"More White Space"

Here at Imagine Marketing, we like to think we’re a different kind of marketing firm. I know everyone says that, but we back it up every day.

What makes us different? Our attitude, for one. Even in these challenging times, you’d be hard-pressed to find even a hint of negativity among our team members. We call it “realistic optimism,” and it’s something our clients, strategic partners, vendors and prospects can’t help but notice. Some of them even find it refreshing.

In the areas of graphic design, public relations, copy writing, strategic planning and overall creative thinking, this is the best group of people I’ve ever worked with. And that’s saying a lot. I’ll stack our quality, our follow-through and our communication skills up against any organization in any field. Can we improve? Sure. We’re still a company in progress. There’s no complacency around here.

Here’s another thing. We do what we say we’re going to do. When founder D.J. Allen said he wanted to write a book about coaching, business and life with Coach Lon Kruger, he made sure it got done. The result is the “Xs and Os of Success,” one of the best books of its kind. Read it and you’ll understand that success doesn’t happen by accident.

Likewise, when the Imagine team said they wanted to establish a video division, they did it. If you’ve seen any of our “Imagine Shorts,” you’ll know why I’m so proud of their accomplishments.

On our staff, we have a nationally-known award-winning editorial cartoonist, a best-selling novelist, a respected golf columnist, two MBAs, a slew of outstanding public speakers, and a company Mom to keep us all in line. With a group this talented, you should sit in on one of our brainstorming sessions. In fact, consider this your invitation. The door is always open. It’s the most fun you can have at the office. It’s the reason we got into this business in the first place. Not art and creativity for its own sake, but in the name of commerce and results. We’re good at striking just the right balance.

Okay, I’m done bragging now. Except for this – A few years back, we decided that Imagine produced so much funny, quirky material, it could be its own sitcom. Rather than waiting for some Hollywood honcho to discover us, we wrote our own script, “More White Space.” While it generated some L.A. interest and even took top honors in a script-writing contest, you won’t see it on TV anytime soon. But I’m confident it will get filmed, even if we have to do it ourselves.

In the meantime, here’s a link to the script. It’s based loosely (extremely loosely) on the people and events at Imagine Marketing. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. Let us know what you think!

Brian Rouff is the Managing Partner of Imagine Marketing.

Contact Brian at brouff@imnv.com

Real Estate Taught Me About Business

Similar to Batman’s multiple career roles, when I am not spending my time as an adman in Las Vegas by day, I spend my nights and weekends as a Realtor around town.

Needless to say, it is amazing how many business lessons and sales tactics you can learn from working in real estate and how those tactics can be applied to other business industries. Here are just a few examples:

Strong Communication – A simple success strategy in business is to have open communications with clients and peers. If you are working with a client, be sure to keep them updated on the process as things progress. Leaving them in the dark (even when you are working hard) can give the perception that nothing is happening. Keeping clients in the loop is instrumental in your long-term success and top-of-mind awareness. Remember to do this not only to your customers, but with your business peers and partners as well. Good communication helps the relationship move forward a lot smoother.

Make a Promise and Keep It - If you say you are going to do something, DO IT! There have been so many instances where I am given false promises about deadlines and processes, and in the end they never happen. When things come up or deadlines need to be pushed, just be honest. Referrals and future business are earned by your performance.

Be Clear, Simple, and Prepared – What better way to work with a client than to make everything as streamlined and easy as possible? One of my biggest pet peeves in real estate is the direction ability of agents. On several accounts I have followed directions to a property only to find that they are either very unclear or incorrect. I have had a few instances where the directions just say “go west on Charleston” (from where?) and then “turn right” onto a small obscure neighborhood street. This is just lazy business. The worst thing you can do in business is to have an interested buyer and then lose the sale because of a lack of preparation and clarity.

