Is your brand in a whirl? Many a CEO have ignored the signs and are afraid to contact their brand doctors. Some fear the embarrassment of having admit that they have long ignored the obvious and suffer from denial. Many simply have no idea why they are suffering and are just confused and anxious. If you are uncertain, here are a few things that might alert you that your brand is suffering from WhirlyBrand: Symptom: Your business completely blends in throughout it’s category. There is nothing to distinguish you. Diagnosis -WhirlyBrand: People confuse your company with that of your competition?…

If you want to increase the value of your personal brand, I believe that there is no better and faster way than blogging. I have been involved with putting my opinion out there for all to view and rebuke for a little over year now. I AM NOT A WRITER by any stretch of your imagination. As a matter of fact I don’t type home-row but use a quick hunt and peck technique perfected over many years. I consider myself an, “Opinionator”. It gives an air of respect to my open views on things that I am passionate about. You…

There has been a shift coming for some time, have you noticed? Sales used to be about catalogs, cold calls, doughnuts, lunches and lobby phones. But, not anymore, now sales is about the post choice, transactional components; how many, how much, by when, shipping methods, warranties, etc. Everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING is marketing. Check the new American Marketing Association’s definition in Rob’s recent ( 2/5/08 ) post. Marketing is no longer a “function”, but a process that includes every nook and cranny of an organization. Marketing is about “information”, both good and bad, that is available 24 X…

We’ve all been in that sales situation where you think you have it wrapped up and at the last minute it stalls. They stop returning your calls and emails, all correspondences are very short and to the point, the RFP is hanging out there, it seems like your prospect has simply fallen off the face of the earth. So what happened? Were they not an ideal client or part of your target audience? Was there secretly a competitor with an inside track or existing relationship (hint: there usually is, but that’s a different ezine topic)? Were they simply shopping to…

I started this article on the way back from Scottsdale, AZ the day after two of the biggest sports events in the U.S. ended on the same day in the same town. The day, outside of writing, was spent taking part in a sort of “luggage treasure hunt” sponsored by my favorite low cost airline, but that’s another story. Should the small, medium enterprise ( SME ) sector advertise? Should large enterprise advertise? A much different question, but from a directional perspective the following test can be both fun at parties, and quite telling. Ready? But, first you have to…

Let’s face it, what is a good idea? To any one of us, it is based on our entire world view. The answer stems from our collective experience. Every day we have ideas to improve our businesses. Some we write down, others we file in the hard drive of our brain and others we let slip away. The point is we need to be always searching for that good idea that will help grow our business. Where can you get this good idea? Is there a good idea store out there? Maybe there is a good idea pill. The fact…

For those of you that have seen the movie “Ray”, you might recall the scenes in which Ray Charles feels the wrist of young ladies he has been introduced to. Singer, musician Ray Charles was blind. Today, we are all a bit blind when it comes to how we are doing relative to fundamental marketing goals, such as; Generating Awareness, Building Interest, Facilitating Trial Sales and Sustaining Repeat Sales. So, like Ray, we are looking for “signals” from which we can design. But, how do we get those signals? In many cases there simply is no wrist from which to…

You may have recognised, that in the past few years, the way which we communicate, share ideas and exchange value has dramatically changed. People are discounting messages they encounter through the media, more than ever and marketers are forced to interact with customers on a wide variety of different channels. This, combined with the newfound power of individuals through social media, has called for a new definition to serve marketing practitioners and academics more appropriately. Recently I was contacted by Christine Heath on behalf of the American Marketing Association and informed of a revision of the definition of marketing. It…

Before 1984, graphic design could boast that it was a discipline, something valuable in the hands of a competent designer. Then came desktop publishing and the graphic design brand started its gradual decline. Today anyone with a computer and a few hundred dollars in software believe themselves to be proficient in the execution of graphic design. What got me writing about this, was a comment in a recent post from a graphic design listserve that I get daily in my email. The listserve is populated with graphic designers from across Canada. One person wrote in that her nephew in his…

A small business constantly worries about where its next client is coming from. Without dedicated sales people typically, most entrepreneurs generate leads themselves amidst their multitude of other business functions including servicing existing client accounts. Often without professional sales experience, the small business owner (myself included) would be remiss to turn away some helpful tips on how to sell effectively. With this in mind, I took some time to interview a proven sales professional. Following is my interview with Kenneth Barns, founder of Breaking the Sales Bottleneck (BTSB) Consulting (www.breakingthesalesbottleneck.com): Kevin: What sales challenges do you see the small business…