Believe? Do you believe in having dreams? Holding on to them? Here is a story that says never give up on your dreams that we found on several websites (all listed author unknown). We believe it is an excellent story that illustrates the power of holding onto your dreams.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Imagine you could go back in time and give your 20-year-old self a bit of advice on investing in the creative process, coming up with new ideas, and producing good, fun work.
What would you say?
I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in California. From time to time he permitted me to use his home for youth at risk fund raising events.
The last event he introduced me by saying:
I want to tell you why I let Jack use my home for this fund raising. It goes back to a story of a young man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer, who traveled from town to town training horses. As a result his son’s education was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be when he grew up.
That night he wrote a seven page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a map of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables, and the track. He also drew a detailed floor plan for a 4000 square foot home that would be located on the ranch.
He put a great deal of his heart into the project and turned in the paper the next day. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note from his teacher that asked him to see him after class.
The student went to the teacher after class as instructed and asked why he had received the failing grade.
The teacher said:
This is an unrealistic dream for someone like you. You have no money. You come from an itinerant, poor family with few resources. Owning a horse ranch such as this requires a lot of money. There is no way you could ever achieve this dream. Then the teacher told him he would reconsider the grade if the paper was rewritten with a more realistic goal.
The boy went home and thought about what to do next long and hard. He asked father what he should do.
His father said:
Son, you will have to make up your own mind on this. It is a very important decision for you.
Finally after careful thought, the boy turned in the same paper, making NO change. His remark to the teacher was:
You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.
Another story for you: A Story About Living as Told by a Six Year Old Boy
My friend Monty then turned to the assembled group and said:
I tell you this story because you are sitting in 4000 square foot house in the middle of my 200 acre ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace.
The rancher.
He added:
The best part of the story is that two summers ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on this ranch for a week. When the teacher was leaving, he said: Look, Monty, I can tell you this now.
When I was your teacher, I was something of a dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids’ dreams. Fortunately you had enough gumption not to give on yours.
My takeaway from this story?
Don’t let anyone steal your dreams. Never give up on them, no matter what.
Belief is a powerful word – the state of knowing and feeling certain that something special is coming your way. Through my own personal experience I’ve found that creating that state of certainty – to believe in your dreams – requires 3 steps:
Love what you do
To believe in your dreams, make sure to find what you absolutely love to do and then make it your dream.
Document your goals
When you know exactly what you want, you create a state of absolute certainty – a belief that cuts through any doubt.
To believe in your dreams, you’ve got to know what you want. One of the best ways to figure that out is to write it out.
Wear the enthusiasm your dreams generate
Your dreams take consistent enthusiasm to keep them burning. A small movement or a small action is all you need to keep your that enthusiasm. Take a small action each day to keep it alive. By doing this consistently you’ll start to realize your dreams, one step at a time.
Do you have a lesson from your experience vault for this community?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing or advertising campaigns? Looking for creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your enthusiasm?
Do you have a lesson about making your motivation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More inspirational stories from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Great Stories and Storytelling Can Have a Very Healing Influence
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
We love great stories about pets, especially when there are special meanings behind them. That is especially true when the story also involves people in our military. We came across this story of Tank the dog recently. It has since become one of our all-time favorites.
This story, and no doubt there are many more like this in one way or another, showcase love, loyalty, service, and companionship of both our beloved canine companions and our troops. Those men and women, who put their lives on the line so that others like us may live with the freedoms we, more often than not, take for granted.
They told Tom the big black Lab’s name was Reggie as he looked at him lying in his pen. Tom had only been in the area for six months, but everywhere he went in the small college town, people were welcoming and open.
But something was still missing as he attempted to settle into his new life, and he thought a dog couldn’t hurt.
At first, he thought the shelter had misjudged him in giving up Reggie and his things, which consisted of a dog pad, bag of toys almost all of which were brand new tennis balls, his dishes, and a sealed letter from his previous owner. See, Reggie and Tom didn’t really hit it off when they got home. They struggled for two weeks (which is how long the shelter said to give him to adjust to his new home). Maybe it was the fact that Tom was trying to adjust, too.
For some reason, his stuff (except for the tennis balls – he wouldn’t go anywhere without two stuffed in his mouth) got tossed in with all of Tom’s other unpacked boxes.
Tom tried the normal commands the shelter told him he knew, ones like “sit” and “stay” and “come” and “heel,” and Reggie would follow them – when he felt like it. He never really seemed to listen when his name was called. When he was asked again, you could almost see him sigh and then grudgingly obey.
The relationship just wasn’t working. Reggie chewed a couple of shoes and some unpacked boxes. Tom was a little too stern with him and he resented it. The friction got so bad that Tom couldn’t wait for the two weeks to be up, and when it was, he was in full-on search mode for his cell phone amid all of his unpacked stuff.
