Personality Marketing

Came across a great summary today which answers the question “What is personality?” from Rohit Bhargava, author of “Personality Not Included“.

It’s free, and you can download it at: http://www.personalitynotincluded.com/deconstruction

Go download it now - and bear it in mind whenever you are constructing (or better, rediscovering and expressing) your personality in your marketing.

I was driving down the M1 this morning (my usual route), and I saw two more examples of the sorts of stupidity I talked about in this post.

The two companies/vans in question were for:

1. InSpace
2. Best-One

Can you spot the problem already?

InSpace was by far the worst offender.  Logos on all sides of the van, but:

1. The company name doesn’t give the first clue what the company does or what problems it solves
2. There was no tagline or mission statement to give any hints
3. There were no contact details anywhere on the van!

Yes, another example like my favourite ‘bunch of noddies’ Reality Group.

Best-One were only marginally better:

1. Again, company name gives no clue to what they do, or the problems they solve.  Best One of what?
2. They did have a tagline.  Hallelujah, you might think?  HONK! Wrong!  The tagline was this “Serving the local community”.  
   
   AAARGH!  Serving them by doing WHAT?!?!  Picking up litter?  Working at the local soup kitchen? Giving the local residents a headache by trying to figure out what “Best-One” does?
3. Yet again, no contact details anywhere on the van!

Here’s a clue guys (if you’re reading) - if your tagline could apply to any company, not just yours, and even worse, if it could apply to a completely different industry, then it’s POINTLESS. 

Get rid of it immediately, and think of something that expresses your USP (Unique Selling Point) and, since this is Personality Marketing, preferably your UPT (Unique Personality Trait) as well.

In my case, my tagline is currently “Get more business, more easily, with more fun, by being 100% you”.

And just for completeness, I saw several examples of another idiotic way of doing sign-writing on your van - making it so damn small that you need to be 3 feet from the back of the van to read it!

Just remember - I’m doing 70MPH (well, 70-ish ;-)) down the M1 - I do not want to get 3 feet from your bumper to find out if your company might be able to help me. 

Make it big - make it simple - make it memorable

Oh, and one final thing.

If you’re reading this and thinking “I don’t have company vehicles, so this doesn’t apply to me” - WRONG.  Unless you take public transport everywhere, there are several ways you can promote your business on your vehicle, even if it’s your own car, without wrecking the paintwork.

Here’s a few quick suggestions:

1. Magnetic vehicle signs.  You often see them on private cabs, but they work just as well on private cars, and just as well on the tailgate as on the side doors.
2. Custom printed sun shades.  One I often see (and they make good giveaways for some firms) is advertising Kiddicare.
3. If you drive a 4×4 with an external spare wheel, try a spare wheel cover sign.

But whatever you choose, remember: Make it big - make it simple - make it memorable

Two essential components:

1. Your contact details (phone, web address or both)
2. A compelling reason to call you

What can you do to create some free or low cost mobile advertising?

photo credit: fdecomite

Short post today to link over to a great article on The Personality Project, entitled How LEGO used comics to build a community.

My reasons for linking over are the first and last paragraphs in the article, which I absolutely agree with:

“Perhaps the real challenge for organizations looking to find their unique personality is figuring out how to convince clients that newly discovered personality isn’t yet another marketing trick or sales tactic.”

“…personality is more than just telling customers what you or your company are about; personality is showing that you’ve learned something and doing something about it.”

Couldn’t agree more Jake!

I was motoring along the A45 this morning and spotted a red van that caught my attention.  Unfortunately, being a responsible driver (honest!) I couldn’t take a picture, but I noted the web address:

http://www.007licence2chill.co.uk/

One of my (many!) hobby horses is companies who spend serious amounts of money having their vans sign-written, and in some cases fully vinyl wrapped, but just put the company name, logo and phone number, with absolutely NO information about what they do, or any reason why you should call them!

AAARGH! What a wasted opportunity!  You’ve got a whacking great van or even articulated lorry, driving about on the roads every day like a mobile billboard, and you’re NOT USING IT!

