Business & Work
Depressing advertising
There's a big advertising campaign of some religious group going on around Helsinki. The ads are very vague. They don't tell what they are exactly about. I wouldn't know they are about a religious group unless someone had told me so. Well, of course I could guess it too. Each ad features a photo of some person and (supposedly) a quote by that person. The quote is about how their life used to suck but now it's all better and sun is shining since... Well, there's a hint of brain washing there. Looks like one of these people has had some sort of a eating problem, a couple has been on a verge of...
Service, Customer Service
Customer service is amongst the foremost marketing efforts. At least it should be. Unfortunately in many cases customer service is treated as the necessary bad. Something that must exist, but no-one really wants. I've worked in a couple customer service positions and noticed following: Often customer service personnel is hidden away from the other departments. Thus the customer service personnel don't have much or any contact with the other functions or employees of the organization. Customer service personnel tend to be urged to get rid of the customers fast and keep the queue sho...
Success, gaga and big shoes
I've been thinking about Lady Gaga lately. She pops up and out everywhere I look. For instance Mayi Carles from Heartmade talked about Lady Gaga. First of all, Mayi herself is quite a character. And she's proud to be a character. Second of all the thing about Lady Gaga is... Well, she's brilliant. The brand is full of win. It smells of success. The reason why I've been thinking about all this is I'm a modest person. Way too modest. Annoyingly modest. Stupidly modest. Got the point? I cannot do that. I'm not capable of being a ladygaga or even a mayicarles. That's what's wrong with me. I'...
How the advertisement fails
There's something wrong with advertisement. It is failing. Most customers are annoyed by advertisement and try and avoid it at any cost. If we aren't just doing our best with ignoring the ads, we are using different techniques to get rid of the noise. Ads are like the super persistent salesman or the uninvited Jehovah's Witness behind my door. Usually advertisement is considered as spam, unsolicited, irritating and even somehow evil. In general the basic advertisement is based on repeat and being loud. The more we ignore the messages, the louder they get. Repeating the message makes sure mos...
P is for Person
Here's a thought: First analyze the target groups and create a generalized idea of what the people you are reaching out are like. Now P is for People. Then find a (random) bunch of actual living and breathing people fitting your general type. See what really are like, what they do, who they talk with. Know her by name, know the little differences which set this individual apart from the group, from People. Now P is for Person. Here's another thought: Use social media for this. Find these Persons from your social media contacts. See what sort of things they post on Facebook, LinkedIn, T...
Marketing is not advertising and selling
This post was inspired by Techcrunch reporting VC Fred Wilson's odd thoughts about marketing: "Marketing is for companies who have sucky products. -- And you won't have to do much marketing, at least at the start." This sounds like the usual nonsense people think about marketing. The nonsense that it's all about advertising and selling. That it's all about hiring a marketing company to create a campaign. Advertising and selling are marketing, but marketing is not advertising and selling. Not solely. Marketing is something much much more: "Marketing is the activity, set of institutions...
Self branding is challenging
Self branding is challenging. Especially it's challenging to someone who has always been taught to be humble and not make too much noise about herself. And it's very challenging in a culture where self promotion is considered as nothing but egoistic. However self branding is needed in many situations: Finding a job, starting a (small) company, promoting a blog or a Twitter feed, getting traffic and faves and comments for Flickr photos, and so forth. What makes it challenging is the fact that branding is much about claiming a territory. Self branding is about saying "this is what I do an...
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