Finally, he found it, but before he could punch up the shelter’s number, he also found Reggie’s pad and other toys from the shelter. Tom tossed the pad in Reggie’s direction and he snuffed it and wagged, some of the most enthusiasm that he’d shown since arriving at his new home.
But then Tom called, “Hey, Reggie, you like that? Come here and I’ll give you a treat.” Instead, he sort of glanced in his direction – maybe “glared” is more accurate – and then gave a discontented sigh and flopped down, with little to no interest.
Sleeping dogs and tennis balls.
Well, that’s not going to do it either, Tom thought. And he punched the shelter phone number.
But he hung up when he saw the sealed envelope. It had been completely forgotten and ignored until now. “Okay, Reggie,” Tom said out loud, “let’s see if your previous owner has any advice.”
The note was addressed:
To Whoever Gets My Dog:
Well, I can’t say that I’m happy you’re reading this, a letter I told the shelter could only be opened by Reggie’s new owner.
I’m not even happy writing it.
My last visit with my dog was when I dropped him at the shelter. He knew something was different… I had packed up his pad and toys before and set them by the back door before a trip, but this time… it’s like he knew something was wrong. And something was wrong… which is why I had to try to make it right.
So let me tell you about my Lab in the hopes that it will help you bond with him and he with you.
First, he loves tennis balls, the more the merrier. Sometimes I think he’s a part squirrel, the way he hordes them. He usually always has two in his mouth, and he tries to get a third in there. Hasn’t done it yet. Doesn’t matter where you throw them, he’ll bound after it, so be careful – really don’t do it by any roads. I made that mistake once, and it almost cost him dearly.
Next, commands. Maybe the shelter staff already told you, but I’ll go over them again: Reggie knows the obvious ones – “sit,” “stay,” “come,” “heel.” He knows hand signals: “back” to turn around and go back when you put your hand straight up; and “over” if you put your hand out right or left. “Shake” for shaking the water off, and “paw” for a high-five. He does “down” when he feels like lying down – I bet you could work on that with him some more.
He knows “ball” and “food” and “bone” and “treat” like nobody’s business.
I trained Reggie with small food treats. Nothing opens his ears like little pieces of a hot dog.
Feeding schedule: twice a day, once about seven in the morning, and again at six in the evening. Regular store-bought stuff; the shelter has the brand.
He’s up on his shots. Call the clinic on 9th Street and update his info with yours; they’ll make sure to send you reminders for when he’s due. Be forewarned: Reggie hates the vet. Good luck getting him in the car – I don’t know how he knows when it’s time to go to the vet, but he knows.
Finally, give him some time. I’ve never been married, so it’s only been Reggie and me for his whole life. He’s gone everywhere with me, so please include him on your daily car rides if you can. He sits well in the backseat, and he doesn’t bark or complain. He just loves to be around people and me most especially. This means that this transition is going to be hard, with him going to live with someone new.
And that’s why I need to share one more bit of info with you….
His name’s not Reggie.
Tank or Reggie?
I don’t know what made me do it, but when I dropped him off at the shelter, I told them his name was Reggie. He’s a smart dog, he’ll get used to it and will respond to it, of that I have no doubt but I just couldn’t bear to give them his real name. For me to do that, it seemed so final, that handing him over to the shelter was as good as me admitting that I’d never see him again. And if I end up coming back, getting him, and tearing up this letter, it means everything’s fine.
Another story for you: Never Give Up Your Dreams
But if someone else is reading it, well… well, it means that his new owner should know his real name. It’ll help you bond with him. Who knows, maybe you’ll even notice a change in his demeanor if he’s been giving you problems.
His real name is Tank … because that is what I drive.
Again, if you’re reading this and you’re from the area, maybe my name has been on the news. I told the shelter that they couldn’t make “Reggie” available for adoption until they received word from my company commander.
See, my parents are gone, I have no siblings, no one I could’ve left Tank with… and it was my only real request of the Army upon my deployment to Iraq, that they make one phone call the shelter…in the “event”… to tell them that Tank could be put up for adoption. Luckily, my colonel is a dog guy, too, and he knew where my platoon was headed. He said he’d do it personally. And if you’re reading this, then he made good on his word.
Well, this letter is getting too downright depressing, even though, frankly, I’m just writing it for my dog. I couldn’t imagine if I was writing it for a wife and kids and family. But still, Tank has been my family for the last six years, almost as long as the Army has been my family.
And now I hope and pray that you make him part of your family and that he will adjust and come to love you the same way he loved me.
That unconditional love from a dog is what I took with me to Iraq as an inspiration to do something selfless, to protect innocent people from those who would do terrible things… and to keep those terrible people from coming over here.
If I had to give up Tank in order to do it, I am glad to have done so. He was my example of service and of love. I hope I honored him by my service to my country and comrades…
All right, that’s enough. I deploy this evening and have to drop this letter off at the shelter. I don’t think I’ll say another good-bye to Tank, though. I cried too much the first time. Maybe I’ll peek in on him and see if he finally got that third tennis ball in his mouth.
