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!!

We only sell, because customers buy brands...it's not rocketscience!!!

There is interdependency between brand and business, but we should understand the correct cause – effect relationship between the two.

Companies do not build great businesses by doing 'branding' brilliantly. They build great brands by doing business brilliantly

- and by understanding the role of branding within this much bigger picture.

They all need fuel and the essential fuel of business is revenue.

There can be no bottom line without a top line

and the top line is caused by sales. We can sell only because customers buy brands. The purpose of business, therefore, is to keep creating and adding value to the brand which is the ultimate appreciating asset.

Derived from:
Gordon Cook's article You cannot pack a house into a cupboard. Cook is the Vega school of Brand Communication's principal. AND a presentation done by Anthony Swart from Brand Union, South Africa at the Branding Conference 2009.

Don’t sell the drill, sell the hole

"Unless you can show a consumer how those features can contribute to solving their problems/needs etc. you are probably only going to sell one, and that will be to your mother"

This is an age old and basic marketing and advertising principle. Yet, some marketers seem to be getting it horribly wrong. I almost fell over this week when our local blood bank was doing a blood drive.

Guess what stared me in the face as I was walking on our campus? A larger than life billboard showing a needle penetrating an arm in all and glorious gore with that very same arm pumping blood!!

I don’t know about you, but I am petrified of needles and that image is the very last thing that will motivate me should I ever pucker up the courage to donate.

This is just one example of how advertisers and marketers get the art of selling horribly horribly wrong.

As flattering as the thought might be, consumers don’t buy your product because they want your product.

No, they buy it because they have a real or perceived problem/need/desire/want etc. that they perceive your product will satisfy.

They're not selling tickets to a boat trip. They're selling an escape to luxury and relaxation.

Take clothes shopping for example (the favourite past time of most women, myself included).

Don’t think for one second that women buy clothes because of the fear of going naked.

That might be a valid reason, but definitely not the only one. If that was the only reason, we could all cut some holes in refuse bags and wear that.

No, most women buy clothes because they want to look and feel beautiful. And how do Woolworths, Truworths and Foschini etc. adverise their clothing? They don’t lay them flat on the floor and slap the unedited pics in magazines and on billboards. NO, they get gourgeous models to wear the clothes in unbelievably beautiful settings that portray the ideal lifestyle and sell that image.

So next time you are thinking of selling something to someone, stop looking at it from your perspective.

You might know everything there is about your product, but unless you can show a consumer how those features can contribute to solving their problems/needs etc. you are probably only going to sell one, and that will be to your mother.

Advertising bug repellent, Avon spends little of the page on the actual product and the majority on the benefits of using that product hold.

Quirky Photography

I have just found this amazing advertising art photography site b-hive! Check it out! No fluffy babies and endless landscapes just quirky pics from a great cooperative of photographers!

The Art and Science of Marketing by Dowling: Chapter 1

I have been reading the most amazing book on marketing! Before you start thinking that this is the next big thing, it's not! I am a great advocate of the fact that we should master the basics before we start getting fancy. And that is exactly what The Art and Science of Marketing: Marketing for Marketing Managers by Grahame R. Dowling is all about.

If you want to see for yourself, here is the link to the Google Books version and if you would like to purchase (which I would strongly recommend), here is the link to Amazon.

Following is a summary of what I got out of Chapter 1:

"There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. (To achieve this purpose): Any business enterprise has two, and only two, basic functions - marketing and innovation." - Peter Drucker (The founder of modern management).

p1
Most consumers are agnostic to particular forms of technology. What they really want and value are the benefits and the solutions to problems that the technology can provide them with.

p2
Marketing, as the root word in the term implies, is the function of a business or a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on the marketplace. This begs the question of what is a market?

Dowling then uses the example of how the Polaroid camera competed with the entertainment market in the 90s. 18 to 30 year olds stopped going out so much, but rather took instant photographs at house parties and so denting the entertainment industry's market share with a total different need satisfaction object.

Supply-Side View
This perspective traditionally focuses on all the competitors that supply physically similar products and services. Descriptions include the type of industry, the number and nature of competitors, business models, manufacturing processes etc. Adopting a supply-side perspective can result in losing sight of the needs of customers.

p3
Business-to-enterprise / Internal Marketing
Another group of people to whom the ideas of marketing can be applied is employees. Here, the task of managers is to 'sell' the vision, culture, control systems, operating procedures, etc. of the organisation to employees and agents.

p5
Two of the roles of marketing are to act as:

• the 'match making' function of the organisation
• the market-sensing part of the organisation