Cut to the Core

Business Blogging Enhances Brand Value

Business blogging – the online journaling of personal observations and opinions about business ideas and events – continues to be a good method to build an online presence. Business blogging can be used effectively by both large corporations and small businesses as an online marketing tool that affords the blog author the option to manage, to measure and to publish content independent of any expensive service. A business blog can benefit your brand in numerous ways. It can enhance your credibility, create community, engage readers, attract clients and drive traffic to your Web site.

 

Key Point – Appropriately customized blog content increases both brand awareness and traffic to your company Web site.

Could Backwards Planning Yield Better Results for You?

I used to plan by moving forward. I took an objective to be accomplished, broke it down into its actionable tasks, prioritized those tasks, placed them on a timeline and, finally, generated a daily list of things to do. I then worked my way down the list and enjoyed a great deal of satisfaction as I checked off each item as it was completed. 

This was an unbeatable system for many years, until I became part of the “Sandwich Generation.” These are the individuals in our society who are responsible not only for themselves and the next generation but also for the generation that precedes them. When I became “sandwiched,” I found my normal planning process was no longer effective in assisting me to reach my goals.

Pressed for time by priorities that I did not have any ability to anticipate or that I could not prevent, I found that a new planning tool—working backwards—became my best planning tool.  I now manage my deadlines instead and schedule project tasks to meet an estimated project delivery date.

By arranging deadlines as a daily to do list of task objectives, with accompanying sub-tasks, in order of importance, I am able to quickly react to the ever-increasing demands on my time and to manage schedule changes that call for quickly reassessing and rearranging of priorities.

Performance Management is Key to Business Success

In his keynote speech at SHRM’s 2009 Annual Conference held in New Orleans in June, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, emphasized the importance performance management plays in the overall success of a business.

Welch pointed to the prominent role that human resources takes in any organization’s performance management system, and he stressed that HR is “responsible in many ways for ensuring that managers are candidly appraising people.”

It may be time, therefore, to reevaluate your current programs and determine if you reward the behaviors you desire.  Make sure that your managers give employees constant feedback and do not wait until their annual performance reviews to suggest changes or to praise excellence. 

 

 To learn more about Jack Welch and about GE’s performance management practices, read “Performance Management Is Key to Thriving in Tough Times,” a Kore Access case study - Click Here.

“But differentiation is all about being extreme, rewarding the best and weeding out the ineffective. Rigorous differentiation delivers real stars—and stars build great businesses.” 

Jack Welch

One Great Way to Feel a Sense of Accomplishment

If your days seem to get lost in a flurry of activities that lead to no meaningful end, resolve to get one big thing accomplished.  Revisit your core work, review your life values and choose to get done, today, one task or project that will advance you toward your long-term goals.

As a result, you will know you have accomplished a personal task that has significantly moved you along your chosen path, Besides gaining a sense of satisfaction, you might even gain a new perspective that leads to feeling energized instead of frustrated by your day.

A complementary way to enhance your feelings of accomplishment is to process unimportant and nonurgent tasks in batches, i.e., to schedule the performance of similar and repetitive tasks in one sitting. For example, you can maximize your time, materials and resources if you run all your errands on one day or make all your phone calls during a set time period.

Why wait any longer to become a person known for his or her energy and accomplishments? Place one big thing at the top of your list and do it now.

How to Play a Part in the Green Economy

Could Participation In The Green Economy Be a Key to the Long-Term Success of Your Organization?

 

President Obama’s plan to create a thriving green economy includes:

 

An increased investment in research. Plans include doubling the current federal funding of $3 billion per year on clean energy projects and energy innovation efforts. In what capacity could your organization participate in the use or the commercialization of biomass, solar and wind resources?

 

The creation of job training and transition programs. These programs include aid to American workers that will help them to qualify for, and to remain employed in, high‐paying jobs in clean energy industries. In what way could your organization benefit from this initiative to train both young employees and dislocated workers?

 

Support for innovation and for the commercialization of new green technologies. Initiatives include the creation of a Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund and the investment of $10 billion per year for five years in the fund. The goal is to expedite private efforts to bring new technologies to market. Could your product or service solution be enhanced or redefined in order to fill a need in the clean energy industry?

 

The conversion of American manufacturing plants into clean energy providers. Plans include the contribution of $1 billion per year to state governments so that the states can assist small and mid-size manufacturers in the modernization of their facilities. In what manner could your organization directly or indirectly benefit from this federal/state investment in your community?

 

 

Could Participation In The Green Economy Be a Key to the Long-Term Success of Your Organization? Read the June 2009 issue of Marketing Mindset, for more insights. Download KA_Ezine _JUNE_09

Does Your Case Study Convert Prospects into Customers?

Does your case study promote your solution? Earn credibility through a third-party testimonial? Build two-way communication by identifying with your customers?

