How far out do you plan?

Business today, actually our culture today is all about the right now. Take the recent spending spree in Washington. Fixing today’s problems without regard to the future. This is not a political blog, so I will stop right there with the politics.

Have you ever stopped to think about how short of time we are here doing our work. Wether you are building a business, working for a corporation, in ministry somewhere, whatever you do, you will not do it very long. Think about the world 40 or 50 years ago. What was the world like in 1959? How has our world changed? Quite a bit in a really a short time. Think of the people that were movers and shakers in 1959 – The Barbie doll was introduced, Alaska and Hawaii had become part of the USA, people were watching Bonanza and the Twilight Zone for the first time. Just 50 years ago.

Now, think ahead 50 years, most of us reading this will not be here. We will be dead and gone. This leaves me to think what I am I doing today that will last 50 years. My daughter will be 57 years old, in the prime of her life, what kind of world am I leaving for her. What kind of shape am I leaving the place I work in so that in 50 years it is still going strong.

Businesses will come and go, I happen to work for one that has been around for over 100 years. There is rich history, but sometimes a company like this will struggle with the change necessary to maintain the next 50 years. That is also another topic for another day.

Work today with the long term future in mind, not just the immediate. How can you build your business to be sustainable, not just go after the here and now.

My favorite Twitter Tools

I have been twittering for quite some time, I think I joined when there were less than 100,000 people doing it. Here are some tools I use with the twitter experience.

*  Tweet Deck – http://www.tweetdeck.com – this is a desk top twitter tool that allows you to see your several things at once. It makes searching twitter, updating your status, and making URL’s shorter very easy and fast.

*  Tweetlater – http://www.tweetlater.com – this tool allows you to schedule your tweets in advance. While twitter needs to bring the personal side, much of twitter is sharing information such as links, videos, articles, and blogs. If you are planning your messages, this tool allows you to do that.

*  PollDaddy – http://www.twitter.polldaddy.com – this is a very inexpensive way to do quick research. For fun or for business, you can ask a question and Poll Daddy will track the response.

More coming soon! Have fun in Twitterland.

Vintage Seth Godin

Here is a great presentation from Seth Godin where he discusses the power of an idea and how people who can get their idea in the minds of people will be successful.  Worth 20 minutes of your time.

Marketing in a Tough Economy

Times are tough, the economy is taking hit after hit, government is spending like crazy, none of it seems to be helping businesses, at least we are not seeing it yet.  If you are a marketer you may have already been asked or told to cut back on spending.  One way to make your numbers work is not just top line revenue, but bottom line revenue after expenses.  So, less expenses means more profit.

Here are some things I am doing or learning during these times:

1.  Try to use more social or digital means to spread the word.  Generally this marketing is less expensive, and in many cases received better by the consumer.  Twitter, Facebook, and Web advertising are places to look.

2.  Don’t be afraid to ask for a deal with the places you advertise.  Just today I asked for 50% off on banner ads and they gave it to me.  Everyone is having a tough time, so many of your vendors need business and are willing to take something over nothing.

3.  Don’t stop marketing.  You have heard it said that those who can weather the storm will be stronger when it is over.  Many companies are going away, or trying to hold there ground.  This makes for opportunity for those who can keep there brand in front of people and build some equity now.  It will pay off later.

4.  Innovation has never been needed more.  Think about how you can connect with your customers relationally.  Even if you are only able to do it with a few, those few can become a catalyst that spreads. 

5.  Customer service is still important, maybe even more now than ever.  People are tired, stressed, and just about over the edge.  Make your interaction with customers pleasant, do what you can to help them and go the extra mile.  Last night I was on the phone with Comcast, they could not help me on the phone, but gave me 3 free movie rentals for my trouble.  The gesture calmed me down and gave me a good feeling toward Comcast.

Hang in there!  One day we will look back on this time and realize how much we learned about marketing and about our resilience.

How Marketing Elected President Obama

Here is an blog post from Harvard Business Publishing.  There are many great marketing lessons to be learned here:

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/quelch/2008/11/how_better_marketing_elected_b.html

Reaching the Religious Market

Often overlooked by brands for targeting products. Even though we all live in the same world, watch the same TV, listen to the same radio, there is something to be said for loyalty by the religious community. Brands that reach out to them, that are honest, and meet a need for them are brands they will stick with for the long haul. Word of mouth is strong in the Christian church due to weekly meetings and the social aspect of church. When you are with people, you talk to people, and therefore share the brands you are using without even thinking about it.

While brands such as Coke, P&G, or Dell spend millions to reach the greatest number of consumers, many brands do not have this kind of budget. Even those that do would benefit from a marketing campaign to this group. Other brands should consider this market as a target.

We have seen this work with movies, not just religious movies such as the Passion of The Christ, but family movies such as the Narnia series. These movie companies targeted the Christian community and as a result were block busters. Churches did Sunday School classes around these titles, had videos sent to them that were shown in church, pastors had sermon series around them. How many youth groups at church by Pizza and drink Coke? I have never seen a brand target this group.

Not all brands will have this much opportunity, but considering ways to reach them where they are, is a proposition that can be figured out. Not to capitalize on church services, but servicing these consumers in the place where they spend time, maybe to enhance the experience.

Great Commercial

I love this commercial, very innovative