Hi there! It's Chris Teague, Creative Director for the WIN Firm brining news from WIN's underground marketing warehouse.
Each company I have worked with over the years wants to promote quality in everything it does... Having the options of social media today, many of our clients seek to engage audiences by using these new social tools. However, we are reminded everyday how important some of the traditional tools, like video, are to a company's professional perception. Yes friends, it is important to remember how important a visual image is to a customer's perception of your organization.
The example below demonstrates just how important one of our client's thinks video is to his company's success...
In the video above, Phil Bachman Toyota had the look, concept and script already laid out for us at WIN. All we had to do was deliver a HD, quality spot that separated the dealership from lower quality produced spots that the local TV stations were offering. Why? Phil Bachman spends a lot of money on TV broadcast advertising and deserves to have the latest and newest technology incorporated into their visual communications. Even though we at WIN did not create the script or concept, we still were able to deliver a bit of creativity by making sure the dealership's video stood out with quality filming.
You and I know the importance of maintaing a positive perception among our customers... Using old tools, like video, and incorporating new technology is one way WIN has helped our clients maintain the professional identity they represent. Please share with me some of the ways you are using old tools and incorporating new technology to demonstrate your commitment to communicating a professional identity. Feel free to email me your examples.
Take care everyone... Go do great things today!
Your guy making marketing simple,
Chris Teague
Showing posts with label the winfirm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the winfirm. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Friday, October 9, 2009
Are YOU Awake?
"If I had a lighter in hand, and some oily rags...is that what it'd take to wake you from your sleep?" - Anti-Flag
Did I capture your attention for a moment? Good day to all following us at The WIN Firm. As a marketing firm that creates ideas for YOU, we strive to always engage our client's audience. Don't we all? Today's post is a little bit of history about where we come up with the messages that captivate and leave a lasting impact on audiences we are paid to reach, and the ones we reach just for fun.
It is 1980, Operation Ivy has released another record on the West Coast, the scene of PUNK is emerging to take hold of music for a brief moment. Being credited with the look that is PUNK, Malcolm McLaren displays his expertise of marketing by creating a band based on the brand of PUNK. That band? The notorious Sex Pistols. What is the brand of PUNK? Attitude. Director, Don Letts, does a superb job telling the story of PUNK in his film, Punk:Attitude. From this scene came the beginning of a marketing firm that had no idea it was going to be a marketing firm. Yes, The WIN Firm has deep roots in the PUNK scene.
Move ahead in time to 2007. A young, outspoken marketer figures that playing in his current band is not reaching as many people as he would like. He decides to show Marketed America he can play with the big boys and begins seeking PUNK minded marketers to help him reshape the scene we call: "Marketing." Blessed with spiritual guidance and faith in Christ (very PUNK for the PUNK Scene), this young man discovers there are people just like him with the same ideas: Marketing has gone numb because it is being done by boring individuals that spend too much time on the computer and not enough time living amongst the people.
That young man? Yes, it is me. However, looking at me, you would not see me as the stereotypical PUNK Rocker at all. Having played in numerous PUNK bands in college and even through grad school, I always stressed the importance of making my voice heard over wearing labeled clothing. So, how does this background help The WIN Firm? Well, it helps us out a lot! Our CMO is branded and trademarked as the Queen of Color. How did she get that title? She knows color better than anyone else out there. Just ask our clients. In fact, she shows clients that color is attitude, emotion and everything we are as people. Therefore, our CMO helps clients find the essence of PUNK in their color choices: Attitude.
Our Chief Designer makes sure we stick to a balanced attack when crafting messages for our clients. The attack is to get your attention, then make you remember us. How is this achieved? Just like PUNK, we make sure you look at us. However, we refrain from merely offering you a pretty picture, cute commercial or anything those over-paid marketers do for you. We keep things simple, homemade if possible and follow our pictures with messages that reach you on the surface and below. We engage you emotionally. We bring you into a mood by understanding your Attitude, which enables our clients to fully integrate their brand into your thought processes.
Today, The WIN Firm is two years old, but has been blessed to work on projects for companies like Nike, American Express, FreshAire Paints and NASCAR. The best part, is our experience with these projects could only be accomplished by the individuals that make up The WIN Firm. Our Attitude helps us get fun projects, and helps our clients reach you more than their competitors. Therefore, we are a firm of Attitude. We are PUNK and enjoy every bit of our jobs.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
Chris Teague
V.P.
WIN Firm
Did I capture your attention for a moment? Good day to all following us at The WIN Firm. As a marketing firm that creates ideas for YOU, we strive to always engage our client's audience. Don't we all? Today's post is a little bit of history about where we come up with the messages that captivate and leave a lasting impact on audiences we are paid to reach, and the ones we reach just for fun.
It is 1980, Operation Ivy has released another record on the West Coast, the scene of PUNK is emerging to take hold of music for a brief moment. Being credited with the look that is PUNK, Malcolm McLaren displays his expertise of marketing by creating a band based on the brand of PUNK. That band? The notorious Sex Pistols. What is the brand of PUNK? Attitude. Director, Don Letts, does a superb job telling the story of PUNK in his film, Punk:Attitude. From this scene came the beginning of a marketing firm that had no idea it was going to be a marketing firm. Yes, The WIN Firm has deep roots in the PUNK scene.
