Well, let’s start with a bit of an overview of some of your marketing that I’ve seen and throw in some ideas as we go along….

The first thing I was to comment on is the band itself. Your voices match well and you have smooth support with the instrumentation which gives a great overall performance. That you sing in both Afrikaans and English is a decided plus for progress in the South African market. I think you have a winning formula for becoming a noted SA pop group. Keep doing what you are doing….

The Roots of Youth website

Then on to your website (www.r-o-y.co.za). Fantastic. I am sitting with your songs playing in the background now. It’s neat and concise while still giving the visitor a good feel of where you are coming from. Two suggestions and a gripe about it:

1. Make the writing one size bigger. All of the content is in size 1, which tends to put people off of reading it. (It’s one way to get a teenager reaching for their granny’s glasses!) This is a common web designer’s practice to try and fit more into the space but it is not best practice.

2. You had a CD cut in June - but when I got to the ‘Shop’ section there is nothing there. (Is the CD ready yet?) Hey. Come on, your fans want to buy your stuff and give you some money…! Make it easy for us. If you want to get easy e-commerce (and you don’t even need to have a credit card facility) without paying an arm and a leg, then have a look at MyGate.

And then my big bone of contention here is…. You are not just a copycat bunch of musos that plays only other people’s stuff in the same old way. You have original songs that sound great and that you wrote yourselves. Come on guys, one little mention on your website that Christoff does song-writing just doesn’t do you justice. Please tell your fans more about this part of your music journey. Have a look at my previous posting about Colbie Caillat and how she emphasises that she writes her own stuff, as well as the processes that she goes through when writing.

Facebook club

Which brings me on to my next point; telling people about yourselves. You have a super group on Facebook with quite a nice fan following. But what I don’t see is regular updates from you guys and dolls. You need to recognise that you while you may not be Paris Hilton (yet), that you already have a strong fan following - and they want to know more about you. Give them more info and make yourselves accessible to them.

I see that on your site that have a section for fans to send you mail. Do you send replies back to them? (Have a look at former 007 actor, Roger Moore’s, site for a good example of this.) You could give some more of this type of personal feedback on your Facebook group. This is a great way of interacting with your target market in this age group. Work these media.

And then a last note to close…

If you want to do gigs for charitable causes I would suggest that you approach some of the social investment foundations that a number of our country’s major corporations run. (Such as the banks.) Have a look on their websites or just phone their head offices.

I can also suggest that you look at the GreaterGood SA website (www.myggsa.co.za) as this will give you a really good idea of what the major charities and charitable sponsors are doing in South Africa and you could pick up some valuable leads.

Needless to say, there are still loads of other things that can be done to market you further, but this post is starting to read like a novel. As you are in my area I would suggest that if you would like to take this a little further, that you consider coming in for a short consult.

Good luck and keep rocking!

Links to the various rates for television advertising as below:

SABC 1, 2 & 3: http://www.sabc.co.za/portal/site/sa…2eb68a24daeb9/

MNet and DStv advertising is done by Oracle Airtime sales which can be found here: http://www.oats.co.za/

Etv: http://www.etv.co.za/rates

The rates that you will pay per spot (one 30-second flighting of your ad) will vary from about R500 up to R55 000 for straight advertising. This depends greatly on the estimated number of people that will be watching at the time that your ads are broadcast.

The costs will usually be proportionately less if your ads are of a shorter duration.

There are also a number of alternatives that you may wish to make use of such as sponsoring a specific series.

SABC also offers a provincial split on some of its channels at various time slots. This means that you may not have to pay the full price for national advertising when you are more interested in a provincial market.

What I would suggest is that you familiarise yourself with the rates cards and how the television ad game works (there is a lot of information given on their websites), and then when you are ready, either speak to the television stations’ reps directly or find yourself a media buyer who specialises in television advertising.

Let’s start with the timing of the calls…. Many South Africans who can afford to buy timeshare, also follow SA rugby. So when the ‘bokka’ are playing an international match, its not very likely that potential customers are going to be focused on any sales message that the company had come up with. So right from the start, they are wasting their money (and even at something like 30c a call, they probably spent many thousands of rands).

Then there was the highly impersonal use of the canned voice simulation service - the person sending the message types in the words and the vocal message is put together by a synthesiser. It sounds like a robot…

To top off this already irritating message, they send it to you three times. What was also interesting is that they used three different messages. The first one was particulary annoying and included an ‘emergency’ factor where they said something along the lines: “We’re stranded at a luxury resort…” but didn’t say who was calling. Our hostess initially thought that it may have been one of her children in trouble and felt a prick of anxiety at not having any further information about what was happening.

The second message went: “So why not join us…” and said they were selling timeshare and gave a number to call. The third time was basically a repeat because the recipient hadn’t immediately phoned back.