Good luck with Tank. Give him a good home, and give him an extra kiss goodnight – every night – from me.
Thank you, Paul Mallory
Tom folded the letter and slipped it back in the envelope. Sure he had heard of Paul Mallory, everyone in town knew him, even new people. Local kid, killed in Iraq a few months ago and posthumously being awarded the Silver Star because he gave his life to save three buddies. Flags had been at half-mast all summer.
He leaned forward in his chair, rested his elbows on his knees, and said quietly: “Hey, Tank,”. The dog’s head whipped up, his ears cocked and his eyes bright.
“C’ mere boy.” He was instantly on his feet, his nails clicking on the hardwood floor. He sat in front of me, his head tilted; searching for the name he hadn’t heard in months.
“Tank,” Tom whispered. His tail swished.
He kept whispering his name, over and over, and each time, his ears lowered, his eyes softened, and his posture relaxed as a wave of contentment just seemed to flood him. Tom stroked his ears, rubbed his shoulders, buried his face into his scruff and hugged him.
“It’s me now, Tank, just you and me. Your old pal gave you to me.”
Tank reached up and licked his cheek. “So whatdaya say we play some ball?” His ears perked again. “Yeah? Ball? Do you like that? Ball?” Tank tore from Tom’s hands and disappeared in the next room.
And when he came back, he had three tennis balls in his mouth.
My takeaway from this story?
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are … and you can make the difference you may be looking for.
Do you have any stories from the experience vault that you could share with this community?
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Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More inspirational stories from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Baldwin hits the nail on the head with his quote on change, doesn’t he? He begs the question of the importance of knowing yourself. Knowing yourself is the key to undertaking life lessons learned, isn’t it?
Nothing really prepares you to be a leader. In most cases, you get the opportunity to lead by being good at something else. However, while being a strong performer gives you the credibility to lead, it says nothing about your ability to lead. Leadership is a skill in its own right and, for the most part, it’s one you learn on the job.
The vast majority of people have a morning ritual that involved some type of mindfulness. Getting your head straight and your priorities in line so you could face the day doing what matters to you.
What leadership characteristic is your strength? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
How you ever used checklists to improve your learning … or perhaps your positive mental attitude? How well did they work for you? Do they refresh your thinking on important life success lessons?
We often use checklists to achieve our goal to create the attitude that can see opportunity in every difficulty.
After college, I spent almost two years training as a naval aviator. An essential element of that training was the use of checklists in the learning and refresher process. Checklist utilization remains an important part of my life, both in the personal as well as the business realm.
I keep a stack of 10 or so lists that I rotate and update occasionally. This is one of them, despite the fact that I am a retiree (at least part of the time). I pull out one checklist to read and contemplate for five minutes as a way to start each day. I find it puts my thinking in the right frame of mind.
Here is a checklist of 10 of my favorite life lessons reminders I have found to improve the odds of long-term success. They are based on life lessons learned along the road of my 40 years of experience:
Focusing on value add
In everything we do, we should concentrate on adding value. Gear efforts to results rather than work. Begin with the question, “What results are expected of me?” rather than with the work to be done, let alone with its techniques and tools.
Life lessons learned the hard way
Customer-centric focus
Focusing on the client makes us more resilient.
What I have found is: start with the customer and work backward.This experience comes from my training and expertise in systems engineering.
When you work from the end, you start with the customer and their needs and problems. This is the opposite of what some people do, which is: they think up ideas, build a product, and then see if customers like it.
Life lessons learned … develop a vision
Vision. We are always fascinated by this skill. And it is a great skill to have in our view. Does it mean you see everything? Certainly not. It does say that you have the ability to see what many cannot. And then act on these. Vision doesn’t count without action. And not without managing the needed work required to implement.
That idea of staying the course for the long term has been the key to success. Vision requires the long term. Be stubborn on vision and have flexibility on details.
Makingandexecuting effective decisions
Results most often depend on making effective decisions. I learned that an active decision is always a “judgment based on dissenting opinions rather than on a consensus of the facts.”
What is needed are few, but key decisions. What is required is the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle tactics. Act on the plan and pay attention to follow-through.
Valuable lessons learned in life
Learning from others is always important to me. For example, I have learned change from Amazon. They have one of the very best innovation cultures in an industry built on constant innovation and change. Why may you ask?
We believe there several good reasons. First, as one of the creators of the e-commerce industry, they know the industry is in its infancy and is built on a foundation of new technology and constant introduction of new ways of doing things.
Business is all about capturing intellect from every person. The way to engender this understanding is to allow employees far more freedom and far more responsibility.
Lessons learned in life sayings.
Experiment and change
Remember, change and innovate, BEFORE you have to. Change is a big part of the reality in business. New ideas are the lifeblood of business. And the basis for creative change.
