Success is a Beautiful Journey

The Laws / Secrets of Guerilla Marketing

2008-04-16T23:57:00.000-07:00

Here's my follow up on my previous GM post...

1. COMMITMENT: You should know that a mediocre marketing program with commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing program without commitment. Commitment makes it happen.

2. INVESTMENT: Marketing is not an expense, but an investment -- the best investment available in America today -- if you do it right. With the 16 secrets of guerrilla marketing to guide you, you'll be doing it right.

3. CONSISTENT: It takes a while for prospects to trust you and if you change your marketing, media, and identity, you're hard to trust. Restraint is a great ally of the guerrilla. Repetition is another.

4. CONFIDENT: In a nationwide test to determine why people buy, price came in fifth, selection fourth, service third, quality second, and, in first place -- people said they patronize businesses in which they are confident.

5. PATIENT: Unless the person running your marketing is patient, it will be difficult to practice commitment, view marketing as an investment, be consistent, and make prospects confident. Patience is a guerrilla virtue.

6. ASSORTMENT: Guerrillas know that individual marketing weapons rarely work on their own. But marketing combinations do work. A wide assortment of marketing tools is required to woo and win customers.

7. CONVENIENT: People now know that time is not money, but is far more valuable than money. Respect this by being easy to do business with and running your company for the convenience of your customers, not yourself.

8. SUBSEQUENT: The real profits come after you've made the sale, in the form of repeat and referral business. Non-guerrillas think marketing ends when they've made the sale. Guerrillas know that's when marketing begins.

9. AMAZEMENT: There are elements of your business that you take for granted, but prospects would be amazed if they knew the details. Be sure all of your marketing always reflects that amazement. It's always there.

10. MEASUREMENT: You can actually double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bulls-eyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won't know which is which.

11. INVOLVEMENT: This describes the relationship between you and your customers -- and it is a relationship. You prove your involvement by following up; they prove theirs by patronizing and recommending you.

12. DEPENDENT: The guerrilla's job is not to compete but to cooperate with other businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up tie-ins with others. Become dependent to market more and invest less.

13. ARMAMENT: Armament is defined as “the equipment necessary to wage and win battles.” The armament of guerrillas is technology: computers, current software, cellphones, pagers, fax machines, wireless communications.

14. CONSENT: In an era of non-stop interruption marketing, the
key to success is to first gain consent to receive your marketing materials, then market only to those who have given you that consent. Don’t waste money on people who don’t give it to you.

15. AUGMENT: To succeed online, augment your website with offline promotion, constant maintenance of your site, participation in newsgroups and forums, email, chatroom attendance, posting articles, hosting conferences and rapid follow-up.

16. CONTENT: Marketing is information that can benefit the lives
of those to whom it is aimed, the truth made fascinating. If your marketing lives up to that definition, it has to be rich in content.

The book is truly a gem. I suggest you guys get a copy as it expounds beautifully the concepts above in theory and in practice!

Good Luck to All!

Guerilla Marketing - An Integral Strategy for Startups

2008-04-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the book by Jay Conrad Levinson.

Truly remarkable and a must-read for entrepreneurs.

First, let's define Guerilla Marketing by differentiating it from traditional marketing...

1. Instead of investing money in the marketing process, you invest time, energy, and imagination.

2. Instead of using guesswork in your marketing, you use the science of psychology, actual laws of human behavior.

3. Instead of concentrating on traffic, responses, or gross sales, profits are the only yardstick by which you measure your marketing.

4. Instead of being oriented to companies with limitless bank accounts, guerrilla marketing is geared to small business.

5. Instead of ignoring customers once they've purchased, you have a
fervent devotion to customer follow-up.

6. Instead of intimidating small business owners, guerrilla marketing
removes the mystique from the entire marketing process, clarifies it.

7. Instead of competing with other businesses, guerrilla marketing preaches the gospel of cooperation, urging you to help others and let them help you.

8. Instead of trying to make sales, guerrillas are dedicated to making
relationships, for long-term relationships are paramount in the new millennium.

9. Instead of believing that single marketing weapons such as advertising or a website work, guerrillas know that only marketing combinations work.

10. Instead of encouraging you to advertise, guerrilla marketing provides you with 100 different marketing weapons; advertising is only one of them.

11. Instead of growing large and diversifying, guerrillas grow profitably and then maintain their focus, not an easy thing to do.

Inspiring isn't it? I'll be posting more on Guerilla Marketing in the coming days.

