I have known for some time that color has power to impact people, and have used color to make advertising more effective. Knowing about color can help in many ways. I have a client who runs a retail store who normally wears blues because "that's my color" and recently wore red one day. The results were obvious to her, her sales were down and people treated her differently. I mentioned the power of color and she also knew, without knowing, that color has power. Best not to re-invent the wheel … [Read more...]
Get attention
With all the input we have from all around us, how do we make our business stand out? Old school marketing says Recognition, Repetition, and Impact is the formula for advertising. Take Coke for example; they have all the recognition in the world, and can’t have much impact since it is a soda, not all that exciting in itself, so they buy repetition. Lots of spots to keep Coke top of mind. Now, take your business for example. I suspect that you are not as well-known as Coke, and probably don’t … [Read more...]
Marketing Messaging
In the years I have been doing marketing, I have seen very expert people in their fields completely fail when they try to put their own ad together. Something about putting thoughts onto paper puts a glitch in their memory – they try to put everything in the ad, and nothing is clear, or they try to handle every situation. The most effective way I have found to get what the message should be is to listen in on the business owner selling a potential client and write down the things they say. … [Read more...]
Effective Marketing – Kipling’s Questions
I always say that the hardest thing to see is what is not there. Seems obvious on one level, and completely baffling on others. The most dismaying thing that can happen is to spend all that time and money designing and producing something to market your business only to realize, once it is in hand, that some important element was left off and the piece is nearly useless without it. The undeniably most helpful tool I use for making sure a design and effective marketing is complete is Kipling’s … [Read more...]
Green Wash or Clean Green?
Greenwashing Greenwashing. It gives a bad name to eco-friendly, but is it a bad thing? Greenwashing is when an entity presents themselves as being green when they really aren’t. You know them and seen them, even if you didn’t recognize them as such. The question I have is: Is it a bad thing to greenwash? I mean, the fact that they perceive it as important is a statement in itself. Reduce, Re-use, Recycle has been around for awhile and greenwashing is just behind. And while I dislike the idea … [Read more...]
What’s a green concept worth?
The old adage that a picture is worth a 1000 words is true. I have used photos in many marketing efforts and they work. Humans are wired to recognize faces. Images evoke emotions and convey ideas. So if that is the case, then what does presenting a concept do? The concept of eco-friendly and sustainable methods is growing and becoming more accepted and desired than ever before. What does it say to the customer when a business gives away a sustainable promotion? It says, more than anything, … [Read more...]
Breakfast in the Park Zero Waste Effort
July 24 2011 It started with Cary Rentola from Pathways Hospice asking for volunteers to person the zero waste aspect of their fund raiser Breakfast in the Park. Gallegos was the waste vendor and I expected it to be interesting and fun and maybe meet some neat people. What I didn't expect was that there was actual education involved. Gallegos has set up a system to where they can divert the vast majority of waste into compost from an event like this. The education was new to about 1/4 to 1/3 of … [Read more...]
Be the change you want to see
Where to start? That’s a good question for near about anything. I’ve been trying for a week to figure out how to start this blog and I realized that the question was not how, but when? It’s now. The answer is always now to begin anything. I spent most of my adult life in printing and marketing while trying to maintain a sustainable life- recycling, composting, riding a high mileage motorcycle (BMW F650GS, which goes street and off-road and gets 63MPG), building straw bale cabin, earth-bermed … [Read more...]