As if the canned message is not impersonal enough, you don’t even get a system whereby you can “press 1 for more information, or 2 to speak to one of our salespeople” etc. Oh, no, you have to call them back at the phone number they rattle off at high speed! They’re so interested in you and your money, that the cheapskates need you to spend your money listening to them selling their product to you.

Who are are they trying to kid here? Do they really think that if they prick someone’s attention by getting them concerned, that they are then going to be able to sell them timeshare. It they were in the USA, they’d probably be sued!

Come on guys, stop wasting your money and our time. It you are going to do telesales at least have the decency to have a real, live person call who can answer any questions. This whole campaign stinks!

To read further articles on telemarketing…

© Ann Williams

Have a look at this in comparison to Trellidor’s great branding. Trellidor’s website is well structured to assist the viewer to do business with them; they have educational articles; a good publicity campaign, and have made an effort to assist the community. I also think that their television advert (see this page for a link to this advert) is particularly good.

The Maxidor advert sets itself up for abuse. It immediately negates the concept of a ’secure’ barricade in any viewers mind. And then it proceeds to link the very negative idea of a failing security barrier with THEIR product name. So the overall effect that the audience gets is that it is Maxidor products specifically that are “unsafe”.

Maxidor is immediately setting themselves up for failure! After all, who wants to buy a product that the manufacturer is happily telling everyone could well fail to do the very job that it was bought for.

The worst thing about this is that Maxidor may well be the best security barrier of its type on the market. It could be the strongest, most well manufactured, and have the fewest breaches of any of the similar products available. But it doesn’t matter because that darn tv ad has made sure that the public now connects the idea of broken security doors with the Trellidor name.

And they didn’t need to do this. While it may be taken by the general public that a security door / window barrier may well fail if a thief has enough time and the tools to do the job, the fact doesn’t need to be put in pride of place in the potential buyers mind by being flaunted on prime-time television.

Maxidor needs to pull this ad - now!

Types of business best suited to blogging

The nature of a blog would lend itself very well to service businesses, particularly where there may already be an educational element. Examples of this would be a spa, a dietician, an accountant or even a garden service. However, any business where there is at least one blog ‘champion’ (ie. a keen sucker), can find topics to write a good blog about, and attract a steady, loyal readership. For example, a car mechanic could write enough material to give Car magazine a run for its money. A Bed & Breakfast owner could produce a lovely blog about the area they are situated in…. A bond origination company or estate agent could give extremely useful information about buying and selling your property….

So when do I blog?

1. Only if and when you have enough time and energy to be updating your blog on a regular basis. One of the main concepts of blogging is to get people to return to your website because there is something new that they may not yet have seen and could be interested in.

2. When what you want to say would come across best in snippets rather than as an article. It is the online equivalent to the bits and pieces pages that you find in magazines. The actual layout of most blogs means that each entry should not be too long or else the page becomes long enough for the reader to scroll their finger into spasm. This is a great medium for observations, thoughts, ideas etc.

3. When you are happy to tell people a little about yourself. Blogging can be a very personal medium. It can be great for small businesses which are based on the status of the employee, particularly consultants. It allows clients and potential clients to get to know that you know what you are talking about or have similar ways of thinking about important principals.

Don’t blog if…

1. You are not happy with writing. You don’t have to have a language degree, but you do need to be able to express yourself in writing. And please bear in mind that a blog is not a chatroom. (Consider doing a blog in your home language - you could get a considerable following.)

2. It would be better as a newsletter. Regular electronic newsletters to your current clients (and anyone who wants to be sent a copy, so have a sign-up on your website) can be far more effective and easier to manage then maintaining a good company blog.

3. You load you blog with press releases and marketing muck. People return to blogs again and again if they are news rich and / or educational. You need to give readers some useful information.

4. You are not willing to keep an eye on what is happening on your blog.

There really is no type of company that could not make use of a blog. Whether you decided to make use of a blog to market your company has more to do with how much time you have to spend, and whether you have the skills to produce good content. With the plethora of free, easy-to-use blog templates available, this medium is now truly available to all.

Copyright Ann Williams

As befits the organic style of her music, Caillat’s fan base has grown by word of mouth, one person at a time. Last year, she began posting her songs on her myspace.com; tunes like “Bubbly,” a delightful confection about romance, and “Tailor Made,” Caillat’s joyful message to her sister over seeing her sibling find the perfect mate.

With no marketing push and only the power of the music behind her, Caillat became a sensation on the social networking site. Last October when she had 6,240 friends, Rolling Stone highlighted her as one of the top female artists on myspace. Ultimately, Caillat became the #l unsigned artist for over four months and her number of friends swelled to more than 100,000. Her profile has been visited over 3 million times, and she has more than l0 million plays.

