Yugoslavia

"I'd like to wear a bikini. I mean, I wish I could," I say. That was my first mistake.

George glanced at the passing parade of pinks and yellows and impossible suntans and navel rings three feet in front of our sensible camp chairs. It was as crowded as Coney Island. It was as crowded as Mumbai.

Finally he said, “You could go to Yugoslavia.” Then, because this seemed unclear, he added, “They don’t care what they look like there. You should see…”

He trailed off. Perhaps because another floral tattoo on Amazonian hips has sashayed by on its woman, the woman dipping her silver-ringed toes into the foamy water near shore. Her toes missed the floating Kleenex by inches. In any case, George seemed distracted.

“I could wear a bikini,” I resumed stubbornly. “But I think you should look great in it if you’re going to wear it,” and here I sucked my stomach in discreetly, “not just okay.”

Then, slowly, I realized. “Fine,” I said nastily, “I’ll go to Yugoslavia.”

“That’s not what I meant. Is there another sandwich?”

My point is, it is nice to be a man. Generally speaking, a man does not shave his legs. His bathing suit does not send squashed wads of flesh blopping out from its armholes or crotch.

He looks great. He is certain of it.

He does not consider going to Yugoslavia.

©2013 Michelle van Schouwen, Longmeadow, MA
All rights reserved.

Quick mix for B2B social media - taking first, important steps

Social media has become increasingly important in business development and communications. This includes business-to-business, where the trend toward communicating through social channels has arguably been slower than in more broadly recognized consumer products and services.

Now, B2B has clearly entered the fray. If your company is just beginning to get involved in social media, consider becoming active on the following four sites right away: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Here's a quick rationale for each:

LinkedIn: LinkedIn IS business, and having and actively using a company page provides you with ready access to the people, groups, discussions, and community that are your "conversational backyard". We predict that LinkedIn will continue to grow in influence.

Facebook: First, it's just so big and so popular... and so clearly making it big with business. Plus, Facebook is a great and (somewhat) easy way to communicate with your individual customers and to humanize your company and its activities. Remember that being involved in Facebook is much like attending a social gathering. Show interest in others, do not talk solely about yourself and talk about matters that may be of broad or deep interest to others. And did we mention, respond to the conversation-starters promulgated by the other attendees? Oh, and have some appetizers and a drink while you're here.

Twitter: Social media sophisticates, including editors and influentials, like it and use it often. It's brief, informative and to the point. Your company should be here, and should let these influentials know "what's news", from marketing launches to management changes. Again, good communication "manners" dictate that showing interest in what others have to say behooves you.

Google+: Because it's Google, because your active presence positively impacts your SEO and because it is slowly making a play for business involvement, with venues such as hangouts, allowing meaningful discussions. That's why. Some people argue that Google+ can be ignored. We disagree.

There is much more to discuss about best practices, benefits, venues, and tactics for B2B social media, and we will do so in future posts. In the meantime, go forth and socialize!

Too late to launch? Not necessarily.

More often than you might imagine, customers ask our vSALaunch team if it is too late to launch (or relaunch) a product or service that has been on the market for a year or more - albeit languishing or not reaching its full potential.

Also more often than you might imagine, the answer is a resounding "NO, it is not too late". Here are a few basic questions that will aid in deciding if your offering merits a "the-right-time-is-now" launch:

-Have you promoted the product or service through advertising, media relations, trade show exposure or other broad outreach? For how long, how heavily, and with what reach?

-Is your offering unique, or is it in fact a "me too" product or service?

-Do you believe there is significant upside potential for sales growth?

-Have you reached out to every major market segment you can realistically expect to serve?

If there is untapped potential, consider your "the-right-time-is-now" launch. Your product or service launch can be as broad or as focused as needed, can address the sales messages that haven't yet reached your prospects and can capitalize on whatever degree of success you have built with your offering to date.

Nice to know that for once, time is on your side. Happy launch.

Launch your new product, don't torpedo it.

Since you asked (and even if you didn't) our vSALaunch team wanted to share its top four observations about marketing for product launches.

1. Early marketing planning is good. Please don't wait until the 11th hour to start planning for your marketing launch. If the product is important, its marketing is, too, whether your budget is $10,000 or $1,000,000. While social media and interactive marketing offer great opportunities for on-the-spot announcements, many aspects of your launch, from product naming to trade shows and distributor relationship management, take longer.

2. Early (premature) announcement is not so good. Hey, what could go wrong in letting your key audiences know you have - or will have - an innovative new offering? Product engineering, testing or manufacturing problems often cause delays in product availability. The early product sometimes performs less perfectly than envisioned. You may have trouble meeting initial demand. Cats are notoriously hard to put back in the bag. Make sure you are ready before you make the big announcement.

3. The choice between a big splash and a soft launch deserves careful consideration. The big splash has the advantage of taking the market by storm, creating an impression of leadership and making it harder for competitors to say they got there first (unless, of course, they did). The soft launch lets you tread carefully, adjust your messaging as you get early feedback and gradually secure a market foothold as you gain confidence that the product is indeed performing as planned and getting positive reception as hoped and anticipated.

4. Do not invest, invent and then sit on your product. Timely, targeted marketing is critical to making the most of any important new product. No matter what your budget, get the word out and keep on doing so as long as there are new prospects to court.

