Small business owners, whether urban or rural, have an opportunity to impact the needs of their community. It doesn't cost a lot, but can make all the difference.
Volunteering and donating are, interestingly enough, a great way to grow your business, not just support your community. The pro bono work you may do leave a mark and people talk about it in a positive way. This is always very good for your brand. Whether the positive word-of-mouth about your company comes from a paid experience or a volunteer/donated one, that support can bring you business. You can expose your business to a new audience with donation of money, products or services or through volunteering your time.
A friend of mine, Annette Hovey, is trying to raise funds to help her family. Her sister passed away after a battle with breast cancer and it has turned her family inside out. Annette is a small business person, an artist, and while working full-time for a business development corporation, has still found the time and method to help out others. Her creative solution is to sell a book of poetry on-line - not a big investment of her small business money, but something of value and a big help to others. Read her story.
While Annette's story is personal - helping her family - there are loads of opportunities for businesses to give back to their community.
Volunteering is perhaps the most valuable thing of all. Yes, it is time consuming but the new people you meet and the potential for business growth make it worthwhile. For new business owners, this is a pathway to faster business growth. If you can tie your volunteering to your business theme, even better.
And keep in mind, that while volunteering and donating are philanthropic, there is no reason not to put some "conditions" on your time, product or service. Get your logo out there. If there is a way to get your story out there too, then take advantage of it. There is no reason not include a small card with your business description and contact information with any form of donation.
And right now, with all the fear of a recession, you do well to find methods of promoting your business that reach new audiences and confirm to your existing audiences that it is a good thing to do business with you.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
This week in television ad land
We haven't talked about television very much because in most cases it just isn't a good buy for rural & small business. But there are certainly lessons to learn from what the big guys are doing with their ads.
Let's start with my favourite ad of the last couple of months. It's a Jeep ad using pop music as support. People who have attended my workshops know I despise pop music in ads because you remember the music but never the vendor. In this case, the ad is so well done that I remember the vendor just so I can reference it successfully to others.
So take a look at the "Rock Me Gently" Jeep ad. Why does this ad work so well?
First off, the acting is great. The guy has so many terrific expressions that actually match what's going on. And they have done a great match between generations. The guy is young to appeal to a 20 - 35 audience but used music from a generation older. They have made the music an integral part of the ad, not just background music. (and the music sticks in your head altho not sure that's a positive attribute) And laugh! Oh my goodness, after watching it 50 times I still laugh when I see it. And humour is the #1 way to get people to remember your ad. Jeep has found humour that is great to participate with, without being rude or disgusting.
Kudos to the creative team. Positive genius!
Now, the medium success on Canadian television. Aviva Insurance is starting to advertise and went big with the buy. They are on American Idol, Family Guy and some other huge audience spectaculars. Primarily, not sure the buy is worth it. So much of this audience group is outside of their target market. But hey, more people will see it even if they won't care. Maybe a really targeted buy to some specialty channels would have been a better use of the money. It isn't all about being on the biggest shows, it's about using the money sensibly to hit your specific market more often. For every hit on American Idol, no doubt there could have been five hits on a specialty channel.
The ad talks about changing insurance. They have tried to go for humour but it falls down. Mildly amusing at best. The big issue is the colour choices for the banner at the end that identifies the company through logo and website. You can't read the website address and the yellow just overwhelms the screen. You instinctively watch the announcer rather than reading the text in the bright yellow box. Yellow is the most conflicting colour to the human brain so maybe not the best choice for so much screen space.
But bravo to the folks at Aviva that built the survey that supports this ad campaign. It is amusing just walking through, but when you select the "relief" button you can really see that someone has a great sense of juxtaposition. The yellow is still really hard on the eyes so folks will probably rush through it, but at least the exposure and more of the story are there.
And last, and certainly, least - the new RONA split 15-second spots. I've only seen one of them, but in that one they share information that isn't even correct in an attempt to sell more of their product. In the front end 15-second, you get a question. In this case "Can you use the same drywall in all rooms". In the back 15-second, they give you the answer (after you have sat through other people's ads). In this case, they answered "no". Well really, of course you can use the same drywall in all types of rooms. You may not want to, but you can. And in my opinion, split 15s just make people watch the ads in between with more vigour while they wait for the answer. So other advertisers should be thanking RONA for this less than clever sales tactic.
What's the big learn from today's rant?
1. Know your audience and the audiences around them. Jeep does a great job reaching a broad audience base by using music that is now multi-generational.
2. Humor is your friend. Especially when you can do it without being disgusting.
3. Make sure you use great talent. Whether it's your actors or your designers, great talent shows. Jeep has used a terrific creative team and a brilliant, funny actor. Aviva has used some good ideas but the visual team (or the corporate folks with the final say) have mucked it up with the insistence of using so much yellow.
4. Don't use yellow if you don't have to. It hurts the brain.
5. Be smart with your buy. Target your audience and use the methods that reach them with as little spill into useless audience as possible.
6. Don't stretch the truth in your advertising. You'll get caught and it's a negative mark on your brand.
Let's start with my favourite ad of the last couple of months. It's a Jeep ad using pop music as support. People who have attended my workshops know I despise pop music in ads because you remember the music but never the vendor. In this case, the ad is so well done that I remember the vendor just so I can reference it successfully to others.
So take a look at the "Rock Me Gently" Jeep ad. Why does this ad work so well?
