Your Marketing Strategy? Start with a goal…

June 09, 2010 1 comment

If you own a small business in Saskatchewan what do you do to market yourself?

If someone gives you advice on an advertising tactic you “should” be doing, ignore it.  In todays marketing world you must define your goal before any thoughts of a tactic are brought up.

Do you buy the big billboards on Ringroad?  Maybe a large ad in the Saturday Leaderpost?  Nah, make a Facebook fan page, everyone’s on Facebook, right? How about a commercial on the Wolf, Regina’s most popular radio station, that oughta bring in some new clientele!  All these tactics I’m sure would work for some organization if executed correctly but that does not mean you should be using them.

Yes social media is growing but in Saskatchewan the adoption rate is much slower. Yes billboards have worked in the past but that does not mean they’ll work for you.

Define your goal first then look at your at your tactical options.  Confused?  Give me a call I can help you clarify.


Continue Reading

Fire the Marketing Department

March 25, 2010 0 comments

We’re about to hit a tipping point in Canada.  Yes in Saskatchewan as well but I presume it will be a short time after Canada tips.  Stories like this one, about how Canadians for the first time are on the internet more than television should mean a lot to marketers.  The minds behind the marketing industry should be doing more to accommodate the shift.  They’re not.

I think it’s a generational issue as well as somewhat of an egotistical issue.  If you’ve been doing something for a long time and it has worked, no HBR blog post, University of Massachusetts study, or book is going to convince you to change.  More examples of closer to home success stories will be the TSN turning point in this battle.  But if you’re waiting till your competitor gets on Twitter to make the shift from advertising in the Sunday Sun to online, think again.  The companies that get in early to understand the media will be the ultimate winners in the end.

Large ad agency’s aren’t nimble enough to change their strategy and it seems as if they may be left behind with the billboards and newspapers of the old World.  The smart
Continue Reading

An Honest Car Shop?

March 22, 2010 1 comment

Alas! My car troubles are solved, well for now.  Yes, I have found a car shop that is (or seems to be) honest.  Rochdale Autopro is the place and this is what happened.

My car needed the front wheel bearings changed so I took it in.  Four hours later the wheel bearings were in but they informed me they had installed the wrong model number and that they’d have to wait till after the weekend to get the right ones in.  I returned on Monday with my car, which had developed a very annoying noise from the front breaks.

Four hours later the proper wheel bearing were installed but the annoying squealing grew louder.  I was told they would find the noise and fix it at their cost if the noise didn’t go away.  It didn’t.

Now the third time in two weeks my car goes back to the garage.  They couldn’t find the squealing sound so the breaks were replaced, and to my delight they graciously covered the cost and installation.

Finally I have found a car repair shop that I can trust, though it was a few visits out of my way, covering the break pads made up
Continue Reading

Don’t Be Earl

January 03, 2010 0 comments

Social media isn’t just about Facebook and Twitter, though they both have proven to be among some of the best tools to carry out your internet networking fantasies. Opportunities will pass you by if you are not monitoring what others are saying about you and your organization and engaging them in a conversation.  Communication on the internet is only increasing in speed, if you choose to ignore it, you may lose.

Could you imagine if the next time you took your car in for an oil change, they told you about their customer comments section on their website; where if you leave a comment about how the service was, you get 10% off your next oil change?  Would you leave a comment?  Would you read what others have said? Please let me know below

What if we could hold companies accountable when they provide an unsatisfactory product or service?  What if you could look up what others are saying about the restaurant you’re going to tonight?  What if you looked up a new hair salon and this came up: (click on the picture to make it larger, this is what actually came up in a Google search for this hair
Continue Reading

We’re Not Dumb Anymore

December 24, 2009 0 comments

The Flynn effect states that since the 20th century, IQ test scores on average increase by 3 points every decade.  A person taking an IQ test in 1930, scoring in the average, would be considered mentally handicap compared to today’s IQ standards.  As civilization progresses, so does our average intelligence level.  When the knowledge base increases across the board, strange things begin happening. We get smarter.

Something I’ve noticed as of late is that pyramid schemes as business models are still around.  In the past month, two friends have been invited to “recruitment” seminars, which I am proud to say they both, within minutes discovered the pyramid business model and left in disgust.

Now the proper term is “multi-level marketing” (MLM) but it’s the same theme, you make commissions on your sales and on the sales of the people you’ve recruited as sales people.  You can already begin to see the problem.  If I’m selling, then I get you to sell, we are now competing for future sales.  Doesn’t make sense does it.  Not anymore, but it did for a very long time.  What surprises me more is that their is actually a list of companies still around using this
Continue Reading

No Billboards, only Snowboards: A Lesson in Marketing

November 22, 2009 0 comments

My roommate went out the other day and came back with an expensive pair of snowboard boots. When I asked the price, it took me back a bit so I inquired if he had shopped around at all, he said, “No I just went to Offaxis, why would I shop around?”

He could have purchased snowboard boots online for a quarter of the price. He still could have shopped around Regina and found a better deal. He could have saved up to $200 somewhere else on a different pair but didn’t. I believe I would call this a loyal customer.

At first it surprised me, but when you think of Offaxis and their business model it makes perfect sense. Build a store that sells merchandise for snow, wake and skateboarding then host events that celebrate those sports in an extreme fashion (Summer Invasion, JibFest).

It’s not a regular business model and that’s why it works.  They don’t tell us to like them, they give us a reason to like them and be a part of the sports we already love.  They started a “tribe” of their own.  Offaxis puts the time and effort into events that showcase their business, in return they
Continue Reading