Know your strengths, rely on your team

by Jason France

I have some friends who work together as a team on a VERY fast drag race vehicle. The car is owned by Mr. Jim Plimpton, and, although he is the driver and owner of the car, he relies on his team to make sure it does what it is supposed to do every time. And teamwork, well, works.

The car has captured the Hot Rod Magazine Pump Gas Drags award, a very prestigious win. This weekend the guys are with the car at South Georgia Motorsports Complex competing in an event against the fastest cars in the world on a limiting tire (drag radial). It will take teamwork and dedication to get the car to outperform the rest of the field.

Everyone on that team has a specific role to make the car run well on race day. A well-tuned marketing team runs much the same way, minus the parachute and rollcage of course. In order to best execute a marketing goal, work within your strengths to ensure a quality piece of advertising whether it is a video or a print ad or some other media. A team is not as strong minus one. Just like a race team, your role is vital to the success of the project or campaign.

Human billboard marketing tactic

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

Marketing a product or service today takes creativity. It’s not uncommon to see advertising on soda cans, Facebook pages, city buses, email blasts…you name it. If someone wants to buy the space, chances are there is someone who will sell it!

On a recent trip to San Diego, I noticed a guy who had a shirt, hat, backpack and decals that all promoted a website. I was curious about it so I asked him as we stood in line to order lunch. Turns out he is an aspiring web designer trying to generate traffic to his online portfolio anyway he can.

“If I get a couple hits on my site from this it’s worth it,” he said.

I thought it was a great way to get the word out. Especially if you consider how many people he probably encountered that day. 100? 1,000? 10,000? Now I’m not saying you all should dress head to toe in your corporate brand, but rather think of ways (even free) that can be used as a means to spread the word. Might be hard to measure how people are finding out about this guy’s website but if he lands one job from his effort I’m sure he’ll feel it has been worth it.

How the Grateful Dead can help your e-business

by Barry Gatenbein – Barry@HighVelocityCommunications.com

Perhaps best know for jams that seem to reach the farthest realms of the stratosphere and a fan base that religiously follows the band to the very ends of the earth, the Grateful Dead are also business pioneers leading the way on social networking and Internet business.

An article by Joshua Green in The Atlantic’s March 2010 issue reports on the Dead’s growing influence on today’s business world.

Long before Twitter and Facebook, the Grateful Dead created a telephone hotline that provided the most loyal fans with information about the band’s touring schedule before public announcement were made.

The best seats were reserved for those on the call list, and distributed through the band’s mail-order house. In the days when fans typically camped out for days to buy tickets, the band’s most ardent followers received packets of tickets to shows across the country in their mailboxes.

Sounds a lot like the sweetheart deals retail stores offer their followers on Twitter and Facebook, doesn’t it?

Another Dead innovation was the practice of permitting fans to tape shows. The band realized it would be impossible to enforce a ban on taping and the ubiquitous tapes would widen their audience. The Dead also reasoned that fans taping shows were spending money on tickets, t-shirts, posters and other Grateful Dead paraphernalia.

“Giving something away and earning money on the periphery is the same idea proffered by Wired editor Chris Anderson in his recent best-selling book, Freedom: The Future of a Radical Price. Voluntarily or otherwise, it is becoming the blueprint for more and more companies doing business on the Internet,” Green writes in the Atlantic article.

Grateful Dead lyricist, John Perry Barlow, who became an Internet guru, wrote in a 1994 Wired article, “The best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away,” Green reports.

Just like taping of Grateful Dead shows can’t be stopped, neither can the pirating of online materials. But your company can profit by selling periphery services—just like the Dead.

Performance under pressure

by Tim O’Brien – Tim@HighVelocityCommunications.com

Hannah Kearney’s spectacular gold medal run in the women’s moguls epitomized performance under pressure. As the last hope to beat the first-place, home-crowd favorite, Hannah had not a fraction of a second for error. Flying down the hill fighting moguls with full-throttle abandon and remarkable precision, Hannah combined years of training and hard work with her indomitable will to succeed—and delivered the performance of her lifetime.