Present Your Expertise to Clients/Peers – If you are representing a client to help sell a product, make sure you work with them and give them your expertise. That’s what they hired you for. Your expertise will help them succeed. For example, I have tried to set up home showings with Realtors who relay me off to their sellers. In talking with the sellers, sometimes they only give a two-hour window on only one day in the week to show the house. Other times, I have had sellers say that if I were to come over right now, they would walk around naked in front of my clients. I even had one seller open the door as my client and I were standing in front of her house, and she said that she was doing yoga right now and it would not be a good time for us to view the home. This is after an appointment was already set up! It’s just bad business and could easily have been fixed if the seller’s Realtor had properly educated his client.

These are just a few simple tidbits I’ve picked up along the way. Just remember, to have a strong sales technique in the business world, you have to work hard and build a strong reputation.

Warren Buffett has a great quote I love and follow, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Ehsan Kaveh is an Account Executive at Imagine Marketing.
Contact Ehsan at ekaveh@imnv.com

PERCEPTION MARKETING: Generate an image people are receptive to

Do you have days when you feel far less than satisfactory at the work place? I do. We all have some less-than-desirable personality traits to work on, but we all do our best to challenge ourselves to be better every day – although some days are better than others. Last week I had one of those challenging days.

After receiving the most respectfully honest feedback I’ve received in a while from co-workers, I thought to myself, “It’s time to hunker down and really work on my worst trait. Now is certainly not the time, personally OR professionally to neglect correcting my flaw.” (For flaw details contact my husband or work “family” – all of whom have known me for years and can easily answer your question.)

It wasn’t until this weekend, after updating our firm’s Facebook Fan Page, that it occurred to me to write this blog. There was an ad on the screen that said “Cartoon yourself” with a mugshot of Angelina Jolie and her cartoon “twin” mugshot, which, by the way, looked nothing like her. This got me thinking about businesses today and their perception marketing efforts. Does your perception meet the reality you are trying to create?

As cliché as it may sound, perception IS reality – or at least reality for everyone else but you. This is why, in today’s marketplace, businesses need to evaluate what their perception is among their own audience. What I mean is: How is your company perceived by others? How do you rank in quality, service, flexibility and more?

In today’s marketplace, companies must choose the perception they desire and make it reality to remain competitive in business. Make yourself – and your company – attractive to do business with. Your organization may have everyone’s best interests at heart. You may think you are doing all the right things to service customers. However, all of it doesn’t mean a lick unless your customers, or even your own co-workers (who deal with customers), feel the way you do.

People buy what and where they want from people they want to do business with, so be attractive and useful.

All this doesn’t mean you need a perception marketing overhaul. It’s simply a gentle nudge suggesting you evaluate the outside perception of your company. Perhaps it’s time to talk to your best “co-workers” (i.e. clients) and ask them what they think about your business. The feedback may be jarring at first, and let’s face it, no one wants to hear about their own flaws, but progress and improvement cannot be made unless we address our weaknesses and improve upon them. And in today’s economy, we could all use a little honest feedback to kick start improvement. (You may be surprised to find your client relationships improve after asking them for their qualitative feedback too.)

Our entire team is comprised of highly-talented, motivated, passionate marketing people. Still, despite all our successes, there’s always room for improvement – collectively and individually. I know I’ll be taking a deeper look into how I, personally, am perceived and try to work harder at being better – just as any professional or business should.

Amber Stidham is the Director of Strategic Planning for Imagine Marketing.

Contact Amber at

astidham@imnv.com

Conversations, Conservation, Communications

After my grandmother died in 1975, I found some 3-cent stamps tucked away in her desk. I thought it amazing that the cost of a first-class stamp had increased to only 10¢ in the 18 years since she had last used those three-centers. She had been a letter writer, and had no qualms about using stamps – no matter what the cost – on as many envelopes stuffed with as many typewritten pages as she needed to keep in contact with her friends and family.

Not me. My wedding invitations were sent with 5-cent stamps, but we cut our Christmas card list by three-quarters when stamps reached 10 cents. If my high school math is right, there has been a 1,467 percent increase in the cost of stamps during my lifetime. And with less expensive long distance calling, my letter writing has become non-existent.

