Flexibility in times of change

I think it’s human nature to resist change. How many times have you actually heard someone say, “I love change?” The word “change” has been thrown around so loosely in the last year I don’t know how anyone hasn’t thought about it. This is something I have been reflecting on a lot lately.

It’s one thing to change your hair color or even the car you drive, but I am talking big change. As a species we appreciate consistency; it means that everything is ok. In these uncertain times people are facing dramatic changes – maybe even the biggest changes in their lifetime. Job losses, foreclosure, pay cuts, you name it, these things are happening all around us. So, how do you handle it when your world is shaken to the core like a winter snow globe? Do you collapse with fear or do you adapt quickly like a chameleon?

I truly believe that those who can adapt the quickest to change are more likely to survive once the dust settles. There are a few key elements to being able to adapt:

Look at the big picture. It’s important to not let the little things in life block your view of the bigger picture. Things will get better, but if you aren’t keeping your eye on the ever-changing horizon, you might end up back where you started.

Keep it lean. Evaluate your life and your business. What can you keep, and what can you live without? This doesn’t mean you should be eating Top Ramen every night for dinner, but having the awareness of what things you can cut out of your life will allow you to know what your next move will be when it is time to make a change.

Make your own rules. In the past, it has made sense to do things a certain way because that’s the way it has always been, but this no longer applies. Strategy is more important than ever. If something no longer makes sense for you or your business, don’t keep doing it.

Don’t be afraid to change. If there is a better way to run your business or be more efficient at your job, now it’s more important than ever to embrace it.

Stay patient. Change for the better is coming, but it’s probably not going to happen tomorrow. If you haven’t done it already, find a support network of like-minded individuals. There is no time better than the present to band together and help one another.

The only thing in life that is consistent is change – are you ready when it comes your way?

Megan Lane is an Account Executive at Imagine Marketing.
Contact Megan at mlane@imnv.com

Don’t MAKE Me Hang Up On You!

Ah, the sound of a phone ringing early in the morning. What, besides a strong cup of coffee, is such an eye opener? For most of my working life I have had a phone up to my ear, in offices where the phone rings every 30 seconds and where once an hour is a busy day. I have developed bad posture and a permanent neck-ache from the balancing act of holding the phone with my shoulder while I look up something on the computer or flip through a file.

I’ve also discovered that phone rings are usually irritating and designed to be heard in the break room down the hall. As for the phones themselves, I’ve used simple one-line touch tone phones—remember the squatty little beige boxes with dirty grey push buttons? —and phones that look like they belong on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. I have used phones that answer, transfer, record, summon and play really bad music and phones that work only on the third Tuesday of a 31-day month. I’ve laid a cordless phone down and told the caller I would be right back. I have stayed on hold for 2-1/2 hours waiting for a technician to make my computer virus go away. And I’ve hung up on my share of people, sometimes accidentally.

Sales calls drive me nuts. Especially computer calls. No satisfaction in dropping the receiver from 18”. Human sales people will (sometimes) get a polite, “Sorry, we don’t accept telephone solicitations, but thank you for the call.” Many of them are left trying to figure out what a telephone solicitation is.

When I’m not answering obnoxious, unsolicited sales calls, I try to be phone savvy with our clients and vendors. I can recognize the voices of some of our clients—but not all. And while I appreciate that our clients and vendors are comfortable enough to give me just their first names, we often have more than one client with the same name. I don’t always attach a name to a vendor, but if I’m told who they represent it smoothes the way. If I don’t recognize a name, I will ask what the call is regarding before putting it through. I’m sorry if the caller has been best friends with the person for the last 28 years. I didn’t know that at the time.

Every phone system has its own degree of clarity, and sometimes it’s difficult to hear when someone calls. Background music, speaker phones and cell phones can obliterate a name. Static and not speaking into the phone will almost guarantee me asking you to spell your name. Twice. Mumbling or speaking too fast (hey, age is catching up, takes awhile for synapses to fire) can make me give a name a pretty creative interpretation.

So if you will heed my suggestions, I will make this commitment to those who call Imagine Marketing. I’ll try to answer the phone by the second ring. I won’t still be thinking about the idiot who cut me off in traffic. I won’t be chewing anything. I will not finish a conversation with someone in my office before I say hello. If the person you are calling is not available, I will give you the best information I have as to when they will be back, without making something up. I will not purposefully hang up on you or transfer you to the wrong extension. And I will always do my best to let you hear me smile.