For now, here is a link to the Guerilla Marketing site -> http://www.gmarketing.com/

Dating Community on your Phone - Weird Ad

2008-04-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Content Providing is a huge industry in the Philippines with the popularity of mobile phones, and yes... with so many people with nothing better to do...

These content may range from simple ringtones, ringbacks, mms pictures and what not... but some... are just pretty weird...

Speaking of which, I heard of a program where you can subscribe to a virtual girlfriend! For a certain fee per month... your cyber girlfriend will make ask how you are doing from time to time... If you are lucky, maybe she'll give you a virtual kiss...

Pretty weird noh? Some are quite interesting though, like winning a certain prize by sending customer feedback via your phone.

However, what I am truly writing about is a certain ad I saw in the newspaper last week. Check it out below:

Simply disturbing.

The ad has been outfitted with stereotypes;
1. The hed kandi-ish beach girl
(google image search it! "hed kandi beach girl" you'll get what I mean)
2. The bad boy - for those of you who like it "wild"
3. The boy toy.... wait... WHAT?

At the very best, the ad is trying to appeal to a certain homo-sexual demographic...
At the other end, this mobile dating community might be a swingers type of group (hhmmm... inte-res-ting)

Lastly, I wonder if the model even knew that the agency would be putting that sign over him. Hope he was well-compensated.

Boy Toy huh? Over the mobile phone... Mobile Pimping might work!

Horse ****

2008-04-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

From an article in Business World
http://www.bworldonline.com/BW041108/content.php?id=084

Want to be a better manager? Talk to a horse

YARRABIN, NEW SOUTH WALES — Deep in the Australian bush, leadership trainers Jerry, Fly, Hope, KC and Sultan put a group of managers through their paces.

While lacking formal qualifications, the trainers use good old-fashioned horse sense to teach their students management, leadership and communication skills.

Ranging from a chestnut Arab mare to hardy stock horses, the "trainers" are the star attractions at what is believed to be Australia’s first equine leadership course.

Horses have been used for years in various types of therapy, including psychotherapy and helping handicapped children. The use of horses for management training is a relatively new field but it already has a track record of success.

"Horses are very sensitive to body language therefore they will reflect back to us the body language they see coming towards them," said Beth Duff, a doctoral student who observed the course for her research on learning with horses.

"If someone is authentic and clear about what they want to do, then the horses will follow them and be very responsive to them," she said.

"If they are only saying the words and not actually meaning it or saying it in a way that’s not clear, then quite often the horses will simply wander off or ignore them or simply stand still and do nothing."

Students spend up to seven hours a day with their horses, taking part in both individual and group activities, but they never actually ride the horses.

Instead, they work in groups of three carrying out seemingly mundane tasks such as persuading the horses to move from one end of a paddock to another without touching the animals.

It’s easier said than done and requires keen communication skills and team work.

Peter Harrison, one of 20 managers who signed up for the course, hopes it will help him improve his communication skills and be a more effective manager in his coffee roasting business.

"The horses don’t care who you are, they are giving you their raw feeling. Humans have baggage, horses don’t," he said.

Graeme Phillips, who runs the course with his wife Annie at their property "Yarrabin" about 200 km (125 miles) west of Sydney, believes horses are great teachers as they react honestly to people’s body language and behavior.

"We don’t script the course. We don’t train our horses for this. This magical thing happens," he said "Getting people out of their comfort zone and being around horses can do that."

Rolling hills, a gum tree forest, sheep and kangaroos grazing in surrounding meadows and poor mobile phone coverage provide a perfect setting for the classes.

"It’s an environment where people can relax and get in touch with themselves, get back in touch with their team, without mobile phones and computers," said Mr. Phillips.

"A hundred years ago you couldn’t walk down the street without having an interaction with a horse or being in touch with nature.

"That’s all been separated from us with technology and urban canyons in the city," he added. — Reuters

Great job by the business owners in providing a unique experience

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

2008-04-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

Just finished the amazing book above by Al Ries and Laura Ries.

Just excellent. Well written and very logical.

