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The answer to ending poverty? Education. Ours and theirs.

October 15, 2008

Today is Blog Action Day ’08 — the one day a year that bloggers unite on a single topic. We hope to raise awareness, initiate action and shake the web.

This year’s topic — poverty.

Here’s the truth, if we’re willing to be honest with each other.

Most of us don’t think about poverty every day. Because we don’t have to. Sure, we might sponsor a child in a poverty-stricken country or donate canned goods to our local food shelter. We bring old coats and mittens to church every winter for the homeless.

But then we stop for brunch on our way home from church and poverty is the furthest thing from our minds.

While all of those acts are kind and serve to meet an immediate need — we fill a belly or warm hands — they don’t actually address the problem. As long as people are shackled to poverty, they don’t have the tools to break free. They are reliant on us to continue to put bandages on their problem.

My friend Laura Hecht tells me that if we could lift people from illiteracy, we could take a big bite out of poverty.

In educating myself to write this post, I also discovered the End Poverty 2015 organization. They’ve identified 8 major goals that would make it possible for us to be the generation that ends poverty forever. Not surprising, universal education is one of their core tenants.

I don’t even begin to pretend I have the answers. But I do know today is the day for asking ourselves the tough questions.

We can’t help educate the world until we begin to educate ourselves.

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Are you choosing your words carefully?

October 13, 2008

"I once used the word "obsolete" in a headline, only to discover that 43% of housewives had no idea what it meant. In another headline I used the word "ineffable," only to discover that I didn’t know what it meant myself."

The brilliant David Ogilvy had that to say about his own copywriting. When was the last time you looked at your copy (brochures, website, sales sheets, radio scripts etc.) from your customer’s perspective?

Are you sure you’re speaking in their language?

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Who is turning off your customers? (a marketing lesson from Maggie the mostly lab)

October 13, 2008

There's a new member of the McLellan family. Maggie the mostly lab puppy. When you get a new baby, you need to take her to the doctor, right?

Our old vet is great, but 20 minutes away. And the last time I was there, we had to put our 13 year old lab to sleep. So, I thought maybe it was time to try someone new.

I got a reference from a co-worker. Word of mouth — check. This was going to work out perfectly.

I walk in to the clinic and I am acknowledged by Michael. It wasn't really a greeting. More like a non verbal sigh. So Michael leads Maggie and me into one of the exam rooms and begins to run through the intake questions.

We were in the room together for about 10 minutes, with Maggie sitting on the exam table. Michael never stopped to pet her or even greet her. He didn't say she was cute or sweet or even how lucky she was to be rescued from a shelter. It was like she wasn't even there. And if you've been around an 8 week old puppy — they're a little tough to miss. I don't know anyone who can resist a puppy. But do I want the guy who can providing care for my dog?

Total turn off. I called the old vet from the exam room as soon as he left.

When we got to the old vet's and the front desk tech (who I did not recognize or know) squealed "look at the adorable puppy!" I knew I'd made the right call. I didn't just want a competent vet. I wanted a clinic where they'll love her. Or at least scratch her behind the ears a bit.

Do your employees squeal when they see a prospect walk in the door? Do they give them a good scratch?

Do you actually have any idea what happens when your customer or prospect walks in your front door? Or calls? Or e-mails? Do you have an employee who doesn't share your passion or vision? Do your employees know how you want your clients to be greeted or welcomed?

Do you know if they're turning off your customers?

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Age of Conversation 2008 promotion starting to trickle out

October 11, 2008

The official launch of Age of Conversation 2008 is mere weeks away and we have lots of exciting things planned to tell the world about the book, the authors and the charity that benefits from the book — Variety, the children’s charity.

For a sneak peek into the book’s origination, how the ’08 version is different from the original and what’s next, check out the podcast that Jay Ehret did with Gavin Heaton and myself. Jay’s (who blogs over at the Marketing Spot) goal is to interview all of 237 authors of this year’s edition.

Hat tip to Jay for taking on the project and be sure to watch for future podcasts over at the Age of Conversation site.

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Text in your movie review?

October 10, 2008

Here in Des Moines, moviegoers attending the premiere of the documentary movie "Trouble the Water" will have the chance to participate in an interactive review via their mobile phones and text messaging.

To join the review, audience members will send the keyword "water" to 72466. A return message back will invite them to join the review by typing in their general opinion based on one to five stars, with five being the highest rating.