I have to say, I think there could have been more ‘reasons to call us’ on the red van I saw from 007 Refrigeration & Air Conditioning, but I bet you that if I ever needed someone for air conditioning for The Nightingale Clinic, I’ll remember “Licence To Chill“!

Some other good examples of memorable business names and sign writing on vans and commercial vehicles include:

• A cesspit emptying service called, simply, SuckCess
• The Flat Roof Company (from memory, the van was covered in a picture of a leaking roof, with the question “Got a leaky flat roof?  Call The Flat Roof Company” - perfect!)

Here’s your question for today - if you’ve got a company vehicle of any description:

1. Is it signwritten?  If not, why not?
2. If yes, does it actually tell people what you do? (Hint: a company name like “ABC Plastering” doesn’t count!)
3. Does it give people a compelling reason to call you?  (Another hint: ”Established whenever“, “The solution for whatever“, “Your complete answer to whatever” don’t count either!)
4. Does it convey professional contact information? (Yet another hint: email addresses like plastering1969@yahoo.com absolutely scream “AMATEUR!” - register a domain name and get a proper email address!)

If you can’t answer YES to all four questions above, you are throwing away money and business. 

I’ve lost count of the number of vans, lorries, etc. I’ve driven behind that might have been for a business that did something I might have desperately needed, or been interested in, but because of the lack, or poor quality, of the sign writing, they missed out. 

One of my particular bug bears is a bunch of vans all over the UK for Reality Group.  I have several problems:

1. The company name gives no indication what they do, and there’s no other text
2. The logo is meaningless colours - no clue there
3. There is absolutely no contact information anywhere on the van!

Mind you, on the basis of this post, it sounds like they don’t want anyone to be able to talk to them anyway…

So, back to the main question.  It’s simply this - is your business missing a massive mobile opportunity to get more business?

Look at your vehicles today (like right now - look out of the window if you need to!) and ask yourself: If I needed what our company has to offer, but didn’t know anything about the company, would I:

1. Know what our company does?
2. See a compelling reason to call the company?
3. Remember the company name, phone number or web address well enough to look it up later?

That’s all for now!

Well, I guess it was inevitable.  Turns out I’m not the only person on the planet that thinks personality matters…

There’s a new website up, initiated by fellow ‘personality preacher’ Rohit Bhargava, called The Personality Project.  The tagline is “100 Visionary Minds.  1 Question. Why does personality matter?”

Get yourself over there today and find out - www.thepersonalityproject.com

Why not start with this post from Andy Sernovitz?

Personality DOES matter - it’s the thing people will talk about.

photo credit: mikesalibaphoto

Wow - it’s a great buzz when someone takes my advice and I see the personality start to emerge!

One guy who’s done just that is our mortgage advisor, Michael Knight. And yes, that really is his name!

With the obvious connection to Knight Rider, I suggested Michael should use the name to make himself stand out in the crowd - which is exactly what he’s doing. He even name-checked me on his new blog: http://bartonmortgageservices.com/blog/?p=6

I can thoroughly recommend Michael as ‘one of the good guys’ - the testimonial on his site from me is 100% meant:

“Michael has always offered sound and sensible advice, and really took the time to understand our needs. Both my wife and I are self-employed, meaning that we were a more difficult proposition than most when looking for a mortgage and insurance, but Michael found the perfect product for us.

He wasn’t pushy, didn’t try to sell us insurance (or anything else) we didn’t need, and was always a pleasure to deal with. In an industry populated with a lot of commission-driven salesmen, Michael was a breath of fresh air and we would recommend him without hesitation.”

Thanks Mike - more power to your elbow! I gave him a whole bunch of other ‘PR-friendly’ ideas, so we’ll see how many of them he’s got the brass neck to implement

It’s amazing where you see examples of companies putting personality into their marketing - and in this case, their marketing being the naming and packaging of some very mundane/every day kind of products.

