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Nescafe Creative Ad
A friend sent this email to me... an example of a creative ad:
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Link: Balance Transfer Card to reduce your debt
Email Post to a friendPosted on 5/19/2009 | Permalink | |
Business Card Printing
Here is what usually happens: You give your business cards out at a networking meetup. People take it and keep it in their pockets. But when you are out of sight, most of these people throw your business card in the thrash bin.How do you prevent that?
I like my business cards to work better than that. And so here is what I do: I make an offer on the flip side of the business card and mention a link from where people can download a free report.
This way, because people want the free report, they won’t throw the business card away.
But one free report does not fit all kinds of people I meet. So what I usually do is make a 100 new business cards before all the seminars or major networking meets I go to. And showcase a link to a free report on these cards that will best benefit the audience at these meets.
My local printer does not allow printing of just 100 business cards. He usually demands the minimum print order to be of 500 to 1000. And that’s why, I started using online print websites. You upload your pictures online they print and ship the business cards to your door step.
And because these print websites have lower overheads, even with the shipping costs, their prices come out to be cheaper!
One good source for online printing seems to be PsPrint. They also seem to do poster printing.
Email Post to a friendPosted on 10/23/2008 | Permalink | |
Guerilla Business Cards: Source Code on them!
Tring Me is a startup company that allows other coders to use their API to develop web based telephony services. Recently, at an industrial summit, they distributed their business cards which had a big "wow" effect on the audience!Thats because their business card had the entire source code that the coders would require to make a call via Tring Me API - right at the flip side of the cards!
How much did it cost Tring Me to get such business cards made? Rs. 200 (less than $5!)
via: pluggd.in
Email Post to a friendPosted on 9/29/2008 | Permalink | |
Relationship Building And Lead Generation
Recently, I came across a website on marketing strategy – Gentle Rain Marketing – that I want you to know about.The website is run by Mark Satterfield. And he has developed and fine tuned a system that helps you generate more leads and attract more new clients for your business.
Mark takes an educational approach to lead generation. So if you’re running a business whose product is well known – say like a restaurant – you most probably won’t require Mark’s services. But if you are a consultant or a small business owner and provide intangible services or technical services, then Mark’s Gentle Rain Marketing system may be of tremendous help to you.
The Gentle Rain Marketing system doesn’t require you to:
- Cold call prospects
- Hard sell anyone
Mark walks the talk. You can download a free report that educates you further on his system, on his website. You should check it out and deconstruct his entire setup.
Mark is also a marketing coach and provides personal one-on-one consulting and training.
The only bad part about the website is: it starts a video as soon as the web page loads, without your clicking the play button. But don’t worry, the video is not too long to be unbearable.
Email Post to a friendPosted on 9/27/2008 | Permalink | |
Buying Cash Flow Businesses & Marketing Them
A few years back, Robert Allen’s book “No Money Down” became a best seller. The book taught people:How to buy a piece of property with no money down.
Basically, it taught people to use both:
- Bank financing
- Seller financing
The ideas in that book made a lot of people rich. But here is something more powerful: use similar ideas – but to buy businesses. Not real estate.
1. Buying a business: Find businesses that are ready to be sold.
Here is a good website that will help you find such businesses: Business For Sale
2. Make sure that the business is cash flow rich
So that you can use the business’s cash flow itself to pay the bank loans and the seller financed loans.
3. Then market the hell out of the new business.
Create a business plan to:
i. Make more peopleUnlock Your Brand report can help you create the marketing plan for your new business.
ii. Buy more stuff
iii. More often
Restaurant businesses usually are a good idea to buy. Because it has good cash flow potential. And you can increase its traffic almost immediately by savvy marketing. Find restaurants for sale.
Email Post to a friendPosted on 9/16/2008 | Permalink | |
Starbucks Marketing: How To Make People Buy Again
Starbucks annual sales revenue may be in the doldrums. But some of their recent marketing activities is worth paying attention to.
People who have a registered Starbucks card received the following email:
Subject: Psst. Save on an afternoon treat at Starbucks
Today's morning receipt is your ticket to an afternoon treat.
Hot days are here. So as a card rewards member, we thought you
should know about a cold, delicious way to get away.
Starting today, we'll be serving your favorite Grande (16 fl oz)
cold drink for only $2.
Just visit any participating Starbucks location after 2 p.m. with
that day's morning receipt. And start looking forward to a cool,
afternoon break.
Find a Store:
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/find/default.aspx
Make a purchase at Starbucks before 2 p.m. and then bring your
receipt back to any participating Starbucks the same day, after 2
p.m., to get one Grande (16 fl oz) cold drink for $2 plus tax, if
applicable. Limit one drink per receipt. Offer subject to change.
Cannot be combined with any offers or discounts. Void where
prohibited. Limited time offer. Program date 8/5/08 to 9/2/08.
