(Cartoons below)
Your business life can tick along making a certain kind of sense. You put in the hours, you fiddle with all the knobs to keep the business going. Then suddenly a series of seemingly unrelated mini events collide to make you change your mind.
(Possibly the number of mini events is related to how long it takes you to realise you need to do something to change NOW. Hey, that has a ‘recession’ ring to it. Who knew?)
Most recently, I’ve decided to change JupiterJasper’s direction. Not the original purpose -that is still quite clear. But the way the purpose is realised. The work I’m undertaking has a lot to do with making something simple. Not in a dumbing down kind of way, but a clear sort of way.
How grateful am I to have refound Hugh Mcleod’s stuff as I’ve been reconfiguring what I’m doing. He is awesome. Do yourself a favour and check our his gapingvoid gallery. To give you a flavour of what is resoundingly important to me, that he so eloquently cartoonifies, there are links to two of my favourites below.
I’m going to be exploring the making of my new manifesto in this blog while I put together various pieces to adapt this business to what it will be doing next. It will reach a point where I reveal my risky little vulnerability. I’d love for you to comment on the thought journey, it will help.
This blog is written by Bronwyn Durand, for JupiterJasper, the on-demand marketer service.
I get emotionally involved with Client’s business. There. I said it.
I can’t help it. I get excited about their business as if it were mine, and I do everything I can to make sure what I contribute is the best it can possibly be. That means that I often do far more than I am paid for, and often means that what I have done isn’t noticed. But I know. I can see where it matters, and I do it for the result rather than the recognition. I guess that is the difference between doing a job and doing something passionately.
I take a lot of pride in what I do. Which is why it makes situations like I find myself in all the more frustrating. And many of you will turn around and say – get over it, it’s just business.
I’ve spent the last few weeks treating myself pretty harshly for being in this situation with a client. And then I realised – my conscience is clear.
I worked on a Client’s business for around 18 months, developing a really great and strong brand identity and defining their customers and tailoring their offering and how they go about it.
The process was long and difficult as it can often be in an organisation where there has been no clear marketing path, and each step required numerous discussions, substantiations and explanations. I pushed through all of that – all the unnecessary delays, all the additional time and effort. I could see the [...] Continue Reading…
Somewhere along the line you’ve probably encountered someone that told you that you need a big idea or to think bigger about your marketing and your business.
What is remarkable is how much marketing there is out there that doesn’t really say much of anything, let alone convey a big idea. And by marketing, I don’t just mean advertising, I mean anything a business does to convey what it is about and stands for – even the invoice. And copying your competitor’s big idea doesn’t count.
A big idea is the bridge that makes an emotional connection between what you are selling and your intended audience. It pushes a button or two that helps your possible customer to say – hey, that means something to me. It’s the bit about your business that actually sells the difference that you and your offering will make to the customer.
Never before have big ideas been so important.
This is a new marketing era – where you are compelled to make a connection or you will get lost amongst the ever growing crowd still shouting randomly for attention. Your big idea cuts through and says, hey, you – yes you, I’m worth taking a look at. I really get you, and I will do THIS for you. And if there are two or more of you still in the game, your big idea also gets to go BANG! This is why we are the one for you. These days, it’s how you connect to the right audience [...] Continue Reading…
The 6th of our blog competition guest posts – Samantha Jones of the HomeTruths shows that success is at the end of completing the plan.
The original guidelines for entry are here, read all the featured entries, you could also read about how we chose the winner, or what we learned from running the blogging competition.
Cheating at bootcamp? Not me!
I recently attended a month-long fitness ‘boot camp’; you know the kind of thing: lots of exercise, clean eating plan and a very scary instructor (thanks Jo!) to keep you on your plan. Halfway through the month, I had a social occasion to attend, and asked Jo if I could have her permission to take an evening off my plan, so I could enjoy the delicious food and a glass or two of wine. “Of course”, she said. “Just don’t be surprised if you don’t reach your goal”.
A bit harsh, I thought. Could one evening of enjoying myself really make that much difference? My goal was a weight I really wanted to achieve, and if that one evening was going to put me in danger of not making it, I just wasn’t prepared to risk it. That evening, I stuck to fizzy water, and stayed away from the pastries and crisps. It wasn’t so bad, actually. Two weeks later, I stood on the scales, elated that I had, in fact, reached my goal, to the pound. I was so glad that I’d stuck to Jo’s advice; after all, she was as keen for [...] Continue Reading…
I’ve realised that I’ve become a retail sales staff stalker.
I’m obsessed with how much better the experience of shopping in a retail store can be. From a professional point of view as a marketer – there is the obvious benefit of happier customers buying more, and in an effort to build a sustainable business, surely happier trained staff and slicker processes should all make for stronger businesses.
The natural sales woman
I was suddenly aware of my retail sales staff stalking when I realised that the only reason I was still browsing in Accessories Staines, was because I was listening to the young sales lady behind the till. She was doing a great job of making her young customer feel welcome, and leave with an overall positive feeling about shopping there. She’d asked what the customer was buying the accessories for, and managed to turn it into a conversation about parties and fun and looking great. I welled up with pride, and I have never even met the girl before, much less talked to her. I’m a sucker for a job well done.
The ‘don’t come back’ store
In sheer contrast, on a day when I was out shopping with my two kids, I spent a fraught 10 minutes collecting things to try on in a new Topshop store. I was the only customer in the store, there were at least three sales staff, and it was quarter past 5. I had even raced to the store to make it there before it [...] Continue Reading…
