Last week Scott and I attended a Chamber of Commerce Business After 5 function with one of our clients, the Gecko Effect. The Gecko Effect is a unique sports store based in Margaret River, who came to us a few months ago for some strategic marketing advice. I must say that I’ve never left a Business After 5 function feeling so positive and proud.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
Over the last few months countless marketing and advertising magazines and publications have been talking about the come back of direct mail due to improvements in digital printing technology. To be honest, I have always been a fan of the mailbox as a medium. As with any marketing though, if you’re not going to put effort (and money) into standing out, doesn’t that just defeat the purpose?
Ask any business owner in a tourism-based town (like Busselton); Winter is the hardest time of the year. Store traffic is down, no-one is around, the weather keeps people inside, and money, for some unknown reason, seems to be tighter. Sure there is truth to some of this. But I believe there are some methods small business can implement to ‘survive the winter’.
Last week I set a challenge, of which the response was overwhelming (said with sarcasm), but it at least highlighted (to me) how important it is for grocery brands to brand themselves first – before selling the product, the taste, the quality, the range. Branding is number 1.
For this week’s blog I am issuing a challenge. I am going to write an entire shopping list (of packaged foods) by the first brand name that comes to mind, rather than products themselves (in no particular order). Next week, I’ll reveal my product list. See if you can guess it? (No google searches allowed). Write your thoughts in the comments section. There will be prizes (chocolate) for who gets them right.
On the weekend I visited a shopping centre, intent on finding a new pair of jeans. Any woman knows that jeans shopping is up there with bathers shopping – a dreaded, awful experience; full of disappointing size expectations and pledges of future dieting. Therefore, I was already in a less-than-positive mind-set.
Well it’s that time of year again. I’m planning my annual holiday. This year I’m trying to save money so I’m staying close to home, perhaps with a trip up the coast to beautiful Coral Bay and Exmouth. In my extensive internet searches for somewhere to stay, I stumbled across yet another excellent example of customer service (there must be something about me and travelling).