Posts Tagged ‘marketing’
Just Give it a Fresh Coat
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, marketing
I was at my parents yesterday for my fathers birthday. This morning while I was reading the paper (yes,my parents still get the paper and I actually read it today!) I noticed something different. It had a whole new design; new font, new colors, it was brighter. Well, I didn’t like it, but thats ok. The main reason I didn’t like was that it was a waste of their time, and it reeked of arrogance.
Maybe its just me, but I really feel newspapers need to bite the bullet and go to town on their websites. The Day has a pretty good website, but it doesn’t do anything different its just a website for a newspaper with news. How about instead of spending time and money, giving an old car a new coat of paint, throw a new engine in there, give it some new brakes. MAKE IT BETTER.
A couple weeks ago I was pondering what I should do to make this blog look better. Then I realized that it doesn’t really matter what the blog looks like, as long as it isn’t making you vomit, its what I write here that makes you read, or come back. It wasn’t really news to me, but its interesting to see how so many organizations are unable to think that way.
A coat of paint can make a big difference on a room, but if there isn’t something provoking or interesting about what or who is in the room, why should I stay - or come back?
The Power of Hype
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, advertising, marketing
And why its actually useless.
Last week my (never met him before or interacted with in anyway whatsoever, but read so much of what he thinks that I usually think to myself “what would Seth Godin say about this” whenever I do anything) friend Seth Godin wrote a valuable post about “Grand Openings” and how they are not so grand. I laughed when I read it because I was scheduled to attend the Grand Opening party of an old restaurant that had closed and re-opened under a new owner/management that evening.
It was Saturday when I realized the value of the Hype, the artificial pumping up of events, products and companies. I was at the Belmont, in hopes of witnessing history in the form of the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.
You had to live in a cave to not know about this event. The trainer was everywhere, the horse was everywhere, a big dollar investment was made and a multinational company purchased a first of its kind endorsement. Big Brown came around the final turn and stopped running. The most heavily favored horse to go off at Belmont Stakes in decades, the sure shot, became the first Triple Crown contender to finish dead last.
More than twice as many people watched the stakes on television this year over last year and over 100k people braved the heat to watch in person. People were excited, then they were disappointed. Massively disappointed.
When things don’t live up to the hype, people remember the bad, the letdown or they don’t remember it at all. Eitherway, all the press, all the hype that was put into the event was a waste of many and probably will hurt the brand/event/promoter in the long term.
Don’t try to live up to the hype, let the hype try to live up to you. Make the hype follow the event, let people talk about how great it was, because if something was really worth all the hype, you won’t need to put all that hype into it before hand.
At 5 o’clock vendors were selling Big Brown tshirts for $20. At 6:30 they were selling those same shirts 3 for $5. Of course, if he had won, those shirts might have been selling for $40. Perhaps the Belmont Stakes is not the best example, but it made me think about what we do in order to hype things up and get people to pay attention. As Mr. Godin commonly puts it, make something remarkable - worth talking about, and people will talk about it.
Speak softly and carry a big stick. Just Do It. Walk the Talk. Moral of the story, instead of talking about doing it, go ahead and buckle in and do it. Because almost never was, and probably never will be.
Its late now, and I’m going to stop hyping this post.
Local Search Content Syndication
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Local Search, Syndication, advertising, revenue models, sharing applications
How do large search networks gain their local insight into the real world? Syndication of content from various internet providers, yellowpages, superpages, ultrapages, all kinds of pages. But mostly, out of date pages. Businesses that no longer exist, phone numbers that are no longer valid and addresses that have changed.
How can I the local consumer place my trust in these large companies having up to date, local information on what I am looking for? That is an excellent question, and one that I as a local business man, believe is a question that these jumbo portals don’t have the right answer to.
Smaller, local search companies can monetize their wealth of small business information by expanding paid syndication through these larger outlets. Building a better database of small and local businesses is what these local companies do, and is exactly what they can do for these larger national and international portals.
In these new days of local search, and local information, more and more small business are transitioning their marketing and their budgets online. As this market grows, more information will be available online, and search engines in particular will hold a lot of power over this information. So how can the consumer get the best information infront of them as quickly as possible? Rely on locally based portals who actually operate in the cities they represent.
If there were a way to capitalize on the huge power and reach of these large portals, by incorporating the value of this local information together in a Search Engine Friendly site, giving searching consumers quick and easy access to up to date, accurate and relevant information, this new model would be very valuable indeed.
Now if only I knew someone who could code like a champion…
Be Happy In Your Grass
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life
Many times I find myself looking into other people’s lives and wondering what it would be like in their shoes. I have a habit of jealousy towards others, whether it be their shoes, their car, their website design or layout, among a host of other things. One thing I’ve taught myself is that you have to be happy in your own grass - happy with yourself.
While this can apply to every aspect of your life, the one in which I have been applying this of late is my career. More specifically the direction my company has taken. While building and designing the product I deliver, my deepest ideas have never evolved into something tangible. However, I have always managed to do the best I can with my given resources.
Here is where this comes into play for me. Often I find myself in the face of larger, established competition, and its very easy to say “if I had their resources…” but the thing that keeps me going strong is that I do not have their resources. In fact I don’t have anyone’s resources but my own, but I still manage to out fox them.
While the grass on the other side of that fence may look greener, softer, more lucrative, whatever - you never know what goes on to make it. If you’re not happy with your grass you can always, trim it, nurture it, feed it or tear it out an make a garden. As long as its your grass and you’re doing the best you can with it, you should always be happy in it.