Move ahead in time to 2007. A young, outspoken marketer figures that playing in his current band is not reaching as many people as he would like. He decides to show Marketed America he can play with the big boys and begins seeking PUNK minded marketers to help him reshape the scene we call: "Marketing." Blessed with spiritual guidance and faith in Christ (very PUNK for the PUNK Scene), this young man discovers there are people just like him with the same ideas: Marketing has gone numb because it is being done by boring individuals that spend too much time on the computer and not enough time living amongst the people.
That young man? Yes, it is me. However, looking at me, you would not see me as the stereotypical PUNK Rocker at all. Having played in numerous PUNK bands in college and even through grad school, I always stressed the importance of making my voice heard over wearing labeled clothing. So, how does this background help The WIN Firm? Well, it helps us out a lot! Our CMO is branded and trademarked as the Queen of Color. How did she get that title? She knows color better than anyone else out there. Just ask our clients. In fact, she shows clients that color is attitude, emotion and everything we are as people. Therefore, our CMO helps clients find the essence of PUNK in their color choices: Attitude.
Our Chief Designer makes sure we stick to a balanced attack when crafting messages for our clients. The attack is to get your attention, then make you remember us. How is this achieved? Just like PUNK, we make sure you look at us. However, we refrain from merely offering you a pretty picture, cute commercial or anything those over-paid marketers do for you. We keep things simple, homemade if possible and follow our pictures with messages that reach you on the surface and below. We engage you emotionally. We bring you into a mood by understanding your Attitude, which enables our clients to fully integrate their brand into your thought processes.
Today, The WIN Firm is two years old, but has been blessed to work on projects for companies like Nike, American Express, FreshAire Paints and NASCAR. The best part, is our experience with these projects could only be accomplished by the individuals that make up The WIN Firm. Our Attitude helps us get fun projects, and helps our clients reach you more than their competitors. Therefore, we are a firm of Attitude. We are PUNK and enjoy every bit of our jobs.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
Chris Teague
V.P.
WIN Firm
Monday, September 21, 2009
Help Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee
You can go to www.hungeractioncenter.org to help Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee win a truck load of food from Kraft foods. Please take some time to help feed the hungry. You are able to make a difference in just five minutes.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Service is KEY to Customer Service
Good day everyone! Welcome to my post for the WIN Firm regarding marketing and our actual examples of strategies/tactics we use. I realize most of you following this blog have probably been inundated with media regarding Health Care Reform, and recently, Kanye West. Wow! We have seen a lot lately, and there still is plenty to come. I want to take time out for a moment and shed light on an important subject today, customer service.
Our firm is working on a promotion to help a local Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, win a tractor trailer truck load of food from Kraft. Being a cause-oriented marketing firm, we are always excited to help the less fortunate, and love partnering with organizations that do their part, whether they be non-profit or for-profit. Where am I going with this story? I'll explain.
Today, a colleague of mine went to Verizon Wireless in Johnson City, TN to see about obtaining a few wireless air cards that Second Harvest would use for an upcoming event. Now, I realize that most event marketing decisions come from corporate, but small event decisions are often made on the local level, especially if they do not involve money. We first thought of Verizon because they are the Food Bank's cell phone company. However, despite Verizon's crafty commercials depicting a wonderful cell service, their customer service is absolutely terrible, at least locally anyways. My colleague reported back to me that in our attempt to use air cards from the local Verizon store in Johnson City, the store manager would not even speak to him; rather, had an employee tell him "corporate handles events." My colleague did not even have a chance to explain what exactly we were doing, but was hurried out the door. Wow! That is EXCELLENT service, right!
What does this experience tell me? It tells me that corporate structure must have problems as well for Verizon if the local manager had zero skills in customer service. Why? As person who oversees projects with colleagues working on them, I take full responsibility of how each project is handled because it is a direct reflection of how I lead. Yes, leadership is key, and customer service starts from the top and works its way down. I wander how much emphasis is placed on training customer service for Verizon Wireless.
How does this lack of service relate to marketing? It is the foundation of marketing. Marketing is about managing a perception by communicating effectively with people. When your customer service is awful, your company is perceived as being awful. In this case, our company will most likely not ever use Verizon for our business needs thanks to one lousy manager in our local store. What can be learned from all of this? Think about how you treat people, because your advertising budget will not change someone's perception of you following a bad experience.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Our firm is working on a promotion to help a local Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, win a tractor trailer truck load of food from Kraft. Being a cause-oriented marketing firm, we are always excited to help the less fortunate, and love partnering with organizations that do their part, whether they be non-profit or for-profit. Where am I going with this story? I'll explain.
Today, a colleague of mine went to Verizon Wireless in Johnson City, TN to see about obtaining a few wireless air cards that Second Harvest would use for an upcoming event. Now, I realize that most event marketing decisions come from corporate, but small event decisions are often made on the local level, especially if they do not involve money. We first thought of Verizon because they are the Food Bank's cell phone company. However, despite Verizon's crafty commercials depicting a wonderful cell service, their customer service is absolutely terrible, at least locally anyways. My colleague reported back to me that in our attempt to use air cards from the local Verizon store in Johnson City, the store manager would not even speak to him; rather, had an employee tell him "corporate handles events." My colleague did not even have a chance to explain what exactly we were doing, but was hurried out the door. Wow! That is EXCELLENT service, right!
