Halton Peel Communications Association

Almost a year ago, I stumbled upon the HPCA. I was surfing the web and had come across the notice for their first meeting of the year, a discussion on humour in the workplace with a cartoonist presenting. Communications group. Cartoonist. It was like a big Google keyword designed to hook me or something.

Now, my biased opinion of associations were they were something to trot out as proof of professionalism, but often amount to little more than a certificate on the wall. I'm glad to say that HPCA has disabused me of that notion.

Through HPCA I've met a lot of talented people and have been given a great deal of food for thought. I've had great discussions, some wonderful email exchanges, and won a bottle of wine. In all it's been a great year.

This is all a public way of saying, Craig, the cheque for my membership renewal is in the mail.

The Cocktail Party as Guide to Corporate Communications

Fast Company has an article in the August issue on Business Blogging for Beginners. The article is framed as if creating a business blog is the equivilent to hosting a cocktail party. I personally believe the cocktail party metaphor extends to far more aspects of the marketing or communications department.

Corporations and Markets don't communicate. People communicate to each other. What better way to observe people communicating to people than at a party. Compare the techniques of a successful host to a successful businesses and tell me there's not some insight to be drawn from a decent soirée.

The Sign by the Road

Does anyone actually phone a contractor, painter or roofer, based on a sign shoved into the edge of a lawn? Who are these people that, when driving along at 60km/hr, can not only read the two-foot sign that's perfectly parallel to the road, but can fully recall the phone number at a later date?

Maybe someone in the trades can correct me, but unless you're aiming your services at those with great memory and eyesight who have a tendency to look out the passenger's window whilst travelling at high speeds, this seems an extremely ineffective way to advertise your services.

Marketing

Marketing isn't just something you do as an afterthought. Marketing isn't just a spot on tv or an ad in the newspaper. Marketing isn't a byproduct. From the choice of location, to the colour of your walls, to the firmness of your handshake when you greet a clinet; every form of interaction your business has with a customer, potential customer, or even disinterested bystander, is all marketing.

It's when the product is still on the drafting board - when the service is just some discussion you and a partner are having over lunch - when you're at the beginning of the business - that's when marketing should be given full attention and thought.

Lead with the heart. Follow with the brains.

In business to business marketing, the temptation is to provide a stream of facts and figures. What we forget, is that we are not marketing to a business, we're marketing to people within the company. Often it's the person within the company who will make direct use of the product, but most often it's the person in the company who controls the purse strings and will give the purchase the thumbs up.

Nobody makes the decision to buy your Widget because you're the fourth largest manufacturer of Widgets in America. Nobody makes the decision to buy your Widget because it applies 500 Megajoules of wimmy-wam-wozzle. Yet these are the dry facts and figures that companies repeatedly lead with in their sales literature.

Show me that my job will be easier because I have a Widget. Demonstrate that my company will crush the competition, if we've got a Widget. Something emotional. Something that applies to me. That's what will make me decide to buy.

In all - that decision will take less than a minute. Now that I've decided to buy, give me the facts and figures to back up my decision so that I can convince myself that the decision was a good one.

Lead with the heart, follow with the brains.

What I Meant to Say...

The internet has a way of skewing intentions and generating disproportionate responses. Provided only with text, and the occasional smiley ;) we lose the important communicative cues of tone of voice, facial expression and body language.

A remark intended as a witty aside, could be inferred as being a direct attack. Something writ as being mildly annoyed can be read as being raving and furious. A rebuttal of an argument may be taken as an agreement or submission.

Before hitting ‘send’, ‘submit’, ‘post’ or any other such command that will take your words and fire them over the internet, take a couple of minutes. Go and grab a cup of Joe. Stretch your legs a bit. Put a pause between you and your words.

Okay. Now I want you to take a second look at what you’ve writ. Is this really what you want to say? Is this really the way you want to say it?

Now look at it from the point of view of the person your message is intended for. How are they apt to react? Are your words clearly indicating your intention or are the muddying the waters?

Then look at your words from the point of view of a third party. Someone who knows none of the parties involved in the discussion but is walking in at this moment. What kind of impression would they have of you based upon this one message?

If you’re satisfied with all the above – ask yourself this. Ten years from now, would I want to see my name attached to these words?

One of the advantages that communication online offers you, that you don’t have face to face or by voice, is to be absolutely sure that what you say is what you mean. You have the opportunity to take something back before it’s even voiced by simply not hitting ‘send’. Be sure to use that advantage.

A couple months back...

A couple months back, I blogged about my experience at ten Restaurant and Wine Bar.

You may also recall, earlier than that, I blogged about how everyone is a newspaper, everyone is a radio station due to the power of blogs, and I asked if your company was ready for that. ten Restaurant and Wine Bar better be, as it would appear that my critique of their service is one of the top entries when you do a Google search for their establishment.

From the Balcony

Statler: "I like this movie fine so far."
Waldorf: "It hasn't started yet."
Statler: "That's what I like about it."

Movies.com has launched a new feature - Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony. The two crumudgeons from the balcony on the Muppet Show are now going to be heckling the big blockbuster films. In a world crammed to the gills with film reviews, Movies.com, has found a great way to stand out from the crowd.

What makes it truly work is that, despite the novelty factor of having Muppets do the review, it's actually entertaining and fun to watch. So long as they can keep the characters true to form, and pack in a few great zingers each episode, I can see this being a highly frequented source for movie reviews. Kudos to whomever at Movies.com made this come together.

Return on Customer

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers have introduced a new business metric aimed at driving towards better management and a better return to the shareholder. Their argument is that capital is not the scarcest resource available to a company; the scarcest resource a company has is the customer.

I've long felt that a lot of our current metrics push towards short sighted and foolish moves that may generate short term profits but usually at the sacrifice of long-term growth or value. It would be nice to see companies begin to adopt practices that prevent this from happening. It would be nice, as an investor, to have a clear idea of the value of the company's customer base and how that's changed year over year.

'Return on Customer' may or may not see a place in financial analysis - but it's definitely an idea worth exploring. Having read the excerpt of the book, I'm intrigued enough to put an order in to Amazon.ca. I'll likely have a lot more to say on the subject when the book arrives.