Buzz!Words

One Woman Entrepreneur's Story

Congratulations to Joanne Papari, President of Biochem Environmental Solutions.  Joanne recently received the Rotman Business School's Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, for innovation. 

Here is an exerpt from Ellen Rosman's column in the Toronto Star (the Star only posts for 7 days, so I'm not including a link):

Last week, the Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year awards gave national recognition to female business owners. Three of the five winners came from the Toronto area.

As a frequent guest at the awards dinner, I never fail to be impressed by how hard these women work to achieve their success and how many sacrifices they make along the way.

Joanne Papari-Doulaverakis told a story about how she came home from the office one day at 5.30 p.m. Her young son kept asking if she was sick.

No, she replied, I'm fine. Why do you ask?

"Because you've never here in the daylight," her son replied.

Papari-Doulaverakis invited her husband and two children to join her on the stage, an acknowledgement of how they contributed to her award.

Born and raised in Greece, she moved to Canada in 1977 to study chemical engineering at the University of Windsor. She was hired as a chemical sales representative at Rochester Midland Corp. and worked her way up to become the top manager in Canada. In 1996, she started Biochem Environmental Solutions in Concord. It's in "the glamorous business of washroom hygiene," developing products such as waterless hand sanitizers, automatic faucets and flush valves and garbage dispensers that pop open at the press of a button.

She won an award for innovation, honouring her leadership in reducing the risk of bacteria and cross-contamination in public washrooms.

Joanne is a client of mine, and I have come to admire her determination, sacrifice and drive to build her business.  Her story is inspiring to me.  Congratulations Joanne. 

Story Telling and Brand Building

Summary:  Story telling is becoming an important way to communicate with customers, to make your brand more real, more personal and more involving.

As a kid, I was always asking mom to read me just one more chapter before bedtime.  I just had to know what happened next.  Stories always intrigued me.  I found them more real than a lot of boring stuff we were doing in school.  I always cared more about Anne of Green Gables than most of the kids at school. 

I've been reading a lot on story telling in the past few days.  Tom Peters has a post on the way Richard Branson collects stories.  CMO Magazine has an article What is an Iconic Brand, based on the new book by Douglas Holt.  Holt believes that brands are esentially the sum of people's experiences with a brand.   Overtime, these experiences are influenced by brand users, employees and the overall public opinion of the brand.  In the end though, a brand is the sum of a series of stories about it.  Holt claims that these stories are often about cultural conflicts, and are often rooted in mythology. 

I've also been hearing about story telling as a method of communicating with customers in email from Blue Penguin Development.  He believes that personal stories help people connect with a big topic.  He also believes that personal stories entertain and involve people. 

Perhaps this is why testimonials and case studies are so important to personal services firms.  They help people connect and visualize how the service might work for them.  They identify with the person's problem, and the resolution of their story. 

I think I get what these guys are trying to say.  I related to Anne of Green Gables, because I wanted to be like that plucky orphan.  I love stories because they are symbolic of larger conflicts but they make those conflicts real and personal to me. 

Lesson Learned: If, as Tom Peters says, every person has a story, I guess I need to learn more about their stories. 

Assumptions and Consumer Behaviour

Summary:  Never make assumptions about your customers.  It will come back to haunt you.

A recent AOL study shows that 55% of moms use the internet to play games online.   Yes, you read that right.  According to iMediaConnection, middle age women (35 to 49) were the largest demographic, accounting for 15% of online gamers.  Overall, women account for 49% of online gamers. 

Women tend to like different games than men.  Puzzle games, strategy games... This has implications for game developers.  If researchers didn't gather the facts, then businesses might miss out on a significant market.

Lesson Learned:  Never make assumptions about the behaviour of your prospects or customers.  Get the facts.  Test some ideas that run counter to your assumptions, just in case you are wrong. 

Email Newsletter Writing

Summary:  How you write your newsletter matters.  It should be short, relevant and enjoyable. 

I found a great resource on e-newsletters, Blue Penguin Development.  He has a newsletter archive that is useful, funny and relevant to the needs of people writing e-newsletters.  Here is a quick summary of his guidelines:

• Short
• Relevant to the subscribers needs
• One topic only.  Stay focused
• Scannable - easy to read in a glance
• Accessible, authentic language
• Fun, or at least mildly interesting

According to Michael Katz, the content that you write for an enewsletter is even more important than for the web.  Because, people see email as more personal, more interactive and as a reflection upon their personal choice. 

Summary:  You e-newsletter is an important tool to reach your clients and prospects in a targeted manner.  But you have to write well, entertain and provide value in order to benefit. 

Moms Make Decisions Online

Summary:  Moms use the internet for multiple tasks.  It's key to reach them if you are in travel, financial services or retail.

