Category: Portland marketing

Chris Lytle on Money

If your marketing works, you will ultimately find yourself in front of prospects — people interested in buying something from you, or hiring your firm. And they’ll ask you how much your solution is going to cost.

Most sales courses recommend ducking the question until the customer is pretty far along in the process — you don’t want to scare him off early.

Chris Lytle, author of The Accidental Salesperson, takes another approach — he recommends addressing the question early:

In fact, if the customer doesn’t bring up the money question in the first meeting, I do.

Find out why, and how to approach the topic, here.

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Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call me at 503-323-6553.

When Current Events Spoil Your Ad Campaign

Last week in Canada, some poor guy on a Greyhound bus was stabbed, beheaded and partially consumed by a fellow passenger.

Under the best of circumstances, this would be represent a marketing challenge for Greyhound. What makes it worse, according to the Consumerist, is the nature of the company’s recent billboard campaign.

How would you like to be the guy who came up with that idea?

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call me at 503-323-6553.

Portland Small Business Advertising Seminar

Just a reminder for those in the Portland area — the Portland Business Alliance Cornerstones for Success event is this coming Thursday, August 7 from 4-6pm. It’s at the Portland Business Alliance, 200 SW Market Street.  You can find out more, and register online, here.

Once a month, the Portland Business Alliance puts on an educational forum for small and medium-sized businesses called Cornerstones for Success. The topics change each month, but each one is chosen for its relevance to the challenges faced by local merchants.

On Thursday, August 7, the subject is “Advertising Avenues”. I’ll be on the panel along with Craig Brown of KGW-TV and Brian Johnson of The Oregonian. We’ll be talking about how a business with a finite budget — like yours — can effectively deliver a persuasive message to the people who could become your customers.

It takes place from 4-6pm at the Portland Business Alliance, 200 SW Market Street. You can find out more, and register online, here.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call me at 503-323-6553.

The Evolving Apology

“When you lay an egg, stand back and admire it!” ~ Dale Carnegie

When things go wrong in business, it’s tempting to pretend it’s not happening, and hope folks don’t notice. According to Church of the Customer, J. Crew has taken the opposite approach, admitting their problems fron-and-center on their web site.

More interesting, perhaps, than the initial apology is the fact — pointed out by a commenter on the Church blog post — that the apology has since been shortened, with executives’ names removed. See the original apology here… and the condensed version (as of 8-4-08, anyway) here:

Which version is more effective?

Discuss.

Advertise with Smell-o-Vision!

Actually, the product (not actually called “Smell-o-Vision”, I’m sorry to say) isn’t available in the States yet. But here’s the deal, according to BusinessWeek

Cinescent, based in the German city of Hanover, has designed a machine that pumps a barely detectable aroma through a movie house’s air conditioning system to accompany on-screen ads. In early tests, a German theater ran two ads for the Nivea Sun lotion line, one accompanied by the faint smell of the product and a phrase—“the Scent of Summer”—splashed across the screen. The aromatic ad, produced for an extra $15,000, boosted consumer recall by 37% and raised ad impact (gauged over a few weeks) by more than 500%, says Cinescent.:

The company’s operating in Germany and The Netherlands now, and expects to be in Great Britain by fall. How long before they waft across our shores? So far, no plans have been announced.

Will American audiences put up with this? I’m going with “yes, eventually”. I’m old enough to remember when movie-goers would boo and hiss (yes, really hiss!) at on-screen commercials — now we have “The 20” and it’s considered part of the experience.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call me at 503-323-6553.