Offer not valid at Barnes and Noble Cafes.
Email Post to a friendPosted on 8/27/2008 | Permalink | |
Uday Dutt Info
Uday Dutt is someone you should keep an eye on. And here is why: Because he is a genius investment banker. And he has had an extremely flourishing career.
Uday Dutt Career History:
- He started his career way back in 1982. Uday joined American Express.
- Soon Uday was awarded the manager of the year not once, not twice, but three times consecutively.
- After American Express, Uday Dutt joined Citibank. This was in 1986.
- While there, Uday was instrumental in aquiring Diner’s Club.
- Later on, he worked at Billimoria and other such companies as a consultant. Where he advised a lot of MNCs and Indian corporate companies and finance and strategic issues.
Present Situation:
Recently, Uday Dutt is working as the managing partner of a company known as Investor’s Trust – which is a boutique investment bank in
Uday is an expert in corporate restructuring and fund raising. He has also been instrumental in various private equity investments in the country (
Uday Dutt Online:
- Uday Dutt’s Blog – Here he posts infrequently about what he is up to and how the finance and investment banking industry is changing and evolving.
- Uday Dutt’s Twitter account: Twitter is a micro blogging platform and Uday publishes short 140 letter posts on his activities on his twitter account.
- Uday Dutt’s Sulekha Profile – Sulekha is a portal website and Uday has an account with them although he doesn’t use it very frequently.
Email Post to a friendPosted on 8/27/2008 | Permalink | |
Sneaky Way of Increasing Sales
How much popcorn can you eat if its served to you in a big tub?
Two food statistics for you:
- Container size influences how much we eat: Moviegoers given five-day-old stale popcorn still ate 53% more if it was served in a big bucket than a small bucket.
- We eat more if the evidence is removed: In a study of chicken-wing eaters, waitresses removed the bones from half the tables while letting them stack up on the other half. The diners who still had piles of bones on their plates ate 28% less.
- A sneaky way of increasing your sales is by simply providing shoppers with larger shopping carts.
- A huge department store near my house has a very unique policy - no shopping carts. You evaluate/try on the products and ask the salesperson that you would like to buy it. The salesperson keeps that product aside and gives you a receipt. At the end, while checking out, you get your products when you make the payment. People usually end up buying more than they would have - because they don't have to carry the products around.
Labels: Food statistics, Shopping Cart
Email Post to a friendPosted on 1/23/2007 | Permalink | |
Three Rules of Product Packaging
Which Deep Clean product would you buy - when they all look the same?
Branding Alchemist Steven Diebold recently made a post on his blog about his experience at the supermarket. He was looking to buy a skin care product. Came to the Neutrogena aisle and spent the next 10 minutes getting totally confused.
He ound five different Neutrogena products - but they all looked the same! He checked the ingredients on the package. But the only difference between the more expensive $6.39 product and the $4.79 less expensive one was something called - Beta Hydroxy. Like me and you, Steven had no clue what that ingredient did either!
So what did he do? He ended up buying the lower priced $4.79 product!
Who can guess how much money Neutrogena's lost because of bad packaging?! The rules for good packaging are simple, yet most companies screw it up. They spend all their time in making the product better. And lose all the clients because of poor product packaging,
Three Rules of Product Packaging
1. Make Your Product "Look" Different & Attractive.
The key idea: make good use of colours. Colours can visually diferentiate your product from others. If you have 5 different products, give them 5 different colours.
Companies like Herbal Essences have got this part right.
Another thing you could do is try some whacky visual ideas.
A sunglasses manufacturer went after the sports market by packaging his sunglasses in tennis ball cans! Seth Godin packaged his book in milk cartons!
Such outrageously different packaging can not only set your product apart from others but also help you create a buzz.
2. Use the Right Words
You'll be surprised to know how many people pick up the product and read the packaging before they decide whether they should buy it or not. And two things inluence their buying decisions:
a. What's in it for them?
Why should they buy your product? How is your product better than other products? What is your unique selling feature?
An easy way to answer this question:
i. Mention your offer / benefits
ii. Mention how you take care of the downside (if you offer any sort of guarantee)
iii. Don't mention anything else
For eg: Rejuvinate your dry hair with just 2 drops of sunflower oil
b. Ingredients / How to Use Information
Ingredients read like a whole other language. If you make it easy for people to understand why the ingredients you use are good for them, they'll buy.
Vitamin Water is a good example of explaining the ingredients to make the sale.
Click on the picture to enlarge
3. Build a Database
This is an advanced step. Use your packaging to make future sales. Note down how people can contact you and give you feedback.
Or even better, give them a website address where they can get a free report of tips and tricks. Or a coupon for future discount.
Enroll your users into a mailing list so that you can follow up with them in the future and make more sales.