What does this experience tell me? It tells me that corporate structure must have problems as well for Verizon if the local manager had zero skills in customer service. Why? As person who oversees projects with colleagues working on them, I take full responsibility of how each project is handled because it is a direct reflection of how I lead. Yes, leadership is key, and customer service starts from the top and works its way down. I wander how much emphasis is placed on training customer service for Verizon Wireless.
How does this lack of service relate to marketing? It is the foundation of marketing. Marketing is about managing a perception by communicating effectively with people. When your customer service is awful, your company is perceived as being awful. In this case, our company will most likely not ever use Verizon for our business needs thanks to one lousy manager in our local store. What can be learned from all of this? Think about how you treat people, because your advertising budget will not change someone's perception of you following a bad experience.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. WIN Firm
Monday, September 14, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Working to Help the Hungry
Good day everybody! Welcome to another post from the WIN Firm brought to you by me, Chris Teague. Today's post is especially important for us at the WIN Firm! We are taking time out to recognize the importance of helping those that are less fortunate than us. I want to tell you a story about one of our clients, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee and partner, Feeding America. This story is not about our firm today; rather, it is about our client doing an AMAZING job helping hungry residents in our Northeast Tennessee community and the country as well. We at the WIN Firm would like to introduce you to Roger's Story.
Roger, a child that lives in Bristol, TN, participates in Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee's Food for Kids program through the Bristol City Schools. Roger’s mother was laid-off from her job and faced some challenging situations that included the difficult choice many parents in our region and country must make, whether to pay for utilities or food. Roger’s mother chose to provide food for her son and pay for the utilities to the best of her abilities, but soon found herself behind in paying the bills. As money decreased, Roger’s mother was forced to leave the apartment she lived in and move into a tent. Roger’s only shelter at night came from a nylon piece of fabric and the only food he ate was for lunch at school. Roger’s situation was discovered by his school and action was taken to enroll him into Food for Kids. Thanks to Second Harvest and Feeding America, Roger was able to immediately receive food from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee to take home, so that his mother would not have to make the choice between feeding Roger and using her limited income to find housing for her family. Roger’s story is unique, but many children in our region and America suffer from malnutrition because of their impoverished living conditions.
Please take a moment to support the hungry. We at the WIN Firm make sure our work goes to raise awareness for issues that touch our lives. You too can help be the voice for our country's hungry, impoverished residents. We at the WIN Firm invite you to go to www.hungeractioncenter.org, sign up to be a voice for hunger support, and help feed the less fortunate people around you. As a perk, there is a contest that helps your local food bank. When you take action on hungeractioncenter.org, minutes are logged for your work and counted. The food banks that accumulate the most minutes by the end of September win a free tractor trailer load of food for their community. Please help us!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P.
WIN Firm
"We create ideas that WIN."
Roger, a child that lives in Bristol, TN, participates in Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee's Food for Kids program through the Bristol City Schools. Roger’s mother was laid-off from her job and faced some challenging situations that included the difficult choice many parents in our region and country must make, whether to pay for utilities or food. Roger’s mother chose to provide food for her son and pay for the utilities to the best of her abilities, but soon found herself behind in paying the bills. As money decreased, Roger’s mother was forced to leave the apartment she lived in and move into a tent. Roger’s only shelter at night came from a nylon piece of fabric and the only food he ate was for lunch at school. Roger’s situation was discovered by his school and action was taken to enroll him into Food for Kids. Thanks to Second Harvest and Feeding America, Roger was able to immediately receive food from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee to take home, so that his mother would not have to make the choice between feeding Roger and using her limited income to find housing for her family. Roger’s story is unique, but many children in our region and America suffer from malnutrition because of their impoverished living conditions.
Please take a moment to support the hungry. We at the WIN Firm make sure our work goes to raise awareness for issues that touch our lives. You too can help be the voice for our country's hungry, impoverished residents. We at the WIN Firm invite you to go to www.hungeractioncenter.org, sign up to be a voice for hunger support, and help feed the less fortunate people around you. As a perk, there is a contest that helps your local food bank. When you take action on hungeractioncenter.org, minutes are logged for your work and counted. The food banks that accumulate the most minutes by the end of September win a free tractor trailer load of food for their community. Please help us!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P.
WIN Firm
"We create ideas that WIN."
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Marketing Season
What a beautiful day we are having here in Northeast Tennessee! I hope each of you are enjoying this day as well. Hello! It's me, Chris Teague, bringing you more exciting concepts and strategies we at the WIN Firm have or are using for our clients.
I want you to stop for a moment and think about this summer. Was this the best summer ever? Did the summer fly by? What do you distinctly remember about this summer versus other summers? Okay, now that you have thought for a moment, imagine using the thoughts and those feelings associated with them for a marketing message. Today's lesson is about using our longing for an eternal summer to create a winning message.
Step 1: Think of all the songs we hear about summer. What are the messages we are hearing? Use these same messages to help you communicate with your audience. What? I am referring to the feeling that summer is a bitter-sweet escape we all experience in our lives. We associate this feeling with being alive, if only for a short period of time. Therefore, craft a message that makes your customers feel alive.
Step 2: Position your product, company or what you need us to buy as being the solution to our longing for being alive. Be our summer. How can you reach me on this level? Think about what you offer and you will find the answer to this question. However, you must be authentic and truly have something of substance for me.