Your life will be in constant change mode, and that is a good thing if you lead change in the direction of your success goals. To do that most successfully, you should try lots of new things continually. For things you like, get superb at them by lots of practice. But keep trying new activities.
I love this quote from Jeff Bezos:
If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.
If you ask the best business leaders, they’ll tell you that experimentation is imperative for their business. It’s how innovations are born and how they stay competitive in the market. Experimentation is everywhere and is always happening.
Life lessons learned … your career is not your life
This was probably the most challenging of my experiences, particularly early to mid-career. To be successful in this lesson, you should develop breath to your list of activities and always put family and friends first.
To do both well, think about activities that maximize your friends and relatives, like coaching your children’s sports teams.
Dedicate yourself to continuous learning
I am a big believer in lifelong learning. You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you. Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement. Our most favored quote on continuous learning comes from Charles Darwin:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Just remember to substitute success for survival, and you will have a treasured life lesson on continuous learning.
Life lessons learned … grow kindness
All of these life experiences get better when you have a strong foundation in knowing how to be kind to others. I have never found a better way to stay happy. Kindness costs you nothing, and you’d be surprised how much in can do for your happiness.
Life lessons learned … find something to make you laugh
Another important factor in your happiness is enjoying a good laugh as often as you can. Making fun of yourself and your mistakes is a great place to start.
The bottom line
As you progress in your continuous learning and development, keep in mind growth is a long term, not short term endeavor. In reality, it should never end. It should be pursued consistently throughout your career, day by day.
To find real life lesson experiences, you have to try many avenues … and experience some failures along the way. I have learned this lesson well.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Do you follow college basketball? If you do, you will recognize the name of John Wooden, probably the most successful college coach of all time. For us, this achievement and learning are all about the John Wooden leadership qualities.
John Wooden leadership qualities.
Coach John Wooden is best known for his 27-year legacy at UCLA, where he led the Bruins to 10 NCAA national championships . This is a record that will most likely never be repeated.
We like to read about and study people who generate this type of success. There is so much that we can learn from them.
Nothing really prepares you to be a leader. In most cases, you get the opportunity to lead by being good at something else. However, while being a strong performer gives you the credibility to lead, it says nothing about your ability to lead. Leadership is a skill in its own right and, for the most part, it’s one you learn on the job.
For Wooden, the ideal leader is someone whose life and character motivate people to follow. The best kind of leadership derives its capacity from the force of example, not from the power of position or personality. Much of what passes as leadership today is nothing more than threats and rewards.
That’s not effective leadership for the long-term. Authentic leadership seeks to motivate people from the inside, by an appeal to the head and the heart, not by use of command and coercion. Wooden influenced players through the character he displayed in everything he did, from the way he recruited student-athletes to the way he taught them to put their socks on.
Here are the 15 most essential leadership qualities we derive from John Wooden that we recommend for the development of people we influence:
Agree to disagree, but don’t be disagreeable
It is all about maintaining a positive attitude all the time. According to Wooden, “We can agree to disagree, but we don’t need to be disagreeable.”
Focus on character over reputation
Your reputation will vary. It’s your character that counts, and it’s what you can control. Wooden said, “If you make an effort to do the best of which you’re capable, trying to improve the situation that exists for you, I think that’s success, and I don’t think others can judge that, and I think that’s like character and reputation. Your reputation is what you are perceived to be, and your character is what you are, and I believe the character is much more important than what you are perceived to be.”
The score is hopefully a by-product of doing the right things. Don’t focus on the score, focus on what you’re doing and give your best.
Wooden said, “I wanted the score of a game to be a by-product of these other things, and not the end itself.”
John Wooden leadership book … the meaning of the best
The sense of being the best player is the one who gets closest to reaching their full potential. According to Wooden, whoever gets the closest to reaching their full potential is the best.
John Wooden leadership qualities: don’t let your limits limit you
Don’t let limits get in the way. Wooden — “Don’t let what you cannot do, interfere with what you can do.”
Lead by example
A doer makes mistakes
If you’re not doing, you’re not learning. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s what you do with them that counts.
Everybody is unique
Wooden learned early on the importance of paying attention to each. His teaching was built on this fact. He learned that he had to work with each a little differently and that no two are identical.
He knew that he must vary his approach to helping them unleash their best.
Continuous learning
Coach Wooden practiced life-long learning – as you would expect from a great teacher. This has continued to grow in importance in today’s environment.
John Wooden leadership qualities … balance is everything
He said this often – balance in life and balance on the court. He put balance only second to LOVE. Balance is everything. “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” This, in essence, is a balance; controlled action in all areas of life.
Little things make big things happen
Coach Wooden was a proponent of the principle that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. His practices were ferociously intense. There wasn’t any slack in practice where you could hang out and chat.
He found time in the beginning when players were coming onto the court to take a moment, to pull someone aside as he was ambling over to the practice and ask about how things were going.
