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Welcome To My Den
This is the new, improved and reincarnated Dunn's Den. This blog is about marketing, advertising, social media and the goings on in my local community; from MY VIEW!
I look forward to connecting with you!
Last week, I had lunch with Steve from Quantum bank. I was relaying to him my experience with a company, who shall remain nameless, and how the core values published on their website were in no way brought to life with the person I spoke with.
This got me thinking about core values for organizations and wondering why organizations put their core values on the world wide web for all to see and then do not execute them. It does not make a lot of sense to me.
Personally, I know a company’s core values when I execute a transaction with that company. It is how I am treated from the start of the transaction to their follow-up post transaction. You do not have to post your core values on your website for me to understand them. Keep them on your intranet and manage your business by them. It will be a better experience for everyone involved.
You tell me. Do businesses with core values published on their website provide a better experience than those without them published? Does it matter at the end of the day?
If you missed my comments to both Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts a few weeks ago, simply scroll down the page. With that, I came across this post by Starbucks which states in a nutshell that all of their locations will be closing at 5:30 p.m. on February 26th for employee training. The goal of this training: “The comprehensive educational curriculum for all U.S. store partners will provide a renewed focus on espresso standards that will help ensure the exceptional quality of every beverage. As a result, baristas will be better prepared to share their passion and knowledge with customers. Customers will be able to truly enjoy the art of espresso as Starbucks baristas demonstrate their passion to pull the perfect shot, steam milk to order, and customize their favorite beverage.”
Looks like Starbucks finally figured out that dollar coffee is not going to work after all! On a side note, if anyone needs any of those “FREE” itunes downloads, I still have a few. Let me know.
If you would like to see the press release, please click HERE.
Is it true that you are getting rid of T-Mobile in all of your stores? Could it be that you might offer FREE Internet instead of FREE itunes downloads of bands I don’t know? Could it be that you go back to focusing on coffee?
In any case, I am glad I could help and glad to see you are getting back to your Unique Selling Proposition. If you you need anything else, give me a call. You know where to find me.
The two most important assets that any business have are its customers and its people. For anything to happen between these two assets, a thing called a relationship must occur. This week I was able to be a part of a new company which is taking the ability to build relationships to a whole new level… the level of social video.
I know, I know, we have all used video conferencing to connect with people for conversations. Why do we want to actually SEE the person we are speaking with? Simple communication is more than just words spoken! How many times have you used email to convey a message and had the end user not understand the email you sent? Then you go back and forth over email trying to communicate your message. Now picture how easy it would be if you could actually interact with that person in real time using video. In the end, this is a time consuming process that is not very effective. Seeing the people you speak with gives all parties involved the ability to use multiple senses when communicating, hopefully allowing for better/deeper/more meaningful communication.
ooVoo, is a new video conferencing, video messaging, and communication company that allows up to SIX people at a time to be seen on a video conference call. Yes, you actually see the person you are speaking with in real time, not their photo or avatar. One of the things that is most amazing is that ooVoo is free. Yes free! Click the word ooVoo and download it yourself. If you would like to add me to your contact list, my ooVoo Screen Name is: Scott Dunn. OoVoo showed me this week how far technology has come and what the true power a computer, a web cam and the Internet can provide for real time face-to-face conversations.
As part of ooVoo’s launch, their ad agency Crayon set up nightly calls with people like: Joseph Jaffey, John Wall, Allan Cox, Mitch Joel, C.C. Chapman, Chris Brogan, George Parker and many others in the social media space. We were able to sign up for thirty minute time slots with each of these people and participate in video conference calls. Talk about cool? Yes, I subscribe to these folks’ blogs, podcasts and twitter feeds. Personally, I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet these people (face-to-face) and have the ability to interact with them from the comfort of my own office!!!! (To see a screen shoot of one my calls with Joseph Jaffe, please click HERE.)
THANK YOU to all of you who took time out of your schedule to facilitate these calls. If you decide to do it again, please include me on your list of invites!!!!! Also, if you see me online, please feel free to give me a call.
Our ability to build relationships ultimately determines our success or failure in business and in life. OoVoo can be used to help build these relationships in ways that email, texting, and phone calls can not. No matter how you slice or dice it, SEEING IS BELIEVING. OoVoo gives small businesses and individuals one more arrow in our quiver to help us to better communicate and build relationships.