Step 3: Use the very images of summer you pictured in your mind earlier or that you picture when you hear songs like, "Boys of Summer," by Bryan Adams. Use these pictures to craft your visual tools that compliment your message. Once you have mastered these three easy steps, you will be able to bring customers to you.
We have used each of the steps listed above for various clients with awesome outcomes. The key is to implement this strategy for a short period of time so that you can accurately measure the impact of the campaign. We normally run this campaign for no more than two months.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
I want you to stop for a moment and think about this summer. Was this the best summer ever? Did the summer fly by? What do you distinctly remember about this summer versus other summers? Okay, now that you have thought for a moment, imagine using the thoughts and those feelings associated with them for a marketing message. Today's lesson is about using our longing for an eternal summer to create a winning message.
Step 1: Think of all the songs we hear about summer. What are the messages we are hearing? Use these same messages to help you communicate with your audience. What? I am referring to the feeling that summer is a bitter-sweet escape we all experience in our lives. We associate this feeling with being alive, if only for a short period of time. Therefore, craft a message that makes your customers feel alive.
Step 2: Position your product, company or what you need us to buy as being the solution to our longing for being alive. Be our summer. How can you reach me on this level? Think about what you offer and you will find the answer to this question. However, you must be authentic and truly have something of substance for me.
Step 3: Use the very images of summer you pictured in your mind earlier or that you picture when you hear songs like, "Boys of Summer," by Bryan Adams. Use these pictures to craft your visual tools that compliment your message. Once you have mastered these three easy steps, you will be able to bring customers to you.
We have used each of the steps listed above for various clients with awesome outcomes. The key is to implement this strategy for a short period of time so that you can accurately measure the impact of the campaign. We normally run this campaign for no more than two months.
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Who is Following You?
Good day to everyone! This is Chris Teague welcoming you to another marketing post from my work with the WIN Firm. I would like to apologize for not having this post up yesterday: there were a few glitches on blogger that prevented us from posting. Are you ready for a simple marketing lesson many of us tend to overlook?
Look over your shoulder...check your rear-view mirror...turn around....are you being followed? It is kind of creepy to think you are being followed at times, but as a company, you want to be followed. In fact, we as people desire to follow. Yes, you may lead, but you really follow. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we are just made to follow and that is perfectly okay. So, do you know who is following you? Really? I bet there are people you are missing. Keep reading; I will explain.
Customer retention is so important to a company's growth. Any executive, store owner or manager will tell you that keeping customers is less expensive than finding new ones. While this may be true, many organizations are unaware of who their customers are. What do I mean? I am talking about the customers that have not purchased anything from you, but like you and will buy from you. What? You mean I have a large customer base following me? How do I reach them? You just need to engage this customer base a little and provide them a purchasing avenue, but you must know who they are first. Want to figure out who is following you and increase your beloved customer base? Come on down to see how we at the WIN Firm help clients "track" those following you.
Step 1: You must be open to knowing that your industry is constantly changing, people are changing and your customers no longer look exactly alike. Well, they don't on the outside. Once you are open to UNDERSTANDING your customer today, you will be prepared for the next step.
Step 2: Let's explore alumni giving a little bit. WIN works with colleges and non-profits that depend on the public's support of their efforts to remain sustainable, financially speaking. There is one question that we always hear from our clients: "Who out there will give?" Great question! To discover the answer, we have found that anybody will give and will, but he/she simply hasn't found a reason to just yet. So, figure out this reason and engage your givers. Wait! I thought we were talking about tracking our followers. We are! Keep reading.
Step 3: Now that you know people need a reason to do something, you can effectively discover your followers. How? Analyze your current customers and their buying, or in this case, giving behaviors. There are those that buy/give a lot, and there are those that do not buy/give a lot. Common knowledge, right? Right! So, use this knowledge to figure out who is following you. That's right! You can know who is following based on the characteristics and mannerisms of your "known" customers. Stay with me.
Step 4: Okay, you know that some people simply have plenty of money to spend/give, may really like you and even have found satisfaction in your product. There are others that want to share the same thing as these people, but you haven't discovered them yet. We at WIN are innovative, so take this next step/tactic/strategy openly. Check it out!
Step 5: People are everywhere. How do you find those following you? Engage them. Bring them out of the jungle and unmask their camouflage. We understand that people give due to various reasons, especially depending on where they are in life. We created a concept that reached and brought the following groups together: current students, those freshly out of school, those at the beginning of a career, those starting a family and those "established." These are all customers following a college, but the college does not really know who they are. Why not find them?
Step 6: We approached a school and offered them the concept of being "Social." No, I am not talking about social media just yet. I am referring to the power of socializing and networking. We created various socials within the college's community that connected these groups and allowed them to chat, meet one another and network. What brought them together? Their common connection: COLLEGE. Using the theme of "Helping," we were able to create a reason for these unknown customers to be engaged. The college discovered its "unknown" customer and giving increased!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Look over your shoulder...check your rear-view mirror...turn around....are you being followed? It is kind of creepy to think you are being followed at times, but as a company, you want to be followed. In fact, we as people desire to follow. Yes, you may lead, but you really follow. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we are just made to follow and that is perfectly okay. So, do you know who is following you? Really? I bet there are people you are missing. Keep reading; I will explain.
