Is your marketing sending the right message?

A recent call to a clients office left me confused and surprised. It was a Doctor’s office and they were not in. So I got their answering service. Actually at first I got their answering services on hold message. After being told I would speak to an operator promptly, I heard their recorded music. Since almost everyone has gotten away from elevator music, this was pop music. Actually, it was the current queen of pop—Britney Spears. So I listened to about 45 seconds of her recent controversial hit [the one about Amy] which is out and out vulgar.

I’m no prude, but this song gets switched off when in the presence of either of my daughters. How it got on the radio in the first place is beyond me. It is up there with some of the nastier stuff Prince recorded in the ‘80s. And that was rarely on the radio.

After taking my message, the operator answered a couple questions I had about this song. Her company is aware of it, but it is out of their control. They pay for a quarterly subscription so they just have to wait it out. Really? Stop it now. Don’t wait.

Everything in and around your business is part of marketing. Your place of business, your printed materials and forms, your delivery trucks, your employees, and your style of handling phone calls. Whether you intend it to be marketing your business or not, it’s all marketing.

I would not let an employee make deliveries celebrating sex, drugs, or alcohol. Nor would they parade a controversial anti-hero in front of my clients. The same goes for my phone messages. You don’t have to go back to the watered down stylings of Muzak strings, but come on people use some common sense.

What tone do you want your marketing to hit? Do you want people to think you are staid, or hip, or conventional, or happy go lucky? Are you ok offending or being controversial? What message to you want your public to hear? Answer these questions and go for it.

Printing Magnets — on our printing press?

We recently worked on a fun project for a large Church organization. They needed a large quantity of magnets in a hurry and on a tight budget. Typically these are done by a silk screener. They are great quality but turnaround time and price might have been obstacles here.

Fortunately, we recalled a recent sales call from a paper mill rep from Nekoosa Coated Paper. They have a new magnetic sheet product that will run through a printing press. After trying the samples he left behind, we decided to go for it.

It worked great. They printed nicely, they dried quickly, and the finished product was beautiful. These were cut to business cards size but we could have cut them to just about any desired size. Also, with our die cutting capabilities on our letterpresses, we can cut them to almost any shape imaginable—triangles, circles, start, you name it.

Give us a call to see how we can promote your business or event with magnets.

They Don’t Live in Glass Houses

You know the phrase: “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” Have you ever thought the phrase is strange? People who live in brick or frame houses should not throw stones either. But this is not about that. This is about direct marketing.

There is a company or maybe a few companies who market directly to the public in an unusual way. You might have folks like this in your community too. Is it a widespread phenomenon? I don’t know. They take their flier or brochure, or whatever, and put it in a Ziploc® with a handful of rocks. No. Seriously.

Then they fling them out of a moving car onto driveways around the neighborhood. I seem to recall one being from a home repair business. But I don’t recall the name or if I ever looked at another one. The packages annoyed me. It was litter dumped on my property.

Why do they do this? Is it to save money? If so, I doubt it is cheaper. Between the cost of the baggie, the rocks, the labor to fill and seal the bags, and the cost to drive around, it all adds up. Now, if they had pretty stones in there, maybe. If they sold rocks and pebbles for landscaping, perhaps. But, I don’t think they are.

Standard Mail postage is about 26¢ each—it is a real good deal. Yes, we charge for our services to mail. But you are getting a professional direct marketing piece. Put down the stones.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tahliajayde/3600630428/)

Typos happen

There is an old phrase in printing regarding typos. Doctors bury their mistakes, architects plant ivy, printers make notepads. While there are very few true "printers errors," most are more accurately "proofers errors," if you spend enough time in printing you will see lots of blunders.

This recent one is a doozy. Anytime your gaffe is shown on TV, you have really done it big. Case in point the Washington Nationals jerseys. They hit the field with NATINALS embroidered across their chests. Whoops.

This Vista Does More Than Print

When you buy business cards from an internet company that does not charge for them, you have to ask yourself a question. How are they generating income? I have seen troubling things for years about a few of these big internet printers. Now, they are getting some exposure and their shady practices are coming to the light of day. Check out this news story.

My company has never sold or traded client information. We have never dealt in bait and switch. And we have never made it a policy to treat anyone in an underhanded way.

When You Find Yourself in a Hole—Stop Digging

Over this past weekend, the Obama administration rolled out their small business stimulus plan, or whatever they are calling it. All it looks like is a reduction in costs to borrow. Bad idea. Has anyone in the White House ever had to make a payroll? I doubt it.

There are two major problems with this plan. Access to money is not a problem for many small businesses. Community banks and credit unions are willing partners. Citibank and Bank of America are not lending money, but they won’t deal with small business during good times—forget it now. The problem is sales and profits. Our sales are way down and therefore our profits are too.

The other problem with this plan is debt itself. Our country got into this mess because of too much debt. So, now the suggestion is more debt? Really. Mr. Geithner, when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. Don’t make things worse than they are.

How about my plan? Cut government spending, cut personal AND business tax rates, and cut regulation. Make it easier to a little guy to make a buck. This social engineering program makes us nervous. Raise tax rates on one hand and make it easier to get deeper in debt with the other. Small business is not buying. The financial big shots got us into this mess, Now Washington, get out of the way of the little guys to clean it up.

Layoffs Stink

There are a few situations in business that really stink for a small business owner. Being defrauded or swindled by an employee or partner is really bad. Being a victim of someone else's crime is way up there. Violence brought to the job by an employee is unconscionable. But what these have in common is they are rare and have to do with crime in one form or another.

But in the regular ups and downs of business, nothing is worse than letting go of an employee. Sometimes you have to sack an employee because they did not work up to expectation. That’s hard. One reason it is hard is because the owner was probably the one who made the decision to hire that person. Now the boss has to admit he or she made a mistake. So the decision to fire an under-performing worker is delayed in the hope that they will get with the program and turn around. That rarely happens.

While there is justification to let go of a bad worker, laying off an employee is much harder. Now you have to sack someone who was doing a good job. It is not for cause. It is for economic conditions that are usually not in the bosses control. The overall economy is in the dumper, sales are down, clients are slowing down payments, we are in a pinch. I have to let you go.

In a small business employees can become like family. Of friends. That makes it worse. Some bosses will delay laying off excess staff in down times because it hurts and is uncomfortable. This delay could kill the business. It can put everyone out of work. And it can bankrupt the business owner personally. Sadly, the burden to make the hard decisions falls on the owners shoulders. It stinks, but that’s the reality.