Advertising with an Edge

There’s plenty of good advertising out there and there is plenty of bad advertising out there. This week I’m going to make a couple comments of what I think is pretty good advertising that undoubtedly turns heads.

• Last week after what could hardly be called public outrage, Coors pulled down a billboard in BC picturing an ice cold Coors Light and a large caption stating “Colder than most people from Toronto” (pictured below). Apparently some Torontonians found it offensive, not all Torontonians though as the ad was actually designed by a Toronto based advertising firm.

• If you’ve been listening to the radio lately you may have noticed the new ads Virgin Mobile is running to promote their mobile internet service. The ads themselves are full of innuendo and take the form of a guy calling one of those late night adult 1-900 numbers that always advertise aroused women staying in and talking on the phone to have a good time, because evidently that’s what they do these days. By the vocabulary and intonation in passing it may sound like a 1-900 number but if you listen they’re actually talking about the feature of the new mobile services. The ad airs on CJAY and Vibe.

Some people would argue that ads like these are too edgy to be good for the brand, but nothing could be further from the truth. Edgy or provocative advertising and publicity is a fine line to walk and some would argue that brands such as American Apparel may sometimes cross that line. But if you really know your market, sometimes the risk you take could be a lay up for a slam dunk. (For the record I wouldn’t have considered the Coors ad walking that line until I heard people were actually complaining to Coors about it).

With the Coors ad, chances are they are in the clear because a) People in BC probably don’t live in Toronto, b) even people from Toronto might get a chuckle out of it, and c) if you’re a loyal Coors drinker and lived in Toronto, you’d probably forgive them for it because you know that’s their brand. But most importantly, even if you do get a huge public response from the ad (good or bad), you’re still getting way more exposure than you paid for with the cost of a billboard and an ad design. The same goes for the Virgin ads, they’re pretty borderline and the innuendo is pretty transparent but rarely has an ad like that hurt a company’s bottom line. On the contrary, Virgin has been running ads like that ever since the young Mr. Bronson started Virign records 30 years ago.

The key a really good ad is to know your target market and demographics, this takes time, research, and an exceptional understanding of your customer. After that thought to ad design and ad placement is critical if you want to break through the clutter and evoke a response. This goes double if you want your ad to walk that fine line between clever+provocative and just bad press.

As always if you have any questions or comments feel free to email or leave a comment. I'm going to go enjoy a nice cold Coors Light now (actually I don't drink Coors...).

A Couple Pointers on Building Your Network

Okay team so here is another blog full of great advice for other entrepreneurs and emerging business people. This may seem pretty elementary to some because it’s so simple, but too often we get so caught up in growing our business through business channels that we end up ignoring opportunities that can be established through our existing personal channels.

Chances are your business isn’t your only interest, and you may have an interest in soccer, cycling, fashion, computers, hockey, cars, anything really. Make sure that people you have relationships with in those communities know what you do, whether they’re your team, on an online forum, facebook, whatever. If they ever need services in line with what you do, they’ll be more inclined to go with somebody that they have something in common with and at least sort of know, than with a stranger from the yellow pages. Moreover, those people will often refer you to other people if they need something (because everyone loves having “connections”). I’m not saying force your key selling points down people’s throats, I’m saying if you’re comfortable with it don’t be shy about sharing your business with people that don’t necessarily know the entrepreneur side of you.

This next tip is a bit more on the B2B side, but worth knowing anyways…

If you’re in tune with the small business community, or have a large social circle, or are just a super friendly person you likely find yourself in a lot of conversations where you have the opportunity to talk to others about your business. And in a city like Calgary you no doubt find yourself talking to other people with their own businesses. But key to the art of schmoozing isn’t telling other people about what you do, its learning more about what they do. Developing a genuine interest and asking a lot of questions about what other people do immediately establishes a strong rapport will identify you as someone easy to work with. Not only this, but it will help you identify whether or how you can find new clients or create partnerships with other businesses.

The last thing is, have a business card at the ready at all times, and make it a good one that fits your personality and business. This is really important because when the other person walks away from the conversation, that’s what they have to remember you by. And I really don’t mean to knock anybody who has business cards with perforations around the side that you can print on your own printer, but spending the extra $50 on printing at a print shop will show clients that you are committed to your businesses and want to relay a sharp, professional image.
By the way, sorry if this post seems a little disjointed, I’m a little hungry right now and ended up rambling and changing the topic of this post a few times. If you’ve read this far you deserve a gold star!

Valuing Your Time

The biggest challenge that many entrepreneurs face, myself included, is the concept of valuing your own time. Obviously there are a lot of businesses out there that seem to have mastered the concept of assigning dollars the their valuable time (read: lawyers), but for many of us its a forgone concept that must be learned in order to make your business a successful one.

For consultants, the ones who aren't engineers in this city anyways, it is important to do your market research before setting your charge out rate and being realistic about the fact that as a new market entrant you may have to price yourself at a discount to the competition. I once spoke to a now very successful entrepreneur and he told me that even with his many years of experience, his strategy was to enter the market charging literally nothing for his services and only request that if clients are happy with his service, they emphatically refer business to him. You certainly don't have to do this, but he did and it worked for him.

But as your business becomes established it is very important that you use pricing as a lever to manage how much of your time you devote to your work. If you the phone isn't ringing, either you increased your price too quickly, or you are pricing so low that people don't believe you offer value in your product or service (I've seen this happen, to lawyers no less). Likewise if the phone is ringing off the hook, its probably because your services are on a permanent fire sale. Again, this is why its important to do your research on market rates and benchmark off of this, if you find the market charge out rate is in the ballpark of $100/hr, charging $75/hr as a new business is not unreasonable if you are on your first client, but if you feel you offer comparable service, don't be shy to start notching your rate up there.

Enter shameless plug for our marketing company. redlime takes a very strategic approach to marketing and we strongly recommend entrepreneurs or emerging business do their homework on the market, or have us do it for them. Having a solid pricing strategy and marketing plan is a critical component to the survival of any business, its something that we take very seriously and urge you to as well.

If you'd like to pick our brains about what we can do for you, give us a a call or drop us a note!