Sue Burkholder is the Company Mom at Imagine Marketing.
Contact Sue at sburkholder@imnv.com

The Power of Branding

As of this writing, the swine flu has killed 141 victims in 74 countries. The World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic. Reports have monopolized the news media for months.

Meanwhile, all influenza viruses combined affect 3-5 million people per year on a worldwide scale, resulting in 500,000 deaths. When’s the last time you heard about that?

I maintain that swine flu has stolen the spotlight because of one thing: branding. Think about it. It has a cool, frightening name. Short. Easy to remember. Vaguely connected to pigs, which have a mixed reputation at best in the public mind. All it needs now is a logo.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m by no means minimizing the seriousness of the situation. But, compared to other diseases (and other issues like the economy, terrorism and North Korea), swine flu is pretty far down the list.

That’s the power of branding for you. According to Business Week, the top 10 brands for 2008 were:

1. Coca-Cola
2. IBM
3. Microsoft
4. General Electric
5. Nokia
6. Toyota
7. Intel
8. McDonald’s
9. Disney
10. Google

Perhaps you’ve heard of them. Sure, these are enormous companies spending billions of dollars on marketing. But so do other firms that didn’t even crack the top 100. What makes these brands so successful? And what the heck is a brand, anyway?

According to www.allaboutbranding.com, a brand is a “unique and identifiable name, symbol association or trademark which serves to differentiate competing products or services. It is both a physical and emotional trigger to create a relationship between consumers and the product/service.”

Emotion is the key. What makes the brand powerful and effective, according to the Synergy Network (not a bad brand name) is its “ability to create a mood, thought, feeling, and definition such that the mere mention of the brand name connotes a greater meaning. The power of a brand lies in its ability to influence purchasing behavior.”

Think about the above companies. I’ll bet each one elicits one or two immediate feelings and thoughts, probably positive. It’s an amazing process, really. After all, Coke is little more than flavored fizzy water and is possibly one of the worst substances you can put in your body. But for most of the public, Coke is synonymous with good times, tradition, family, America and a raft of other attributes that have absolutely nothing to do with its physical ingredients. Instead, it has everything to do with what’s going on in the mind of the consumer, often at a subconscious level. This kind of response doesn’t happen by accident. It takes money, time and brilliant creative strategy.

I sometimes joke that our job, as marketers, is to brainwash the public. There’s a kernel of truth in that. Now, I’d prefer to be involved with products and services I believe in. If Toyota, Disney or Google want to contact Imagine Marketing, we’d be happy to help them out. But branding is such a powerful concept, it can work for just about anything. Ideas. Political parties. People. Personal branding is the wave of the future, thanks largely to the Web.

What does the public think about when they hear your name? When they Google you, what do they see? Employers, for example, are utilizing the Internet as never before to do background checks on potential new hires. Some of what they discover on Facebook, MySpace and other social sites can be make or break. And it stays up there forever. Together, it all adds up to your personal brand.

So think before you post. Maybe I should follow my own advice. I’m certain Coke won’t be contacting me for a job anytime soon.

Brian Rouff is the Managing Partner for Imagine Marketing.
Contact Brian at brouff@imnv.com

MARKETING: Are you fishing the right streams and using the correct gear?

Growing up in Southwestern Montana, fishing is more of a way of life than a hobby. Within striking distance of my hometown are three of the greatest blue ribbon trout streams in the United States: The Beaverhead, Big Hole and Madison rivers.

Conditions on the streams vary at different times during the spring and summer, and anglers must consider a number of factors before selecting a location. Water flow and temperature, water visibility, time of day, fly hatches and selecting the proper fly and rod are just a few of the variables to a successful day. The wrong stream or the wrong gear can make all the difference regardless of the skill level of the angler.

Business is no different. Your market serves as the stream and your product or service serves as your gear. A poor choice of streams or gear in the New Economy can make the difference between financial stability or financial disaster.

Research your market and look at all the variables. Are you just throwing hooks in any stream that comes along? If so, you are probably finding the fishing pretty poor. Define your markets and make sure they can support your product or service. In the New Economy, markets change quickly, so have management processes in place that can rapidly respond to these changes.

Are you fishing with the correct gear? If not, you won’t be getting many bites. Break down your product or service and see what it offers your potential and current clients. And remember that value is in the eye of the beholder. What one client values, another may not. Make sure your gear (product or service) is flexible and can adapt to different client needs.

So, conduct your research, select the proper stream, use the proper gear, and you will start catching your share of the fish.

