Category Archives for "Marketing"

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I love the idea of exercising, it’s the actual doing of it that I find difficult.

Once I had a goal to lose about 10kg and decided that I would go for a bike ride every morning. I found a nice flat circular route of about 10kms and set my alarm to go for it first thing in the morning.

All my clothes, hat and shoes were ready by the bed so there was a seamless action as I jumped out of bed and got dressed, out the door and on the bike before my brain had really woken up and started telling me how crazy I was to be cycling while it was still dark.

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When you have a personal brand, your marketing decisions become very simple and easy.

The latest news that !2 Years A Slave Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o is now the face of Lancome is a true example of this.

Lupita recently spoke at Essence, the Black Women in Hollywood organisation where she told the heart wrenching story of her own desire to "whiten" her skin, praying to God to do this for her as she slept because she believed it would make her more beautiful. Of course her Mother told her she already was beautiful, but the magazines, media and world around her didn't give her the same message. It wasn't until she saw a stunning (and very dark skinned) model in the media that she began to develop her self confidence and acceptance that she was indeed, a very beautiful person, both inside and out.

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Checked my Linked-In inbox today to see a message from someone in a group I have joined. It was quite clearly spam and I wondered what on earth had possibly entered this persons head to think "Wow, have I got a great product here that people are bound to want...I know, I'll write a generic message and send it out to all the group members".
Here's his blast:

Dear Sirs

Trying to absorb all the marketing messages we see each day is a little bit like trying to drink for a fire hydrant!
There is just so much going on. So is it easier or more difficult to get your marketing right these days? Here's what I think:

Why it's more difficult:
1) The power has shifted to the consumer - traditional selling doesn't work anymore because the consumer has all the info, choice, leverage and options available to them.

So you’ve got a Facebook Fan Page or a Linked In Company Profile...now to start getting some content in there…

What do you post?

We’ll if it’s Friday, you could post a TGIF image, or there’s that cartoon your BFF sent you that really cracked you up, surely people will love that?... then there’s that industry report that has some great stats people would find interesting, wouldn’t they?...And I need to tell everyone about my special offer too...

One of the most important factors to knowing what will work on social media is knowing your target audience and knowing them so well that you post information they will resonate with, react to and interact with.