Small Business Branding and Marketing Advice and Commentary
Are you on the trail for your brand’s essence? Does the scent of it tantalise but elude you?
Perhaps there are a number of ways for identifying a brand’s essence. And perhaps the right approach depends on how the brand came to be in the first place. Some are no doubt created, think-tank style, while others are discovered, or uncovered. This post is about how I discovered mine. If you’re currently searching for yours, then come with me, and we may just track it down.
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Always give more in use value than you take from anyone in cash value. This is the advice of Wallace D. Wattles, author of the 1910 classic The Science of Getting Rich.
This brilliant little book gave Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret, her first glimpse of “the secret”. It’s a concise little gem packed with wisdom, and if you haven’t yet had the pleasure I highly recommend it. You can get a free downloadable pdf copy from Rebecca Fine’s site, The Science of Getting Rich NETwork. Rebecca is a friendly, happy lady who teaches the principles in this book and applies this one extremely well herself by providing lots of great free stuff and a set-your-own-price for her online course, Science of Getting Rich for Practical GeniusesTM – which is overflowing with value. Even if you’re not interested in her material, I recommend her site as a case study in “always give more in use value than you take from anyone in cash value” and in great customer service. (The two are linked but they’re not always the same thing.)
So you ask – what’s in it for me? Apart from just coming across as generous, why exactly should I do this? Glad you asked because I’ve got a scientifically based bullet-proof answer for you. [Read more...]
How do you make your business decisions? Do you process everything through your logical mind, or do you go with your gut?
It’s an intriguing dilemma, so let’s consult an expert. Swinburne University’s Professor Emeritus Murray Gillin has made a career of studying entrepreneurship. Having set up the world’s first masters degree in entrepreneurship and innovation in 1989, he has since seen many of his students become multi-millionaires.
So what’s Professor Gillin’s take on it – logic or gut instinct? The professor is convinced that successful entrepreneurs are guided by a deeper force, a level of intuition that allows them to predict future outcomes. He believes that business needs to be seen as a holistic enterprise; it’s not just about producing a product and selling it.
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Turns out nice guys do finish first. World-first actually.
All-round nice guy, Greg Walter, recently launched a new business called Q-Pay, which will change the way we buy and sell stuff.
A serial innovator, Greg first had the idea for an SMS marketing solution in 1999. After years of initial research and two years in heavy development, Greg secured two world-first patents that address two very specific and immediate needs.
The first is a mobile phone (cell phone) payment solution, which means you can buy stuff through your phone. To buy items you need a Q-Pay account, which is much like an ordinary bank account. When you want to buy something you simply send a text message with the relevant item code and amount. The money is debited from your account, and the item dispatched. In future, this will include everything from pizza to you name it.
Having been operational for six months, essentially in testing mode, Q-Pay is now on a mission to acquire a wide array of merchants so they can offer a broad range of products and services at consumers’ fingertips. Merchants are licking their lips over this technology – take-up is around 90 per cent – which makes perfect sense, because the convenience to customers adds to their value proposition.
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Tune in to BlogTalk Radio, hosted by Blogging and Beyond, to hear Lena West from xynoMedia Technology offer her insights on how small and medium size businesses are using blogs and other social media tools.
During this fun, 30-minute podcast Lena also offers some tips on how to manage what she calls the “social media spaghetti”. Here’s a snapshot of topics covered:
In her hit song, I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair), Sandi Thom laments being “born too late into a world that doesn’t care”.
Is she right – is it all over red rover? Have we missed our chance to “care”? I don’t think so. I’m not convinced that it’s “too late”, or that the world “doesn’t care”. On the contrary. While our world is far from perfect, the evidence I see suggests that people are “caring” more than ever – and many of them are doing it through their businesses.
More and more we are breathing life into our businesses by weaving personal meaning into them, which in turn is changing the world. Savvy entrepreneurs are realising that contributing to or promoting a cause that means something to them is both a feel-good experience and a wise marketing strategy … In that giving itself is a natural feel-good balm which brings with it a sense of satisfaction, and that many of today’s “caring” consumers like to buy from businesses that are willing to go out of their way to help make the world a better place … which comes down to – people do business with people they like and respect. Check out the stats that demonstrate this on Nick Rice’s blog post, If you’re not on the cause marketing bandwagon.
Okay, so you haven’t already been bitten by the do-gooder bug and are feeling a bit at sea? Let’s take a look at some ideas for how you might incorporate “cause” into your marketing.
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Do you have an Australian company?
Do you think you’re cool?
If you answered ”Yeah man!” then you need to apply now for Australian Anthill’s Cool Company Awards:
The inaugural Cool Company Awards was launched in February 2006, as a way for Anthill to recognise Australian companies that are doing things differently – defying business conventions, launching exciting new products, implementing new ways to do business, undertaking ‘rule-breaking’ thought leadership, challenging the status quo. Six (6) criteria and (7) judging panelists will be called upon to identify ten (10) winners. These ‘cool companies’ will be profiled in the Aug/Sep edition of Anthill Magazine. To self-nominate or nominate another company, simply visit www.australiananthill.com/cool
Australian Anthill, for those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, is the uber-cool magazine for Aussie entrepreneurs.
For details about last year’s Cool Company Awards (and more in-depth tips on what their esteemed panel consider as “cool”), get a copy of their Aug/Sep 2006 edition.
Be cool 
Danielle
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