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By Sandra Holtzman, September 22, 2012 11:30 am

Make your product and services easy to find, easy for visitors to your website to stay a while, learn about you and follow through.  That’s what a medical cosmetics physician did and it worked for him (see link below).  The bottom line is he  got specific about what his customers wanted and gave it to them.  This included adding before and after photos of people who had used his services (this is equivalent to a demonstration of your product/services – one of the best way to get a customer). He also put a “Call to action” (what you want the customer to do for next steps) up front and center (ok to the right hand side of the home page but you catch my drift). And response improved.  He decided not to use a form because that would slow down and discourage follow-through.  While this worked for this particular physician and his customer population, another  physician who specializes in the treatment of pain did exactly the opposite.  He had a long form on his website in order to weed out patients who didn’t live in the immediate area (thousands of people have pain and he would have had to hire additional full time help just to deal with the inquires coming from his website), who had the kind of insurance he takes, and who had the kind of pain he could treat.

Image provided by Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

The bottom line is you have to customize your messaging in whatever format you deliver it, to your customer’s habits and wishes. This means you have to reach out to your customer base and find out how they want to be “told and sold”. What’s the single or couple of most important messages that they need to hear in order to move them from a visitor to your website?  Then give it to them.

If you’re in retail like dungarees.net (see link below) then you might want to solicit customer reviews.   Find the issue that, when solved, will not only keep customers on your site (or reading your materials) longer,  but also convert them from a visitor to a customer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/business/smallbusiness/three-keys-to-converting-web-visitors-into-buyers.html?smid=pl-share

Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
She is the author of Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing.

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By Sandra Holtzman, September 15, 2012 10:09 am

Image provided by Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

Virginia Dominguez, a consultant, responds to “How come no one wants to speak to the customer BEFORE they do marketing” with this case history/anecdote:

“This is a good point…I was just watching a video, last night, where Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) pointed this out…He illustrated this with a story about a Chiropractor that wanted to set up his practice in this new town. So, he went to the town officials and asked a few questions, to which he was told that the town did not need another chiropractor, because the town already had one servicing the people. This negative reaction did not derail his ambition, so he set out to prove them wrong. He did this by doing some pre-marketing before opening the business.  He set out to go knocking on hundreds of doors and asking each individual and potential customer, how they would feel (together with other service related questions) about a new chiropractor in town. He not only proved the town officials incorrect, but he was able to make tons of money when he established the business. A year or so later, one of those people he interviewed was on this big event seminar, when the above story about the Dr. was told, the interviewee got up and said, “I remember him!” She was asked by the event coordinator, how was this possible and she said, “I remember him, because he came to talk to me!” She also used his services.”

The power of communicating directly with your customer/audience is amazing…when you do it. And the best part about this process is that it doesn’t have to be expensive. The ROI in terms of business, branding, establishing yourself and your business in the community is exponential.

Try it.

Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
She is the author of Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing.

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By Peggy & Arthur Winters, August 30, 2012 10:47 am

Drawing by Arthur Winters

For today’s fashion marketing, original visual content is vital.  The marketing communications strategy is how to make it effective. We’re still seeing some fashion brands using old-style fashion model poses in their visualizations of their new styles or products. But, we appreciate and recommend fashion brands that are creating better visual stories, which provide customers with answers and suggestions. These brands tell a visual story of what they can do for the customer, not just what items they make that only create awareness by projecting their brand image.

Visual Content — yes …

Visual — but NO story …

Fashion marketing needs better communications that connect with the customer’s branding of self. Marketers could now look at their products for visual content and the story that generates its facility for self-styling. And in this multi-media, social media world, visualization in all its forms is pre-eminent.

“Power to the She” –self-styling visual and verbal story

A significant brand mark for fashion marketers is to see visual content that covers all aspects of customer/consumer experience. For example, a fashion firm might even introduce their customers to a fly-on-the-wall look at their design team at work. There is no doubt that fashion may be a most visual product that offers ever-flowing fountains of ideas for visual content – and desire, especially with the use of social media and web sites.

