are more receptive to messaging about innovation and difference.”

Steidl also noted that marketing was not innovating. He maintained that marketing practice was not changing.

He further noted that recessions were historically times when more number one brands went down to number three. He added that “This is the time for smaller, more agile brands to make their move.

“Speed and flexibility can beat scale”, he said.

Perhaps to highlight some of these points, Tim Cooper of Coopers Brewery who said that “In recessionary times when discretionary spending is being hit, people are happy to do it themselves and take up the hobby of home-brewing.”

Which makes you think, you can still your product, but it may be a different model, a different configuration or a variation on your normal offering. And, if that is what your customers want, why not give it to them.

Applied to the original theme of this post, do we really know what our customers’ need are, let’s consider what the current economic downturn does to his/her thinking. We can then tailor our communication to our customers, in light of how they would look at spending, when everyone is making his/her discretionary spend go further.

Guerrilla and Viral Marketing: another look

2009-10-30T04:34:00Z

Rummaging trough some old magazines, I came across an old copy of The Bulletin and flicked through until I came to an article on guerrilla and viral marketing. It’s a pet topic and something I haven’t given much thought in a while.

The Web 2.0 world, with the mushrooming of social media, makes it imperative that marketers think outside the box of traditional or more conventional media. Communication is not only done through print advertising, PR, the electronic media and so on.

First and foremost of the use of the web as a marketing communication medium is the website. Once up and running, this has to be freshened up with new content, a new look and so on. And, this should be done regularly.

BTW, I too fall on this aspect, so marketing communication consultants are not immune. Mind you this year has seen the most number of changes to my website, but I digress.

My favourite Web 2.0 medium still is blogging. This marcom method is now main stream. It’s not the realm of “nerd” types, but something more and more corporates are adopting.

If you’re still thinking about it, maybe it’s time to be more serious and jump in. Blogging allows you to reach your target market easily, in ways not available previously. As publsiher, you control content and can make yourself whatever you want your image to be.

It allows you to talk informally in super friendly terms. And, very importantly it allows you to get feedback in ways not previously possible.

Just think, it’s so easy to respond to a blog, in the surrounds of posts and other comments. It’s a lot harder to pick up the phone and complain. And, besides, let’s face it most people will not complain. They tend to just drop you altogether.

And, without feedback, you’d only notice when a customer’s leaving shows its effect on the bottom line. By then, it may be too late.

Blogging also allows other things I’ll cover in another post.

Going back to that issue of the Bulletin, on page 49 (February 20, 2007) there was list reprinted from “Marketing Work: Unlocking Big Company Strategies for Small Business” by Chris Lee and Danele Lima, Morgan James Publishing included. The list is reprinted in toto:

Ten Marketing No-Nos:
Don’t assume you know what your customers’ needs are.
Don’t underestimate the shortcomings of your business.
Don’t try to market your product to everyone.
Don’t take your customer’s for granted.
Don’t hire slick salespeople with poor listening skills.
Don’t design your marketing plan in a vacuum.
Don’t leave weaker areas of the business alone.
Don’t launch into expensive research every time.
Don’t dwell on poor performance.
Don’t stress out completely and lose your work-life balance.

Great ideas, worth considering. In fact, I plan to dedicate my next post/s to these points.

Learning to listen, espcially since the customer is always right

2009-10-04T21:19:00Z

Last week, a client’s email set-up was only partially receiving emails. Originally, I thought that this was because of the client’s inability to use Outlook. Allow me to explain what happened.

When the client’s website was finally uploaded live, it was setup at another hosting company. Some of the email address owners had difficulty setting up, which I attributed to the same reason.

I spent some time in front of one the client’s computers and set up his outlook. It worked and received a test email via outlook and via his yahoo email account. Problem solved. Or was it?

Late last week, the CEO sent me an email which read in part that the IP address (confirmed to be the ISP’s) was blacklisted. Referred this to the ISP, and kept on their backs to get a resolution.

The problem was that Spam and Open Relay Blocking System (SORBS) was blacklisting the IP address, which was blocking emails. The ISP terminated the account of the spammer concerned and informed SORBS, so hopefully that problem is solved.

Lesson learned. Actually two were learned. First of all, the customer is always right. This old adage is something that a marketer must not forget. I must admit that I did get to learn more about Outlook in the process. But, the customer is right.

If there is a complaint, one cannot just dismiss this off-hand. Not that I did. But, I should have given this more importance. In my defence, I did speak with web design colleagues and they agreed with me, with DNS transfer completed, email should work.

SORBS and IP blocking did not even come into the picture.

Second and more important lesson learned is listen to your customers. We cannot assume that we know what our customer’s needs are, what they’re thinking of at a point in time or why they need our help. Let’s face it, as a marketer, our raison d'être is to serve our customers. Full stop.

No customer, no us.

Listening is both an art and a science. Communication is two-way street. It starts with listening. If we communicate as part of our marketing effort, we should be prepared to listen, to get feedback.

While the points I’ve given here appear to be pretty basic. They should be noted and reconsidered. Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees, when we’re caught in the fast-paced world of today.

These lessons are applicable to anyone in business. And, they’re very valuable that we should not just brush them aside. After all, if we cannot communicate and listen to our customers and we don’t believe that they are always right, we will probably be out-of-business pretty quickly.

Worth a thought.

New SEO services for more structured approach now offered by JG Marketing

2009-07-31T03:31:00Z

I've been pushing blogging as a good method of marketing communication to help improve the search engine rankings for my clients' websites. Not only does blogging do that, but it is by itself a good tool to communicate with customers and potential customers, get feedback from sectors of the marketplace you would not normally hear from and so on. I've covered this in a number of previous posts on another blog.