Patience is a part of progress
Success comes slowly. Expect change to happen slowly and to have patience along the way. Wooden said, “Whatever you’re doing, you must have patience” and “there is no progress without change, so you must have patience.”
Lead by example
Wooden said that way back, during his early years of teaching, an accurate saying made a great impression on him – “No written word, no spoken plea, can teach our youth what they should be, nor all the books on all the shelves, it’s what the teachers are themselves.”
Failure is not fatal
Keep going. Don’t let setbacks stop you. Carry your lessons forward, and change your approach. Wooden said, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” Don’t fear change … it is a fact of life.
It’s the journey
It’s the getting there that’s fun. Wooden said, “Cervantes said, ‘The journey is better than the end.’ And I like that. I think that is — it’s getting there.
Sometimes when you get there, there’s almost a letdown, but it’s the getting there that’s fun.” Wooden would say, ““I liked our practices to be the journey, and the game would be the end … the result.”
Here is an interesting story of John Wooden that says miles about John Wooden the man:
At age 96, Wooden was back at the site of his first NCAA championship in 1964, prompting him to recall a message he had received “from above” right after the beginning of his 10-championship run at UCLA.
“We won on a Saturday night,” Wooden said. “The next day was Easter Sunday, and I planned on going out to a church … where the Rev. Bob Maneely was the minister. I had got acquainted with him. I used to attend a Fellowship of Christian Athletes conference in Estes Park, Colo.; he was there as a speaker. I planned on going out Easter Sunday, my wife and I. Sunday morning, we were outside the Muehlebach Hotel, waiting to get a cab to take us to the church. And a pigeon hit me right on top of the head. And I felt, ‘Well, we just won the national championship, the team did, don’t let it go to your head.’ And I think the Good Lord was letting me know, ‘Don’t get carried away.’ I’ll always remember that.”
The thought from Wooden that sticks with me more than any other?
It is that something I always need to pay attention to …
before you can be a successful mentor or coach, you must create a positive learning environment. So how did Coach Wooden go about creating this positive learning environment? He implemented one simple strategy. He used 4-5 positive praises for every one criticism. Wow! This sounds so simple, and yet as I tried to implement it in my leadership, I found out just how difficult it is.
So what is it from John Wooden’s legacy that you remember the most? Any comments or questions to add below?
The bottom line
We all have our talents, but the innate ability will only take you so far. In the final analysis, what makes transformational leadership different is its ability to transform it to suit the needs of its mission.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is entirely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your ability to lead. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, history may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
It’s up to you to keep improving your leadership learning and experience from all around in your environment.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
A female humpback whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. This is her story of giving gratitude.
Another story: Never Give Up Your Dreams
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her…. a very dangerous proposition.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.
Importance of expressing gratitude
When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
Another story for you: Great Stories and Storytelling Can Have a Very Healing Influence
Giving gratitude
The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you be so fortunate… To be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joyof giving and receiving gratitude.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your innovation and creativity in advertising designs. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your inspirations stories?
Do you have a lesson about making your stories better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More inspirational stories from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Ever written an advertisement, or thought about it? I’ve done marketing for my clients in small businesses for the past 6+ years. In that time I’ve learned a few things about making advertising look professional even on a tight budget. And the real measure of successful advertisement design elements is having customers remember and talk about the message.
Look at this: 2 Biggest Killer Ad Mistakes in Advertisement Design
Many small businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources to have ads professionally made. Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering.
Do you ever see a commercial that you liked and watched it? Can you remember the brand? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? Our readers and we would appreciate the share.
So what’s a small business to do?
Related post: Ten Deadly Sins of Advertising Design
Here are 12 essential ad design elements we rely on to create effective advertisement messages. These messages include the best examples of each that we could find. Great way to learn and stimulate design ideas.
Grab and hold viewers’ attention
Interesting information gets and holds attention. Keep in mind that people don’t read ads. They know what interests them. Be different, avoid normalcy at all costs.
Stand out is the mantra. It’s OK to be controversial and to create conversation through the ‘buzz.’ Headlines are the first place for attention.
Funny. Memorable. Manly. The keys for success from the ‘Will It Blend’ marketing campaign. And certainly something you’ll want to do for a networked market. Like Blendtec did very successfully.
Tom Dickson, is the star of the videos. You see him put different crazy things in the blender and say “Will it blend? That is the question”.
While the item is blending, he smiles and waits for the process to end. When it does, he empties the contents and the subtitle “Yes! It blends”appears.
Once the videos got rolling, Blendtec engaged their fans seeking ideas for things to blend. Fans become more fanatical when their favorite brands go out of their way to invite them in on the fun.
A unique selling point that truly discriminates you from your competition. It is essential that you give your customers reasons to select you.
Paint the picture of value and make the value stand out. Have you seen any of the recent Dawn TV commercials?
They started as YouTube videos and grew out of the success on that platform.