Fashion brand positioning can be more inspiring by showing the customer real life style and life-stage happenings instead of static, mannequin-posed model photos with their logo.

Starbucks visualizes it is the customer’s lifestyle…

Those brand managers who have a sense of the visual in communications may be the new Rembrands of fashion marketing!

What’s your story?

.

Arthur & Peggy Winters co-teach SXB 200 Brand Marketing Communications for Image & Meaning and SXR 050 Intro to Branding: The Art of Customer Bonding.

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By Sandra Holtzman, August 4, 2012 9:09 am

A New York Times article about two FIT grads who started a shoe company, sold it, and then wound up in court over several different issues – see link to story below – is, unfortunately, all too common. I’ve warned, as has one of my guest bloggers, to do nothing without having a lawyer review the contract – and after this story, maybe two lawyers, one a business lawyer and the other an intellectual property lawyer. This is such a sad story and, unfortunately, a common occurrence. And I hear it in all industries although fashion seems to be particularly vulnerable.

Image provided by Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com

You need a solid contract. Nothing is perfect, but a good lawyer will point out the most obvious potential problems in a contract and make sure you are protected. Two really important issues are protecting your name and the use of it (trademark, brand, etc.) and making sure that if you have to leave the company, that you are compensated appropriately. Even within these two issues, there are a multitude of options and potential circumstances that must be covered.  Every opportunity/contract should be viewed by you as a pre-nup. What will happen in the worst case scenario? Prepare for it and then hope it doesn’t happen.

I recently turned down a potential money making deal because my lawyer smelled a rip-off. A document was presented to me as a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), however, there was this little irksome clause that said I would not be paid for, nor receive any profits from, work I did.  That clause didn’t even belong in an NDA. When my lawyer adjusted the agreement to amend that statement, the other party killed the deal.

It’s a well repeated adage in fundraising that money does not come cheaply.   This adage applies to all business transactions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/fashion/taking-a-hard-spill-in-designer-shoes.html?smid=pl-share

Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
She is the author of Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing.

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By Peggy & Arthur Winters, June 28, 2012 3:35 pm

Segmented Marketing has been rapidly replacing, or at least collaborating as part of,what we have known as Mass Marketing. So why would any brand, U.S. or “other world,” not customize their communications about their product, service or experience? With a rising local diversity in our domestic market, and an increasing mix of different global cultures throughout the world, a brand needs to continue to create strategies and communications for glocal brand marketing.

Some brands are trying multicultural marketing that attempts to create communications for more than one market segment. The brands that seem to do the job best do forms of Integrated Marketing that go beyond running traditional ads, doing outdoor advertising or going on-line. They are developing innovative Consumer-Centric Promotions (CCP) and Customer Experiences (CX). And they are considering cross-over life-style psychographics to identify “cross-across” target markets.

Today’s Brand Management has to recognize that cross-over segmented markets require more glocal strategies and multicultural communications than ever before.

One to watch is what a retail giant like The GAP is doing. GAP Inc. has products available to customers in over 90 countries worldwide. Their global expansion formula is to enter a country with brand-building flagship stores, after which outlets and smaller franchise stores can be added beyond the main cities, in addition to building an online web presence for each country/region/language and offering international shipping.  This plan goes on even with the news that they will be closing a number of stores in NYC, the USA and Canada.

In the Gap Inc.’s case, they are promoting their image of Americana and it’s fun, family, fashion and value appeals across the globe. They integrate or “glocalize” their promotions with the local customers as seen on their international web pages:
www.gap.cn   www.gap.eu

https://m.gap.co.jp

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The Gap is approaching each segmented market with its brand story and brand image, while welcoming each target market in their own language and giving them the opportunity to adapt this American brand in their own “glocal” way.  In today’s global economy world, we need to develop our own global perspectives as we choose which ideas or products to include in our company brands and our personal customer lifestyles.

