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May 2005 Archives
May 31, 2005
Setting Goals
Posted by Ken Erickson | Filed under: Productivity
My wife and I are looking into the house market (which has now topped the half a million mark here in L.A.—like we have that kind of cash sitting around), and received in the mail "Strategies for Success: The 8 Steps to Successful Goal Setting" from the Realtor. Funny, because that very day I just read about goal setting in my Guerilla Marketing book. Huh.
But it makes a lot of sense, there's quite a bit we can all accomplish from this task of goal setting. Here's the how-to:
- Identify the goal and write it down.
- Set a deadline for completion.
- Identify the obstacles.
- Name some people, groups or organizations that can help you.
- List the skills necessary to succeed.
- Write a plan of action.
- Visualize the end result.
- List the benefits for accomplishing this goal.
As Guerilla Marketing says, keep your goals specific, focused and measurable.
And as I say, "Believe in your goals. Believe in yourself." Anything is possible, maybe even a house in L.A.
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May 27, 2005
TV Billboards Stop Traffic
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Advertising
I have the life of most Southern California people, the life of commuting. I had been taking the train for a while but the last few months I've been driving and umm... It's no fun. Traffic really is a nightmare here in the "Southland" I have to take the 5 freeway to and from work everyday and my commute just got a little more difficult thanks to some good marketing.
There is an outlet mall called the Citadel that sits just off of the 5 freeway south of downtown. Some genius decided to put up very large LCD screens to act as moving billboards. The screens are huge and feature ads and images for the shops located inside the Citadel walls. And boy, does traffic slow down. We're talking the kinda of slow driving where you can see the smashed gum on the street.
I honestly never knew what was in the Citadel until they put those signs up, now I do and chances are I may just stop one day and go shopping instead of sitting in traffic.
Shopping anyone?
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May 26, 2005
Messy Desks Equal Creativity?
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Creativity
The printer company Lexmark took a look at wasted office paper and found that Britain alone stacked up 12,000 tons of wasted paper. The average office worker prints out 10,000 pages per year. Advertising and marketing executives were the worst offenders, with an average of 163 pieces of paper piled on their desk. 17% of advertising and marketing executives admitted to not being able to see their desk under all the clutter.
Perhaps all that messiness is just the cost of creativity.(link via Tim Bednar)
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May 25, 2005
Environmental Advertising
Posted by Ken Erickson | Filed under: Advertising
Marketing in action. Brilliant.
(Thank you Mylinda and Brian for the pics)
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May 24, 2005
So That's What Happened
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Business
Back in 1998, when we were just getting started in Chicago, there was a company (also located in the Chicago area) who called in from a direct mail piece we had sent out. The company was just getting started and needed some branding and identity work. I remember talking to the owner (Rodney Dixon of Lacrad International) on the phone, hearing his million dollar ideas, and getting pretty excited at the potential of working together. He sounded like any other entrepreneur—bold, brash and a little brilliant. This worked great because we needed business. We got to work on some ideas right away and helped him with a logo and started working on a Web site.
We didn't get too far along because it was taking him a while to pay his bill. Then he stopped returning phone calls. Then our mail got returned. Then the phone number was disconnected. We got burned.
Continue reading "So That's What Happened"
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May 23, 2005
Clorox Body Soil: Targeting an Audience
Posted by Lisa Pileggi | Filed under: Advertising
Have you ever watched a commercial on television and thought, "I'm sold"? I watched a grotesque commercial for Clorox the other day. Basically, this guy is holding up a sealed plastic bag with 50 grams of "body soil". The selling point is, "detergent alone doesn't cut it".
Guess what I used this weekend when doing laundry? Yes, Clorox bleach. Just the thought of that yellow liquid sitting in my clothes, sheets and towels was enough to make me want to go overload on the bleach. I was a definite target audience for this one!
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May 20, 2005
The Business of Blogging
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Technology
This originally appeared in our e-mail newsletter. If you're not getting it, you can sign up today.
Blogging is big business (if you're asking "what's a blog?"—you better read up). 2005 has been proclaimed the year of the blog (wait, wasn't that 2004?) and stories are popping up everywhere: BusinessWeek did a cover story and launched their own blog. The New York Times covered Nick Denton's blogging empire and was encouraged to start a blog themselves. News even reverberated across the blogosphere when one Australian blogger claimed he'd be making six figures this year.
A forthcoming book by the high-profile Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble and Shel Israel will cover the ins and outs of business blogging. You can get the inside scoop—where else—on their blog. You can read their first chapter and the proposal they sent to publishers for an idea of what they cover. The blog itself also has tons of great content, including interviews with business bloggers.
But their book won't come out until 2006, so let's cover the basics: What can blogs do for your bottom line?
Continue reading "The Business of Blogging"
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May 19, 2005
Rental Car Fun
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Marketing
Car rental agencies are beginning to offer more than the bland basics, with Hummers, Volvos and Jaguars. The cool cars work for special occasions, making customers happy, pulling in more money for the rental agencies and showing off vehicles for the manufacturer. Everybody wins.