If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9qLIz1SJsk
Two of the most practical value propositions we have seen in a while are shared in 10 seconds. As the volunteers are cleaning oil off the ducks, they state that Dawn Liquid effectively cuts grease and is gentle.
Don’t need to say much as the video does the talking. Powerful.
Make the message as clean and straightforward as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message.
A message that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
Have you seen the recent Apple iPhone5 TV ad?
If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out. It will prove helpful in reviewing our ad analysis.
Superb visuals and visuals are so simple that you quickly grasp them and don’t lose interest. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
And the music has a way to keep you tied in. Creating customer interest does get any simpler than this, does it?
A very simple, yet interesting design, don’t you think? And the real message at the end that is very soft not selling.
How to design a print ad … be relevant
Keep in mind that one message does not fit all. It starts with knowing
It starts with understanding your target market. Here the target market is families with young children and people with a high focus on car safety. Certainly relevant to this market.
Successful advertisement design … define your positioning
Your positioning is the current frame of reference. Make comparisons to your competitors if you can solidly substantiate the claim.
The Amazon Kindle certainly knows who its principal rival is and takes his head on as its strategy. An excellent move we believe.
The Kindle has three key advantages in comparison to the Apple iPad air. It is 20% lighter, has 1 million more pixels resulting in the better quality picture, and is 24% less expensive. So powerful, yes?
Check out this ad here:
Emotional influence and persuasion
Budweiser puppy love that was, by most accounts, the biggest winner of the 2014 Super Bowl. There are no better means of control or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. Why?
Simply because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Check out this ad here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNO2trC-mk
There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences.
This puppy love commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this ad’s success. The focus of the advocacy helps create emotional support, doesn’t it?
Visual advertisement design elements
Use pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Here is a four minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown on their phone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest.
And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in. Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet interesting design, don’t you think?
These ads subtly grab and hold attention based on a great music soundtrack, no speaking, and a total reliance of superb visuals. Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.
Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet interesting design, don’t you think? Couldn’t be better in our opinion.
Articles with images get 94% more views than those without. And posts with videos attract 3X more inbound links than plain text posts.
A study by 3M showed that 90% of the information sent to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text.
Tell a story
A good story has a beginning where a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation. It has a middle where the character confronts and attempts to resolve the situation. And it has an end where the outcome is revealed.
It does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience.
Instead, a good story allows each member of the public to understand the story as he or she understands the work.
This is why people find good stories so appealing and why they find advertising that merely conveys facts and information boring.
Here is a link to the Guinness ad video to refresh you or for you to review in case you haven’t seen it.
Guinness’s marketing strategy has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template. Instead it tells a story – a real story – that connects with people.
The responses were overwhelmingly positive. Customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories.
The marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
Clearly, link your messages
Link them to your brand. Remember the AFLAC duck, E-Trade’s talking baby, or the Geico gecko? These are great linkages to the brands.
Anyone who has watched television in the United States even briefly knows the Geico brand. Whether talking British geckos, erudite cavemen, greasy-haired announcers with mock baritones, all of them running gags. Gags used to get the company’s name to stick in peoples’ heads.
Make your ad a component
Your ads should be integrated elements of an integrated marketing campaign. Remember, stop interrupting what people interested in, and be what people are interested in.
It was in early 2009 when IBM began its Smarter Planet marketing campaign strategy. At the time, the plan seemed very ambitious. We might say maybe even a bit risky, even for IBM.
But their success was based on a plan to build out a long-term campaign.
To do this, they defined a theme around their vision (Smarter Planet). They used the idea to craft a marketing strategy connecting and integrating many smaller marketing objectives and tactics as they could.
They also linked their core competencies to this theme, vision, and challenge. Apparently, they made sure they were all apparent to their customers.
This very successful campaign continued for seven years.
Coordinate identifiable music
A great ad design element is to match what viewers see with what they hear.
People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages.
Why? Simply because those messages are easier to process and understand. Audio and visual messages that are out-of-sync may gain attention, but customers usually find them uncomfortable.
The bottom line
So remember this:
You just can’t say it. You have to get people to say it to each other.
– James Farley, CMO Ford
It is not what advertising does with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. After looking over these enablers … how much have you learned?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is entirely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your innovation and creativity in ad designs. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your clients?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
What to Expect from a Creative Advertising Strategy
Creative Secrets from Budweiser Advertising Examples
Prudential Ad Makes Visualization Design Central to Story
Ten Deadly Sins of Advertising Design
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Most innovative vision? We are always fascinated by this skill. It is one of the best business skills to have in our view. Does it mean you see everything? Certainly not. It does say that you have the ability to see what many cannot. And then act on these items. It is what made the Zara shopping and innovative fashion retailer in our mind.
That is what makes for the most innovative companies, don’t you agree? Lots of experiments and exploring.
Adaptation doesn’t work well without experimentation and lots of action. And Zara knows how to do this well.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for innovation design in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
Why may you ask? They certainly have learned to question convention wisdom. Many of us have wandered around their trendy shops or browsed their top-of-the-class website.