Jeff Jensen is the Chief Operating Officer for Imagine Marketing.
Contact Jeff at jjensen@imnv.com

Poker & Media Relations: Understanding all aspects of the game

We live in a town filled with gamblers and a stigma that separates those who like to play the slots from those who wouldn’t dare go near a blackjack table. However, gambling, or more specifically, playing poker is a lot like other professions including media relations because it’s about assessing situations, sometimes taking risks and keeping a clear line of sight on the prize. In order to demonstrate this, I’ll have to use a real-life example:

My fiancé, Mike, and I were playing low-limit Texas Hold ‘Em poker at The Mirage when he got embroiled in a hand against a tourist from the East Coast. After all of the cards were dealt, two to each player and five community cards, Mike held a royal flush (the 10, jack, queen, king and ace all in one suit), the hand of all hands in poker. After a lot of betting and raising, the East Coast Tourist was practically broke and flipped over his hand showing two jacks, which when paired with the community cards gave him four-of-a-kind in jacks, a practically unbeatable hand. To the tourist’s exasperation, Mike’s royal flush trounced his hand and the more than $100 in chips was pushed to the other end of the table.

Mike and the East Coast Tourist played their hands well considering they didn’t know what each other had, but the tourist made a key mistake: he didn’t take the fact that he can lose into account. In other words, he played offense with no defense.

Offense and defense are pivotal parts of poker and of the media relations field. Understanding the client and taking their wants and needs into account is an absolute must for their satisfaction, but also taking into account what the media is looking for is just as important.

For example, we recently had a client that is very community-oriented open a new location. When we pitched the grand opening it was our goal to not only gain local media attention, but to land a mention in one or two industry trade publications as well. This led to creating two pitch e-mails, one with the release and information highlighting community activity for the local publications, and a separate e-mail for regional and national trade publications that included anything they could possibly need for a news brief. The reason for this was to not waste the trade publication’s time by forcing them to call or e-mail back and forth just to ask for a photograph, an address, info about the grand opening, etc. The pitch was a one stop shop. If we would have sent the community pitch to the trade publications we most likely wouldn’t have earned the news brief that we did because we didn’t take what the publication wanted into consideration. As it was, we not only earned some local media spots, but we also got the grand opening mentioned in one of the leading trade newsletters along with a photograph.

As a media relations department, it’s our job to understand both aspects of the game and to play our hand accordingly. Laying all our cards on the table, so to speak, may be the best strategy when pitching to one type of media, but could work against us when pitching to another. Like each hand of poker, every pitch and press release is unique and needs to be handled accordingly. Pitching the wrong media or sending a release to the wrong demographic can mean a loss of dollars and a waste of time. We know what cards we’re holding and when played correctly, all of the chips get sent our way which means client satisfaction.

Beth Dickman is a Media Relations Specialist for Imagine Marketing.

Contact Beth at bdickman@imnv.com

Addicted to television ads? I am.

I love television ads, at least most of them. I could even consider myself addicted. Maybe it’s because my earliest memories are of clever ads and jingles that interrupted the old programs precisely on the quarter hour. Perhaps I am the epitome of gullibility. Or maybe I just find them more entertaining than most programs these days. Still, I score 100% on those e-mail tests that come around, asking me to identify brands and slogans from decades back. I stay up to watch the commercial montages used as summer programming fill-ins. And I dance to the emotional tune of the ad campaigns, whether they are sappy, silly or superfluous.

For me, ads marked time, provided vicarious romance, entertained. I knew the Christmas season officially began with Santa sledding on a Norelco. I was hooked on the continuing romance of the Taster’s Choice couple. Chihuahuas, Clydesdales and roly-poly puppies will grab me in an instant. I’ve watched the transmutation of Ronald McDonald and the replacement of Charmin squeezers and Maytag repairmen. I cried when the boy came home from college and woke his mom with Folgers. I didn’t care when Campbell’s got scolded for marbles in their noodle soup commercials. I ate it anyway. With the advent of color television, I learned that Kool-Aid is orange, Kraft Mac N Cheese is blue, and Jell-o jiggles in a rainbow of colors. If it’s animated, I’m there. My favorite day of the year at Imagine Marketing is the Monday after Super Bowl when the whole team sits down to discuss and dissect the super-hyped Super Bowl commercials.

Even if we mute the television, or skip through the Tivo, ads are a part of our everyday lives. The variety of goods and services that we must choose from is immense. How do we know what is right for us? We have become more detached from our neighbors, live far from our families, and communicate through texts, tweeting and blogs. Word-of-mouth, formerly our first source for information, has dried up. So how do we decide if a product is worthwhile, a person is reliable or a service will meet our expectations? We rely on the message and branding of those developing the products or providing the services.