 

Should your prospects and customers trust you?

“Well, of course they should trust us,” you may respond with some annoyance.

Let us rephrase the question. DO they trust you, and have you given them ample reason to do so?

We work in an era in which it is more than a little hard to trust. Our email is rife with phishing schemes and spam. Our online accounts get hacked. Companies with whom we work may make promises they can’t keep.

And yet, trust is extremely important in business relationships. People prefer to work with companies they trust… companies they like.

So, how to build trust among people who (let's face it!) may hardly know your company?

Communication is key.

And since you probably cannot meet with or even talk with all your prospects and customers as often as you like, it’s important to use the best communication strategies and tactics available to support your trust-building efforts. Here are just a few:

Content development: You hear about it all the time. Good content development is simply talking about the things you know and believe in, the ways you help, the resources and insights you can share, and more. Blog, use social media, write articles, speak at a meeting… and keep it coming. Consistency and frequency are key, as is relevance. Finding the balance between “getting out there” enough and running out of new things to say is important!

Editorial endorsement: Public relations, specifically media relations, in which you get your news and stories in the press, brings with it the benefit of implied editorial endorsement (and thus believability).

Connecting your leader(s) with the brand: In all of your outreach, it helps to take a “top down” approach. An admirable, accomplished or charismatic leader can speak for your brand, your commitments and the ways in which your company stands out from others. Select a thought leader to speak for your brand.

Brand building with demonstrated expertise or problem solving: Tell your story everywhere from your website to your webinars to your online videos, calculators and apps: “We solve a problem. Here is the problem we solve. Here is why you may care.”

Show that you are “good”: We have become advocates of cause marketing and active sponsorships, in which your company partners with a non-profit whose mission is aligned with your values. What a way to build trust while doing good!

Finally, be patient. Neither Rome nor Reputation, nor the trust that goes with it, is built in a day. Start now!

The nimble product launch

Make a plan and work the plan. We've all heard that guidance. Turns out that for today's product launches, what used to be smart is not so wise anymore, or at least not so simple.

Try instead: Learn from experience. Keep your eyes and mind open. Chart a course, then adjust as needed.


Today's best launches are conducted not by know-it-alls, but by savvy marketing advisors who have the wisdom to sail when and where the winds are fair, nudging the wheel where advantageous.

First may be the pre-launch phase in which the team builds a business case for the new product or service. Research, planning, validating that the product accomplishes the necessary goals, and making plans for sales and marketing all happen now.

Next, the soft launch: It's time to take the first steps. The team creates media relations/social media plans and starter materials, ads may be developed, a website readied and perhaps launched quietly, and sales force training and education conducted. The team agrees on how and when success will be measured, and on ways to chart the course once the launch becomes public.

And the main launch begins! Often, public relations leads the way, potentially with publicity, events, speakers, media relations, and more. The website must be up and running to serve as proof of concept and a point of reference. Support materials are available for the sales team. Advertising follows.

And it continues... Smart marketers continue the launch longer than they might emotionally feel is necessary. Remember, the fact that your team has been working on this launch for months or a year does not mean the public has been overexposed. The news is still news to them. Don't make the mistake of getting bored. Keep delivering.

And about nimble? Listen and learn from the response to your public relations, sales efforts and other outreach. Maybe there is an exciting product highlight you have underplayed. Perhaps there are objections you need to counter. Perhaps there are elements of the product that need to change. (Calling Phase 2!)

Through our vSALaunch service, our team has learned that a measured, smart, flexible approach to launch is a strong predictor for success. While we speak about your product or service, we continue to listen and watch for opportunities as well, whether for additional market segments, features that catch on more than anyone expected... and next-phase opportunities to stay steps ahead of the pack of competitors watching your every move.

Go wide, go deep

What's the most frequently asked question we've had this month from prospects and clients?

"Are you strong in global marketing?"

How has our client mix changed in the last five years?

vSA has more of its clients in several key areas of concentration than ever before: industrial, commercial/residential building systems and products, green products, aerospace, financial services, non-profit... and they are geographically more disparate than they were five years ago.

What common threads are there between the two insights above?

1-In an admittedly fragile economic recovery, we find renewed opportunity, but it is often farther away, geographically, than in years past. Remember Billy Joel's Downeaster Alexa: "Tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis and I still have my hands on the wheel."

2-More important, our clients' prospects (and vSA's prospects) demand deeper-than-ever expertise in their partners. They care much less than they once did about having immediate physical access. (See The new face of face time.) Therefore, the company that wants to market a new, green building system wants a marketing firm that knows new, green building systems and knows how to launch a new product successfully.

Our take-away:

van Schouwen Associates will continue to hone and enhance its strengths not only in the types of clients and verticals we know best, but also in global marketing. We've successfully managed both "incoming" marketing by European companies to the U.S. and "outgoing" by U.S. companies to Europe, South/Latin America, BRIC and lately, to the Middle East.

We'll anticipate working with a more and more geographically diverse client base, and always having good reading ready for those plane trips that will happen when real face time is timely.

It is, all in all, a great adventure. Business can continually broaden the mind, can it not?

 

Photo with thanks to NOAA Photo Library.