Often without knowing very much about the company behind that brand. Some, like me, may have never heard of Zara, until recently. So, what makes this Spanish brand so impressive?
Let’s examine this attractive retail giant.
About Zara
Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia, Spain and founded in 1975. There are over 2,000 Zara stores located across 88 countries, including 51 in the United States as of July 2014.
Zara stores are company-owned, except where local legislation forbids foreigner-owned businesses. In those cases, Zara franchises the stores.
What makes Zara the most innovative fashion retailer?
It is claimed that Zara needs just two weeks to develop a new product and get it to stores. This is compared to the six-month industry average.
Zara launches around 10,000 new designs each year. That is an amazing statistic, isn’t it?
Zara has resisted the industry-wide trend towards transferring fast fashion production to low-cost countries.
Perhaps it’s most unusual strategy was its policy of zero advertising. What is behind this strategy? It was simple. The company preferred to invest a percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead.
During the 1980s, Zara started changing the design, manufacturing, and distribution process to reduce lead times. This allowed them to react to new trends in a quicker way, in what they called “instant fashions.”
The company based its improvements on the use of information technologies and using groups of designers instead of individuals. Most of their process secrets are in this area.
Zara offers considerably more products than similar companies. It produces about 11,000 distinct items annually compared with 2,000 to 4,000 items for its key competitors.
The company can design a new product and have finished goods in its stores in four to five weeks. It can modify existing items in as little as two weeks. That is amazing, isn’t it?
Shortening the product life cycle means greater success in meeting consumer preferences. If a design doesn’t sell well within a week, it is withdrawn from shops; further orders are canceled, and a new model is pursued. What a great feedback loop.
Zara has a range of basic designs that are carried over from year to year. However, some fashion forward designs can stay on the shelves less than four weeks.
This encourages Zara customers to make repeat visits. An average high-street store in Spain expects customers to visit three times a year. That goes up to 17 times for Zara. What a difference, eh?
Zara owes none of its success to advertising. That’s because they doesn’t advertise. It hardly even has a marketing department, and it doesn’t engage in flashy campaigns, as its competitors do.
Competitors do lots of teaming up with fashion designers like Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Martin Margiela and Marni. Zara’s designers are completely anonymous.
Some would say this is because they are copiers rather than designers. With their success, does it matter?
They don’t spend money on commercials because they are spreading their ‘brand’ with verbal communication between customers and with their label only on their bags.
Also most amazing to me. Can you name one other retailer that does this?
It is essential that Zara has the possibility to quickly respond to market demands. They have innovative manufacturing process, which allows them to be quick in responding and sending clothes to their shops, and they also do some re-designing in that time.
Only 15-25% of clothes are produced before the season and 50-60% at the start of the season. All other clothes are manufactured during the season according to customer wishes ( a design which has no good response is withdrawn).
While I am not an expert in fashion design, that is most amazing to me. Very customer responsive.
Zara design team is producing 18,000 different models of clothes; that’s about 70 every working day in a continuous process. The Zara Inditex group has more than 5500 stores in 82 countries and employs more than 110,000 people.
Their product reaches customers in just four weeks. It is amazing that whole idea process is just four weeks long. Think about that fact … 4 weeks.
Zara’s process innovation makes this company fast and market-responsive. It is more than enough to keep their top position among fashion brands.
ZARA shopping.
Zara shopping … growth strategy success
In 1980, the company started its international expansion through Porto, Portugal. In 1989 it entered the United States, and in 1990, France. This international expansion was increased in the 1990s, with Mexico (1992), Greece (1994), Belgium and Sweden (1994), etc. until reaching its current presence in over 88 countries.
In the last five years, Zara’s overall sales have grown to 13.8 billion euros a year from 9.4 billion euros. Profit has risen to almost 2 billion euros a year.
The company expanded to 110,000 employees in 2011, from around 80,000 in 2007. Remember, while Spain has been suffering through real estate and debt crises (following the global financial crisis), Zara has prospered.
Zara New York,NY … innovation secrets
Every day, store managers report customer feedback information to headquarters. It is then transmitted to a large team of in-house designers. They quickly develop new designs and send them to factories to be turned into clothes.
Zara said that is because the customer is always determining production, not the other way around. An interesting thought isn’t it?
Every piece of clothing the company makes has, in a way, been requested. A business model that is so closely attuned to the customer does not share the cycle of a financial crisis.
Zara is one of greatest examples of process innovation. The founder, Armancio Ortega started his business in the year 1975 as a single store in La Coruña (Spain). Ortega, once a tailor’s assistant, learned the value of controlling all steps of the production and distribution process.
Later he applied it all to the Zara chain. And started refining the process steps based on this critical concept.
Key takeaways
Zara, I believe, is the most innovative fashion retailer in the global economy. This is within an industry built around constant design innovation and change. Why may you ask?