But I’m not alone. According to the USPS 2008Annual Report, in one year the post office saw a decline of 9.5 billion pieces in their mail volume. Those decreases devolved to 50 million fewer work hours during the year, the equivalent of 25,000 work years.

Of course, postage costs aren’t the only thing that has increased over the past half century. Most of the basics and many of the luxuries have also skyrocketed. Added to that is a global awareness that our resources are finite and conservation – going green – is the new buzz word. How has that changed our communications and the way we do business?

Online banking has had a huge impact on how we do business. Despite the economic downturn of the past year, most people still do not tuck their money under their mattresses or walk to the utility company to pay their bills with cash. According to the 2008 Consumer Banking and Bill Payment Survey, over 63 million online households are now regularly using online bill paying services. Paperless statements are available through a majority of financial, retail and utility sites. Online purchase confirmations and receipts, whether for $25 or $25,000, are e-mailed.

Along with online banking is online shopping. In 2008, retail sales for the Top 500 online retailers reached $115.85 billion. During the same period, gross sales through e-Bay were $21.6 billion and $40.7 billion for retailers not in the Top 500. And the merchandise is more often delivered by carrier services rather than the post office.

Finally, how do we communicate these days? Letter writing is a waning art, perhaps even a lost art. We e-mail, blog, Tweet, post and text. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter (and two dozen other social networks) let us keep up with our 283 closest friends on a minute-by-minute basis.

Rather than compose a letter sharing a week or a month’s worth of moments in our lives, we send a two-line e-mail. Texting shorthand has destroyed our spelling. Traffic laws warn us about texting on the go, and future employers warn that what’s posted on MySpace (and its kin) stays on MySpace. We hit the send button a micro-second after realizing there is a misspelled word or it has been sent to the person we’ve just ripped to written shreds.

We live in a minute-by-minute world, and since our first postage stamps were issued in 1847, our communication platforms have evolved to a level our ancestors could not envision. At Imagine Marketing, the focus is on how our clients can communicate to make sure their message reaches all of their customers. New communication skills are constantly being learned and then passed on to our clients. And the Imagine team is having a lot of fun doing it. TTYL & hav a gud da.

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

Everything I Know, I Learned from Advertising

I admit it. I’m an ad geek. All of us at Imagine Marketing are. Some of my earliest memories are of watching TV commercials (60 second black and white) on our old Zenith console. I can still recite the words to the Cracker Jack jingle or sing (off-key) the Rice Krispies song (“I insist that pop’s the sound…”). A well-written tagline, to my way of thinking, is more eloquent than a haiku. And it sells a lot more product.

The best TV and web-based spots are like little movies. Problem, solution, pay-off. All in a tidy 15 to 60-second package. Trust me, it’s harder to write short than it is to write long.

Sometimes ads can touch on universal themes that go beyond the product or service. A classic local Las Vegas campaign is for Al Phillips the Cleaner. Owners Phil and Mel Shapiro ended each commercial with this interchange:

Phil: "Mel, I want Al Phillips to clean every shirt in Las Vegas."
Mel: "How do we do it all?
Phil: "It's easy when you know your business."

Think about that for a moment. “It’s easy when you know your business.” Sure, it’s hokey. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Whether we’re talking about dry cleaning or orthodontics or, well, marketing, it sure helps to know what the heck you’re doing. Product knowledge. Customer relations. Communication skills. Industry trends. Internal systems and processes. Money management. The list goes on and on.

It’s like the best baseball players. Guys like Ken Griffey, Jr., make everything look easy. That’s because we don’t see all the sweat, hard work and endless hours that went into perfecting their craft. By the time we, as consumers, experience the final product, all we notice is how effortless it seems.

It’s a simple but important lesson. Know your business. And I learned it from a series of low-budget local ads. I’ll have more examples in blogs to come.

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

A busy life doesn’t mean a productive one

Before a top fuel dragster can make a pass the driver heats up the tires and lays down rubber to improve traction by feverishly spinning the tires in place while making little forward progress. The smoke and nitromethane fuel billowing into the air is an exciting sight. This is appropriately known as a burnout. But when the driver makes their run, they want minimal tire spin to launch their dragster toward the quarter mile marker in as little as 4.5 seconds at speeds near 330 mph. That's productivity.