As her online popularity grows, so does the recognition factor. “I’m not even famous yet and every time I go shopping, the young girls who work in the stores, they know who I am. They’ll ask, ‘Are you Colbie from myspace?’” she recounts with delight. Grateful for the recognition, the laid-back, natural beauty lamented, “Great, now I’m going to have to put on make up every time I leave the house!” But she quickly reconsidered. “I’m kidding. But I am hoping that I can show my fans that it’s okay to be yourself.” Indeed, even the album’s title reflects her desire to remain true to herself: Her parents nicknamed her Coco while she was still an infant and it’s a tag that has stuck.”

Have a look at her blog at: http://colbiecaillat.blogspot.com/

A table of the millimetre measurements of the standard paper sizes…

A0 - 840 X 1 189
A1 - 594 X 841
A2 - 420 X 592
A3 - 297 X 420
A4 - 210 X 297
A5 - 148 X 210
A6 - 105 X 148
A7 - 74 X 105

Loyalty cards are a great way to get to know your customers better. They can be costly to run, so if you run any kind of loyalty scheme you need to think very carefully about what information you would like to get from them and how you are going to record it.

If you can keep track of what your customers spend on you will then be able to get a good idea of what products are selling best, and what general and personal preferences are. You will need to be able to collate the data that you get for this though, so a system that can uniquely identify the client - such as the CTFM’s Accrue loyalty card - is needed.

Then there is the ability to market to your known customers, both generally as well as very specifically if your data storage and retrieval system is set-up well. Even something as simple as personalisation of communications with these customers puts you a step closer to getting more sales, which is much cheaper than getting new customers.

To read more articles on loyalty cards…

© Ann Williams

Following are some of the ideas I gave in response for her to consider what her main strengths are:

Unfortunately I still don’t really get what makes you so different/unique here… I am also a copy editor and writer with more than 20 years experience. It’s a case of “so what”, we are actually a dime a dozen these days. You’ve got to hook people into coming to you and not wanting to go anywhere else.

My USP is being able to write and edit copy with a more technical bent and make it simple, logical, and easy for the specifically intended audience to read. I have more than a decade’s experience writing documentation for heavy industry and another decade’s experience as a journalist, public relations writer, newspaper sub-editor and publisher.

There are a couple of points about this:

1. Hone in on specialist skills that you may have that set you apart from others. Eg. I most certainly handle more general writing, but I have a unique, and quite rare, skill set in the combination of technica/business knowledge with the writing. Unfortunately any really specialist/hot skills you may have did not come through at all which is a pity as this is the most important part.

2. What do you do well? CVs? Doctoral thesis? Press release campaigns? Marketing materials? Copy writing for advertising?

3. What do you really enjoy doing? What is your favourite type of work? Mine is doing press release campaigns, SEO’d website content and general publicity material or articles for engineering, IT, technical, and manufacturing companies. I just love finding out about different industries and business models.

4. Add what the client can expect from you. I think you have done well with this component. “communicate… clearly” “adhere to deadlines”.

5. What does your background have to offer? Do you have a degree in English? Have you had experience in an ad agency or copy editing for a publication? Have you got a strong background in the publishing industry?

6. On a more general note; is there anything that makes your business more attractive? This could be something as simple as being the only business of your type in the near vicinity. Your ‘passion’ is a plus here. Do keep that in.

All of these things go towards pinpointing what is special/unique about what you have to offer. Be very clear in your own mind about what your strong points are.

© Ann Williams

For some ideas on how to find a name for your business / product that will help with your marketing, read our article here…

They organised for a trailer to be parked at the entrance to the estate and then sent out flyers asking residents to please place any food, clothing, blankets etc in the trailer which would then be given to those in need. I think this was great publicity and did much to build their reputation in the community. Let’s look at some of the factors that made this such a good marketing promotion:

1. They worked within their specific community - on the estate rather than say the Highveld area - rather than trying to spread the goodwill around too far afield. Not only is this the community where they are based, but it is also one of their main target markets. (Many people move to different houses on the same estate; or tell their friends and family when a particular house comes onto the market.)

2. They identified a known and well publicised need. This meant that they didn’t have to educate people about the need first. (Fundraisers for lesser known health conditions/diseases often face this obstacle.)

3. They decided up front who would be handling the donations. In this case, they were giving what was collected to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross - both well known charitable organisations who have a solid reputation.

4. They said what was wanted (clothing, food, blankets etc). All too many organisations just ask for money. While you can ask for money, do be specific about what it is going to be used for.

5. People could see what was actually happening. The trailer (with Realty-1 ads all over it of course) was highly visible. If your doesn’t have something visible, then make sure that you take some pictures of what you are doing and at least place them on your company website. [More about that in another blog.]

6. They sent out flyers telling people what was happening (once again with their logo on which provided yet more visibility).

7. They gave a time limit. This is quite important if you are doing charitable work in any way.

There were however two opportunities that I think they missed out on with this great piece of publicity:

1. There was no website address given anywhere on the flyer. They missed out on a great opportunity to get people to actually look at their properties.