Labels: Database marketing, Herbal Essences, Neutrogena, Packaging, Steven Diebold, Vitamin Water
Email Post to a friendPosted on 1/09/2007 | Permalink | |
Beamvertising
A chewing gum company in Holland known as SportLife projected moving pictures of a skateboarder on outer walls of buildings in various cities in Netherland!
They placed the projector in a van and drove the van through the streets - while the projector showed a person skateboarding on the walls. Their campaign received a lot of attention from pedestrians and other drivers.
You can watch a 44 second video of the campaign on youtube
Labels: Ad projection, Beamvertising, Chewing Gum, Guerilla Marketing, Holland, Sportslife
Email Post to a friendPosted on 1/02/2007 | Permalink | |
DVD Gift Cards
New Gift Cards that turn into DVDs
This holiday season, Circuit City came up with a new generation gift cards.
The card has a traditional rectangle shape - but drop it in the computer's disk drive tray and it works as a DVD.
"It includes a snowball-fight video game in which your character gives up and makes snow angels when it loses, as well as an offer for 50 free downloads from eMusic, holiday screensavers, wallpaper and printable gift labels."photo by Circuit City
Labels: Circuit City, Gift Cards
Email Post to a friendPosted on 1/02/2007 | Permalink | |
Scentvertising
New Technology is finally allowing marketes use the power of smell to sell more products.1. Scent in an ice cream shop
Emack & Bolio's - an ice cream chain - experimented by using the scent of waffle-cones in one of their outlets. Their sales jumped by 33%!
They used ScentAir.com's $100 a month equipment to spread the scent all around their shop.
2. Scent at the bus stop
Via TrendHunter: "Familiar with the “Got Milk?” ads? The people at Arcade Marketing just took the ad campaign to a new level. Using a new technology called “Magniscent” they made scented bus shelters. “what goes better with chocolate chip cookies than a big glass of cold milk?” The idea was to attract people’s attention using the scent which is emitted from a special adhesive strips that has the aroma of chocolate chip cookies. Great smelling bus shelters are the new trend!"
Labels: Arcade Marketing, Emack and Bolios, Got Milk, Magniscent, Scent, ScentAir, Scentvertising, Smell Advertising
Email Post to a friendPosted on 12/15/2006 | Permalink | |
Voyeur Ads
Instead of dropping off fliers and leaflets that get discarded, marketers are starting to stick "peep hole" voyeur ads.
Papa Johns attaches a sticker over the peep hole that shows a pizza delivery guy with their phone number!
German catalog company Otto uses a sticker with a model holding their catalog. They however showcase their phone numbers at the back of the sticker instead of the front side.
(The back side reads "The new Otto Catalogue has arrived. Order now xxxx-xxx xx")
Via: Adverblog
Labels: Otto Catalog, Papa Johns, Peephole ads, Voyeur Ads
Email Post to a friendPosted on 12/15/2006 | Permalink | |
Guerilla Promotion with Props
A friend sent me an email with the above picture. Those are handles in the bus that people catch onto so that they don't fall. Ain't it a great promotion idea?
Use props and make a big impact.
Further reading: Marketing with Props
Email Post to a friendPosted on 8/14/2006 | Permalink | |
Passion: Do you need it?
Passion Personified - Crazy Soccer Fans
I've heard it a 1001 times. All the entrepreneurial "start-a-business" books talk about it.
"Start your own business by identifying your passion in life."
"You'll only succeed if you are passionate about your business and its purpose."
"Don't start a business on a topic you are not passionate about, or you'll never be happy. "
My view? I think people have it upside down.
Passion shouldn't be the cause of your business. It should be the effect.
Let me explain.
People don't get passionate about a sport or a team and then start watching it. No. They first start watching the sport and then they get passionate about it.
I remember going to my first football game in America a few years back. I didn't go to watch the game because I was passionate about it. Heck - I didn't even know all the rules of the game. But you should have seen me cheering and shouting in the stadium. I was as excited in the crowd as everyone else. Because I went to see the game, I got passionate.
Passion stems from commitment.
Ask any writer.
If a writer waited for passion and inspiration to come before she starts writing, she'll never finish her book.
But once she sits down and commits herself to write, passion and inspiration comes on its own.
If you wait for passion to show up before you act, you'll never move far. If you are committed enough to a business or a cause, passion will come automatically.
Email Post to a friendPosted on 6/25/2006 | Permalink | |
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Previous Posts
- Nescafe Creative Ad
- Business Card Printing
- Guerilla Business Cards: Source Code on them!
- Relationship Building And Lead Generation
- Buying Cash Flow Businesses & Marketing Them
- Starbucks Marketing: How To Make People Buy Again
- Uday Dutt Info
- Sneaky Way of Increasing Sales
- Three Rules of Product Packaging
- Beamvertising
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