A recent study from of 1600 moms who are on AOL, shows that

• 96% go online for email
• 75% use it to research and plan trips
• 68% pay bills or manage their finances
• 67% research purchases

Lesson Learned:  Get online, what are you waiting for?

It's time to get serious about email marketing

Summary:  Email Marketing has hit the mainstream. Moms use email to make purchase decisions 

A recent study Email Marketing Impact with Moms, posted on Lucid Marketing's website shows some interesting trends.  139 moms who subscribe to the Blue Suit Mom's newsletter responded. 

Although women still prefer using the phone, 47% of moms prefer email for communications.   Almost 80% have both personal and business email accounts, and most check their email 3 - 4 times per day, spending an hour and a half each day on email. 

• 50% of moms feel that companies would gain more purchases if they sent regular emails that make their lives easier
• 66% would spend more money with companies that sent useful and relevant email that met their needs
• When they make a purchase triggered by email, about 54% of the time they buy offline; 47% online

Keeping in mind that these are tech savvy moms who actively subscribe to online newsletters, it's likely that these results are a bit overstated for the general population.  That said, it's an indicator of things to come. 

Lesson Learned:  It's time for service and sales businesses that target moms and families to figure out email/newsletter marketing.  It's targeted, cost effective and clearly can lead to sales. 

Physician Heal Thyself

Summary:  Marketing planning is essential to small and medium size businesses, even if it is painful.

I'm going through the process of putting on paper the marketing plan that has been in my head since I started this business a couple of months ago.  I actually got side tracked by clients wanting me to work for them, and never got around to writing the marketing plan.  I kept it in my head.

So, of course, as I have become busy with sales calls, and actually delivering services to clients, my carefully thought through, in my head marketing plan has fallen to the wayside.  Stuff isn't getting done, and I'm not sure where I'm at ... budget, results, you name it.  The problem with marketing plans in your head is that you don't have the same kind of accountability to yourself, as if they are written down.  It's harder to track your successes and failures, and learn from them. 

It's time for the physician to heal herself.  So, I'm going to sit down this weekend and stare down that piece of paper, and write out the marketing plan, including monthly activities for business development. 

Prospecting on the Web for Service Businesses

Summary:  For service driven businesses, such as financial planning, health services or other information rich industries, the web has been a marketing tool that many businesses have avoided.  From my discussions with clients, it's mainly because they don't see the web as a prospecting tool. 

I think it's time to think of the web differently.   I found a great site from the Wellesley Hills Group that effectively contradicts that point. 

Their article, 7 Myths about Service Lead Generation really hit home with me.  They argue that tactics like websites and direct mail do work for service businesses, they just need to be designed differently for the purchase process of service customers.  Wellesley Hills also has a whole series of valuable marketing, sales and business development articles for service firms.  I'm certainly going to use some of this information as I build my business marketing plan. 

Out on the Bleeding Edge

Summary: Marketing is overwhelming the average small and medium size business.  The sheer amount of information, technology and tools is astonishing.  It's more necessary than ever for these businesses to have a clearly articulated marketing plan. 

As I've been working with small and medium size businesses, I've noticed a trend:

• Business owners are feeling overwhelmed trying to run their businesses, and, at the same time, keep up with the marketing technology and consumer expectations.
• As costs come down for technology based marketing applications, the Do It Yourself (DIY) element increases significantly.  This means that websites, blogs, email marketing, viral marketing are all within the reach of the average small business person.  At the same time, they have neither the time, knowledge nor inclination to make it happen. 
• The amount of information about any one industry is exploding.  The number of directories, search engines, portals and blogs about any one industry is astounding.  Just remembering where all paid links are sitting is an interesting challenge for some customers. 

Lesson Learned: The only way to keep focus and ensure that marketing expenditures are managed it to spend the time to plan.  The sense of being overwhelmed comes from not having control of the activity, budget.  Have objectives, budgets, timelines and activities outlined in one place.  Then, work the plan. 

What's Wrong with Cheapness?

Fast Company has an interesting post called "A Culture of Cheapness".  It argues that we as consumers have been trained to expect cheap goods, and that we won't pay for service and quality.

I kind of agree.  But not.  What's wrong with cheapness? 

Consumers just have a strong sense of value.  Take grocery shopping, for example.  They will pay more at Whole Foods, because Whole Foods provides an incredible range of organic products that they can't get anywhere else.  They will shop at Loblaws, because at Loblaws they can get great selection, clean, uncluttered shopping environment, and.... President's Choice.  If they value low prices they will choice Food Basics, Price Chopper, No Frills or Real Canadian Super Store.  They are willing to trade off service for price.  But, they are not willing to have no service and high prices.

This is consistent with the findings of a Harvard B School professor, whom I quoted in an earlier post, that loyalty programs should be about rewards other than price.  When you reward with price, you simply discount your brand.  When you reward with service, you add a premium to your brand.