What brands come to mind when you think of the following: Breath freshener; lip balm; hangover cures; energy patches?

Before last Monday, nothing particularly would have jumped to mind for me.  What’s changed?

Well, I was standing in line at a motorway service station, and spotted these products on a shelf as I was queueing up to pay, and felt compelled to whip out my trusty Sony Ericsson camphone (a K850i if you’re interested!) and take a picture…

Absolutely brilliant!  Very simple, eye catching packaging, big bold typeface, simple but memorable names.

“the bender mender” - “snog me senseless” - “snoozers are losers” - “stop cracking up”

I’d never heard of Anatomicals before, but you can rest assured I’ll remember them - and just based on one, casual encounter with their product packaging, where I didn’t even buy anything!

Question for you: if you sell products (or services, the same principle applies!), can you change your packaging or advertising, and possibly the name of what you offer, to make it simpler to understand what it does, and more memorable?

Do something, DO ANYTHING, but stand out from the crowd - or get trampled by it!

Came across this blog post today which gives some great examples of how to make your advertising stand out, by putting some personality into it.

You’re going to pay the same amount of money to place your advert - so why not make the most of it?

http://streetlessons.com/420-creative-adverts-you-probably-havent-seen.html

Of course, what would make most of these even better is some kind of direct response mechanism (the dentist ad being an honourable exception)…

Got this from MarketingProfs:

“In a Web 2.0 world of blogs, podcasts and social networks, the humble newsletter might lack sex appeal. And while the notion of a newsletter might not be overtly enticing, it can still prove an effective channel for communicating with your customers. Trick is: make it a must-read publication. According to Simon Glickman and Julia Rubiner of Editorial Emergency, the best have four common traits:

• A distinctive voice that cements the brand
• Pithy, interesting information
• A lively layout
• Interactivity

Editorial Emergency gives a gold star to The Colorado Wine Company’s weekly newsletter. Here’s what they get right:

• A playfully irreverent tone accurately reflects a shop where themed evenings include “The White Trash Wine Tasting,” with pairings like Pinot Gris and “Le Pig in Blanket.”
• There’s some rich content here. “Owners John and Jennifer Nugent tell their tales of the grape with self-deprecating humor and genuine passion,” say Glickman and Rubiner.
• Their interactive polls are great. Editorial Emergency asks if wine-expert critiques of the Cabernet Franc were “total b.s.” or only “partly b.s.”

The Po!nt: The Colorado Wine Company’s newsletter is both entertaining and worthwhile; do the same with yours to reinforce your brand.”

Read the whole post, with links, here

There was a challenge on a copywriting forum recently to improve on one of the best ads of all time (which, if you’re interested, was about giving away free kittens :-)), but I saw one today that I think gets close:

Man seeks drinking pal for father

They don’t publish the wording of the ad, but give enough details for me to reckon it’s a great ad!

Why?

1. It makes an irresistible offer to it’s target audience - “I’ll pay you £7 an hour to go down the pub and drink and chat with my dad”
2. It specifies what the person needs to be interested in - “…the ideal candidate would be a man who can talk about his father’s career in engineering, or his father’s passion for golf.”
3. It specifies the kind of character needed - “…a gentleman who is not too bombastic and enjoys a nice pint.”
4. It uses negative qualifiers i.e. who would be the WRONG person - “women would be out of the question as Mr Hammond senior would feel uncomfortable going to a pub with a woman he did not know.”
5. It’s placed in the right place - a local post office - to attract someone who is local, and also (more than likely) probably of the older generation
6. It’s viral - how many postcards in your local post office window have got the placer interviewed for BBC News (and probably a lot more media outlets)?

To me, I don’t see how it could be improved.  Think about it. 

If that ad describes you, why would you NOT apply?

And the icing on the cake?  It only cost 25p!

All good advertising comes down to three things:

1. The message
2. The market
3. The medium

I think Michael Hammond (his son) got all three 100% right.

Best of luck Jack - I hope you find a wonderful drinking partner or three to keep you company!