Then, participants will asked to submit three adjectives they believe best describe the movie. A final message invites texters to provide additional opinions, with a 160-character limit.

The review is sponsored by the theater and Catchwind, a mobile marketing company. Reviews can be viewed at www.fleurcinema.com and www.textvu.com.

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Your URL is W-R-O-N-G! (Steve Olenski)

October 10, 2008

Drew’s Note: As I try to do every Friday, I’m pleased to bring you a guest post. Meet another thought leader who shares his insights via the blogosphere. So without further ado…Steve Olenski. Again. Enjoy!

Welcome to my first guest post. Have a seat. Please make yourself comfortable. If you’re anything like me, your attention span is as short as… where was I again? You get the point, and now let’s get to my point.

For my initial Guest Blogging foray, I want to talk about something that burns my branding britches.

Everyone and their mother and their mother’s mother knows that having an effective website is vital in ensuring success for any company. Yet for all the bells, for all the whistles and for all the groovy Flash intros – many companies have forgotten one minor detail: If your potential customer cannot find your website, what’s the point?!

Case in point: Driving home the other day when a radio spot comes on for a local home remodeling company. The spot sounds great; the VO is good, the music, the script is fine… that is until they get to the part where the URL is referenced.

This establishment in question has a very ethnic sounding name (lots of vowels and syllables), which is fine in and of itself. Hey, you own a business and want to put your name to it, go for it, that’s why we live in America.

But just because your name is on the door it does not mean it should be in your URL! I heard the URL referenced three different times in the spot, which from a marketing/branding standpoint is good. However, if I were to try to type the URL in, I would fail miserably and eventually give up.

If you asked me right after the spot was over what the URL was I would have said something to the effect of "For information, log onto BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH dot com."

It’s a shame too because the spot was very well done from a production standpoint; kept my attention (no small feat) and I was at the very least curious to learn more.

So what’s the lesson here? Easy. Unless your last name is Smith, Jones or some other household name, resist the urge to put your phonetically challenged name in your company’s URL!

Instead, get creative and come up an easily remembered AND easily recalled URL. In this instance, something such as HomeRemodelForYou.com or even something like CustomRemodelDoneRight.com would have been much better.

Steve Olenski was born and raised in the City of Brotherly Love. He is a Sr. Writer at a major East Coast ad agency, well versed in all mediums: TV, Radio, Print, Direct Mail, cereal boxes. He’s a huge sports fan who has never thrown snowballs at Santa nor booed him. He’s been married since 1992 (best 8 years of his life as he puts it) and has two children, one dog and a goldfish. He blogs at Inside the Eagles, but don’t let the name fool you. He writes about much more than his beloved Iggles. His online portfolio is also available for viewing.

Every Friday is "grab the mic" day. Want to grab the mic and be a guest blogger on Drew’s Marketing Minute? Shoot me an e-mail.

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You stay in the nest until they’re ready to fly

October 6, 2008

Clients aren’t always ready to go where you need to take them.

They might be afraid. They might not have the budget. They might be caught up in some internal politics. What you’re asking them to do might be difficult. Or, they might not get it.

But the bottom line is, they aren’t ready to leave the nest.

We see that sometimes with clients when we talk about branding. They might think it’s just fluff or they haven’t wrapped their arms around the idea that their logo is not their brand. Whatever the reason — they aren’t ready to take advantage of the power that comes from truly knowing and living your brand story.

So as an agency, we have a choice. We can tell them to come back when they’re ready or we can meet them where they are, stuck in their nest.

Wed all have clients like that. Those clients are like baby birds. If we rush them, shoving them out of the nest….splat! That serves no purpose but our ego.

We need to be patient and just hang with them in the nest. We can feed them little tidbits of information, letting them learn slowly and absorb what we’re telling them. Sooner or later, they’ll want to stretch their wings a little.

When you think about it, that’s our job. To help clients gain the information and confidence (in us) they need so they can stretch their wings.

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What do you think of this TV spot?

October 4, 2008

Okay….so what do you think of this spot? Effective? Memorable? Buzz worthy?

Would it make you order the pasta?

If Dominos hired you to critique this spot, what would you say — pro and con? It’s always risky to create a "character" that might be more memorable than your product. Sometimes it works — like Wendy’s "where’s the beef?" spot from 1984. But sometimes, it bombs like the sock puppet from (can you fill in the blank before you watch the spot?) _______.

