Awards Fever Grips Business Community of Drogheda

Yesterday I had meetings in Drogheda and I met with some business owners. Well the beat on the street is certainly one of excitement.

As this is my first year as a short-listed company, I can certainly share in the excitement. And I have two clients in for awards aswell.

The Drogheda Excellence Awards will be held on Saturday night at the 4-star City North Hotel and over 300 guests will gather to celebrate the short-listed companies and winners of 10 award categories.

I spoke to five companies short-listed for various awards and the excitement of the awards coupled with the nervousness of interviews is palpable.

Today I’ll have to spend time preparing for my interview. These awards should be recognised in itself. A completely impartial judging panel of 6 judges adjudicate the written award application forms. Size does matter because the form is only four pages long with six questions asked. It doesn’t allow for long-winded answers. The form makes up 70% of the award with the interview or mystery shopper evaluation making up 30%.

Best eat that frog - and print my application form.

If anyone has any tips on how to overcome nerves in an interview talking about your company, please feel free to share them. Many, many thanks!

What’s the difference between Marketing & Advertising?

While networking earlier in the week, I got the age-old comment “So you’re in marketing. I tried advertising but it didn’t work.”

I spent the next 30 minutes explaining the difference between marketing and advertising and then asking what why his advertising didn’t work.

It’s a comment that I get frequently. So I’m throwing it out there -

What do you think is the difference between marketing and advertising?

This is my understanding:

Marketing takes in the whole process of getting and keeping customers. It is at the core of every business success. It takes in promotion but also covers understanding the environment in which a company operates, the effect of competitors, pricing, product choice, consumer behaviour, political changes and the list goes on.

Advertising is just one way to promote a business to a mass audience and it’s generally paid for.

What is your understanding of it?

Sign up for ‘Countdown to 2010′, a 10-week marketing programme to kick-start your new year

It’s never too early to plan. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the calendar and realised that we only had 11 weeks left in 2009 (including this one!!).

Too often, us business-owners are so busy working in the business that we don’t focus enough on the business. Time has a funny way of flying by and suddenly, one week, one month, a half-year has flown by and we don’t even realise it.

As I set myself my own goal of working on my marketing plan for 2010, I thought it would be a good idea to share some key goals or initiatives that I’ll be looking at with other business-owners. We all have to plan, we all have to market and if I can help you market your business in a small way, then happy days. A rising tide raises all ships.

Countdown to 2010

Over the next ten weeks, you’ll get ideas, direct to your inbox, on a variety of marketing related topics that will all fit together for your overall marketing plan. Some of the topics include:

• Pricing - Stop under-valuing and start offering real value
• Promotion - Get the basics right for your 2010 campaigns
• Copy-writing - Engage with your audience to get results
• Social Marketing - Connect with social medium such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin
• Distribution - Deliver your product or service in the most effective manner

Many people’s eyes glaze over when I talk about strategic marketing or marketing planning, but if you break it down into bite-sized pieces, it’s easier to conquer. A journey is started by taking the first step.

How to Subscribe

So take the first step to planning  your marketing for 2010, by subscribing to ‘Countdown to 2010‘.

Remember a rising tide raises all ships. If you work on your marketing plan prior to 2010 and are ready to get going on Monday, 4th January (allowing lots of time to recuperate from celebrating the old and new year!), then you’ll be in a great place for 2010.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, subscribe HERE. You’ll get your first email on Wednesday, 21st October and weekly thereafter.

Privacy note: Your data will not be shared.

Home is…familiarity

As we only live 25 minutes from the airport, our family take it in turns to drop and pick up each other to the airport. My Dad was due to pick us up from our little trip to Spain. I knew that he’d be waiting for us at Area No. 2 (He’s always early or on time!). I knew he’d have the radio on and wouldn’t turn it off until I got hoarse shouting from the back seat.

And as we drove up the hill toward the house, I don’t know what reminded me of the Dennyis challenge, my mind works in mysterious ways! Maybe it was the steepness of the hill, maybe it was the discarded tayto wrapping that made my blood boil or maybe it was just familiarity that made me think of what home is.

I missed the launch of the Denny ‘What is Home?’ campaign,  their nation-wide search to finding out what home means to the country of Ireland. Craig Doyle was there as celebrity ambassador and gave his own version of home: “For me, it’s my real life outside of work, a return journey, a house full of screaming kids, a window frame the dog chewed and I got blamed for. It’s happiness and warmth.”

It was after midnight when we got back home. My mum had sandwiches made for us (you got to love Mums!) and it was great to know where to reach for the plates, the teabags, the milk while sleep-walking with the tiredness.

Home means lots of things at different times and for me that night, it was familiarity. Denny is set to film real people and real homes as part of its search to find out what really makes a home today. I think it’s a great idea - everyone is different yet it will be interesting to see the commonality between families and homes.

Anyone who wants to invite the Denny crew to their homes can do so by calling 1850 887 00 or 0844 544 3545.

They’ve also set up some interactive channels for people to share their stories about home - check out their page on Facebook, connect with them on Twitter and Flickr.

