Extract . . .
"Getting to know your customer is vital to designing a successful advert. Use market research to divide the consumer into relevant customer groups, then target them effectively and in as fine a resolution as you can mange using media that they will come into contact with. Read more about segmentation in our article on promotional strategy."
Link
http://www.marketing-made-simple.com/articles/advert-design.htm
Monday, October 4
Winning by design: how to keep your customers for life
Extract . . .
"Design can make or break your business. So says Dutch-born, Sydney-based brand designer Hans Hulsbosch, the creator of the latest leafy Woolworths logo and Qantas' contoured kangaroo logo.
According to Hulsbosch, many business owners lack a grasp of how branding works. Thanks to their ignorance, they end up choosing a self-defeating second-best branding solution."
Link
http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/growing/winning-by-design-how-to-keep-your-customers-for-life-20100909-152oz.html
"Design can make or break your business. So says Dutch-born, Sydney-based brand designer Hans Hulsbosch, the creator of the latest leafy Woolworths logo and Qantas' contoured kangaroo logo.
According to Hulsbosch, many business owners lack a grasp of how branding works. Thanks to their ignorance, they end up choosing a self-defeating second-best branding solution."
Link
http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/growing/winning-by-design-how-to-keep-your-customers-for-life-20100909-152oz.html
How do People Use Their Smartphones?
Extract . . .
"Advertisers take note: People who have phones with Android operating systems are more likely to open an advertisement inside an app than are iPhone users. That, at least, is what the Nielsen Company says in a new report that it released on Monday about how people use mobile apps."
Link
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/report-looks-at-trends-with-mobile-apps/?ref=technology
"Advertisers take note: People who have phones with Android operating systems are more likely to open an advertisement inside an app than are iPhone users. That, at least, is what the Nielsen Company says in a new report that it released on Monday about how people use mobile apps."
Link
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/report-looks-at-trends-with-mobile-apps/?ref=technology
Banking's new wave
Extract . . .
"Metro Bank opened with a fanfare, promising better customer service in a sector still reeling from the financial crisis. Can it deliver, and will other new players in the field force High Street giants to rethink their game?"
Link
http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/8_September/banking_64_01.html
"Metro Bank opened with a fanfare, promising better customer service in a sector still reeling from the financial crisis. Can it deliver, and will other new players in the field force High Street giants to rethink their game?"
Link
http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/8_September/banking_64_01.html
Make Your Mark campaign culled ahead of public spending cuts
Extract . . .
"Enterprise campaign agency Enterprise UK is facing a 60pc cut to its budget, prompting the organisation’s chief executive to focus on making ‘less noise and more impact’.
Chief executive Tom Bewick said he was looking at a cut of at least 60pc to his £20m funding over three years from the Business Department and was being asked for evidence of the organisation’s impact."
Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/8002204/Make-Your-Mark-campaign-culled-ahead-of-public-spending-cuts.html
"Enterprise campaign agency Enterprise UK is facing a 60pc cut to its budget, prompting the organisation’s chief executive to focus on making ‘less noise and more impact’.
Chief executive Tom Bewick said he was looking at a cut of at least 60pc to his £20m funding over three years from the Business Department and was being asked for evidence of the organisation’s impact."
Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/8002204/Make-Your-Mark-campaign-culled-ahead-of-public-spending-cuts.html
Helping the entrepreneur understand conversational clues during a meeting with a potential investor
When you and the potential investor first meet there will be an immediate automatic and elemental probing. Elemental or if you prefer, fundamental – despite the veneer of civilised behaviour. Much of this is unconscious and some is conscious. It starts with the handshake.
Ever stopped to think about the purpose of the handshake? In history, it was a simple demonstration that your open hand didn’t hold a weapon. Thus you were non-threatening or at least hoped to be perceived as such. In business culture the handshake is a powerful and anticipated gesture. Anyway, moving on from that gesture, the talking commences.
Most people know how erroneous a first impression can be, especially when it is based on such slight evidence. Experienced potential investors might well hold off a little in order to gather more information. This gives them time to consider a response. However, don’t count on it. Not all potential investors behave in the same way. Some are overwhelmed with certitude and believe that they are excellent judges of character. Some are and some aren’t.
