Hello. Friend Keith Hobbs chastised me last month for not giving my direct phone number at the end of the story about bad customer service. Here it is if you want to call me: 704-953-3406. Yes, I'll answer it.

I have a new, old client. I handled PR for a start-up bank about seven years ago. Its President, Wes Sturges, sold the bank and is starting a new one, Bank of Commerce.

Does your company have both a tactical and a strategic way to go to market? We'll discuss that this time in Think. We have some good briefs, including client news, and a case study from friend Mark Harrison of Corder Philips Wilson.

Please [forwardlink]. Let's get started.

Cordially,

Harry Hoover
harry@hoover-ink.com

PS - Get my special report on marketing to Baby Boomers here.
Ink Briefs
Friend and client Ty Boyd is celebrating 25 years of teaching presentation skills to executives. For the 25th anniversary we have come up with a number of ways to commemorate the occasion.

First is the Free Speech Project. Ty will be donating at least $25,000 to charity this year; a lot for a small company. He is funding it by doing "free" speeches for organizations which will make a donation to his charitable fund at Foundation for the Carolinas.

Ty also is giving away 25 copies of his book, The Million Dollar Toolbox, each month. Sign up for his monthly newsletter and then drop him a note about why you should receive a copy. It's that easy.


Did you know that 84 percent of all Americans have used a search engine? And many of them are looking for local companies. What are you doing to get your share of these new customers?

If your business has $400 or more per month to invest in local search engine advertising, let's talk. ReachLocal is a perfect solution for auto sales and leasing, dentists, travel agents, real estate agents, mortgage companies and other high volume businesses, even if you don't have a website. Here is an article about ReachLocal.


Thanks to friend Joe Grant for introducing me to two new web resources. First is Thinkmap. It's a great way to jump start ideas. Type in a word and get a visual representation of how it relates to similar words. Click on any linked word and see what happens.

Answers.com is our next resource. It combines a dictionary, encyclopedia, article resource - you name it. Just type in any word or subject, marketing for example, and watch what comes back.


What if you could find a resource that provided hot leads, a list of contacts at top businesses, interviews with leading executives and advice on how to run your business? You probably have one right in your town.

American City Business Journals, headquartered in Charlotte, has weekly Business Journals in more than 40 markets. Here's an article on how to use the Business Journal to benefit your business.

Speaking of the Business Journal, here is some recent coverage of Hoover ink in the Charlotte edition.




About Hoover ink PR

Hoover ink PR helps position businesses that are serious about their success. Then, we craft and deliver bottom line messages that ensure it.

Who are we? We're a marketing communications firm with more than 25 years experience in providing services to financial, high tech, real estate, tourism and consumer products companies.

From employee relations and media relations to collateral material and e-newsletters, we develop the programs and communication tools that will differentiate you from your competitors. And that's the bottom line.

 
  To Buy A Fat Pig
What does buying a fat pig have to do with your business? Stick with me and all will be revealed.

Does your business have a tactical and a strategic way to go to market? Let's go down to Mr. Hoover's butcher shop to see how it's done.

Mr. Hoover has been selling bacon and other pig products for years. That's pretty tactical, but can result in a good continuing income stream. A lot of customers come in week after week to buy their bacon and ham and pork loin, after all.

But Mr. Hoover wants to develop another income stream. What, he wonders, if he could get people to buy the whole pig ahead of time.

And, maybe, he also could get customers to pay for a pig on the installment plan.

Then, Mr. Hoover could afford to buy more pigs basically for nothing. Customers would be paying for the upkeep. And, Mr. Hoover could even own a stud pig that he "rents" to other pig farmers. Yet another income stream. Sweet!

My tactical tool - or bacon - is email newsletters and marketing programs aimed at customer retention and loyalty. Once I'm in the door with email, I can develop a client relationship that later allows me to sell the whole pig.

I designed my business this way from the start so I'd have a continuing income stream. Then, I could concentrate on what I really like to do: selling myself as a strategic partner who can help a business develop its positioning statement, fully define its audiences and develop and implement a more comprehensive communications program that has bottom line impact. That's my fat pig.

Have you thought about your business that way? What's your fat pig? Drop me a note and share with our other Thinkers.
  Inside Out & Outside In
By Mark Harrison

It's easy to understand how a small company's rapid growth can derail its marketing communications messaging and program. [We all know, too, of cases in which a business is moving at such light-speed that neither cohesive message nor program exists, but that's another story.]

But consider this: a $15 million company operates with sales offices in six cities, some grown organically and some acquired through the purchase of a competitor. Thirty-six hotshot salespeople sell customized, high-density file storage systems to banks, hospitals, medical offices, government - you name it.

The task: Create a cohesive branding program that can grow with the company.

The process: Interview customers, ex-customers, salespeople and decision influencers, then take a hard look at what's heard.

The reality: The company, in its most basic form, is an exclusive manufacturer's rep for several lines of records and materials storage equipment. Sales territories and tradition have caused salespeople to migrate to particular solutions for their clients instead of considering all available options.

The hard part: Salespersons' views of the company, its mission and its strengths and challenges vary widely. They're divided and they don't even realize it. Local markets, varying target vertical industries, and distance from company headquarters all contribute to different views of the company and, therefore, varying messages being sent to the marketplace.

The good news: On the whole, however, the company is delivering a vast multitude of very innovative solutions to clients when one has the luxury of looking across these sales territories and differing markets. But, there's no communication among salespeople and no incentive for them to bring in other "experts" when confronted with a challenge outside his or her bailiwick. And this multitude of impressive case studies have never been recorded and packaged as marketing and sales support.

The disclaimer: Branding, taglines, logos and colors can't and won't solve all of a company's problems, including the one alluded to above. Along with management buy-in, incentives, and opening communications channels, it indeed can make a world of difference, though.

What happened:

  • The team comes back with a new company name, tagline and positioning statement that plays up the group's expertise and the unsung service and problem-solving aspects of the company.
  • The "new" brand is rolled out first to those far-flung salespeople with explanation of the process, the thinking, and the result.
  • Upper management demonstrates complete support of the new positioning and makes structural changes to commission policies to encourage our "experts" to collaborate to close the sale.
  • We "test" this new position with one of the manufacturers that the company represents (an influential marketshare leader), who applauds this approach, further validating the new brand.
  • New communications vehicles began to roll out, including revised brochures, a new website, a first-ever advertising program, and an intranet to facilitate the quick sharing of ideas.
  • Finally, the new program begins to catch on and work with customers, the ultimate litmus test is "does that cash register ring?"
The moral of the story? Revisit "disclaimer" above: good branding and marketing alone can't solve business problems. Hoover wouldn't let me in its "ink" if that claim were being made. But there are occasions when the process of discovering and articulating the brand results in positives outside of marketing communications - and even inside a company.