So to remind me always on the points (and also to share to everyone), here are the 22 laws:
1. The Law of Expansion - the power of the brand is inversely proportional to its scope.
2. The Law of Contraction - a brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus
3. The Law of Publicity - the birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising
4. The Law of Advertising - Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy
5. The Law of the Word -a brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer
6. The Law of Credentials - the crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity
7. The Law of Quality - quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone
8. The Law of Category - a leading brand should promote the category, not the brand
9. The Law of the Name - in the long run a brand is nothing more than a name
10. The Law of Extensions - the easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything
11. The Law of Fellowship - in order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands
12. The Law of the Generic - one of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name
13. The Law of the Company - brands are brands. companies are companies. there is a difference
14. The Law of Subbrands - what branding builds, subbranding can destroy
15. The Law of Siblings - there is a time and place to launch a second brand
16. The Law of Shape - a brand's logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. both eyes.
17. The Law of Color - a brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitors
18. The Law of Borders - there are no barriers to global branding. a brand should know no borders
19. The Law of Consistency - a brand is not built overnight. success is measured in decades, not years
20. The Law of Change - brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully
21. The Law of Mortality - no brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution
22. The Law of Singularity - the most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness

There you have it... the 22 immutable laws of branding. I suggest you guys get a copy in your local bookstores. It's really a great read.

Good luck to everyone!

Rice Supply Crisis

2008-04-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

I told myself not to include any political issues when I first started this blog, but I believe the widely publicized issue on rice hoarding should be visited.

Why is it wrong to hoard? Is it really wrong to hold oil when prices keep rising? Doesn't governments do this? make their own reservoirs of oil? (Oh yeah... they're the only ones allowed to hoard)

What's the difference with going long on a company's stock with the price increase expectation?

Are we really threatening anyone by not giving them rice? Don't they have alternatives? Bread perhaps?

Why so aggressive with the "hoarders," who are simply businessmen?

Conrado de Quiros, a columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer writes a compelling case in his article, "What you don’t know can kill you"

Link: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080408-128994/What-you-dont-know-can-kill-you

C2's Interesting Promo

2008-04-07T04:27:00.000-07:00

I just came back from Puerto Galera for the long weekend.

Although the place and the crowd was similar of that of station 3 in Boracay (if you catch my drift), it was an amazing experience nonetheless.

Super jam-packed! (see below)

The place seems highly commercialized already. One interesting booth there was that of C2 (tea drinks).

The group occupied one of the higher priced hotels in the area, and they were selling their products and line extensions. Not only that, you can even purchase beach bags, towels, waterproof cases and similar items if you buy a bottle of C2!

Pretty interesting indeed as I saw this guy swimming with his hand raised with his cell phone inside the waterproof case (with the C2 logo printed beautifully of course).

Lesson: You don't have to give away (and you may even sell) your promotional items if they are compelling and relevant to the setting. You even get free advertising; courtesy of your customers.

Quote from the Radio

2008-04-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

I heard an interesting quote on the radio while driving home...

When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both.

It's a good thing we don't. . .

oh wait...

oh... god... no....

Fascinating Memes

2008-04-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

The term meme (pronounced as meem) refers to any idea or cultural phenomena that survives and propagates from one mind to another.

Coined by Richard Dawkins, it explains the process of natural selection not only in biology, but in the realm of ideas.

What does this mean for your Business?

Jay Conrad Levinson, the author of Guerilla Marketing, speaks of the power one can tap by using words, signs and names that have the potential to be memes.

Levinson explains that some symbols already hold so much meaning that they already convey meaning without leaving any words

Some examples:

As you can see above, these symbols were not pushed into our minds yet they hold a special and non-verbal place in it.

Unconscious. Not Pushed. Propagating. - - - Sounds like an excellent marketing program.

For more information you may search "meme" in wikipedia
For more fun search "internet meme" in wikipedia . . . (don't forget the one about Rick Astley)

Starting Ain’t Easy…

2008-04-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

Run and Gun - - - that was how I sold during the December months... How easy and satisfying it was...

Now formalizing everything, I am burdened with all the (inefficient) agencies I have to go through just to finish my registration and certifications. Delays bug me... but the ones that really tick me off are the "extra charges" that I grudgingly paid (to a certain group that deals with importation)...

Relatively fresh from school (at 23)... I've stopped complaining (after a week) and I could say that I am in the acceptance stage. (which is kind of mildly disturbing)

Starting Ain't Easy... but I believe the key now is to LOOK FORWARD and BUILD MOMENTUM.

What is this Site all About?

2008-04-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

I aim to share my experiences and perspectives on the very exciting and intriguing world of business.

My experiences will revolve on the two products that I will be launching, distributing and marketing in the coming months.

I will be also posting books, audiobooks, documentaries and other materials that I hope would be helpful and interesting to you guys.

You're comments are most welcomed! Let's elevate our game together...

Keep posted.

-Jul