The verbally loud entrepreneur might judged to be aggressive or bold. Aggressive might be perceived as disadvantageous. The reverse might be perceived as attractive. You the entrepreneur cannot know for sure. However, both perceptions might be inappropriate. So:
Extreme types of verbal expression can create unhelpful perceptions in the potential investor’s mind. Yes, they might revise their initial impression later on but first perceptions tend to be more enduring. Moreover they are difficult to shake and sometimes impossible to change.
How do you, the entrepreneur, know what to say in order to impress somebody else? It's easier said than done. The following rules will help:
Link
http://www.go-between.co.uk
Ever stopped to think about the purpose of the handshake? In history, it was a simple demonstration that your open hand didn’t hold a weapon. Thus you were non-threatening or at least hoped to be perceived as such. In business culture the handshake is a powerful and anticipated gesture. Anyway, moving on from that gesture, the talking commences.
- Whenever you speak, you're going to disclose something about yourself. Focus on the word ‘yourself’ please. Disclosing your plans is part of the meeting. Disclosing your state of mind is something else.
- The above might seem blindingly obvious. However, observation of entrepreneurs in dialogue with potential investors demonstrates that it isn’t.
- The way you phrase a question, the way you volunteer an opinion are clues for the wise potential investor
- The non-verbal style in which you speak (no, not a contradiction in terms) reveals to the potential investor almost everything there is to know about you.
The potential investor hears what you have to say and forms perceptions. These are influenced not only by the logic and sense of what you are saying but on the way you say it. Even so, no one should base total judgement and evaluation on that first impression.
Most people know how erroneous a first impression can be, especially when it is based on such slight evidence. Experienced potential investors might well hold off a little in order to gather more information. This gives them time to consider a response. However, don’t count on it. Not all potential investors behave in the same way. Some are overwhelmed with certitude and believe that they are excellent judges of character. Some are and some aren’t.
- Irrational though it may be, both entrepreneurs and potential investors tend to judge and evaluate others with great certainty during the first moments of communication.
- They claim to be using their intuition.
- However intuition is an unreliable friend.
The soft-spoken entrepreneur might be judged to be shy. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a useful illustration of cause and effect.
The verbally loud entrepreneur might judged to be aggressive or bold. Aggressive might be perceived as disadvantageous. The reverse might be perceived as attractive. You the entrepreneur cannot know for sure. However, both perceptions might be inappropriate. So:
- Speak in a voice neither loud nor soft
- Speak possibly at the volume of the potential investor.
Extreme types of verbal expression can create unhelpful perceptions in the potential investor’s mind. Yes, they might revise their initial impression later on but first perceptions tend to be more enduring. Moreover they are difficult to shake and sometimes impossible to change.
How do you, the entrepreneur, know what to say in order to impress somebody else? It's easier said than done. The following rules will help:
- Try to communicate honestly about who you are, rather than trying to paint a favourable but untrue picture of yourself.
- Paint a false image and sooner or later you will be found out. So why place yourself into such a position?
- Avoid deliberately – or though inadequate preparation – painting that false image
- An inappropriate image inevitably proves embarrassing in subsequent meetings
- Don’t strive to prove a point today that will mean nothing in the long run.
Link
http://www.go-between.co.uk
Lego loses 11-year trademark battle
Extract . . .
"Lego has lost a long legal battle for the right to register its snap-together plastic bricks as a trademark in the European Union. The European Court of Justice ruled that a three-dimensional image of Lego’s eight-stud brick did not qualify for a trademark because they served a clear purpose."
Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8002268/Lego-loses-11-year-trademark-battle.html
"Lego has lost a long legal battle for the right to register its snap-together plastic bricks as a trademark in the European Union. The European Court of Justice ruled that a three-dimensional image of Lego’s eight-stud brick did not qualify for a trademark because they served a clear purpose."
Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8002268/Lego-loses-11-year-trademark-battle.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)