Smart Thinking for Your Business - EBook

Smart Thinking is for those who have an entrepreneurial mindset or wish to develop one. Its goal is to stimulate your thinking, motivate you to think smarter, activate your actions based on smarter thought and strengthen your commonsense. Simply it encourages a positive attitude that puts you, not others, in charge of your destiny. 

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How to Use Holidays to Boost Business

This week’s Smart Marketing Move goes to Restaurant.com

Like many new websites, they are offering discounts to local restaurants. But they’ve come up with a unique and, I might add, an out-of-the-box way to spread the word about their business and the businesses that they represent.

They are giving away $40 million worth of gift certificates by Dec 31, 2010. Yes $40 million. They are calling this program Feed it Forward. These gift certificates are only in $10 increments. The only way that people will receive this $10 gift, which is free to give and free to receive, is from their friends sharing with them. This can be through email or Facebook. So think about it, that means if they reach their goal of $40 million that’s 4 million people! They are building a new customer base and gaining their emails, and it’s also creating more loyal customers because they were able to share something with their friends at no cost. That’s also more exposure for the restaurants involved.

 This is their description: Filling hearts and stomachs - Feed It Forward™ 2010. Feed It Forward™ is a free way to build community and lift people's spirits by giving the gift of $10 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates. Simply let us know who you want to give to and we'll take care of the rest. You can give up to 40 $10 Restaurant.com Gift Certificates every day through December 31. It's a great holiday gift for everyone on your list. And the best part is - it's FREE!

 

I can give away 40 $10 gift certificates to my friends and family at no cost, EVERYDAY until Dec 31^st. Wow! What a great way to get press, and for their company to grow through word of mouth. They are also all over the web, bloggers and more. They definitely get the Smart Marketing Move of the Week! 

Lesson Learned: You don’t have to give away $40 million in gift certificates to be recognized but what can your company do that creates a BIG impact for $5-$10 a customer? Think WILD and outside-the-box, trim down your idea if necessary. Keeping your customers loyal costs much less than trying to find new ones.  

Editors Note: I used my $10 gift on Wednesday and 2 other tables were using them! Talk about a boost in business this restaurant more than likely wouldn't have had otherwise!

How to Boost Marketing Message

What is the major reason a customer makes a purchase that most advertising misses?

Ask that questions of any sales, advertising, PR, Promotion and marketing person you know. You'll hear price, convenience, timing, need and more, but the answer is almost always perceived or real benefit to be received. Will it make us healthier, sexier, stronger, faster, look better and so on?

The failure in most marketing communication is a focus on features not the benefit. This should be as obvious as the nose on your face. It is commonsense. It is too rarely used.

Don't forget the benefits!

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Branding Is Important to Your Survival - Smart Marketing Move

This week’s Smart Marketing Move goes to The National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Their branding efforts have spread like wild fire and they should get some credit. What do you think of when you hear breast cancer awareness? PINK. They have done a fantastic job at making a color theirs. This is what branding is all about.

Their biggest step was the pink ribbon campaign. Here’s the background:
Ribbons have been used to express solidarity on the part of the wearer with the identified cause since the early to late 20th Century. Pink Ribbons (and the color pink) are used to express support for women (and men) who are diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
In the fall of 1991, the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors.[1]

The next year, Alexandra Penney, who was the editor-in-chief of Self,[2] a woman health magazine, was working on the second annual National Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue. Evelyn Lauder, who was the senior corporate vice president at Estée Lauder, was invited to be the guest editor of the NBCAM issue edition in 1992. Penney and Lauder came up with the idea to create a ribbon and to enlist the cosmetics giant to distribute it in stores in New York City. Evelyn Lauder then promised to spread the ribbons throughout the entire country, but a color for the ribbon was not yet decided upon.

Charlotte Hayley, who battled breast cancer, produced peach color ribbons. She sold them with a card saying, "The National Cancer Institute annual budget is 1.8 billion US Dollars, and only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon".[3] Her message spread fast. This made Penny and Evelyn Lauder interested in Hayley's concept. They offered to adapt Hayley's idea by working with her. But Hayley rejected the offer, saying that they were too commercial.
After discussing opportunities with Lauder, Hayley and their lawyers, they came up with a "new" color. The new color of the ribbon was pink and became an international symbol for breast cancer awareness.


Lesson Learned: Even though this example is on a large scale, branding is an important step you must not miss in your business. This includes your logo, business cards, website, letterhead, t-shirts, etc etc etc. Remember, a strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.

Make Customers Want to Keep Your Ads - Smart Marketing Move

This week’s Smart Marketing Move goes to Campbell’s!

Everyone knows they make soup, soup is soup right? In one of their advertisements they included a recipe. Along with a picture of the final product and the product that makes the recipe, Creamy Chicken Soup.

This is a great way to move more products that might not sell as much. Most people know to use cream of mushroom in recipes but might not think of Cream of Chicken.

So nice work Campbell’s, you’ve taken your advertisement to the next level! This is now something that your customers will KEEP.

Lesson Learned: Think of a way to get your customers to KEEP your advertisement, even if it is just for a little bit. It could be a coupon that expires in 2-3 months, it could tips on your business topic, and like Campbell’s it could be a recipe.