Apr 15

Focus on export business with a specialist coaching session

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International

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3newcoursesThree new international business workshops for 2013.

Get your export business fired up with a specialist coaching session. Each of these new packed workshops focuses in on subjects that really matter, cutting through any irrelevant material. You take away practical tactics you can put into action straightaway.

Selling professional services overseas.

Export is not just for tangible products – services can be extremely profitable too. Your expertise and knowledge is often more highly regarded in overseas markets and can command premium prices.

As well as covering export basics, you will:

  • Learn how to select the most profitable markets
  • Get to grips with specialised routes to market
  • Learn how to deal with language and cultural differences
  • Promote your business effectively
  • Build an international brand

…and much more.

Learn more today >>>

Selling tourism as an export

Attracting foreign visitors to your venue or attraction is just as much an export activity as selling goods overseas. You will learn:

  • How to identify key markets
  • Working with partners to develop your customers
  • How to build an irresistible offer
  • Distance marketing – really effective communications

…and much more.

Learn more today >>>

International branding

Building a brand that works effectively in export markets is more than a marketing task – it’s about creating a really asset with real value.

This vital course covers:

  • Identifying core brand values
  • Dealing with language and culture
  • Protecting your intellectual property
  • Visual communications – design, colour and imagery
  • Competitive positioning

…and much more.

Learn more today >>>

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Mar 16

10 reasons why international business is a must have

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International

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Test

The world is one big market now. Digital media has made the barriers to entry so low that no business should miss the opportunities to export. No mater whether you are selling products or services, a large or small enterprise – here are just ten of the many reasons you should be thinking internationally.

If you are selling at home, there is no reason why you should not extend your customer base overseas – don’t be reactive, waiting for them to come to you. You’ll be surprised how little extra effort is required to take your business to them.

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Jan 29

Make the most of your international exhibitions

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International

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International exhibitions can be very costly in both money and time. They can be very effective too if you make sure you plan carefully and don’t miss any opportunities to maximise your sales.

The four ‘P’s of exhibiting.

We’ve all know about the four (or seven, or even eleven!) ‘P’s of marketing, well there are four fundamentals to exhibiting too.

 

Preparation
Preparation – you cannot do too much. Study the shows, ideally go as a visitor first to really understand how the show works. Decide upon your objectives and quantify the results you expect.Prepare your exhibits, materials and most importantly, your people.Make sure everyone knows what they are doing – how and when.Use a checklist so nothing is left to chance.
PropertyProperty – The stand or booth – this is your real-estate for the show.Make sure it works and looks the business. You won’t get a second chance to make a great first impression.Be visual – avoid too many words. Pictures, diagrams, video – use these tools to get around language and cultural issues.Make it welcoming – no barriers and no clutter.
people People – the critical element. People buy from people.Prepare your people, have your specialists. Make sure you have a schedule so everyone is kept fresh and enthusiastic.Prepare three or four questions beforehand – avoid closed, ‘Can I help you?’ questions.Remember the four steps: Engagement - Qualification - Presentation - Closing
PromotionPromotion – you’re spending a lot on the show, make sure you take every promotional opportunity.Before the show, prepare your catalogue entry. Create a buzz online with your website and social media. Let your clients and important people know what you are doing. Put flashes on your mail and email.At the show, have your press packs up to date and translated. Tweet from the show.Afterwards, get your stories out – successes, orders secured, interesting events and experiences.

Planning is critical. Most important, plan the time when you get back to follow up, evaluate and analyse. Follow up those leads while they are red-hot!
Download your free international exhibition checklist.

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Dec 06

Creativity – who’s afraid of the ‘c’ word?

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Creativity

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Clients are often scared to death of the word ‘creative’. Even when there is a desperate need to encourage a culture of creativity within their organisation, the very word often brings on a cold sweat.

