Archive for 2009

Money vs Time

Posted at October 11, 2009 // Promotion, Public relations, Strategy / Tactics, Web

This week I learned that the more money you have, the less time you have to spend on any particular tasks. You could hire someone to do it for you.

However, if you don’t have the money, you’d have to spend more time.

This is the equation that any marketer must understand. You don’t need to have a lot of money to have a successful campaign. However, the smaller your budget, the harder each dollar must work, the more creative you’d have to be, the more work you’d have to do yourself. The larger the budget, the more crazy stuffs you could try, the more you could have someone else do the work for you.

However, a small budget shouldn’t limit the success of your marketing campaign.

What’s sad is that this formula, that’s so obvious with small businesses, is sometimes forgotten by big companies.

This is the new economy. This is the new reality. This is a new year. This is the new budget. Everyone of us needs to learn to do more with less.

Photo Credit: funny money, originally uploaded by Material Boy.

Marketing outside the box (thestar.com)

Tags : Promotion, Public relations, Web

Job Search 101: Working a Career Fair

Posted at October 6, 2009 // Job / Career

A national career fair is coming up at the end of the week. So, I thought I’d post my tips on how to work a job fair. Of course, I take it for granted that you know you need the basics like a good resume, a good suit, a good elevator speech, etc.

For the ladies, wear flats. Purchase a pair of dressy flats. Otherwise, your feet will be hurting before the fair is half done, and it would get increasingly difficult for you to put your smiley face on. The rule of being comfortable while staying professional extend to the gentlemen as well. To this end, consider bringing an extra suit or invest in a washable suit. Once, I had a spill during the conference, and I was lucky that my suit was washable. If you choose the extra suit route, the back-up suit obviously would not need to be as nice / expensive.
Bring a lot of resumes. In fact, bring a jump drive with your resume, writing sample, portfolio, etc. on it. Just in case you need it, you could always go to your hotel’s business center or a Kinko’s.
Do your research well ahead of the time. Many job fairs set up a website with job posting. Figure out which employers would be there. Know your targets. Apply ahead if you can. Try to set up interviews for the fair well ahead of the time, if you can. For one fair, I had 8 interviews lined up prior to even going to the fair. Everything that I got while actually at the conference was gravy.
Plan to arrive the night before, and go to the fair site. Often, there is an early check-in set up, and you could get your registration package the night before. The lines for early check-in are usually far shorter! This would allow you to have more time in the morning during the actual fair. Even if you missed the early check-in time, make an effort to stop by the convention center. One, you want to get familiar with the site. You wouldn’t want to lose any time on the real day of the fair. Two, even if you didn’t get your official package, there may be event maps lying around. Pick one up. That is perhaps the single most important piece of material besides your security badge. You want to study that map the night before. You want to figure out a war path. You want to figure out what is the most efficient way to hit up all the employers you wanted to visit.
Visit your #1 target company second. This is perhaps my most important tip. Don’t bother wasting time on an employer in which you have absolutely no interests. However, there are those that are on the end of your list. Pick one of those as your first visit. Often time, similar jobs have similar job fair interactions. So, by staying within your list, you would just get more practice on how to interact with these companies. You would get used to the questions they’d ask. You would get better at making a good first impression. So, don’t waste time with companies not on your list. But, why pick one of the ones on the end to start? Because inevitably you would be nervous. Truthfully, this is your guinea pig visit. Work off your nerves. Get a good real-life practice. If you happen to nail this, great. If not, you would just move on to those higher on your list. Why visit your #1 company second? You would be still awake, full of adrenaline early in the day. You would be at the best of your game early on, so use that toward your top companies. In addition, each company reserves some at-the-fair interview spots for candidates they meet during the fair. However, these spots go fast. If you want to get on one of these spots still, you need to make sure you visit them early on.
Along with the above point, don’t bother visiting with companies with which you already have interviews scheduled till later. Prioritize the companies you still need to get on their interview schedule first.
Go to the networking events hosted by your target companies. Network, network, network!

Good Luck and Good Hunting!

Photo credit: career fair, originally uploaded by yngrich.

Career and Internship Fair: What You Need To Know (smudailymustang.com)

Tags : Career, Job Search

Failed Starbucks Via Challenge

Posted at October 4, 2009 // Promotion, Public relations, Strategy / Tactics

Today I took the Starbucks Via challengeâ€¦ and I was disappointed.

First of all, I could tell the difference. I didnâ€™t know which was which, but I could tell the differenceâ€¦ and I did not like Via. The regular brew had a cleaner taste. So, the challenge did not sway me to buy Via.

However, I learned something about Viaâ€¦ it could be instantly dissolved in cold water, or cold milk! Imagine the possibility in the summer! But, waitâ€¦ itâ€™s only 50 degrees outâ€¦ I donâ€™t need a cold coffeeâ€¦ So, thatâ€™s an irrelevant message to me. However, I believe that Starbucks would launch a cold Via campaign in the summer. But of course, the problem would be how to differentiate this against the Starbucksâ€™ bottled Frappacino.

Toward the end of the demonstration, I learned something even more exciting about Via. I learned that Starbucks designed the most nifty travel mug for Via. It is a regular travel mug, with a twist off cap that allows easy storage of the Via packages. Now, why isnâ€™t this the focus of the campaign?

I understand that Starbucks is about taste, but Via is about the on-the-go lifestyle Americans have. In addition, a quick survey online would reveal that many could taste the difference between Via and the fresh brew. I am not alone in this. So, by solely focusing on taste, Viaâ€™s campaign is missing the opportunity to truly address what the product brings to the consumersâ€™ life. Viaâ€™s branding should not be built on taste, something people already expect from a Starbucks product. Of course, people would wonder if Via could deliver on taste, but it isnâ€™t a problem, unless Via really couldnâ€™t deliverâ€¦ People would not buy Via because of taste. They buy Via because itâ€™s convenient! They buy Via because they wouldnâ€™t have to make a coffee stop. They buy Via because they wouldnâ€™t have to wait in line for a coffee. They buy Via because they could save two minutes in the morning!

Now, let me also give you the context of how this demonstration went. The barista was very diligent in focusing on the taste message. However, being a coffee addict and a marketer, I was particularly interested about this product launch. So, I stuck around and chatted with the Barista a little. It was after I was given the coupon, and the other couple that was also at that particular demonstration had left, that I learned about the cold brewing and the travel mug. Now, imagine how many people never knew about those two really cool facts about Via. How much potential sale lostâ€¦

Photo credit: Starbucks Via travel mug, originally uploaded by mhaithaca.