It's important in every industry to differentiate between being busy and being productive. In the new economy results take precedence over appearances. Focusing on being productive has the potential to reduce stress and improve the end results. While making the common mistake of believing in our own abilities to achieve anything we set our minds to can lead to unnecessary disappointment, stress and unaccomplished goals.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done offers some helpful tips for effective time management. He recommends grouping tasks and writing them down to prioritize your workload and reduce the time that’s wasted from task switching in your brain. Do this before the end of the evening and sleep better knowing the next day can start with productive tasks.

Another piece of advice, increase focus by setting internal rules for how often points of contact are checked. Since I can't ignore an unopened e-mail, I've setup my e-mail preferences to show me new e-mails only every hour.

Lastly, take uninterrupted time to complete complex tasks so that the distraction of less complex tasks doesn't diminish the quality of important ones.

Multitasking may be unavoidable, but minimizing it and even just being aware of its pitfalls can produce results. Reducing the number of concurrent task or open computer programs to only two will immediately increase effectiveness and work quality by concentrating focus.

Busy people commonly set unrealistic goals that cannot be delivered upon. It’s frequently said that we all have the same 24 hours in a day. Set realistic goals to ensure that expectations are delivered upon. And sometimes we have to say "no." No matter how good the intentions, we cannot be everything to everyone all the time. Doing occasional favors in infrequent situations can be a positive thing. But, saying no when necessary frees up time for the tasks that deserve attention the most and solidifies expectations.

Implement some of these ideas to accomplish more, with less wasted energy and a reduced chance of burnout.

Wes Thurman serves as Art Director for Imagine Marketing.
Contact Wes at wthurman@imnv.com

GAINING EXPOSURE: Making the most of your workshops and speaking gigs

Dare I say that there is an upside to the economic downturn? Yes.

Any professional out ‘n’ about knows there is a new information sharing environment that exists as a result of the new economy. Professional development seminars, industry-specific discussion panels, mixers, luncheons – the list goes on. There is an overabundance of information for the person willing to spend a bit of time learning something new – often at no cost, making attending these events very attractive.

For those of us searching to learn more, protect our business and increase sales, these events are an opportunity to do so. More importantly, for the sake of this blog anyhow, it’s an opportunity for businesses to gain added exposure.

If you are a business looking to maintain and grow your market share, please pay attention. Take advantage of speaking opportunities. Your audience is searching for advice (The kind of advice that cannot be gained from Internet searches alone.), personal interaction and relationships with businesses they trust. There is no better way to achieve these goals than to be the “expert” providing the information to them.

“How do I find a platform or venue to give a presentation?” you ask? Here are a handful of ideas you can start with.

• Host a workshop at your office. Don’t have space? Find a friendly business who will host a workshop at their location for you.
• Contact your local chamber of commerce and offer your presentation for free to their members. Be sure to showcase how your presentation can serve as a value-added member resource to a majority of the chamber’s members.
• If you belong to a trade or professional association, contact their respective representatives and ask if you can host a workshop for members.
• Partner with one to two other like-minded businesses that offer similar, but non-competitive, services to yours and host a joint workshop or presentation for all combined colleagues, clients, vendors and contacts you share.

Critical note: Make certain your workshops are educational and not used as a sales platform for your company. If you provide an educational opportunity to people, they will better trust your expertise, respect you as a professional and will connect with you to do business. Rest assured.

“I have a place and a time. Now how do I get butts in seats?” you ask? Some more helpful tips.