Customer retention is so important to a company's growth. Any executive, store owner or manager will tell you that keeping customers is less expensive than finding new ones. While this may be true, many organizations are unaware of who their customers are. What do I mean? I am talking about the customers that have not purchased anything from you, but like you and will buy from you. What? You mean I have a large customer base following me? How do I reach them? You just need to engage this customer base a little and provide them a purchasing avenue, but you must know who they are first. Want to figure out who is following you and increase your beloved customer base? Come on down to see how we at the WIN Firm help clients "track" those following you.
Step 1: You must be open to knowing that your industry is constantly changing, people are changing and your customers no longer look exactly alike. Well, they don't on the outside. Once you are open to UNDERSTANDING your customer today, you will be prepared for the next step.
Step 2: Let's explore alumni giving a little bit. WIN works with colleges and non-profits that depend on the public's support of their efforts to remain sustainable, financially speaking. There is one question that we always hear from our clients: "Who out there will give?" Great question! To discover the answer, we have found that anybody will give and will, but he/she simply hasn't found a reason to just yet. So, figure out this reason and engage your givers. Wait! I thought we were talking about tracking our followers. We are! Keep reading.
Step 3: Now that you know people need a reason to do something, you can effectively discover your followers. How? Analyze your current customers and their buying, or in this case, giving behaviors. There are those that buy/give a lot, and there are those that do not buy/give a lot. Common knowledge, right? Right! So, use this knowledge to figure out who is following you. That's right! You can know who is following based on the characteristics and mannerisms of your "known" customers. Stay with me.
Step 4: Okay, you know that some people simply have plenty of money to spend/give, may really like you and even have found satisfaction in your product. There are others that want to share the same thing as these people, but you haven't discovered them yet. We at WIN are innovative, so take this next step/tactic/strategy openly. Check it out!
Step 5: People are everywhere. How do you find those following you? Engage them. Bring them out of the jungle and unmask their camouflage. We understand that people give due to various reasons, especially depending on where they are in life. We created a concept that reached and brought the following groups together: current students, those freshly out of school, those at the beginning of a career, those starting a family and those "established." These are all customers following a college, but the college does not really know who they are. Why not find them?
Step 6: We approached a school and offered them the concept of being "Social." No, I am not talking about social media just yet. I am referring to the power of socializing and networking. We created various socials within the college's community that connected these groups and allowed them to chat, meet one another and network. What brought them together? Their common connection: COLLEGE. Using the theme of "Helping," we were able to create a reason for these unknown customers to be engaged. The college discovered its "unknown" customer and giving increased!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
You DON'T Need It!
Good morning! This is Chris Teague from the WIN Firm welcoming you to another post by our group to help you understand what goes on inside of a marketing firm's operations. Basically, you are seeing into our brains without having to use any high-tech devices. Let's get going with today's post!
Listening to the radio the other day, I heard a typical advertisement for a department store. The message I heard was: "We have what you need, so come see us while supplies last!" After hearing this ad, I immediately thought: "Really!" You mean this store knows what I need. I am very impressed, because I haven't determined everything I need just yet. Thank goodness this store is here, or I would really be lost. Like my sarcasm? Sorry, but we at the WIN Firm would not ever tell someone what they need in any sort of advertisement because we don't know what YOU need. If anything, we have a better understanding of what you don't need than what you do need. What we do know is how to communicate with you though, and make an authentic connection. I bet that connection is why our campaigns produce measurable, impacting results for our clients.
Would you like to connect with your audience only having 5 seconds to really do so even though you have crafted a 30 second script? Follow these steps we used for a client in health care. The steps below are simple, but effective and really help us get our message to listeners in 5 seconds or less so that we can reach their conscious while planting a seed in their subconscious. Brainwashing? No, we don't do that. The WIN Firm just understands that our brain needs to hear our message and that the message needs to stick.
Step 1: We developed a script that could be read in several sections and the message still remained the same. Knowing that most people retain what they hear at first based on an initial five seconds (our scientific guess), we make sure that all scripts have the message you want your audience to hear. What did we write?
Step 2: The basic script was written with a call to action to seek more information. Being as ambiguous as possible, yet perking your curiosity to discover more than we provided you, helped our client connect with you on an authentic level. How? See step 3.
Step 3: Health care is one of those fields that scares the average patient. We are already inundated with messages telling us what is and what isn't healthy from the media, so WIN used this information to reach you. Our script implanted the importance of choice, and that choice comes from being informed. What happened?
Step 4: We were able to do exactly what our client wanted, have patients call them for more information. By providing you with power of information, but leaving out the information you still sought, we made you curious. Top that curiosity off with the choice of learning more, we informed you where to discover more about the client. How was this authentic?
Step 5: We simply took out assuming we had the answers for you, and let you discover them for yourself. Empowering you with a little information and providing you with a place to seek more, we created an authentic opportunity for our client to build a relationship with you. This relationship is important because it helps alleviate your fears and allows you to connect with our client. Our client received more calls in one month than they did over the course of half of a year. It works!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Listening to the radio the other day, I heard a typical advertisement for a department store. The message I heard was: "We have what you need, so come see us while supplies last!" After hearing this ad, I immediately thought: "Really!" You mean this store knows what I need. I am very impressed, because I haven't determined everything I need just yet. Thank goodness this store is here, or I would really be lost. Like my sarcasm? Sorry, but we at the WIN Firm would not ever tell someone what they need in any sort of advertisement because we don't know what YOU need. If anything, we have a better understanding of what you don't need than what you do need. What we do know is how to communicate with you though, and make an authentic connection. I bet that connection is why our campaigns produce measurable, impacting results for our clients.