In today’s blog, I cover why Word of Mouth Advertising is the most powerful form of advertising your business can ever do. The Return on Investment with Word of Mouth Advertising is higher than any other form of advertising you implement.
Why is it so powerful and why does it work so well? Easy… it’s called Raving Fans. Raving Fans not only purchase from your business on a regular interval, they also are the ones telling people to do business with you.
You are probably thinking to yourself how much money you are going to save this year in advertising. Not so fast. LESS THAN FOUR PERCENT of your client base turn into raving fans. (Let me say that again: LESS than FOUR PERCENT!!!!) This means that 96% of your business comes from your customers and clients. How do they find you? Through traditional advertising.
Most businesses use Word of Mouth as a cop-out because they either do not understand their Target Market or have not developed their Unique Selling Proposition. Do not put your organization in that predicament. Understand how to harness ALL forms of advertising and grow your business. Traditional advertising works. If yours is not working, then make changes today and start making it work for you.
Bottom line: While Word of Mouth Advertising is the most effective form of advertising for your business, it is simply a spoke in a wheel. For a wheel to roll properly, their must be multiple spokes. Understand your target market and use different advertising mediums to reach them. Word of Mouth Advertising is simply not enough to sustain your business. DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE THAT WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING IS THE ONLY ADVERTISING YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS!
Please click on the arrow below and I look forward to your comments, questions and input.
OK, it is official. According to Fox Television, 97.5 million people tuned into the Super Bowl Sunday night and during the 4th quarter alone, 107.5 million viewers tuned in. That makes Super Bowl XLII the MOST watched Super Bowl in history. So if you advertised during Super Bowl XLII, one would think that it would be money in the bank…right? Well, not so fast.
As is the case most of the time with marketing, the message being sent was not being understood by the target market. One of the most overlooked concepts in the ad world today is the message. I mean give me a break. I might be dumb, but I am certainly not stupid. Unfortunately most of the ads didn’t send a clear Unique Selling Proposition, nor did they communicate what the specific product or service was that was being pitched. How many people reading this knew that Sobe was a MAJOR sponsor of the Super Bowl? Instead, you gave me Thriller and dancing lizards!?!?!?!?!?!!? By the way, I checked out your website (I think it is your website) and I do not see the corelation between your Super Bowl Ads and the website. (Readers: You tell me…click here for the Sobe website.)
Marketing is the message you send your target market about your business. Advertising is the medium used to reach your target market. What MESSAGE is your business sending your target market? If a 5th grader can not understand it, trash the message and start over. Stick to your Unique Selling Proposition. It is the reason people buy you anyway. Just ask the guys below from Miller.
On a side note, anyone want to go in together and advertise in next year’s Super Bowl?
Well, another NFL Super Bowl is over and in the books. The New York Giants won an upset over the New England Patriots in the final minutes of the 4th quarter. In essence they robbed the Patriots from a perfect season and Tom Brady from his 4th Super Bowl win. This year’s Super Bowl definitely lived up to the hype as the game was very, very close with huge momentum swings for both teams.
As for the commercials, I would rate some as very good and most as mediocre to poor. The thing I do not understand is why a company would spend millions of dollars on advertising during the Super Bowl only to air a crappy ad? To this end, I am going to compile an on-going list of what an ad must have to be great!!! Let me know your thoughts as to what you think makes an ad great. I will post the list and make it available for companies to use as a bench mark for next year’s Super Bowl.
For those of you who missed any of this year’s ads, click HERE and you can see every ad run during the Super Bowl. Of these ads, which ones do you remember, which ones do you like and why?
Leave your comments on the ads you like and the ones you don’t.
Congrats to the New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII Champs!!!!! Looking forward to being in East Rutherford next year for a game.
Unique Selling Proposition! In today’s post, I cover three things: 1) the definition of a Unique Selling Proposition, 2) questions you can ask yourself to develop a Unique Selling Proposition for your organization and 3) give you examples of what Town Planner Calendars Unique Selling Propositions are.
In a nutshell, every business must define their Unique Selling Proposition and communicate it to their target market in a clear and concise manner. Your Unique Selling Proposition is THE REASON people do business with you. What does your Unique Selling Proposition say about you?
Today’s format is a little different than the other blogs posted so far. The meat and potatoes for today’s blog is the video.
I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me or call me.