First off, the acting is great. The guy has so many terrific expressions that actually match what's going on. And they have done a great match between generations. The guy is young to appeal to a 20 - 35 audience but used music from a generation older. They have made the music an integral part of the ad, not just background music. (and the music sticks in your head altho not sure that's a positive attribute) And laugh! Oh my goodness, after watching it 50 times I still laugh when I see it. And humour is the #1 way to get people to remember your ad. Jeep has found humour that is great to participate with, without being rude or disgusting.
Kudos to the creative team. Positive genius!
Now, the medium success on Canadian television. Aviva Insurance is starting to advertise and went big with the buy. They are on American Idol, Family Guy and some other huge audience spectaculars. Primarily, not sure the buy is worth it. So much of this audience group is outside of their target market. But hey, more people will see it even if they won't care. Maybe a really targeted buy to some specialty channels would have been a better use of the money. It isn't all about being on the biggest shows, it's about using the money sensibly to hit your specific market more often. For every hit on American Idol, no doubt there could have been five hits on a specialty channel.
The ad talks about changing insurance. They have tried to go for humour but it falls down. Mildly amusing at best. The big issue is the colour choices for the banner at the end that identifies the company through logo and website. You can't read the website address and the yellow just overwhelms the screen. You instinctively watch the announcer rather than reading the text in the bright yellow box. Yellow is the most conflicting colour to the human brain so maybe not the best choice for so much screen space.
But bravo to the folks at Aviva that built the survey that supports this ad campaign. It is amusing just walking through, but when you select the "relief" button you can really see that someone has a great sense of juxtaposition. The yellow is still really hard on the eyes so folks will probably rush through it, but at least the exposure and more of the story are there.
And last, and certainly, least - the new RONA split 15-second spots. I've only seen one of them, but in that one they share information that isn't even correct in an attempt to sell more of their product. In the front end 15-second, you get a question. In this case "Can you use the same drywall in all rooms". In the back 15-second, they give you the answer (after you have sat through other people's ads). In this case, they answered "no". Well really, of course you can use the same drywall in all types of rooms. You may not want to, but you can. And in my opinion, split 15s just make people watch the ads in between with more vigour while they wait for the answer. So other advertisers should be thanking RONA for this less than clever sales tactic.
What's the big learn from today's rant?
1. Know your audience and the audiences around them. Jeep does a great job reaching a broad audience base by using music that is now multi-generational.
2. Humor is your friend. Especially when you can do it without being disgusting.
3. Make sure you use great talent. Whether it's your actors or your designers, great talent shows. Jeep has used a terrific creative team and a brilliant, funny actor. Aviva has used some good ideas but the visual team (or the corporate folks with the final say) have mucked it up with the insistence of using so much yellow.
4. Don't use yellow if you don't have to. It hurts the brain.
5. Be smart with your buy. Target your audience and use the methods that reach them with as little spill into useless audience as possible.
6. Don't stretch the truth in your advertising. You'll get caught and it's a negative mark on your brand.
Monday, April 7, 2008
When less is definitely more
How many ads have you seen and heard where the advertiser tries to do too many things at once? Unfortunately, I've seen way too many over the last weeks. My focus on rural and small business has exposed me to print and audio/visual advertising that is over-designed, over-produced and completely unfocused.
If you want to make the most of your advertising, there is a very key thing to remember. Be focused, focused, focused.
Keep your message short and sweet. People today have very short attention spans, especially for advertising. You'll never successfully be all things to all people, so don't even try. Know your audience thoroughly and design your messages to speak clearly to them.
Don't mix your messages. Pick a topic and stay on it. The 30-second radio spot is great for this because you can only do a little bit in 30 seconds. But print ads and flyers can get away from you pretty quickly.
Make sure your designer understands the concept of minimalism. There's often no need for tons of illustrations, graphic effects, and there's definitely no need for a kazillion type styles and sizes. Trained designers know this. I realize that not everyone is working with a trained designer, and those companies can be spotted instantly through the over-design and clutter in their advertising.
Remember too that white space is easy on the eye. If your customers have to struggle to read your message, they'll just turn away. Be careful when using reversed-out type (white type on dark surface). Many type styles can't hold up under this treatment. Most especially script fonts.
Test all your print and audio/visual advertising with someone who doesn't know the message. If they don't get it quickly, then you need to modify.
If you want to make the most of your advertising, there is a very key thing to remember. Be focused, focused, focused.
Keep your message short and sweet. People today have very short attention spans, especially for advertising. You'll never successfully be all things to all people, so don't even try. Know your audience thoroughly and design your messages to speak clearly to them.
Don't mix your messages. Pick a topic and stay on it. The 30-second radio spot is great for this because you can only do a little bit in 30 seconds. But print ads and flyers can get away from you pretty quickly.
Make sure your designer understands the concept of minimalism. There's often no need for tons of illustrations, graphic effects, and there's definitely no need for a kazillion type styles and sizes. Trained designers know this. I realize that not everyone is working with a trained designer, and those companies can be spotted instantly through the over-design and clutter in their advertising.
Remember too that white space is easy on the eye. If your customers have to struggle to read your message, they'll just turn away. Be careful when using reversed-out type (white type on dark surface). Many type styles can't hold up under this treatment. Most especially script fonts.
Test all your print and audio/visual advertising with someone who doesn't know the message. If they don't get it quickly, then you need to modify.
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