I understand that people engaged in ‘rational’ businesses such as manufacturing or the professions, take pride in their logical decision-making abilities and processes of justification. For them, creativity suggests something irrational, nebulous and lacking control. They think of the so-called creative industries, fashion, music, media, publishing etc. They often carry images of creative ‘types’ as wild, wooly, difficult to manage and perhaps downright dangerous. They see no place for them in their organisation.

So, where we recognise that a business needs to seriously develop its creative dimension, we resort to a little subterfuge. We don’t use the ‘c’ word – we say ‘innovation’ instead.

I know this is often an inaccurate use of the term (innovation is creativity+application), but it is more palatable. Innovation is what most businesses really need. They want creativity (shhh, whisper it), but in terms of something with identifiable application, commercialisation  and monetization. Innovation (and creative thinking) is vital, not only in terms of product and service invention and development, but also in systems, business processes and management. Without it we stagnate.

So, though creativity is one of the first and fundamental steps in the innovation process we carefully avoid the term. I can live with that. So long as businesses recognise that innovation is vital, I’m happy to use words they find comfortable.

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Nov 28

Get the lead out of your ads!

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Creativity

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Creativity versus execution.

In my youth, in the dim, dark days of advertising, the company I worked for subscribed to an excellent US magazine, ‘Art Direction.’ I was in awe of some of the grabbing, intelligent, and often downright quirky concept coming to fruition on the other side of the pond.

Occasionally some fundamental truths appeared. One ad for a US agency stuck in my mind and has remained a reference point ever since.

There was a full-page ad, 80% of which was filled with pencil scribble. The headline and sub-head read as follows:

‘Get the lead out of your ads’

‘A prolific pencil is no substitute for a good advertising idea.’

Get the lead out of your ads

The copy went on to explain that no matter how good the quality of illustration, photograph or execution, they were just window dressing if the underlying idea was weak or absent.

Decades later, I come back to that thought. With today’s bounty of goodies in terms of digital media, CGI, video creation and editing, 3D modelling and all the rest, it’s easy to feel ourselves blown away by stunning execution. Sometimes, however, I’m left with an empty feeling – where was the message? What was the benefit?

I’m not trying to belittle the amazing work done by those executing these masterpieces, but just sometimes questioning the quality of concepts from the creative teams behind them. It can be too easy to get a great film-maker or animator and think – ‘Job done’.

Sure, let’s make use of all these shiny new tools and amazingly talented people. But they are the finishing point not the start. They make that great idea brilliant, but are not a substitute for it.

As they say, ‘You can’t polish a… ‘  well, you get the picture.

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Oct 20

Brand audits and reviews – try looking at the glass-half-full for a change.

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Brand Development, Marketing

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Glass half fullI was recently working with a client on a development project and suggested a brand audit and review. The client responded: “Why should we, there is nothing wrong with the brand?”

Whether or not he was right, it is an example of attitudes to reviews. People are always taking the pessimistic view – looking at the glass-half-empty.

Consider the old SWOT analysis. Out of our Strengths come our Opportunities and out of our Weaknesses come our Threats. But so often it leads to a concentration on the weaknesses and threats. When businesses are asked to identify actions following as SWOT, they invariably focus on things they need to put right. Of course, this is important but potential openings may be missed – these lie in the company’s strengths.

Perhaps it’s only natural in tough economic times to be thinking defensively, however siege mentalities will never lead to growth.

So, back to my client: did we go ahead with the review? Yes: and concentrated upon looking for opportunities. Thanks to having a basically stable brand we were able to identify three possible directions. One led to a brand extension and re-positioning for a new European market.

So try polishing up those rose-tinted glasses and look at the half-full glasses – you’ll be surprised how much better the second half can taste.

 Get your brand ready for export with an international brand review.

International branding review logo

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Oct 18

Put emotion back in your brand.

Categories:

Brand Development

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Emotional response in branding.

