Archives for category: Left Brain

Glossing Over 850 Ads

July 8, 10 //

Over the course of one day, the average American is exposed to at least 850 commercial messages: billboards, television commercials, business cards, delivery trucks, internet ads, junk mail, t-shirts, Facebook links or telemarketer phone calls. That’s over 300,000 messages every year.

Are your marketing efforts different enough to cut through the clutter? Every company has their own point of differentiation. McDonald’s and Burger King sell the same products at the same price points, but each is known for a different specialty. Burger King flame broils, McDonald’s doesn’t. McDonald’s is open 24 hours, Burger King isn’t. Some companies have more than one point of differentiation. What’s yours? What are you doing to set yourself apart from your competition? And what are you doing to promote it? (more…)

Non-Traditional Advertising: March of Dimes

May 5, 10 //

Can I tell you how much we love Victor Garcia at the Northwest Indiana March of Dimes? Here is a man that starts every brainstorming session with “Let’s do something different.” When you own a marketing and design agency, you don’t hear those words too often. What you do hear is, “If my competitor is doing it, I need it too.” Not Victor though.

Back in September of last year, he gave us complete freedom to transform the advertising for the annual March of Dimes Chef’s Event. Matt and I took this as a challenge and we came up with a nontraditional approach in a place thought to be the most traditional of traditional media – newspapers. While most advertisers think within the four lines of their ad space, we approached the Times and asked, “How can we get away with coloring in the paper.” Yes, I said color, as in my three year old was about to make an ad. After the puzzled look we got (which many of you probably have at this moment) from our Times rep, we explained that the March of Dimes is all about children and what better way to express that than to use a childlike approach to an ad.

March of Dimes Signature Chefs Newspaper Ad

The idea was simple. We pulled in the chefs with a picture, wrote a little story about the event, and let my three year old draw crayon stick figures (that we placed into the ad) who held the chefs’ hands to show how they’re all working together for babies. One little idea sparked a slew of conversation throughout the various March of Dimes offices, as well as locally by those in attendance.

The next time you start thinking about a very traditional media, try to see things differently. I guess I turn to my three year old. Try turning to your inner child, if you’re not as lucky to have a Picasso running around your house. After all, the advertising industry was built by a bunch of three year olds in grown-up bodies.

15 Marketing Mistakes Made by Small & Medium-Sized Businesses

April 9, 10 //

Throwing Money Away

More often than not, small and medium-sized businesses find themselves strapped for time, understaffed, and searching for the next big marketing idea to bring in new business. We all find ourselves wearing a variety of hats, but that doesn’t mean we should cut corners or make mistakes that could hurt our businesses in the long run. To help you along the way, we’ve compiled a list of the fifteen most common marketing mistakes that businesses make.

PROBLEM 1

Copy Your Competitors

When you were a child, your mother used to say, “If everyone jumped off of a bridge, would you do it too?” That’s sound advice because when we copy our competitor’s tactics, what makes us stand out? Think about the stars for a moment. Each one is unique and has a story, but collectively we see right past them because they all look the same. So too does your marketing efforts when you copy off of everybody else.

PROBLEM 2

Where Did You Come From?

Each day a new customer walks into your business, calls your office, or emails you a question. How did they find out about you? A simple fix is to allocate source codes to each piece of advertising you produce. For example, if you’re sending out a mailing to an area that includes ten towns, create a special promotion code such as ABC1, ABC2, ABC3,… where the number tells you exactly what town they reside in. By utilizing that data, you will be able to make informed decisions on future initiatives.

PROBLEM 3

“I Need to Find More Customers Now!”

Remember the show “Let’s Make a Deal?” Monty Hall would head out into the audience and ask someone if they had a $20 bill on them and the first person to raise their hand would have the ability to play the game. Businesses play this game everyday. They take a hard earned, valuable, $20 bill and trade it in hopes for something more valuable. When you focus on new customers more than your existing customers, you’re doing the same thing. Your customers have already bought from you in the past, and that’s the hardest part. Nurture that relationship and remember the 80/20 rule where 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. That’s where the real dollars are and not in the hopes and dreams of chance.

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