• Announce your upcoming workshop/speaking engagement to your contacts, whether by e-mail, e-newsletter or in person. Do it several times.
• If you’re partnering with a business or organization, be certain they are announcing the event to their lists. Also, offer to submit a short written description or verbal announcement during events taking place before your presentation date.
• Write a press release and send out to news outlets. Many news outlets regularly publish business calendars. Don’t forget to submit to non-traditional outlets such as local professionals who host their own highly-visible Web calendars, like-minded trade/professional organizations as well as those you belong to and to sites such as Craigslist.
• Blog about your upcoming event.
• Post event details your Web site and any social networking profile you have, such as Facebook.
• Use Twitter to announce your event and post a link to your blog or Facebook within your “Tweet” to ensure readers can get event details and how to RSVP their attendance.

Workshops and speaking gigs are a great place to start when you’re looking for new contacts to generate new business. It is a powerful business growth tool – and a low-cost one at that.

Amber Stidham is the Director of Strategic Planning for Imagine Marketing.

Contact Amber at astidham@imnv.com

A Little Creativity Goes a Long Way

Many people think in order to be effective with creativity in your advertising, you have to have a complex ad campaign with a big budget. Although having deep pockets helps get your campaign idea out to more people, the underlying message still needs to hold strong regardless. Whether it gets out to an audience of millions, or a small number of people in your database, the messaging shouldn’t be affected by smaller or larger budgets. We always preach here that a focused message is really the key to a great campaign. Building ideas around that message just makes the creativity shine even brighter.

Back in school, one of the golden lessons I was taught about effective advertising was the “KISS” method (Keep It Simple Stupid). You may be familiar with this, but the KISS method basically preaches that keeping your message simple will have a more effective result than getting too complex. Studies show that people spend mere seconds with your ad efforts in magazines, postcards and commercials, so you have to make sure what you want noticed is memorable in a quick and simple fashion.

Here are a few examples of very effective campaign ideas that just took a simple message and added just that little bit of creative touch that takes it to “Brilliant!” status.

Rona Paint is a Canadian paint company. In an effort to market their paint recuperation and recycling campaign, they decided to piggyback off of Apple’s worldwide iPod campaign. The new iPod Nano campaign touts the various bright colors the new generation has available. The Apple campaign is very colorful and incorporates images of wet paint splattering and dripping with various colors onto the different iPod Nanos. Rona took a very familiar ad campaign and added a little creativity to exemplify their message… not to mention, in a very cost-efficient way. See it here. (Note: the French writing says, “We Collect Leftover Paint.”)

We all know the Hard Rock Café. Whether you like their image or not, you have to give credit to their newest campaign imagery. Staying true to the “KISS” method and their image, they took the legendary hand gesture for rock music, and in a very simple and creative manner, summed up everything they needed to say, without using a single word (minus the logo of course). Pure genius … I deem this campaign as “Brilliant.” [Ad Sample]

This has to be one of my all-time favorite rivalry ads. As many big brand names compete to show how much better than their competition they are (i.e. Coke vs. Pepsi, Microsoft vs. Apple, Energizer vs. Duracell), sometimes a simple returned message mixed with a little creativity can win the fight. Audi made a bold marketing move to call out BMW with their new A4 model. On a billboard in California, they basically put the car up with the headline, “Your Move, BMW.” Not to be outdone, BMW purchased the billboard across the street and fired back a bullet that left Audi speechless. The billboard was thought out in every detail. White car on black backdrop vs. black car on white backdrop. Comparable class of vehicle. Continued theme of chess. Audi will definitely think twice next time.

This may be a shameless plug, but I want to show that even smaller budgets on a local level can benefit from this. One of our clients, Holman’s of Nevada, a Las Vegas-based technology company that provides business technology solutions to the AEC community, needed a direct mail campaign to help boost paper and ink sales. With a little creativity, we worked on an ad campaign that physically showed the problem people were having – running out of ink in mid-print. Being proactive and creative, the postcards addressed a strong message and instantly generated calls for Holman’s within days of delivery to consumers. [ POSTCARD SAMPLE]

Jef I. Richards summed it up best, “Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising.” With that, close the door, clear your mind, put on those brainstorm caps, and come up with your brilliant message to wow the world.

Ehsan Kaveh is an Account Executive at Imagine Marketing.

Contact Ehsan at ekaveh@imnv.com