Next time you’re making an important business presentation to high-ranking officers around the table, and you think you’re facing some pressure—measure it against Hannah’s achievement.

Shop class pays off

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

All my neighbors have big fancy snowblowers—it seems like they’re 180 horsepower and can throw snow 400 feet.

One of them had been giving me a hard time that my ancient Craftsman blower didn’t sound too good. I agreed and decided to spend some time investigating the problem.

The Craftsman has always been good to me, always starts and had worked just fine for my smallish driveway. I cleaned the spark plug and fuel tank, removed the carburetor and took it apart—only to discover some gunk caught in the needle. I soaked all the parts in carb cleaner and reassembled everything a few days later with a gasket set.

The snowblower fired right up, and runs better than ever. Last week we had a bad snowstorm here—worst of the season by far. My snowblower worked like a champ in the 13 inches of snow.

I offered to clean my neighbor’s sidewalk and driveway apron when his snowblower wouldn’t start.

Some things go in cycles

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

I remember being dragged out to the lake, when I was about 5, to spend the day fishing with my grandfather.

I hated it! It was hot and muggy. My grandfather never brought any snacks or lemonade, yet he always wanted me to come along. I never caught anything. I was better at chucking rocks than chucking baits.

A few years ago, when he passed, my grandmother told me my grandfather always wanted me to have his tackle box and fishing rods. I was flattered that he always thought of me as his fishing buddy, even though I was the worst aspiring fisherman ever.

Fast forward to now: my wife, her family and I spend an entire weekend on the lake in western Wisconsin. Cold beer, plenty of snacks, the latest tackle and some bug spray are all I need for a great weekend. We catch bluegill the size of your hand all day long. It’s a weekend I always look forward to and remember his patience with me—even when I never saw the potential a sunny day on the lake could bring.

Sometimes selling means giving

by Jack Burke—Jack@HighVelocityCommunications.com

I went to the Milwaukee/NARI Home Show this weekend with my family. We weren’t in the market for anything in particular, but I like to see what the builders and landscapers are offering this year. Who knew there were so many ways to keep leaves out of your gutters?

I noticed something while walking the aisles. Vendors who were offering something of value—a home show discount, a free add-on—seemed to draw the most interest. Not surprising, really, but I’d bet half of the displays weren’t offering incentives that were readily visible.

Like I noted, we weren’t in the market for anything in particular. But we did sign up for a couple of drawings and because of that we will be talking to some sales people soon.

The ultimate showroom

by Pete Kennedy—Pete@HighVelocityCommunications.com

I stop at this coffee place a few mornings a week. It’s been in business about a year.

It doesn’t take a Wharton grad to figure out the owner’s marketing strategy: Offer a product at a very low price to get people in the door.

In this case, the coffee is $1 for a very large cup. Not only is the price great, but the coffee is really, really good. The owner roasts it himself, and it’s a notch or two above everyone else’s. It’s the best coffee I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot.

Today, the owner and I discussed how business is going. Good, it turns out. In fact, he’s starting to sell his beans to other coffee houses and even some restaurants.

“Won’t that hurt your own business?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “Selling to those places is my business.”

He explained that the coffee house I stood in is his “showroom.” Some day the beans will become his main business; that has been the plan all along.

The shop is a place for sampling his product. Someone who owns a restaurant might stop, or maybe even the owner of a “rival” café; it’s happened before, and now they buy his beans. Even coffee drinkers like myself will spread the word to other business owners.

In a way, this guy is no different than the person at the grocery store who asks you to taste whatever kind of pizza they’re pushing that day.

And then I realized: The owner isn’t selling coffee at a low price. He’s charging the rest of us a buck to test his coffee and spread the word for him.

