THINKing

More Creativity

I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity lately. Done some research on the topic, too. As a result, I have some additional creativity resources for you.

Roger von Oech has long been a favorite of mine. His A Whack On The Side Of The Head book is a well-thumbed resident on my bookshelf.  He authors a blog – Creative Think -  that is an excellent destination when you are stuck for ideas.

Chuck Frey’s Innovation Weblog tackles creativity-related topics, and on the site are several resource centers, offering thoughs on mind mapping and idea management.

Dominic Basulto is a digital strategist at Electric Artists in New York and the former Editor of Fortune’s Business Innovation Insider. His blog, Endless Innovation, keeps an eye on what’s next in innovation and creativity.

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The Forgotten P

Graduates of Marketing 101 all know about the Four Ps of marketing – product, placement and promotion seem to be top of mind. But the forgotten P – in my opinion – is price. Pricing can be an excellent way to differentiate yourself. I’m not talking about low-balling your competitors either. I’m talking about using pricing strategically to address consumer pain.

Consider how airlines price tickets and then charge you what in essence are nuisance fees. They charge you extra for bags. They charge you for food and drink. These fees are all part of pricing and when done incorrectly can really hurt your brand. Jackie Huba has a good post on this topic.

Here at My Creative Team, we decided at the outset that we would price our work on a per project basis. As long as the scope of the project doesn’t change, we don’t charge a client any more than we quoted them initially.  It is harder to set pricing when you are using freelancers, but it is worth it. Our clients love the fact that they know how much something is going to cost them.

Most agencies and web design firms give you a rough estimate and then keep hitting you with extra hours to complete the project. This hurts your brand. So, pricing is just one of the ways – but a very important one – that we have used to differentiate ourselves. In everything we do, we try to make sure we live out our brand promise: We Make You Look Good.

Have you forgotten pricing, or are you using it effectively? Let us know.

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Marketing Spending Pays Off

Well, here’s a big surprise: small businesses which spend more during a downturn actually do better financially. Marketing professionals have been giving this advice to businesses of all sizes since the first recession. But too many business leaders make marketing their first, instead of their last, cut. It’s nice to have some empirical data to prove our assertion.

According to the “Small Business Marketing Health Check” report from Hurwitz & Associates, there is a correlation between small businesses that are doing well and greater marketing spending. Almost two-thirds of small businesses that expected increased revenues had raised or planned to raise marketing spending, compared with just 32% to 36% of businesses with flat or declining revenues.

During previous recessions, American Business Press has sponsored two studies on marketing expenditures, and the group found that:

- cutting spending on marketing and advertising during a recession produces negative short and long-term results in relation to sales and profits

-  additionally, during the 1974 – 75 recession years, the study found that companies not cutting marketing had higher sales and net income during those years and the two following years compared to companies which cut in either or both recession years.

But you have to be smart. A recession is not a time for profligate spending. You need to determine what is working best in terms of immediate lead generation and sales. Luckily, this time we have access to lower cost, easier to track digital media.

The previously mentioned “Small Business Marketing Health Check” indicates that smaller businesses were shifting away from traditional media and toward social media, email newsletters and search.

“The survey clearly reveals that the use of low-cost Web-based marketing tools is playing a strategic role in helping businesses succeed,” said Laurie McCabe, partner, Hurwitz & Associates, in a statement. “Making a few changes to incorporate more online tools into the marketing mix seems to be a key ingredient to small business success.”

What are you doing to tweak your marketing during this recession? Let us know.

Related articles:

Retailers Boost Spending on Holiday Advertising

How To Thrive In A Recession

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Twitter Lists: Twittering Journalists

Finally, Twitter is offering a lists function. None too soon.If you need more info on Twitter lists, Mashable is a good resource.

We set up the My Creative Team Twittering Journalist wiki last year in order to develop a directory of journalists who were using Twitter. This was not an ideal solution, but it was good enough at that time. With the new Twitter list, we can move that wiki online. This makes it easier on everyone to follow twittering journalists.

We have established a USA Twittering Journalist List and a Canada Twittering Journalist List. They are not yet complete, but feel free to begin following them, and let us know if there are other journalists you are following who should be on the list. Next on our agenda, media outlets using Twitter.

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Social Media Confuses Businesses

It seems businesses of all sizes are conflicted about how to use social media effectively. In a recent CitiBank/GfK Roper study, about 75 percent of small businesses said that social networks are not working for them.  On the other side of the equation, Gartner says that most Fortune 1000 companies will delve into social media by 2010 but more than half of them will fail.

First of all, small businesses may not clearly understand how social media can help them. Nor, do they know how to measure the impact of social networks.  For instance, friending a brand may not always result in immediate sales. So, the small business reporting that social media doesn’t work is probably not giving the program sufficient time to develop.

Additionally, like businesses of all sizes, small businesses have trouble focusing their efforts. They want to jump into Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter all at once. Now, I believe in utilizing all three of these networks, as does Paul Chaney. However, small businesses should pick one platform that makes the most sense for their customers and master that one before adding another one.

And most of them don’t have the necessary resources to make the most of social media.

We’ve written about this often: strategy should drive tactics, no matter what type of business you run or what type of program you are planning to implement.

Duck Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch agrees that the most successful organizations approach social media with a strategic bent. According to Jantsch,

It’s about connecting, not automation. The best companies are using the latest communication tools not for automation or as “just another tactic,” but to truly connect and create relationships with customers.

Are you having any luck with your social media forays? Wade into the discussion and let us know.

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