Would you like to connect with your audience only having 5 seconds to really do so even though you have crafted a 30 second script? Follow these steps we used for a client in health care. The steps below are simple, but effective and really help us get our message to listeners in 5 seconds or less so that we can reach their conscious while planting a seed in their subconscious. Brainwashing? No, we don't do that. The WIN Firm just understands that our brain needs to hear our message and that the message needs to stick.
Step 1: We developed a script that could be read in several sections and the message still remained the same. Knowing that most people retain what they hear at first based on an initial five seconds (our scientific guess), we make sure that all scripts have the message you want your audience to hear. What did we write?
Step 2: The basic script was written with a call to action to seek more information. Being as ambiguous as possible, yet perking your curiosity to discover more than we provided you, helped our client connect with you on an authentic level. How? See step 3.
Step 3: Health care is one of those fields that scares the average patient. We are already inundated with messages telling us what is and what isn't healthy from the media, so WIN used this information to reach you. Our script implanted the importance of choice, and that choice comes from being informed. What happened?
Step 4: We were able to do exactly what our client wanted, have patients call them for more information. By providing you with power of information, but leaving out the information you still sought, we made you curious. Top that curiosity off with the choice of learning more, we informed you where to discover more about the client. How was this authentic?
Step 5: We simply took out assuming we had the answers for you, and let you discover them for yourself. Empowering you with a little information and providing you with a place to seek more, we created an authentic opportunity for our client to build a relationship with you. This relationship is important because it helps alleviate your fears and allows you to connect with our client. Our client received more calls in one month than they did over the course of half of a year. It works!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Distance Between You and Me
Good day everyone! Welcome to another WIN Firm post by me, Chris Teague. Prior to posting today, I had the privilege of listening to one of my favorite bands, Against Me! Yes, I like punk rock very much and am influenced by its underground culture, especially the bands trying their best to make us think a little bit. So, today's post is all about closing the distance between consumers and you, or better, the distance between you and me.
"Well there's a lot of things that should be said, so we're hammering six-strings..." -Against Me!
Reflecting upon the above line a moment, I want to express how important it is to connect with your audience. Yes, we all learn about reaching "our" audience in marketing 101, but learning and doing are completely different, aren't they! Think of how many times you spent late evenings, losing sleep trying to create that dynamite campaign to boost your profits. What if you had simply looked beyond profit margins and went out looking for your audience instead? If you're not following me, you will soon will, so keep reading.
We have a client in the higher education sector that is absolutely one of the best small schools in the country. In fact, this college ranks among the nation's top 100 schools as voted on by students versus the "paid for" voting that exists. What does this mean? It means that our client is great at customer service as clearly demonstrated by student voting. So, why am I talking about connecting to an audience when it appears our client connects? Keep reading...
First of all, our client does connect with its current student population. However, the need to connect to future generations of students is very important for obvious reasons. Therefore, I want you to see how you can connect to your audience by the way we help clients connect. Imagine being able to close the distance between you and me!
Step 1: After reviewing all sorts of marketing collateral from colleges and universities across the country, my team and me at the WIN Firm discovered that the messages to attract future students pretty much said the same thing: "Come be you at our school, because we know you." Really! How is it that all of these colleges know you? I'm not quite sure, especially since many students we met with said they never saw a representative from these schools at their high school dance, pool, sporting events, coffee shops or anywhere else these fine individuals spent their time. So, there is an obvious disconnection with an audience. On a side note...what is the deal with the "mountain top theme"? Okay, back to helping you. Take a look at our approach to connecting to future college students.
Step 2: Following up on research many schools rely on for decision making, we knew there was a huge disconnection between schools and students. No offense to our fine colleges and universities and their marketing departments, but come on, do you really think that a student taking the ACT or SAT is going to give you accurate answers to why he or she chose the college they are planning on attending. Realizing that schools don't know their students, a team of us at the WIN Firm decided to go out amongst the young populace and "get to know them." Our findings? Check out the next step.
Step 3: Yes! We have done our marketing research in step one and we have knocked out our secondary market research in step two. Now it is time to follow the Apostle Paul's approach to ministry, and "walk with the people" to gather our primary research to help us with our concept development. Did you know that future college students are not just in middle school and high school? This is important to know if you are trying to actually connect to future students. We at the WIN Firm have collected a lot of information on what various generations of future students do that makes them unique and allows us to know which future students fit into various colleges. Would you like to know one of our discoveries?
Step 4: We learned that future students, no matter the generation, have one common theme they share about going to school. Today, these students want to be significant. Is it that easy? Yes, it is. However, the message to connect with these students isn't as easy as you are probably thinking right now. You can't simply say: "Be significant at the COOLEST COLLEGE EVER!" Why? Everyone else is doing it and they are attracting new students. We need to keep up with them, right? Wrong! Being status-quo is not significant. If you want someone to reach students that desire to be SIGNIFICANT, then understand them, and connect. Read step five.