That’s where Imagine Marketing comes in. By far, branding and slogans aren’t the only services we provide, but I see the work every account executive puts into identifying who our clients are, what they represent and how their message will reach their consumer. From its beginning, Imagine Marketing has set a standard for itself and for its clients that says, “The integrity and service you see is the integrity and service you get.” In this economy—in every economy—it is important to make sure our dollars buy quality goods and services. It’s a great feeling to know that Imagine Marketing, through assisting our clients, helps to do just that.

Sue Burkholder is the Company Mom at Imagine Marketing.
Contact Sue at sburkholder@imnv.com

Reinvention: Consistency is key

Britney Spears has done it. Madonna is known for it. Jennifer Grey (famous for the movies “Dirty Dancing” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) should have never done it. I am talking about reinvention, something that is part of life even if you’re not a movie star or pop princess. For both businesses and individuals, not only is this a part of the life cycle, it’s an essential part of survival. This is more obvious now as people are trying to survive and thrive in the New Economy.

The reason some have been more successful than others at reinventing themselves goes back to a key marketing principle: CONSISTENCY. If you take a closer look at the careers of Madonna and Jennifer Grey, this is the key difference between the two. Madonna has gone through many metamorphoses over the years, from what she wears to the music she sings, yet she has never lost sight of the personality and energy that made her famous in the first place.

On the other hand, Jennifer Grey, after several successful movies in the ‘80s, changed the one thing that made her identifiable and different from other actresses: her nose. Do most people even realize she was in other movies after “Dirty Dancing?” Don’t get me wrong, her nose had nothing to do with the talent that made her successful in the first place, but it was what made her different, relatable and recognizable.

The moral of the story: change is good, but don’t change the thing that makes you identifiable to your audience (or customers). What are you doing to reinvent yourself during these turbulent times? How will the changes you are making affect how your current customers identify you or your company?

Megan Lane is an Account Executive for Imagine Marketing.

Contact Megan at mlane@imnv.com

Revisiting Moments of Discovery

Every business is born of a vision. Someone somewhere had an idea that was meant to fill a void. During this global struggle, we have been forced to change the way we do business. We’ve had to shift our focus and “wise up.” Now is the time to create our own opportunities. We need to focus on developing new relationships and nurturing our old ones. Things are in flux, but one thing has not changed: that thing that drove us in the early days.

My parents were very supportive of my artistic abilities in the early days. During the ‘80s, my family lived in Orange County. The city held a “Fish Fry” where, for a fee, people could hawk their wares. My father always ponied up some cash so I could display my paintings. I’d sit there humbly with my artwork displayed for the world to see. People would pass, look at my work, look me over and continue to the next booth.

It was during one of these events that I was visited by a man who had stepped away from his booth to take a look around. He stopped at mine and looked at one of my paintings. I remember being intimidated. He was working at the POW booth and looked like a man who had seen quite a bit in his life. He stared at one of my large format acrylic paintings. The piece had been inspired by a Marlboro ad I had seen. Instead of depicting the cigarette-smoking cowboy, I had replaced him with a nondescript and rough sketch of a Native American riding a horse at full gallop through the desert at sundown.

He stood there just long enough for the moment to feel uncomfortable. Then he turned to me and asked me if I’d painted it. I noticed all his medals. Even at that young age I understood what a man had to go through to earn a purple heart. I said yes. With tears in his eyes he began to tell me about a man he had served with in Vietnam. He told me about their friendship and of the pride his friend felt about being Native American. He said his friend was killed during the war, and he hadn’t allowed himself the thought of him until this moment.

As a 15-year-old, I knew nothing about life – let alone death and war. Yet, a painting I created stirred something powerful in a man who had endured losses I couldn’t imagine. That was the moment I recognized the power of art as a tool to communicate and touch people. That was when I knew I wanted to become an artist. I often think of that when I work. It helps me realize how privileged we are to be contributing.

During these challenging times, it’s important to remember those moments of discovery. That’s where we get the drive to continue and succeed. My journey has brought me here. I’m able to draw from the inspiration of business owners all over our city, and if I’m lucky, remind them why they love what they do. I think that if we all realized the influence we had on the world as individuals, we would be ready to meet any challenge that comes before us.

As is discussed in our "Change or Die: What to do in the New Economy" seminar, this is the time to be bold – to start rethinking the way we do business. But it’s also a time to remember where we came from and why we do what we do.

Alex Raffi is the Creative Director and Partner at Imagine Marketing.
Contact Alex at araffi@imnv.com