And what’s great about this campaign is that Denny is donating €1/85p to the Simon Community when every individual shares their thoughts on what home is online, by text or in person. Everyone is welcome to upload photos, videos and comments to www.homeis.ie, texting 51444 (ROI) or 81515 (NI) or by popping into one of the Denny houses. Denny is taking the campaign nationwide with their Home on Wheels tour.

Visit www.homeis.ie to share your thoughts. It’s a bit of fun and your contribution will help make a difference with the Simon Community.

Go on…what is home to you?

Credibility and Visibility are Key for Publicity

Back in September, thanks to Krishna De, I got a ticket to a workshop run by Jill Lublin, the PR guru who “has put millions of dollars in free publicity in the hands of thousands of people just like” me!

Always one to learn more, I thought, at best, I’d learn something new and at worst, it would be an interesting evening. Well, it was very much both. Although I’ve done PR work for clients before, you can never know enough about the PR game. Jill certainly entertained while she teaching her PR tips.

When Jill came out, she reminded me so much of Ruby Wax - I hope she doesn’t mind me saying that but her quirkyness and energy had me and the audience enthralled.

One of the first things she said about publicity was:

“In advertising, you pay for it.

In PR, you pray for it.”

How apt can 12 words be!

She teaches that everything about publicity comes down to building credibility and visibility. Thereafter, the sales come, but it isn’t the premise of a press release or a photo shoot or PR stunt.

It’s quite a simple message and really applies to marketing as well as PR - you need a great story. Often it’s the simple ideas that make the most sense, isn’t it?

She likes to personalise stories and the best PR coverage she has gotten for her clients is not necessarily about their product or service or company. It’s the story behind the company and it’s founders.

Just as UK Dragons on Dragons Den love to hear the story behind the entrepreneur, JIll advises everyone to think about somthing that you haven’t talked about before.

She gave a wonderful example of a client of hers, based in the US that was importing food stuff from France. While interesting enough, it wasn’t exactly riveting. Jill had a discussion with her and got to know a bit more about this lady. The client shared that her daughter was a recovering teenage alcoholic. That then became the story behind the client. It opened up doors for her to share her experience about her daughter and coincidentally about her business.

She got coverage in Parenting magazines, Teenage magazines, Womens magazines as well as the business press. This came when she shared her coverage in other magazines.

Some people may not like this approach but it is a different approach than the standard press release advertising a product, competing for interest. You’re hitting journalists with heart and soul and helping build name recognition.

By the end of the evening, we were doing PR exercises that pushed us to think outside the box. I’ve still homework to do from it! I wonder if procrastination is an interesting topic for journalists?!!!

Three PR take-aways from my interpretation of JIll Lublins workshop:

1. Build crediblity and visibility through your publicity initiatives; sales come later

2. Think of something that you haven’t talked about before; Add it to your potential PR talking-points.

3. Share your publicity when you get it; it could lead to lots more.

Do you have anyother PR tips to share?

Extra Information:

Jill Lublin came to Dublin courtesy of Horizon Speakers. Sign up to their newsletter to find when other speakers are in town.

Jill Lublin is hosting a three-part webinar series starting October 22nd. Each part is scheduled two weeks apart from the previous one.  (If you cannot make one session, you can roll forward into another webinar)

She is doing a special series for Ireland participants. Special webinar offer of 2 for the price of 1 @ 187euro.    Info and bookings: Suzanne@horizonspeakers.com or 086 1221359/01 2463033.

Irish Businesswomen Show Anything is Possible

Before I sojourned off to Spain, I was a guest of Patricia Rooney, General Manager of Murphy Environmental Hollywood Ltd at the Women Mean Business Conference & Awards at the Shelbourne Hotel.

The theme of the day was ‘Anything is Possible‘, inspired by leading businesswomen JK Rowling who said “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve” and Oprah Winfrey who said “If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race”.

This theme was carried through the entire day, especially at the networking session prior to lunch. Perhaps it was the sunshine streaming in through the windows, but there was a palpable air of positivity - things are on the rise.

The women that I spoke with were sustaining their businesses and creating opportunities while acknowledging that things aren’t as good as before. There was realism mixed with positivity and it was quite motivating.

Awards Ceremony

After lunch, the awards ceremony kicked off. Patricia Rooney, my host, was nominated for Businesswoman of the Year award. A well deserving nominee, of all the women I know, she has an unlimited supply of energy. The passion she brings to Murphy is obvious to see given the success of the business which she started from scratch and as President of Drogheda Chamber for the past 15 months.

Unfortunately, she didn’t win and the award went to Cathriona Hallan, MD of Microsoft European Operations Centre.

I met up with Veronica Canning, author of Shoeisms who was a finalist in another category, the Accenture WMBig Idea Award. Another deserving nominee, and unfortunately, she didn’t win either.

It got me thinking about awards. It’s always a little bit disappointing when you don’t win. Human nature being what it is - our the competitive spirit compels us to win. However, over 200 people applied for these awards. 15 people got short-listed. That’s a fantastic achievement in itself.