Step 5: Think for a moment. What makes you significant? How do you evaluate and determine significance? If you can't answer this for yourself, there is no way you are going to connect to an audience desiring to be significant. What is your winning solution? We at the WIN Firm craft many messages to reach various audiences, so here is our approach to being significant. I, Chris Teague, am significant because: I am a child of God (my own belief, and I respect differences); am a devout husband and father; still play soccer competitively despite my age; run almost everyday; have a passion for music and attend live concerts on a regular basis; helped start a marketing firm; and have helped shape the WIN Firm to being cause-oriented to promote human compassion. Does your college or university have a curriculum for me? I bet you do, so come get to know me a little bit and show me how I can do all of these things that make me significant.
Have a blessed day everyone. See you next Wednesday!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
"Well there's a lot of things that should be said, so we're hammering six-strings..." -Against Me!
Reflecting upon the above line a moment, I want to express how important it is to connect with your audience. Yes, we all learn about reaching "our" audience in marketing 101, but learning and doing are completely different, aren't they! Think of how many times you spent late evenings, losing sleep trying to create that dynamite campaign to boost your profits. What if you had simply looked beyond profit margins and went out looking for your audience instead? If you're not following me, you will soon will, so keep reading.
We have a client in the higher education sector that is absolutely one of the best small schools in the country. In fact, this college ranks among the nation's top 100 schools as voted on by students versus the "paid for" voting that exists. What does this mean? It means that our client is great at customer service as clearly demonstrated by student voting. So, why am I talking about connecting to an audience when it appears our client connects? Keep reading...
First of all, our client does connect with its current student population. However, the need to connect to future generations of students is very important for obvious reasons. Therefore, I want you to see how you can connect to your audience by the way we help clients connect. Imagine being able to close the distance between you and me!
Step 1: After reviewing all sorts of marketing collateral from colleges and universities across the country, my team and me at the WIN Firm discovered that the messages to attract future students pretty much said the same thing: "Come be you at our school, because we know you." Really! How is it that all of these colleges know you? I'm not quite sure, especially since many students we met with said they never saw a representative from these schools at their high school dance, pool, sporting events, coffee shops or anywhere else these fine individuals spent their time. So, there is an obvious disconnection with an audience. On a side note...what is the deal with the "mountain top theme"? Okay, back to helping you. Take a look at our approach to connecting to future college students.
Step 2: Following up on research many schools rely on for decision making, we knew there was a huge disconnection between schools and students. No offense to our fine colleges and universities and their marketing departments, but come on, do you really think that a student taking the ACT or SAT is going to give you accurate answers to why he or she chose the college they are planning on attending. Realizing that schools don't know their students, a team of us at the WIN Firm decided to go out amongst the young populace and "get to know them." Our findings? Check out the next step.
Step 3: Yes! We have done our marketing research in step one and we have knocked out our secondary market research in step two. Now it is time to follow the Apostle Paul's approach to ministry, and "walk with the people" to gather our primary research to help us with our concept development. Did you know that future college students are not just in middle school and high school? This is important to know if you are trying to actually connect to future students. We at the WIN Firm have collected a lot of information on what various generations of future students do that makes them unique and allows us to know which future students fit into various colleges. Would you like to know one of our discoveries?
Step 4: We learned that future students, no matter the generation, have one common theme they share about going to school. Today, these students want to be significant. Is it that easy? Yes, it is. However, the message to connect with these students isn't as easy as you are probably thinking right now. You can't simply say: "Be significant at the COOLEST COLLEGE EVER!" Why? Everyone else is doing it and they are attracting new students. We need to keep up with them, right? Wrong! Being status-quo is not significant. If you want someone to reach students that desire to be SIGNIFICANT, then understand them, and connect. Read step five.
Step 5: Think for a moment. What makes you significant? How do you evaluate and determine significance? If you can't answer this for yourself, there is no way you are going to connect to an audience desiring to be significant. What is your winning solution? We at the WIN Firm craft many messages to reach various audiences, so here is our approach to being significant. I, Chris Teague, am significant because: I am a child of God (my own belief, and I respect differences); am a devout husband and father; still play soccer competitively despite my age; run almost everyday; have a passion for music and attend live concerts on a regular basis; helped start a marketing firm; and have helped shape the WIN Firm to being cause-oriented to promote human compassion. Does your college or university have a curriculum for me? I bet you do, so come get to know me a little bit and show me how I can do all of these things that make me significant.
Have a blessed day everyone. See you next Wednesday!
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Friday, July 17, 2009
Shred YOUR Label!
What a wonderful day it is for us at the WIN Firm! We are on the brink of wrapping up a SUPER project that is really going to shape the way people think. Hello, everyone: It's Chris Teague, V.P. of the WIN Firm, bringing you another post in a series of posts designed to help YOU grow through marketing. Enjoy...and keep up with us because we are not living in the past...we embrace today and try to shape tomorrow.
Do you know right from wrong? Does knowing right from wrong stop you from doing wrong? I ask you these questions because so many companies capitalize on our confused state of mind to do what's right. Take this whole "green" trend companies are latching on to these days: isn't it getting old? Seriously, saying something is "green" is about as overused and misused as the whole Nike tagline, "Just Do It!" In fact, sales studies from Forrester research show that using "green" doesn't appeal to the average consumer. Why? Maybe, the answer is because the average consumer can't afford the more expensive "green" product. More importantly, to all of you wanting to reach consumers, doing what's right should not be expensive...should it?
