Looking for New Ideas?

Examples of How & What other Businesses are doing right

Are you fresh out of ideas for your business or in your role at your company? Use this website from The Times to see what other businesses are doing right and importantly how they are doing it.

Relationship Marketing: 10 Strategies to Building a Strong Customer Relationship

This website is jam packed full of smart quotes and tips on how to create better relationships with your customers. Have a look at it, I'm sure you'll find something in there that is useful or triggers a thought on how you can better engage with customers.

The Challenge of Using Salespeople as Booth Staff

If there is one thing I CANNOT stand it is sales or promotions people doing a lousy job - standing around, talking with each other (and not the customers) or playing on their cellphones - when on duty.

Below is an excellent article from Marlys K. Arnold (who has a fantastic Trade Show newsletter by the way) on how to prevent this problem.

Implementing Corporate Strategy

I came accross this cool website making implementation of corporate strategy more practical. I don't have time to reword it now and make it my own (as is good blogging practice), but it's worth having a look at:

A Few Thoughts on Writing (professionally)... as elementary as it might sound

I am shocked at the number of mails I receive regularly, a third grader will blush to put their name next to, yet these are supposed to come from educated professionals. I have whipped together a list that should be common knowledge, but alas, seems not to be the case.

And of course, this post isn't for you, you write perfectly. It must be for the lady in accounts or the IT guy, but I am sure you can take benefit too ;-). See point 11

1. BEFORE YOU EVEN START: If you are planning on attaching a document to an e-mail, do that first. Everyone makes mistakes, but it looks like you do not have your ducks in a row if you are forwarding attachments after the mail has gone out!
   
2. Now, write down EVERYTHING, all your thoughts regardless of order, spelling, grammar etc. Get it all out! (It would be a good idea not to fill in the "To" block just yet, for incase you drop your coffee on the keyboard and accidentally press send).
3. Carefully read through what you have written and order it logically, check for spelling and grammar too.
   
4. Next read what you have edited logically as if you were the person that the message is intended for. Remember that they do not see everything as you do. Take out all unnecessary bits that clutter a clear message. Or add where you need to give more background and context.
5. In the corporate world, people don’t have time for vagueness, be specific and to the point. Try and use bullet points and numbering where possible.
6. Avoid using vague terms like “it”, “that” etc. Make sure you are very specific so that there can be no ambiguity in what you have written.
7. It is best to err on the formal side, do not start with ‘Hi’ or other casual greetings and 'Cheers' with closings to letters. If you are writing to a customer or someone higher up the food chain, take note of the formality they use and try to mimic that without losing your unique style and quirkiness. If you are writing to Sally, your colleague, down the passage, it is not a problem. Which brings me to my next point...
   
8. Always finish e-mails off with a greeting and your name, even if it is to Sally. Your initial will also do (only if it is to Sally). This is just a way of rounding off the letter.
   
9. Once you are completely finished, read through the letter again, and again. First make sure that everything follows a logical order and communicates exactly what you want it to, then make sure there are absolutely NO spelling mistakes or grammar errors. DO A SPELL CHECK, even a trained eye can easily miss something from reading over it one too many times.
   
10. If it is a very important letter ask someone who is experienced for their opinion.
11. No smileys, ok not no smileys. I have seen Chief Executives of multinational companies use smileys, but once again within context, and not in a formal letter. Rather wait for the other person to set the smiley tone (or not).
12. Lastly, make sure you have a short and sweet subject line. PLEASE do not send a mail without a subject line. It looks untidy and unprofessional upon receipt. And the Lord and all his angels help the person who would like to find that mail 3 months down the line between the other 8000.

That's me for now

Sparkles and candy

Vodacom is red

Vodacom is red

When a primary brand in the minds of almost every South African consumer does a brand changeover, we can expect a streamlined and well orchestrated exercise. And that is exactly what Vodacom has (is) given(ing) us.




I'm not too bothered with it and am already finding my frame of reference becoming accustomed to the red branding as opposed to the blue and green that they have sported since, well since I can remember.

BUT that is as a consumer. As a lover of all things ‘brand’ my mind is ticking overtime and wondering why?? Why did I find it so easy to associate Vodacom with RED so quickly?

Is it because the Vodafone icon and red background is not unfamiliar to the South African market? Because Vodacom has used their family of characters that we have come to know and love through their iconic branding such as Mo the Meerkat, our friend Michael de Pinna, the oily baldy with leopard speedo and his partner Malume Bankole Omotso, or their upgrades (excuse the pun) old Jan and Elton. Or is it because it is so plain and simple?

I recall when Cell C went through the same rebranding exercise and I am still struggling to understand what actually happened there. From the red dots forming a C to the c that looks like a copyright sign and bars of primary colours.

Maybe the Cell C brand wasn't as well established to start out with and include in the roll out the introduction of yet more unfamiliarity in the form of a 'Consumer Experience Officer' aka Trevor Noah, who to my knowledge knows nothing about cellphone networks and you will have to do some fancy footwork to make Joe Public believe you.

Approaching the mammoth task of doing a [brand] changeover will never be easy. What I would like to say though is well done Vodacom. Well done for keeping it plain and simple, not cluttering it up and making us confused. But for keeping it as basic as a colour and using symbols that we have come to know and love.

I wish you every success with the new branding and hope that red will indeed be faster and hotter!

Old School Branding

Call me old fashioned if you wish, but some things, even in branding, remain key, regardless of all the bells and whistles, beautiful ideas and ever changing trends that face the brand world today.

I have to agree with Helen Edwards in her article, Old School Branding on Brand Republic (which by the way is one of the best platforms on marketing and branding news and views available).

But back to Helen and her recognition of the simple things that make branding work.

She uses the London Business School as an example, in that they truly are revolutionary and a pillar in contributing to business and society, BUT their branding sucks, or rather the execution thereof (execution is a big word and if you don't get it right consistently can bite you in the butt).

Short and simple Helen sums it up:

"The (relatively) easy and fun bit of branding is the theory - the workshops on values, generating ideas and coming up with a new slogan.

The hard bit is executing it consistently and coherently in everything you do and say - and unless everyone is engaged in the process and understands the part they play, you haven’t got a chance.

People on the inside will get bored with the brand and want to change it long before anyone on the outside has really grabbed hold of what it is. They should take a very deep breath before doing so, and give it, say, another ten years before they scratch that itch."

Helen for (branding) president!!