2. They didn’t use the back of the flyers. They could have put some of their local listings on the back for very little extra money for the printing.

© Ann Williams

To get more great ideas on how to turn any community work or participation that your company or organisation does, then come on one of our intensive, practical workshops on Press Releases and Publicity….

I took the above photo of a furniture store in our local mall while they were putting their website address up on their windows. Good. So now any passing pedestrian who is too busy to pop in and have a look around the shop can still go to their website that evening and have a look around their products. They can even buy online…

So something as simple as an URL can become a silent salesperson for you. As long as your website is structured to deal with doing so. (To get find out more about this process, please join us on one of our practical Working Websites workshops….)

One of my favourite examples of how to use this marketing platform was to be found on a scattering of boards in our area a while ago… The board just said: “www.boomsloping.co.za” (that’s “tree felling” in Afrikaans). That’s all it needed to say. If you wanted some tree felling done, that noticeboard was going to catch your attention!

© Ann Williams

The cola marketing wars that have been fought around the globe have provided some lovely lulus, particularly in China….

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Ke-kou-ke-la”, meaning “Bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax”, depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent “ko-kou-ko-le”, translating into “happiness in the mouth”.

And Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave”, in Chinese.

The Mother’s Day flyer started with a promising sub-heading of: “As a mother, you always lend a helping hand. Let us do the same for you.” Fine. That’s nice to note. But so far, nothing special to get me considering Seeff on this particular day.

Then it goes on to tell the reader that they give a hassle-free process of buying property, which is then followed by: “So, this Mother’s Day…” Now hang on a minute. Just saying ’so,…’ doesn’t mean that there is a good link between Seeff’s buying process and Mother’s Day. (While it may be a hassle-free process with Seeff, buying a house is hardly a stress-free process and probably not the way I would be spending my Mother’s Day by choice. Now obviously there are some people who would like to go and look at other people’s houses on Mother’s Day, but does Seeff really want to waste their time by encouraging voyeurs rather than real buyers?)

It then goes on with: “… so why not relax and take an arm-chair tour of our properties on our award-winning website, www.seeff.com or even better, get chauffeured to one of our showhouses in your area. After all you deserve it.” But surely I can get driven to one of the houses you are selling any day of the year?

The Father’s Day flyer also just made me think that they were a bit desperate to tag a promotion onto anything they could find. There just didn’t seem to be anything special about this one either.

It reads: “This Father’s Day, if you could wish one thing for your family would it be… Seeff.” Well, er, if you really pushed Dad for an answer - it would probably be NO. After all, isn’t Father’s Day the one day of the year when the family is supposed to be wishing at least one thing for Dad? Such as maybe getting Dad a good beer and actually letting him watch the big match instead of him having to worry about the family for a change?

I came away from reading these two flyers with the overall impression of ’so what’. If you want to do a holiday promotion, than you will probably get more mileage for your advertising money by giving some kind of special.

Seeff could have tried something such as online competitions, open only on each of those days - or for anyone actually buying a house on that day. The ladies could have been given a prize such as a day at the spa, and the gents something like a new set of tyres. Basically, there needed to be some really good reason for the special person of the day to want to spend their time with Seeff instead of with their family.

© Ann Williams

So today’s posting is on some ideas about professional conduct for entrepreneurs wishing to make the most of an online community environment such as this one.

Ann’s rough quidelines for participating in an online business community:
1. Behave professionally. You represent your business at all times.
2. Be polite. Communicate as you would with a client, potential client or friend.
3. Treat people in the way that you would like to be treated in return. (Nastiness begets nastiness.)
4. Don’t push your religious or political views onto others. (Stand up for what you believe in but don’t tell others that they should feel the same way. I have seen this happen - particularly with religious beliefs, and I find it off-putting.)
5. Be ready to stand up and say something if you think there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
6. Contribute - in a positive and fruitful way where you can.
7. Use the community for its intended purpose. If you find that this is not happening for you, then leave.

For a more in-depth look at online community participation, consider attending 2B Marketing’s practical workshop on Business Networking.

We look at the standard for one major manufacturer of this board, Correx….

The standard thickness of Correx boards is 3mm.

It comes in base colours: white, yellow and transparent.

To keep your costs down, the standard sizes available for purchase off the shelf are:
600mm X 400mm and 800mm X 600mm (slightly different to the A paper sizes)
You can also order the board to any size that you wish to have at a slight cost premium.

Printing on plastic corrugated board can be done by two means:
- One colour wording (much cheaper: I have seen prices from about R8 a board); or
- in full colour using a vinyal sticker which is applied to the board. (The board shown in this post is one that I had made up about a year ago and which cost me about R120 including the design/layout.)