Why can I go to the store and find the same "green" product at a cheaper price than your organic, eco-friendly product with the exception that the label doesn't say it is eco-friendly? In an environment fueled by TV warnings of economic meltdown, we are all more aware of our spending as consumers today. Therefore, we are actually doing the "right" thing and shopping carefully, abstaining from making unnecessary, expensive purchases. Anyways, most consumers wander if buying a "green" product is even the "right" thing to do for us.
Think about it from this perspective as well, as a marketer I see the word "green" being too close to "greed." Knowing that this play on words possibly triggers my subconscious to thinking green is bad, I can see why I am often opposed to buying products that are labeled "green," all the while thinking I am doing the "right" thing. Am I though? Would you like to see how we market a product that is eco-friendly, pocket price friendly and does more than promoting good on a label? Then, follow these steps and discover how to effectively reach us all, communicating the "right" thing to do:
Step 1: We took a product and completely ripped its label to shreds, tore the packaging up and stomped on it right in front of our client. What happened? The client was ticked off! However, knowing what kind of work we do, the client quickly realized there was a lesson to be learned. That lesson? Quit copying everyone else and be YOU. Yes, we know how to communicate a brand at WIN, which is why this process worked and works.
Step 2: After explaining the strategy of looking across consumer buying boundaries (we can explain this strategy if you would like in another post), we were able to create a more dynamic marketing model for the client's product that outsold all of its competitors almost 4-1. How can you do the same thing? Pay attention to the next step.
Step 3: While I just gave you the end result in step 2, I wanted you to see how important this step I am explaining now is for success. If you want people to do the "right" thing, then you need to explain to them the importance of doing the "right" thing. Therefore, we created a simple Thank YOU program for everyone who purchased the product. We wrote a little personalized letter that thanked them for buying a product that was made by hands helping to feed others and why this help was needed. Wow! Nobody even knew that they were helping at the point of purchase. The lesson we want you to learn here is that you can reach your consumers in a more personal way if you aren't too lazy.
Step 4: Lastly, we included in the Thank YOU program a way for consumers to keep making "right" choices by listing other products that went to help similar causes. Yes, we highlighted our competitor's efforts of caring so that the consumer really could make a conscious choice in continued "green" support if they so desired. You have already seen the results listed in step 2, so we know what we're doing. Anyways, isn't being "green" about helping? Hmmm...
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
Do you know right from wrong? Does knowing right from wrong stop you from doing wrong? I ask you these questions because so many companies capitalize on our confused state of mind to do what's right. Take this whole "green" trend companies are latching on to these days: isn't it getting old? Seriously, saying something is "green" is about as overused and misused as the whole Nike tagline, "Just Do It!" In fact, sales studies from Forrester research show that using "green" doesn't appeal to the average consumer. Why? Maybe, the answer is because the average consumer can't afford the more expensive "green" product. More importantly, to all of you wanting to reach consumers, doing what's right should not be expensive...should it?
Why can I go to the store and find the same "green" product at a cheaper price than your organic, eco-friendly product with the exception that the label doesn't say it is eco-friendly? In an environment fueled by TV warnings of economic meltdown, we are all more aware of our spending as consumers today. Therefore, we are actually doing the "right" thing and shopping carefully, abstaining from making unnecessary, expensive purchases. Anyways, most consumers wander if buying a "green" product is even the "right" thing to do for us.
Think about it from this perspective as well, as a marketer I see the word "green" being too close to "greed." Knowing that this play on words possibly triggers my subconscious to thinking green is bad, I can see why I am often opposed to buying products that are labeled "green," all the while thinking I am doing the "right" thing. Am I though? Would you like to see how we market a product that is eco-friendly, pocket price friendly and does more than promoting good on a label? Then, follow these steps and discover how to effectively reach us all, communicating the "right" thing to do:
Step 1: We took a product and completely ripped its label to shreds, tore the packaging up and stomped on it right in front of our client. What happened? The client was ticked off! However, knowing what kind of work we do, the client quickly realized there was a lesson to be learned. That lesson? Quit copying everyone else and be YOU. Yes, we know how to communicate a brand at WIN, which is why this process worked and works.
Step 2: After explaining the strategy of looking across consumer buying boundaries (we can explain this strategy if you would like in another post), we were able to create a more dynamic marketing model for the client's product that outsold all of its competitors almost 4-1. How can you do the same thing? Pay attention to the next step.
Step 3: While I just gave you the end result in step 2, I wanted you to see how important this step I am explaining now is for success. If you want people to do the "right" thing, then you need to explain to them the importance of doing the "right" thing. Therefore, we created a simple Thank YOU program for everyone who purchased the product. We wrote a little personalized letter that thanked them for buying a product that was made by hands helping to feed others and why this help was needed. Wow! Nobody even knew that they were helping at the point of purchase. The lesson we want you to learn here is that you can reach your consumers in a more personal way if you aren't too lazy.
Step 4: Lastly, we included in the Thank YOU program a way for consumers to keep making "right" choices by listing other products that went to help similar causes. Yes, we highlighted our competitor's efforts of caring so that the consumer really could make a conscious choice in continued "green" support if they so desired. You have already seen the results listed in step 2, so we know what we're doing. Anyways, isn't being "green" about helping? Hmmm...
Blessings,
Chris Teague
V.P. Marketing
WIN Firm
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