This isn’t a criticism; the owner is an honest, good guy, and I get a really good cup of coffee for a buck. It’s a winning proposition for me.

I just found it to be an interesting approach by a smart guy with an exceptional product.

Toyota’s trouble a sobering reminder

by Jack Burke—Jack@HighVelocityCommunications.com

Toyota’s recent—and ongoing—troubles raise an interesting question: When is lean too lean?

For years, Toyota’s culture of continuous improvement (the Toyota Way) was emulated and envied by companies across the manufacturing world. Toyota was seen as the epitome of efficiency, stripping its process to be the leanest and meanest manufacturer on the block. The same was true of its relationship with suppliers. If you wanted to play with Toyota, you needed to play by its rules. They cut and slashed the number of suppliers and increased the number of parts that are used across the automaker’s entire line. Toyota’s mantra was “eliminate waste and increase productivity and the bottom line will take care of itself.”

But by living on that edge, Toyota made itself terribly vulnerable to hiccups in the supply chain, according to this article. The brake problem stems not from Toyota, but from its brake supplier. A “fatter” Toyota may have used more brake suppliers and a problem that now has stung the entire company would be limited to a single line of cars.

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Get low for dramatic shots

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

I’m often asked how I get dramatic photos of vehicles and machines—how I get something different. The answer is almost always: get low. Laying on your stomach and framing your shot will provide an angle much different than most are used to seeing naturally. So it creates more dramatic effect to the shot, like the photo above, courtesy of Eurotuner.com. Remember to pay close attention to the location of the sun and any objects that would create a distraction in your photo. Here is a tip: Bring along a scrap of carpeting to lay on so you avoid getting those new jeans dirty.

It’s still OK to barter

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

I recently took on a direct mail project for a friend who runs an automotive repair business. In return, he let me use his hoist to perform some work on my ’64 Chevy. It worked out well for both of us.

Thinking back, I have bartered design work in exchange for a skid steer rental, plumbing work and an electrician’s time for an afternoon. If both parties need a service, this can be a great way to meet the needs of all.

Face-to-face meetings get it done

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

Whenever possible, meet directly with clients to brainstorm or go over a concept. Being there makes a difference. You can see the client’s reaction, which means a TON when trying to develop an idea that suits their needs.

Granted, face-to-face meetings won’t always work when you have a client four states over. Then, of course, you need to make the most of the time you have with them then on the phone. Ask a lot of questions and make no assumptions.

A thorough Q&A with the client helps you do the best job possible, and the best place to start is together—face-to-face.

Turn down the volume

by Pete Kennedy – Pete@HighVelocityCommunications.com

You might get the silent treatment during this year’s Super Bowl. The trend is to turn down the volume during ads, according to an article on slate.com.

“The reality is that very few people only watch TV today—they watch while they're reading a magazine, looking at email, or answering a text,” says Jim Bacharach, vice president of brand communications for John Hancock. “What we have found, and confirmed in our tracking studies, is that the quiet of our ads makes people lift their heads and look up.”

Don’t sacrifice quality to meet the deadline

by Jason France – Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

I was approached by a friend to “whip together a logo” and related letterhead, invoice, company decals, signage and a direct mail piece for his latest business venture. While I was flattered he asked me for help, the deadline was very short. I explained to him that I could meet his initial deadline with the company logo art but it would take time to pull the rest together in order to provide my best effort. While he was reluctant at first to agree to the suggestion, he eventually warmed up to it.

Remember, your design work will reflect on you and your talents as much as it is a branding tool for your client’s business!

Cut back but don’t cut out

by Jason France -- Jason@HighVelocityCommunications.com

We have all cut back in this economy. Whether it’s not buying those new shoes, or not taking that fishing trip. But don’t cut out everything you enjoy. It’s OK to watch how much you’re spending on things you don’t “need,” but you also have to remember to keep yourself happy.

Do things you enjoy, just in moderation.