Please feel free to comment on this post, particularly if you are a print shop. We would like to know a bit more about pricing or any interesting jobs that you may have done.

The big plus about this advertising method is that if the bin is placed in a good location, it is passed by a large number of motorists each day. Many of those motorists will also have to stop at a stop street, or at traffic lights and so get a chance to look at it… sometimes on a regular basis.

This makes it good for local businesses, and as a reminder for people when they next need a service or product.

There are a few things that can be done to improve the amount of notice your audience pays to this promotion…

1. Make the writing BIG. Almost all examples I have seen of bin ads have writing that is too small to be easily read by drivers whizzing past at 60km/hour or more.

2. Give directions. This platform is great for businesses with nearby premises. Have an arrow pointing in the direction of your store (or give a bold map, or a series of strategically placed bins, if you are not just around the corner) as part of your design. Eg. Heading: “Joe’s Butchery” with the following below next to an arrow “This way to get the best selection of meat, fish and fowl.”

3. Keep it simple. The ultimate is still to focus on what your main core business is. Think about our USP (unique selling proposition) and make your advert around that. Don’t just give a list of your main products / services - you don’t have the space.

3. Give a website URL rather than a telephone number. I say this again and again. The vast majority of drivers don’t have a pen and paper handy to jot down a cellphone number as they drive by or while waiting for their turn to go through the intersection. Most of us do however remember a word better than we remember a number. So get yourself a website address that is easy to remember. One of my favourites is: www.boomsloping.co.za (that’s “tree felling” for the non-South African readers). You know exactly what they are talking about!

© Ann Williams

…the caller actually greeted me instead of asking what is a very personal question! They don’t even know who I am, let alone know me well enough to be asking after my health and expecting a straight answer, so I find it extremely irritating as they obviously don’t care what my health is.

This means that the entire conversation is actually starting off as a lie (the query about how well I am) - which doesn’t make it very likely that I am going to buy anything.

When phoning someone (whether making a direct telephone call or as a tele-marketer), the following basic steps can be used to much better effect:
1. Greet the person answering. “Hello” or “Good morning/afternoon/evening.”
2. Say who you are. “This Ann Williams from 2B Business Solutions…”
3. Say who you would like to speak to. “I would like to speak to Joe Bloggs” or “I would like to speak to the Human Resources Manager / the person who buys your office equipment.”

As soon as someone won’t say who they are or which company they are from I am also immediately sceptical - and there is no ways in hades that I would buy from, or attend an event held by a company that is not willing to deal with me in a straight-forward manner.

© Ann Williams

Duh! But it happens!

I have also seen cards with the following printed on the back:
- an appointment reminder table;
- a map of how to get to the company’s premises;
- a calendar;
- a loyalty stamp scheme; and
- a ruler strip along the one edge.

To read other articles on using business cards to their full potential…

© Ann Williams

Their take is: “If an exchange was made Aca Joe (will) not cover in cash or credit note any shortfall due to the customer.” (They even admit that it is due/owing to the customer!) It’s not surprising they have lost loyal customers.

And to think that if they do not want to hand over cash to the customer, all they have to do is give the customer a voucher for the difference. It would at least get the customer coming back on another occasion to buy something else - what a plus!

And how about even rounding up the difference to the nearest R5 or R10. It may cost them a little extra but I can assure you that the positive feelings (which means more shopping) that the client would have towards Aca Joe would far outweigh the few rands difference.

Okay you may say, so they’d have to get a voucher system together and make some changes to their accounting system. Well, why not? Having an voucher system is one of the best marketing tools a retailer can have. Woolworths voucher system and their policy of being able to return anything as long as the customer still has the slip, has done wonders for their business.

So while Woolies is busy building their brand, Aca Joe has not only managed to piss off hundreds of loyal customers over the years (and who knows how many people the angry customers have been telling) and lose a lot of potential custom, they now also have their name in lights in the Pretoria News, this blog and probably a number of other places!

As can be seen by this example, marketing isn’t only about branding, advertising and publicity, it’s also about getting your systems in order to give your customer the best experience you have to offer. So often it’s system details that will chase your customer away and no matter what you spend on marketing to them in future, they aren’t coming back.

Come on Aca Joe, it looks as if your marketing needs a bit of a makeoever….

© Ann Williams

So, I’ve made the decision that when I buy one I’ll save my self the frustration of hacking my way through a forest of pulped trees by tearing the mag in half and throwing the front half away! Well at least the first third….

It has been interesting to watch how the layout of general interest magazines has changed over the past decade to include more advertising with the display ads being pushed to the front as much as possible.

In the O mag that I bought, of the 176 pages there was the following advertising:
- 43 full pages of displays ads
- 6 pages competitions and giveaways
- 12 pages of product presentations (pics, price and maybe a brief write-up)

The first full page ‘article’ (Serena Williams’s Aha! moment) was on page 46 with the first full-scale article being presented on page 53.