Now, with my tie-up with Pulse Solutions, JG Marketing Services now offers SEO services in a more structured way. Pulse offers a lot of expertise and many years of experience in many aspects of the web.

They've shown me their successes and I was quite impressed.

A lot the skills they've picked up with all the work done, can be leveraged to offer Australian companies similar successes. After all, we don't want to waste all that acquired knowledge.

We have a number of off-the-shelf plans on offer. And we can offer tailored solutions for those with specialised requirements.

For more information, you can download a flyer explaining what's involved: click here to download the flyer

We are offering special deals to our first customers, so if you're interested let me know. I'll offer an extra discount to interested parties who mention this post.

The right logo creates a good first impression

2009-07-16T22:59:00Z

The money that goes into logo design and re-design must really be a lot. And, with what you see out there, makes you wonder. Consider the revamped Qantas logo. Whatever was paid, I image is nothing, compared to what will be spent on redoing planes and other assets in the new livery.

Wisely, Qantas went for a very subtle change, which is almost identical to the original. I believe that the change was kinda forced on the company by the purchase of the new A380 aircraft. Which goes to show you how things happen in business.

What about your logo? Is it doing the trick for you? Does it embody what your company stands for? Does it help set out your brand? Does it leave a good impression?

Anyone who sees your logo for the first time should be left with a good impression. Let's face it, first impressions count for a lot.

If you were to go for a job interview sloppily dressed, with hair unkempt, clothes dissheveled and looking like you not only need a bath but a shave as well, how do you expect to get that job you applied for. Even if you’re the most qualified, if the job is for an executive position, you should go to the interview dressed the part.

This is what I mean by leaving a first impression. It really should be a good one.

If your brochure, business card, logo or other communication piece looks like it was done in matter of minutes on your word processor, what does that say about your company?

With the resources available today, there is really no excuse to get the communication piece not done professionally. And, this doesn’t have to cost the earth. (If in doubt, ask us. We're very reasonably priced. Ok, no more commercials.)

Let’s take the logo specially as our point of discussioin. This visual communication piece is the first representation of your company. While literacy is not a problem like it was two centuries back, when logos (or trademarks) had to really be very recognisable, as many people could not read, the logo should at least be memorable.

By memorable, I mean this must have some impact on the reader. Impact here also means legibility, right use of colour, visual appeal and so on.

BTW, what is a logo? Logo is a term taken from logotype, a symbol, used as a trademark or brand for acompany or its products and services.Trademarks were, as the name implies, used by traders and merchants to identify themselves. Today, logos (trademarks) are used by all sorts of organisations, including governments, clubs, associations and of course, business enterprises. (And, this ranges from the sole traders, mom and pops to the really large conglomerates.

Logos and trademarks are not just mere words or symbols they are many things. This is specially a means ofi dentity for an organisation, product or service. It is a means of differentiating these from others especially in the same field and, of course, a communication piece.

Logos communicate information to the reader things like value, origin, quality and so on.

Logos, especially trademarks, add value to organisations, products and services. They are valuable assets that are legal property. As such,many organisations spend a lot of time and money to protect their use.

As a communication piece, it should first be legible. Secondly, it should be memorable and stand out from the crowd. A quick logo, done on a wordprocessor just won’t do.

Going back to the first impressions,what would a logo that looks quickly done and is not legible say to a prospective customer? Would you deal with someone from a company tha treally didn’t put too much thought into its logo? Does the logo appear like it was a backyard operation?

Wouldn’t you rather deal with a company that looked professional and smart? And, these are things that the logo will communicate to the reader.

So, if you’re considering updating your logo, why not get some professiona lhelp to get the job done right. At the very least, consider legibility, memorability, impact and remember this must make a good first impression to whoever reads this.

How a newsletter can help make more sales

2009-06-06T02:21:00Z

In a previous life as a sales representative, I remember missing our on extra sales because the person I was calling on did not know about a range of products offer by the company I worked for. Why? The customer did not associate those products with me, or my company.

There’s a good lesson there. It’s one I’ve used to get my clients to try newsletters. They’re a good communication method to tell existing and potential clients about the full range of products and services one has to offer.

Let’s face it, human nature being what it is, pigeon-holing is quite common. Jenny Bloggs from XYZ Distributors is the one to go to for ABC widgets. So, when she calls, the customer orders the widgets. But, XYZ now also carry a range of gizmos. They also hired a rep to push the range.

Now, with a long business relationship already established with Jenny, how would she feel if she found out that the customer just ordered a pallet of gizmos from another company. “But, we carry a rnag of gizmos that are as good if not better, and quite competitively priced,” she tells the customer.

“I would have ordered from you had I known,” the customer retorts.

Rewind a few days and let’s say Jenny calls on the same customer and drops off a newsletter. The lead article is an announcement of the new distributorship for a new range of gizmos.

A new conversation takes place. The customer says, “Oh you guys carry gizmos, we need some.” Jenny replies, “Sure, we can help you with that.” And, she leaves with an order for a pallet of gizmos.

Remember you have full control over the content of your newsletter. Newsletters can be printed or published in an electronic format (e.g., PDF). And, as publisher you can include any article you want, even feature your own ads.

You can include testimonials, case studies, new product listings and so on. You control content and you can distribute the newsletter via email, hold it on your website. It’s all up to you.

Of course, if you want to take the hassle out of publishing newsletters, you can always ,contact us. We do the whole thing for you. You, of course, have final approval.