Marketing

Individual Annual Report

I recently worked with a client on an annual report, which doesn’t sound earth shattering by itself. Until one realizes he doesn’t work for a public company. He’s the President/CEO of a [...]

click to continue → July 20, 2008

Greenwashing is…

…the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service… Bandwagons are for jumping on. And Green is playing loudly everywhere, [...]

click to continue → July 12, 2008

“There’s Nothing Common About Sense”

The title above is a quote attributed to Mark Twain. And life now a days is just as befuddling as it was in his time. Media and experts pour out spin that [...]

click to continue → July 2, 2008

RSS: The New Newspaper

If you read newspapers, then RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is your new newspaper. Your paper newspaper is delivered to your doorstep. RSS does the same thing digitally – to your computer’s desktop. [...]

click to continue → May 1, 2008

Why Aren’t Your Employees Brand Stewards?

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has enlisted retired HP employees to pitch its products in person. In today’s NY Times, Going to the Company Elders for Help describes how HP asks long-term loyal employees, now [...]

click to continue → March 10, 2008

The Triple Bottom Line

Green is definitely the flavor of the moment for marketing janitorial, engineering, and of course, landscaping services. But everyone’s doing it. They’re Me-Too Green. Contractors seeking to get an edge and stand [...]

click to continue → February 6, 2008

Me-Too Green

Can you find a building service contractor that doesn’t offer green cleaning, or environmentally friendly service and products? It’s time for the me-too bandwagon. First movers (those committed to green cleaning early) [...]

click to continue → January 25, 2008

Everything Personal is a Relationship

1/15/08: Here’s a concept “The more people you reach the more likely it is that you’re reaching the wrong people” (yup, S. Godin again). It’s the unspoken, but absolute keystone to the [...]

click to continue → January 7, 2008

Ideas are the Easy Part

Turning ideas into reality, that’s the hard part. Blogs, new media, wi-fi, email and cell phones, have changed an idea’s life span. Before the info age, an idea was power and if [...]

click to continue → November 29, 2007

Marketing Exercise for a Parisian Restaurant

Exercise increases strength, flexibility and creativity. I’m exercising here, a marketing exercise for a situation and client that I won’t be working for. Interestingly, in the exercise I’d used Word of Mouth [...]

click to continue → November 21, 2007

Free Umbrellas

It rains a lot here. Everyone has an umbrella. They lose or break them and buy another one. They give theirs to a friend and buy another one. Umbrella demand is high [...]

click to continue → November 15, 2007

Room Full of Penguins

The ASIS security convention in Las Vegas provided a wonderful marketing tutorial. It was a carnival of booths desperately shouting for attention. All trying to differentiate themselves. Millions were spent on trinkets, [...]

click to continue → September 28, 2007

Sponsored eBooks

I’ve recently come across “sponsored” eBooks, and they caught me off guard. They combine concepts I hadn’t thought were at odds with each other. But together they’re like a tarantula on angel [...]

click to continue → September 4, 2007

Business Cliches Ride Again…and Again…and…

Business cliches never die. We first published a contractors version of business cliches as “Quicksand Words & Phrases“. Seth Godin points out they’re used primarily to talk and say nothing. Take a [...]

click to continue → August 15, 2007

Give Value First

Customers. We don’t make them customers. They are that way themselves. We don’t make them buy. They do that on their own. They buy: Solutions to their problems Improvements to reach their [...]

click to continue → August 9, 2007

Communication Potholes

The rate at which communication is exchanged has two edges. It’s not that we’re speaking or typing faster, but microscopic delays between exchanges give little time for reflection. Would responses be more [...]

click to continue → July 13, 2007

Pushmi-pullyu: Selling vs. Marketing

There’s always been a struggle between selling and marketing. It’s the pushmi-pullyu , rock-paper-scissors, chicken or the egg thing. Now, with email spam, ads over saturating our senses, and the Web 2.0, [...]

click to continue → June 28, 2007

The Adoption Curve

Facility contractors try to differentiate themselves to customers by presenting new programs in proposals. It doesn’t end there. Contractors also try to change their own companies for better, faster, cheaper. Proposing something [...]

click to continue → June 14, 2007

Enlisting Customers’ Customers

Ever hear of customers’ customers? Sure you have. Once they were called “employees”, or “tenants”, or “students”. Now everyone’s a “customer”. The customers’ customer model provides facility contractors an opportunity to increase [...]

click to continue → June 1, 2007

Change is the Hostage of Subtext

Business improvement (aka change) is a hostage to subtext. Change doesn’t occur until subtext becomes text. You know what subtext is. It’s when we say “No”, but mean “Yes”. It’s the elephant [...]

click to continue → May 1, 2007

Brand Awareness is a Paper Wall

Anybody can gain brand awareness. It’s easy. Ever hear about streaking – the short-lived fad in the 70′s? That was someone’s 15-minute brand awareness, or longer if jail time was involved. Brand [...]

click to continue → April 24, 2007

Truth in Truisms #1

I love truisms because they’re true, but I hear them so often I ignore them. Like marketing quicksand words and phrases. Eventually, and it always happens with truisms, something occurs and I [...]

click to continue → March 8, 2007

Customer Experience is the New Brand

In Quicksand Words & Phrases I wrote about marketing terms that were so overused and empty they turn customers away. “Brand” unfortunately is in that group too. For different reasons. Its meaning [...]

click to continue → February 19, 2007

2nd Impressions Count Too!

I’ve been calling consulting prospects. Talking with operators made me think about your customers and prospects. When they first call you. Reminded me of the old saying: “There’s never a second chance [...]

click to continue → February 7, 2007

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