This is certainly a change from magazines a decade ago when one opened the cover of say the You magazine, and the first page you looked at was the contents page. Now the reader of the popular mags often gets to wade through a few pages of ads first.

Then, the articles also tended to be more evenly spread through the mag than they are now and I suspect that the ratio of advertising to real information is growing. (Don’t have any info on this availalable so this is purely an observation.)

The question that I ask seeing this is: “Is advertising in a magazine such as this as effective as it used to be?”

© Ann Williams

Banners: (These are based on screen widths)
- 468 pixels wide X 60 pixels deep, OR
- 600 X 60

Buttons are usually:
- 120 pixels across X increments of 60 or 80 pixels down (so, either X 60, 120 or 180 OR X 80, 160 or 240)
- some websites can handle buttons that are 150 pixels across, but rather speak to the webmaster before submitting any button adverts that are bigger than 120 pixels across.

Why I was impressed with what they have done since they opened in February last year is because they have followed some very basic tennets of marketing to get this business on its feet.

1. Environmental scanning: The owners of Glass & Fire also own one of South Africa’s first beading supply stores. They have seen this craft grow in popularity in this country as well keeping an eye on what was happening in the United States, the ‘home of beading’. So before going into glass bead making - they already knew about their field. They also already had access to some of the suppliers of the raw materials (although there was still quite a bit of work to be done with sourcing.)

2. Identifying a market: The art of making glass beads, or lampwork, though highly popular in the US, was only being done by a handful of crafters in South Africa. With the beading rage burning bright in South Africa, they made a decision that they would tap this market segment - beading enthusiasts.

(And as a byproduct they landed up with someone like me who is not a beading enthusiast, but I have always wanted to work with molten glass and have finally a found a way of doing this that is affordable, fun, and where I can do it in my own home without having to have a large studio space.)

3. Deciding on a niche: Although there are many more things than beads that can be made using these lampworking techniques, Glass & Fire are concentrating specifically on bead making. While being a seperate niche to supplying beads and accessories, it stills ties in nicely.

4. Doing something you are skilled in: All of the main staff members have had training in lampwork in the USA, and the skill level is very high and continually improving. This means, that I as a client, felt that I was getting good value for money on my course.

5. Doing something you like: Not only are they good at what they do, I got the impression that they all really enjoy what they do. During our training session, the passion of all of the staff members shined through - which make for a fun-filled two days and an enjoyable environment to be in. The result: I’m going back for more!

6. Advertising: I felt that they hit the nail on the head with their main print advertising. This consisted of a series of adverts in a niche publication - Beads (South Africa) - which fitted in very well with their target market.

7. Tell people about yourselves: They have had some articles about ampwork / Glass & Fire published. Always a great way to publicise your company - tell publications about your business.

8. Get online: Nice little website, which importantly for a product supply company, includes a catalogue of materials, accessories etc you can order from them. It also gives a current class schedule; always a good idea.

© Ann Williams

You’re a man and you see a gorgeous woman at a party. You go up to her and say, “I’m fantastic in bed,” - That’s Direct Marketing

You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous woman. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says “He’s fantastic in bed,”- That’s Advertising

You see a gorgeous woman at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed,” - That’s Telemarketing

You’re at a party and see a gorgeous woman. You get up and straighten your tie. You walk up to her and pour her a drink and then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed,” - That’s Public Relations

You’re at a party and see a gorgeous woman. She walks up to you and says, “I hear you’re fantastic in bed,” - That’s Brand Recognition

You’re at a party and see a gorgeous woman. You talk her into going home with your friend - That’s a Sales Rep

Your friend can’t satisfy her so he calls you – That’s Tech Support

You’re on your way to a party when you realise that there could be gorgeous women in all these houses you’re passing. So you climb onto the roof of one situated toward the center and shout at the top of your lungs, “I’m fantastic in bed!” - That’s Spam!

And then on the opposite side of the stairwell you get told the following… Euch! Pass the bugs along a bit!

Thankfully at the top of the stairs they have the answer to all of our ‘bug infestation’ problems!

And the same goes for the windows….

© Ann Williams

The person driving a 4×4, BMW 7-series or even a Porshe around the security estate where they have their home, is probably not as wealthy as the casual observer would think. It is much more likely that if they lose their jobs, their business folds, or the interest rates go up by two percentage points, that they are only two or three bond payments away from having to have to sell their property/ies and the bank carting away their car/s.

A large study was done over many years in the USA to find out who the wealthy in American society were and what kind of lifestyles these people led. The results were a startling surprise for the researchers who expected these people to be professionals living in Trump Towers. The story and summary of the research became a bestseller by the title of “The millionaire next door”.