Arthur & Peggy Winters co-teach SXB 200 Brand Marketing Communications for Image & Meaning and SXR 050 Intro to Branding: The Art of Customer Bonding.

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By Dalia Strum, June 14, 2012 12:39 pm

WHAT’S TRENDING

Louis Vuitton has recently collaborated with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama on a handbag collection and is raising awareness with a mobile application that uses augmented reality and photo sharing.

The Louis Vuitton Kusama Studio iPhone app allows users take photos of images around them and apply an effect called visions to transform them into Ms. Kusama’s artwork.  Users can share them on a public gallery as well as social media platforms.

Yayoi Kusama began as an avant-garde painter in Tokyo in the 1950s. She became a figure in New York’s contemporary art scene in the 1960s. Her style is a cross between pop art, surrealism and minimalism.

This strategy is a combination of simplicity meets innovation, which augments and transform photos into Kusama’s lens.

The app lets users imagine a person or object covered with dots or reinterpreted as abstract waves, as inspired through Ms. Kasama’s artwork. It is available for free in Apple’s App Store.

Dalia Strum teaches SXF 120: Blogging Smarts for Business and SXF 130: The Social Media-Social Commerce Revolution: What You Need to Know to Keep Up.

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By Dalia Strum, May 24, 2012 11:14 am

WHAT’S TRENDING

Luxury Brand Christian Dior has created a two-part video marketing strategy for its new jewelry collection on mydior.com.  In doing so, they have humanized the jewelry collection by featuring model Raquel Zimmermann in a candid conversation truly opening up across the gamut from fashion, beauty, emotions and dating. She concludes both videos with “My Dior is My Dior. Imagine talking to your jewelry.”

There’s truly an emphasis on the product because she speaks about various experiences, and in in a sense, it’s like her Dior jewelry has become her security blanket.  No matter what, she can count on that to be beautiful and consistent part of her life while Zimmerman proclaims her feelings and flaws.

In this micro-video, she is continuously re-styled with red lipstick and black eyeliner, to nude lip gloss and messy hair, truly exemplifying that Dior Jewelry can be universal in the various occasions or even everyday wear-age.

This is not only a much more engaging opportunity for Dior to get their brand messaging across, it’s an interesting opportunity in regards to their brand positioning and how deep their future approaches will be in terms of brand messaging.

Dalia Strum teaches SXF 120: Blogging Smarts for Business and SXF 130: The Social Media-Social Commerce Revolution: What You Need to Know to Keep Up

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By Joan Volpe, May 17, 2012 4:17 pm

Register online: http://www.fitnyc.edu/noncreditregister
and click to download the Summer Catalog.

Register online: http://www.fitnyc.edu/noncreditregister
and click to download the Summer Catalog.

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By Dalia Strum, May 15, 2012 1:13 pm

WHAT’S TRENDING

Louis Vuitton is going back to its roots and what they’re originally known for; their luggage and trunks by creating an iPad application.  The 100 Legendary Trunks iPad application provides exclusive brand information through unpublished texts and documents, videos, sound clips and images. The Louis Vuitton app price seems to be a luxury item in and of itself, with a price point of $18.99 in Apple’s App Store.

The application’s vivid representation of the history of Louis Vuitton’s design’s and usage is truly representative of the company’s evolution throughout the years.

The history of the Trunks, also include the globe-trotters (celebrities) whom have owned them and have been carrying their possessions for some time. While they’re more nostalgia pieces nowadays, they still draw attention for their classic lines and sticker friendly surfaces.

Louis Vuitton’s luxury experience backstory was translated into an application, similarly like the details and quality of their products. Their clientele understands the value behind the brand, and LV has established a sense of trust with their customer base, so they shouldn’t have an issue with the price point of the app.

Dalia Strum teaches SXF 120: Blogging Smarts for Business and SXF 130: The Social Media-Social Commerce Revolution: What You Need to Know to Keep Up