What are the ads that you best remember from last year? And why? I am prepared to bet that it was because of the emotional response – they made you smile or cry, feel happy, sad, angry, worried… all emotional responses. The same is true for memorable brands: they produce an emotional response. They may be more subtle than the belly laugh or pathos you felt when viewing a short commercial, but the emotions a brand can instill are valuable assets.

Initial brand choice and selection is the result of very fast decision making, usually much faster than you are consciously aware. However, emotional attachment to a brand is a feature of the brand relationship. As with any relationship, different people want to get different things from it. Relationships are not static, but dynamic, changing over time, and at different times we look for different emotional experiences. With a car brand for example, the overriding emotion maybe reassuring comfort, but at times the owner may want to experience excitement or perhaps a sense of fun.

Like a marriage, a brand relationship needs work to sustain it over time. The brand steward must be sensitive to his or her audiences’ emotional needs and continually refresh them.

Any serious brand owner will have carefully assessed the needs and values of his audience and have ensured that the brand offer and proposition match them. You will have done a review of your brand values and throughly understand them. But what about the emotional capital? Time applied to understanding the emotional attachment stakeholders have or want from their relationship with your brand is time well spent. Find out how your customers feel – does their brand relationship make them happy, proud, reassured or excited? Does it give them a sense of fun, tension or camaraderie?

Relationships rarely break down for pragmatic reasons, even though we may try to use them to justify the breakdown after the event. I remember someone once saying that, “The opposite to love is not hate – it’s indifference.” Make sure your customers’ emotional needs are met so that your brand relationship does not end up in the divorce courts.

First published on Brandmaster’s blog.

Put One Marketing to work on your brand.

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Sep 25

Research – can you have too much?

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Market research

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The three most important elements in a marketing strategy, on or off-line – research, research and research – to paraphrase the hackneyed saying.

Of course it is true – research is fundamental. Today, amassing data is easier than ever. So, we need to be careful, before we collect more data than we can manage. We must be sure that we collecting the right data, the really useful data.

What are you going to do with the data?

One of the first questions we ask clients when being briefed on a research project is what will the do with the data? It sometimes meets with bemused looks. Just because we know that research is good, we can fall into the trap of thinking all data is good.

More than ever it is important to be clear at the outset, what do we want to know? Ask yourself four simple questions:

  1. What do we REALLY want to know?
  2. Who do want to ask?
  3. How will we use the information?
  4. What real benefit do we hope to get from doing the research?

With so much data available it is tempting just to jump in and start gathering it. That’s why it’s wise to speak with your researcher or consultant. They are sure to give you that valuable reality check.

Remember, you don’t fatten a pig by weighing it.

I’ve got a research project in mind, tell me how One-Marketing can help…

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Sep 25

Social media and export business.

Categories:

International, social

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Social media for export is a powerful tool – but beware – there are key differences and plenty of pitfalls for the unwary. Our social media arm has put together a great workshop programme, bringing together our international business and training skills with the latest social media insights. Check out the new workshops – they will be rolling out during the autumn and are also available as tailored, in-house sessions if you wish. Check out here >>

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Sep 19

Creative leadership – better to have great ideas or be able to spot them?

Categories:

Creativity

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Sometimes having great ideas is just not enough. Creative teams are often superb at generating idea after idea. The real genius, however, often lies in identifying, selecting, developing and commercializing these ideas.

This is where sound creative leadership is needed. You must have somebody who is able to sift through the plethora of good ideas and recognise the really great one. Often that idea is messy and unformed, like the uncut diamond. The skill is seeing that potential in the raw state.

Too often people rise through the ranks of a creative team thinking that to lead the team they need to be the one with the best ideas – wrong. It’s a bit like promoting your best salesperson to be sales-manager. Just because they can sell does not mean they can manage. Worse, you lose a great salesperson and swap them for a poor manager.

Of course ideas are vital, but the process is:

creation > selection > development > commercialisation.

Great creative leadership is about stimulating the creative process, creating an environment in which ideas can flourish, and then applying the genius to select and develop the gems.

See our creativity/innovation Prezi.

 

 

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