They found that the average dollar multi-millionaire was a self-made business person who lived a very average middle-class life, had a medium-sized home, a family sedan (think Toyota Corolla here) or pick-up truck if needed, drank Budweizer beer and generally wouldn’t dream of buying luxury goods. (How do you think they became wealthy in the first place!) The only part of their lifestyles where the wealthy differed considerably from their ‘want to appear wealthy’ counterparts is that they make sure that they gave their children the best education their money could buy.

The ‘want to appear’ wealthy section of society are usually high income earners - who are spending their money faster than they are making it, but have very little value.

Why I have included a summary of this study in this blog entry though, is because we in South Africa are not only following this trend, but with a new generation of high-income black professionals, we have more and more people in our society who feel the ‘need’ to appear to be wealthy. So, it’s open season for luxury goods sellers in SA!

The implications of this are that if you want to sell luxury goods, you need to realise that it is not about providing value for money - it’s about weaving the story of appearances. (And about making sure that you can offer long-term payment plans as well as having a good repo company in your corner to ensure that you can at least get back as much of the value of what you are selling as possible if the purchaser defaults.)

© Ann Williams

It turns out that Pick ‘n Pay has introduced a new range of pre-prepared dinners, and was giving a free sample of a dinner to their customers. So Dikeledi and I each walked out happy customers with a delicious meal - probably unproportionally happier than putting R20-something in my pocket would have made me.

What this brought home to me is the power of a free sample of food to get customers back and buying. (If they like it of course.) It certainly outstrips the pull of advertising.

Another business that has used food samples extremely sucessfully is Mrs Fields Cookies in the USA. Just over 40 years ago a young mother with no previous business experience, Debbi Fields, opened a business selling only cookies.

Having invested in fitting out a complete store she opened her doors in August 1977 - and almost nobody bought anything! For the first few days they got rid of complete batches of unbought cookies.

Was their product sub-standard? No. Definitely not. As millions of avid Mrs Fields cookie fans over the past four decades will attest. It’s just that she didn’t have the cash for extensive advertising; and passersby just didn’t think to stop in and try the product.

After a few days of negliable sales, they decided to offer passersby pieces of broken cookies rather than turf them out. It was the making of Mrs Fields Cookies. One taste temptation and people were hooked. It was the start of a regular trade and within weeks the store was flourishing.

The rest as they say is history, with there now being almost 500 cookie stores around the world as well as a lovely website for ordering gifts. www.MrsFields.com

So, if you’ve got a tasty new food temptation or a new flavour, try giving a sample - it works!

© Ann Williams

The film, called Kinky Boots, was made in 2005 after the real company, W.J. Brooks, was the subject of one of the episodes of BBC ’s managerial reality programme Trouble at the Top where the producers dubbed them “The Kinky Boot Factory”.

While the film differed on a number of points, where it stayed true to form was that the company was a long-established firm being managed by its fourth generation of the founding family.

In the movie, Price and Sons (the film name of the company) lost money due to a large order being made and no-one to buy it. In reality W.J. Brooks began to suffer a downturn in trade when the increased value of the pound meant they lost their export trade, especially in Germany. And cheap imports meant the loss of domestic orders.

This is not an unusual situation in South Africa, as can be seen by shut-down of many factories in the garment, fabric, leather and shoe-manufacturing industries. I speak from first-hand experience here as I was a QA manager at a leather tannery that faced a 400% increase in raw materials in the space of a few months. It was shut down by the group head office without even a consideration of possible alternatives that had been suggested to them - with the loss of about 500 jobs.

In the film, factory owner, Charlie Price, started to make women’s boots for men because of a chance encounter with a drag queen called Lola and a dressing down from a disgruntled employee as he was laying off staff.

Back in reality, Steve Pateman started to make fetish footwear because Laces in Folkestone, a fetish shop, found his details through the Footwear Federation. Laces had many problems with their previous supplier and Steve thought he could help. After speaking to several other shops he thought there was something his factory could do.

The result was a range of erotic boots and shoes for men and women called Divine. The main featue point was heavy duty stilletos that could be worn by people who were not ‘petite’ without them snapping off!

Divine is now being sold extensively through erotic websites - which I’m not putting any links to! (Or you can order them straight from the supplier).

Which just goes to show, that with a touch of differentiation even small family businesses which have been doing the same thing for decades can thrive by looking at new markets.

© Ann Williams

There is a difference for me between people who are just really ‘nice’ and between customers I ‘like’ (although I have found that great customers are often ‘lekker’ people as well).

The kind of customer I like is:

1. One who wants to do business (possibly with my company), rather than just chancing their luck to see what they can get for free (or at a super-duper discount).