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May 18, 2005
Lessons from the Apprentice Finale
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Business
Last week my fiancé and I gathered with some friends to watch the finale of The Apprentice. I don't know how I got suckered into watching The Donald fire people on a weekly basis but I did.
The funny thing is I've learned a few things while watching and last night was no exception. The final two candidates were put in charge of two different events, one a video game championship for Electronic Arts. The other an event to promote New York City for the 2012 Olympic games. The person in charge of the video game event got it right, the other clearly did not. What did she get right? Two things mainly, the details and the management of sponsors' (client) perceptions. When problems came up she handled them with high touch and with clear attention to the sponsors. In turn the sponsors felt comforted, relieved and reassured their sponsorship was not in vain.
The other candidate seemed to focus solely on the event itself just moving forward without attention to detail or the sponsors of the event. I'll bet for the most part neither the people playing the video games or the guy running the 100 yard dash knew any different, but the people footing the bills sure did.
In business, you have to not only do the job well, and make sure that the "show goes on" but you have to make sure your clients feel taken care of. Here at Personality™ that's something we really do want to do, take care of the people we work with, while pulling off great work.
The second thing I learned last night is that apparently NBC has the ability to stretch a mediocre final episode into three mediocre final episodes!
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May 16, 2005
Marketing Star Wars
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Marketing
The final installment of the Star Wars series comes out this week, and the marketing has been hot and heavy. Yoda's been pitching Diet Pepsi, Chewbacca's recording ringtones for Cingular and Darth Vader is hocking M&Ms. If that's all a bit too much, the Organic Trade Association is cashing in with a Store Wars spoof starring Cuke Skywalker and Darth Tader.
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May 12, 2005
What Every Good Marketer Knows
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Marketing
After a not-so positive mention in the New York Times, marketing guru Seth Godin (of our previous post Marketing Master in Action) offers a list of what every good marketer knows. It's a nice checklist to see how your marketing ranks.
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May 9, 2005
Internet Advertising Boom
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Technology
Online advertising grew 33% in 2004 topping $9.6 billion, and it's expected to rise as much this year. It still only accounts for 3.7% of the total advertising market, but savvy marketers will want to get into the game now. "Many marketers have applied traditional advertising techniques to the medium, but this is different," says Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Greg Stuart. "Those doing well are those who are figuring out how to adapt to a rapidly changing environment."
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May 5, 2005
Good Design is Readable
Posted by Lisa Pileggi | Filed under: Design
Walking out of the Directors Guild Theater on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, after attending the COL-COA French Film Festival, I noticed a large billboard for the Academy of Country Music Awards. I thoroughly studied the sign for several minutes before I figured out that it read: 40th Academy of Country Music Awards.
Now why would any designer create a billboard that requires more than a glance to read? My greatest difficulty was distinguishing the numbers. The zero at the end of the four was significantly smaller then the preceding number, resembling a degree symbol.
My first thought was: "And this passed by how many desks before it was approved and printed?"
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May 4, 2005
Kentucky Fried Branding
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Brand & Identity
After nearly 14 years of hiding the "fried" portion of their moniker, KFC is embracing their southern roots and bringing back the Kentucky Fried Chicken name. It's part of yet another brand makeover for the southern fried fast food after years of trying to adapt to the health food craze.
The new KFC is adding to their menu, including down home favorites like candied yams, collard greens and sweet potato pie. They're also tweaking their image, giving the Colonel a makeover, an apron and a younger look.
It all shows the importance of a company's brand. KFC—Kentucky Fried Chicken or whatever they want to be called—just better hope their constant changing doesn't leave their customers scratching their heads.
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May 3, 2005
Pick Two: Good, Fast, Cheap
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Business
There are three components to every project and, go figure, there just happens to be an ol' business adage to accompany this concept.
- Fast
- Cheap
- Good
From the above words, you can only pick two. You can't have all three. If you want something good and fast, it won't be cheap. If you want something good and cheap, it won't be fast. If you want something fast and cheap, it won't be good.
Keep this simple little principle in mind next time you're planning a project. Here at Personality™, this principle comes in handy when you're trying to get us to work miracles.
Here's a poster (PDF) for your office (thanks to David Adam Edlestein).
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May 2, 2005
iPod Shuffle: Creating Strength from Weakness
Posted by Ken Erickson | Filed under: Marketing
This last weekend a friend of mine gave me the fabulous gift of an iPod Shuffle for DJing his wedding. This was my first iPod, and I was jazzed about the gift. It weighs in at a whopping .78 ounces, is smaller than a pack of gum, and can still hold over 120 of my songs! Lovely.
Yet the only downer to the little gadget is the missing viewing screen. Now, this could be the end of a great little piece, but I believe Apple made the most of this weakness. Instead of dealing with the negatives of not having a screen, they turn it into a positive by calling the new iPod "Shuffle" (acknowledging what it is). Then in promoting the iPod Shuffle they reinforce the message by touting that we may as well face it: "Life is Random" and "Enjoy Uncertainty," as seen in print, TV and online ads.
Turn your weakness into strength. If you don't, your competition will.
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