Perhaps award ceremonies should acknowledge the finalists a bit more - at the end of the day, there is only one official winner. Yet those 11 women who didn’t take home an award are winners. They beat 185 other women to be short-listed and recognised for their achievements.

I’m sure that we will see a lot more from the award winners and the short-listed candidates in the future. I’ll certainly be looking forward to reading more about them in the new Handbag-sized Women Mean Business magazine.

Congratulations to all the winners who have motivated the rest of us to believe Anything is Possible.

Click here for more details on the winners and finalists.

How do you protect your most valuable asset?

Most people, in business terms, profess their customers and staff as their most asset. While these are incredibly important to a business, another one is the information that the business holds - finances, info on customers, personnel records, emails received and sent, legal correspondence, bank details etc - the list is endless.

Yet so many people don’t think about their information as an asset.

When was the last time you backed up your data?

Well - that’s exactly what Host-it want to know. They would like to get five minutes of your time to get a more exact picture of how Irish companies - small and large alike - protect their most valuable asset by backing up their data.

Click Here to take survey

The survey is just 6 short questions and please be as honest as you can. The survey is anonymous.

However, if you’d like to win a years access to Host-it Back up Vault, then include your email address so you can be entered into a free draw. You’ll also get a copy of the results.

Go on - it’s less than 5 minutes. In fact, it will take longer to boil the kettle!

Word of the Week: Consumer

For some reason, whatever I read this week, the word ‘Consumer’ keeps popping up, generally in the context of a customer. It makes it an ideal candidate for an Achieve Marketing Word of the Week.

Meaning of the word Consumer:

Dictionary.com defines it as

• a person or thing that consumes

• Economics: a person or organisation that uses a commodity or service

• Ecology: an organism, usually an animal that feeds on plants or other animals.

According to the Collins Dictionary, it’s a noun and is defined as

• a person who buys goods or uses services

It’s origin dates back to 1375-1425 for earlier sense ‘Squanderer’.

In Marketing terms…

In marketing terms, a consumer is often used inter-changeably with the word customer.

In this context, a consumer is an individual who buys a product or service for personal consumption or use. They make the buying decision and can be influenced by advertisements and marketing.

Once they make a decision as a consumer, they become a customer.

So I guess strictly speaking, a customer is not the same as a consumer - for example, a child would be a consumer of Haribo jellys but the parent is the customer.

But not all things in marketing are so clear cut, as the parent could be influenced by the child (Pleeaase Mum!) and make the buying decision as a consumer.

As long as consumer is consuming a service rather than another human being, (in the ecology term), I think consumer and customer can be used interchangeably.

***Ends***

Outvesting - Got €50 for a Start-up?

I’m on twitter every day - sometimes to share interesting information that I’ve come across, sometimes I just read what others are saying.

One interesting tweet that I saw and acted upon came from @Eirepreneur. He spoke in less than 140 characters about the idea of outvesting.

Definition: out-vĕst’ing/ The act of committing money to a business while expecting to get nothing in return, other than the satisfaction of giving a leg up to Irish entrepreneurs.

So James put forward the idea of 100 business owners pledging €50 each, getting the €5,000 and then looking for submissions from start-ups for the cash. What a great idea.

€50 buys you what in Dublin today? An early bird dinner, a pair of jeans? (depending on where you buy them!), a round of drinks for about 8 people or a trip to the doctor/dentist.

Donating one little brown note can make a huge difference if you add it with 99 other brown notes. This will be an enormous help to a start up. If I had that money when I first started, it would have been a huge benefit to me.

I’m in. Are you?

If you want to be, check out http://outvesting.org/. If you’re on twitter, follow @outvesting and the hashtag #outvesting.

Thesaurus Tuesday: Day-to-Day

I’m currently working on three marketing activity plans. Within that context, I find myself saying to myself or my clients, ‘day to day’ activities are the lifeblood of any plan. Three little words to summarise all the tasks, chores and worries that comprise a day.

If I’m saying it so much, then why not use it as a Thesaurus Tuesday? As it’s a little phrase, could it be there is no real alternative to our much loved descriptive idiom?

I decided to think a little bit more about it. Something that occurs every day is said to be day to day. It also conjures up images of boredom, the mundaneness of life. In addition, I’ve seen it applied in the circumstance where there was no thought or regard to the future.

When I thought about another phrase to use, I found it quite difficult. Could I really have found a group of words that has no real alternative?

Thesaurus Tuesday Word:

Day-to-Day

Suggested alternatives to day-to-day

• Daily

• Continuously

• Regularly

Thesaurus in action

We lived day to day during those heady college days, worries were a thing of the future.

Our daily lives consisted of fun times, who needed to worry?

or

I didn’t need to be involved day to day in the business as long as I got figures at the end of the very evening

I wasn’t involved regularly in the business so long as the figures were emailed at the end of every day.

Can you think of an alternative to the ones above for day-to-day?