2. One who respects the relationship that may be formed. (I have come across some American ‘negotiators’ whose tactics are to come in blazing in the hope of knocking down pricing etc. Eg. Purposefully starting meetings late when there are two dozen people from the supplier waiting for them; pretending to ’scratch around’ for the documentation that has been sent, and then ‘just read through it quickly’ when by what they say in the talks you know they have been studying it intensely before; and by using derogatory and pushy language to get your backs up.) No matter how much money deals like this may bring in for you, just don’t do it! You will spend all of your profit from the job in continuous haggling and court cases - it is not actually worth it in either monetary or emotional terms. And you can tell them right up front that unless there is an attitude adjustment you are not interested in their business. (Then you’ll probably see some changes!)

3. Only do work that you like. I kid you not! I’m not talking about how tedious or difficult the work may be. I’m talking about whether you feel comfortable in your mind and soul about doing the work. Let’s say that I know that a shoe manufacturer uses child labour in its factories, I am not going to do their advertising campaign or assist them with their marketing.

4. They pay you! Ah. Amen. You work hard for them, you expect to be paid - and within the framework that you agreed on beforehand. (Or if they are really having a hard time, for whatever reason, it is up to them to contact you and make some kind of alternative arrangement for your payment.) There seems to be an increasing number of companies which close down - some even purposefully - leaving huge debts while the owners are still living very comfortable lifestyles!

5. You like their business. The previous four points are pretty much necessities in my business book… This point however is about making the world a better place. People make the world go around by being productive. (There would be nothing to eat if someone didn’t go out hunting or till the fields!) Ethically run businesses have a positive vibe about them that can make it a pleasure for anyone dealing with them. You feel that you want to help them make their business grow, that you and your business are all part of a chain of people doing something positive. (Yeh, ’squishy’ stuff I know.) But it’s really great doing business with a company with have ‘heart’.

© Ann Williams

Not only were their shirts and jackets part of a uniform bearing the company’s name, logo and corporate colour, their cars are all one style, Beetles, which are also branded in the same way. Good thinking guys! Visible, informative and, well… gotta luuuv those People’s Cars.

Then to add to an already great package, I was given a postcard sized card-board flyer with a picture of the car. Not only was this ‘postcard’, very well designed, beautifully laid out and useful to the customer - they made great use of humour in it.

The picture of the Beetle (called a NerdMobile) on the front is accompanied by arrows pointing to various parts of the car, with quips such as: “computer parts concealed in hubcaps”, “backseat loaded with computer gadgets” and “keyboard cleaner disguised as washer fluid”.

And to add to the tickle is the exhortation to call 0800 MY NERD, to you, as “We know stuff”. So, whenyou have a problem with your computer, who’re YOU going to call?

© Ann Williams

Let’s face it; which piece of mail do you open first: the small, cheapest, thin, off-white stock envelope with the poorly printed label stuck on skew and the franking; or the subtlety coloured, stamped envelope that is hand addressed?

You don’t have to use the top of the range, specially-made envelopes but there are a couple of options open to you:1. Use standard size envelopes (DLs, maxi-Dl’s and C5s) for your usual mail. Don’t skimp by using tiny envelopes that any paper has to be folded up a number of times to be squashed into it.

2. Many stationers and the South African envelope companies, keep stocks of standard size envelopes in a variety of paper types, weights and colours. Match your envelope to your letterhead paper if possible.

3. You may be able to afford to print your logo, website address and return address on your envelopes. Contact your local printer to see what the costs are. If you cannot afford that, you can look at having stickers made.

4. You must have a return address on your envelope. You need to know if your mail has not reached someone. This can be done with a sticker or by using a rubber stamp.

5. Wherever possible, use stamps rather than a franking machine.

To read more articles on direct mail marketing…

© Ann Williams

While I have heard filler phrases used (crickey, I do it myself on occasion) this had to have been one of the worst conversations I have had to plough my way through.

After two minutes in I actually started counting how many sentences consisted of “you know what I mean” or “you understand then” or something very similar. (The count: every second or third sentence.)

After five minutes I said “no, I don’t know what you mean” followed by a specific question to help clarify what he was trying to say (this was ignored). After ten minutes I actually asked him please not to say it….

I came out of the conversation feeling like I had been pulled through the bush backwards! And most certainly I will NOT be doing any work for this man as I don’t think I would be able to save myself from wanting to boot his butt right out of my office (if I hadn’t strangled him out of frustration first).

Which is a pity as I think he had a good idea and seemed to be a concerned and decent person - I just can’t stand having my brain turned to mush like that and the emotional expenditure I had to put into this contact was extensive.

To make matters worst he spent most of the time bemoaning the fact that no-one seemed interested in what he had to say, was willing to fund his business and that he couldn’t get people interested in attending his functions. Unfortunately, I am not surprised.

The bottom line: when marketing a business idea (no matter how good it is) you need to remember that you are marketing yourself as well - probably to an even greater extent than your concept.

So get your thoughts straight (written business plans, no matter how short & sweet, can help with this) and decide specifically what you want to get out of a conversation before you even pick up a telephone or go to a meeting.

© Ann Williams