For highlights on how to use your case study to convert prospects into customers, read “8 Reasons to Use a Case Study,” an Express Knowledge report. Kore Access offers Express Knowledge as a periodic review of the latest marketing practices and tools. Download Case_study_Express

Visit the free resources section of the Kore Access Web site to access many more tips to help you use your case study to increase your sales potential. Click here.

Are You Aware of Your Organizational Bottlenecks?

A bottleneck is identified as any part of an organizational process that slows down the whole system. The term is most often used in reference to a manufacturing process where the production of a single component can cause work or progress to “bottleneck” at a certain point in the manufacturing chain. However, the presence of bottlenecks is not limited to production processes.

In a service company, for example, the bottleneck can occur during any process, within a certain department or because of a particular person. Since the bottleneck hinders productivity and endangers quality of service it also creates the inability to respond quickly to customer needs and wants. Therefore, the prevention of bottlenecks can be especially critical for service companies.

In order to track the source of organizational bottlenecks, work with your team. You can glean valuable information when you ask team members to answer the following questions:

1. Is there any factor (e.g., skill level, time commitment, overload) that keeps us from delivering our service with value-added components that will further distinguish us from our competitors?

2. Do we have the in-house expertise to meet customer demands? If not, do we use the optimal outsourcer?

3. How does each part of our process relate a) to our overall process, b) to our customers’ needs and processes and c) to the welfare of each and every stakeholder involved?

The best way to reduce the number of bottlenecks is to plan ahead for best-choice solutions. Engage yourself and your stakeholders in serious discussions as quickly as possible in order to identify current bottlenecks and prevent future ones. Remember, you and your team already have the expertise and the built-in opportunity to ease any bottleneck you encounter.

Is Your White Paper a 24/7 Salesperson?

Does your white paper help move buyers through the buying decision process? Demonstrate to readers your unique value? Inform prospects of your solution’s benefits?

For highlights on how to make your white paper into a “salesperson” that can make a compelling case to purchase from your organization, read “10 Reasons to Use a White Paper,” an Express Knowledge report. Kore Access offers Express Knowledge as a periodic review of the latest marketing practices and tools. Download White_Paper_Express

Visit the free resources section of the Kore Access Web site to access many more white paper tips that will help you increase your sales potential. Click here.

Use Nostalgic Advertising to Build Brand Loyalty

Use this checklist to evaluate if you build more brand loyalty by using nostalgic advertising tactics:

Recently, the television advertising campaign for Progressive, a car insurance company, has featured Flo, the checkout girl. Flo who sports a flip hairdo and heavy makeup, has gained a large fan base and completes her 1960s girl-next-door image with her incredibly enthusiastic and friendly service. How can your organization capitalize on the character, styles and themes of an era?

 

Nostalgic advertising is known to be very effective when consumers are predisposed to search out nostalgia. Financial and insurance companies regularly use this tactic to target the retired and soon-to-be-retired when they include references to their customers’ past in their advertisements. What impact would it have on your business if you could connect with the hopes and dreams your consumers have had from their youth?

 

Because consumers always frame advertising in a selective way, nostalgic advertising must be planned carefully. Although some sadness or loss may be felt when consumers are reminded that days gone by cannot be recaptured, they usually have positive responses to nostalgic images. For this very reason, the marketing message should be carefully balanced with hope in order to ensure a positive association with your brand. How can you serve your customers better by developing an awareness that your organization can help fulfill their unmet needs?

 

Read the May 2009 issue of Marketing Mindset and use the recommended resource worksheet “Marketing Materials Review and Evaluation” to identify and to evaluate ways in which you can utilize nostalgic advertising in your organizational marketing materials.Download KA _Ezine MAY_09

Increase Revenue by Changing Your Marketing Messages

 Use this checklist to evaluate if changing your marketing message could increase both initial and repeat sales:

 

 

Pillsbury’s "Home Is Calling" campaign depicts people in everyday settings who click their heels and are “transported” back home. The Pillsbury crescent rolls then come out of the oven and the family sits down to eat. How can you best incorporate the home values of security, safety and love in your communications?

 

The “Magical Shop” commercial, in which a shopper “purchases” such items as 28 laughs and 9 hugs, stems from one of MasterCard's core values:  its goal to provide “priceless” experiences to individuals and their families. Could a new communications campaign based on your core brand identity boost your sales?

 

 During the economic downturn of 2007, IKEA, the home furniture and accessories retailer, conducted a survey and found out that 94% of the respondents considered home the most important place in the world. In response to those results, IKEA launched an advertising campaign that emphasized the value of being home over owning the possessions in a home. Do you need to test market a new approach to your communications?

 

 

*Change your marketing message to increase your market influence.  Work with your Kore Access colleagues to increase marketing effectiveness by addressing your customers’ current communication needs. Explore how to connect and communicate your core brand identity in order to increase both initial and repeat sales.

 

 

To set up your initial, complimentary consultation and to get a customized project quote, contact us today.