Are your Communications Plain Vanilla?

Recently, I attended a fabulous conference (NEMOA) where marketers convened and exchanged ideas. One seminar leader posed the question “Are your communications plain vanilla?”

Take a look at all your messaging. Could your customer communications be from Anycompany USA? This could spell death for a business.

Instead you want to build a “wow” experience at every touch point. Don’t be afraid of developing a company personality – and letting that personality shine through. Here are a few examples to get you started:

New Pig stands out with a weird and memorable company name
In fact, they play it up. Here’s what they say:
“We're a company with a really odd name... whose employees call each other "Piggers" or "Partners in Grime®." We create award-winning products to make your job easier... and we're absolutely, positively dedicated to helping our customers keep their facilities clean and safe. We know from experience that a clean, safe workplace is more productive.”
Their first product was the Original PIG® Absorbent Sock. Their catalog is called a Pigalog®. You can call them at 1-800-HOT-HOGS® (468-4647) and write them at One Pork Avenue. Now there’s a company that produces serious safety and industrial products that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Wouldn’t you remember them if you had an industrial spill?

Ben & Jerry’s has a folksy spin
If New Pig is too way out for you, there are plenty of other ways to get noticed. Take Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, a company that’s extra inventive about how they talk about their products and communicate with customers.
Their site includes a Scrapbook of the company history which mentions such events as building the world’s largest ice cream sundae…launching a cowmobile to criss-cross the country giving away free scoops…and details their environmentally-friendly activities such as introducing unbleached paper products.

You’ll also notice how funky and original the names of their products are – like Kaberry KaBOOM, for example. Here’s the description: full of cracklin’ candy to tingle your tastebuds. Doesn’t that make you want to run out and get a cone? To top it off, some of the proceeds of Kaberry KaBOOM sales went towards building safe playgrounds. You’ve got to love it! And their characteristic cows and clouds branding adds to the Vermont folksy appeal.

B2B or B2C – there a way to grab attention

Whether your products are technical or delicious, there’s a way to talk about your company that will help you stand out in the marketplace. And if you’re uncertain how to begin, that’s something PromoWriting can help you with.

Call PromoWriting at 203 371-0654 to find out how Shira Linden could help you better connect with your target audience. Visit www.PromoWriting.com. Or email Shira@PromoWriting.com.

Copy is key, survey shows

PromoWriting _________________________
SHIRA LINDEN • 203 371-0654 • www.promowriting.com


I was reading an article in the June, 2010 issue of Target Marketing. According to copywriting guru Bob Bly, Target Marketing did a survey of their readership to discover the best practices in b2b marketing. Here’s the background:

95% of respondents are involved in b2b marketing
53% do b2b only
41% do b2b and b2c.

Now the findings:

Content is key
* 65% of respondents agreed that it was important to “create value-added content to establish us as thought leaders in our market.”
* 71% said content marketing complements and works in tandem with traditional marketing communications.
* 12% said content is replacing traditional marketing as the primary selling tool.
* Only 15% of those surveyed said that they don’t really do content marketing.
* Not one respondent agreed with the statement, “Content is a waste of time.”

Print is NOT dead
* 9 out of 10 Target Marketing readers who responded use brochures
* 73% use traditional printed brochures
* 11% use white papers rather than brochures
* 6% have brochures available for download only
* Only 1 in 10 respondents agreed with the statement “Brochures are old hat…”

Blogs are NOT all the rage
* Most b2b marketers don’t have a company blog, monitor other people’s blogs to see if they’re mentioned or target blogs with PR pushes