Will the dancing Pasta guy suffer the same fate?

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5 easy steps to start going green (Anita Revzani)

October 3, 2008

Drew’s Note: As I try to do every Friday, I’m pleased to bring you a guest post. Meet another thought leader who shares her insights via the blogosphere. So without further ado…Anita Revzani. Again. Enjoy!

It is fairly easy for a business to make a declaration of environmentally-friendly practices and call itself green . But consumers are now leading the green revolution and they are quick to call businesses that do not practice what they preach.

Green or not your business should operate in the most eco-friendly manner possible. But you don’t have to make drastic changes all at once. Most business have been operating a certain way for many years, hence they can make changes at a relatively slow pace. This also allows them to learn about sustainability one practice at the time.

Here are 5 easy steps you can take to start:

1. Recycle. You can pay a little extra to the waste management company handling in order to ensure everything possible is recycled, but this is a justifiable expense…especially if you are going to make the claim that you are a green business. Instead of throwing things away after the first use you may be able to reuse them in a different capacity. If you find a particularly innovative way to reuse something you may be able to share it when highlighting your green efforts.

2. Reduce resource consumption. Find ways to scale back on the resources you use to run your business by printing less and using online collaborative tools , turning off computers at the end of the day etc….. Not only will you save money, but make your business more environmentally friendly. At my company, Bizcard we use recycled paper when producing business cards and other print marketing materials.

3. Buy green. Make sure that the supplies you use for your business are as green as possible. At Bizcard, we buy our supplies from Green certified companies. By supporting each other, we become stronger and easily influence more businesses. Besides your production supplies, you can take a look at what you consume on a day-to-day basis see BuyGreen.

4. Pledge. Unless you are specific in your efforts to be an environmentally-friendly business, your customers may not be clear on what exactly makes you green. A pledge or mission statement about your green efforts spells out what steps you’re taking and what you hope to accomplish with regards to making the world a better place.

Find an environmental cause that you personally believe in and that complements your business and then make regular contributions to the cause. You might even encourage your customers to contribute to the same cause. By creating an affiliation with green organizations you’re conveying an image of unity among environmentally-conscious companies. This may also result in referrals from these companies, resulting in more customers.

5. Engage employees. Don’t just advertise your green intentions without actually explaining them to your employees. You can ask everyone on staff to participate in your efforts to become greener and set up staff outings to do some volunteer work to benefit the environment. Upload photos or recorded videos images of employees cleaning up a local park or volunteering at a community garden on a gallery on your website. This will encourage other companies to do the same.

Every business should take several steps toward sustainability but you do not have to make changes drastic changes in the beginning. You’ll be pleased to find, however, that most of the changes you make in order to make your business green will actually increase your profitability exponentially.

Anita Revzani is the co-founder and President of Bizcard, a print solutions company. Anita’s past experience includes running operations for the ABC Group and helped to create $4 million dollars in annual revenue. Prior to the ABC Group she worked at American Express where she managed key national accounts including high-end brands like Gucci, Neiman Marcus ,Lord & Taylor, and America West Airlines while they were in chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Every Friday is "grab the mic" day. Want to grab the mic and be a guest blogger on Drew’s Marketing Minute? Shoot me an e-mail.

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Sometimes a brand doesn’t have to say a word

October 1, 2008

Every once in awhile, a brand has such a rock solid understanding about themselves, their raving fans and the world in which they exist — they can do something powerful without saying a single word.

Budweiser has always been about as American as it gets. Their fan base is true blue American and they’ve talked about values like tradition and respect for years. (I hope their new owners are smart enough not to change that in the least)

4 months after 9/11, this is the spot they ran on the SuperBowl. Lots of companies ran similarly spirited ads that year. What makes Budweiser remarkable and so true to their brand is that every 9/11 they run this spot as a tribute to their country and the tragedy and triumph of that day.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4yfivS8SWs[/youtube]

I have to say….despite the fact that I think Bud is lousy beer, I have an incredible amount os respect for the company and this spot still makes me choke up a little.

Don’t ever forget that your brand can and should stand for something much greater than what you sell. It should be a reflection of your heart. Bud sets an impressive example.

Hat tip to my friend Steve for reminding me of this spot.

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