We believe there several good reasons. First, as one of the originators of customer responsiveness, they have some great process secrets. They are built on a foundation of new ideas and constant introduction of new products.
Second, they know their future is based on those ideas. They also know how to do new things well, and they must be good at trying new ideas in many areas as experiments.
These tests, they realize, will not all work as planned, and some percentage will fail. They know and accept this without worry.
Innovation is extremely essential to any organization, especially in today’s hyper-competitive business market. The successful exploitation of new ideas is critical to a business’s ability to improve its processes, bring new and improved products and services to the market, increase its overall efficiency and productivity, and, most importantly, improve its profitability.
So if you want to find a truly great innovator, don’t look for the ones that make the biggest headlines are that are most inspiring on stage. Look for those who spend their time a bit off to the side, sharing ideas, supporting others, and quietly pursuing a path that few others are even aware of.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving the innovation for yourself and your team?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is entirely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your continuous learning and innovation. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks
Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking
Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision
The Secrets to Building an Innovative Culture
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
What are your favorite brands? Which ones do you follow closely and learn the most from? When choosing to learn from others’ marketing successes, it is always helpful to choose great brands to follow. We follow Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategies.
Why? because of their creativeness and unique approach to customer focus.
Steve Jobs liked to say that it’s not enough to kill bad ideas, you have to kill good ones too. That’s because the good strategy is about making choices and it takes more than intelligence or even instinct, it takes discipline, one of Jobs’ most overlooked qualities.
Marketing strategy is particularly difficult because, as I’ve noted before, the rules have changed. A generation ago, brands mostly strove to create buzz and “drive awareness,” now they need to build compelling experiences that keep consumers engaged.
However, the old tasks have not gone away. We still need to run TV ads and in-store promotions, man conference booths, and hand out brochures, but now on top of that, we have a whole new world of algorithms, apps, and devices to master.
There is a spiritual aspect to our lives … when we give we receive, when a business does something good for somebody, that somebody feels good about them.
– Ben Cohen
If you want to effectively build your personal brand, you have to center everything around a story.
And not just any story, yourstory.
Meet Ben and Jerrys. They have been successfully executing their social marketing strategy and plan very early in social commerce. For over 20 years their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
Before we get started, let me ask you a question. Have you ever tried the Ben and Jerrys experiencc? Can you tell us about it in the comments section? We would really appreciate it.
An introduction to Ben and Jerrys is unnecessary, isn’t it?
With more than 600 retail locations in 34 countries, the ice cream scoop shop is the picture of success.
Ben and Jerrys marketing strategies rode the baby boomer trend in the late 1980s. This was during the swelling ranks of mid-age social media professionals. They created the need where people could share and enjoy a unique ice cream dessert with friends and colleagues.
In our opinion, the company has changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Ben and Jerrys marketing strategies market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper-scale of the ice cream market, competing on product quality rather than convenience or price.
That strategy was the case with its closest competitors. They target customers with high end ice cream tastes and unique flavors.
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes great ice cream, unique flavors, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around.
They keep their focus on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Ben and Jerrys marketing with social media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Ben and Jerry’s has certainly taken a leadership position in social engagement.
Their social media strategy is built around their company web site and 6 additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram, and YouTube.
Ben and Jerry’s have clearly embraced the social realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers.
They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social commerce.
Ben and Jerry’s ability to wear so many hats on corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants close examination.
Related: Marriott Marketing Makes Customer Experience the Difference Maker
What makes this company so good at being social and executing a great marketing strategy? And what can it teach us? Here are our thoughts on these questions:
Customer collaboration
Collaboration with customers is used to obtain customer ideas on new flavors. Fans inspired the best-selling Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors.
Customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates.
This holds true across the board. In-store experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Interactive customer engagement
Engagement is a high priority for the brand and they continually look for new ways to collect inputs from customers. A good current example is their ‘Scoop Truck’, which travels around the country giving out free samples of new products and soliciting customer inputs.
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible.
They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Encourage sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, frequent promotions garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Social mission focus
Ben and Jerry’s brand has always chosen a social mission. A social mission to stand for and stand behind.
One great example of an issue they got behind was supporting the push to get corporate dollars out of politics … www.getthedoughout.org.
Experience customization
Ben and Jerry’s provides its unique experience through programs such as personalized ice cream flavors, and localized store experiences.
Their social sites, in particular Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their Ben and Jerry’s moments’ which are shared on all their social sites.
Giving consumers a charitable reason to buy that ice cream cone or package is beneficial for all.
The takeaway from Ben and Jerry’s is to know your customer and tie that in with what matters in the world.
So, pay attention to how your brand can fit into trending topics.
Showing customer appreciation
Always looking to show appreciation for their customers. The lead in quote to this article from Ben Cohen says it all about their culture and success at showing customers appreciation.
Whether we are discussing businesses that are social, the best at engaging customers, or being great at a social commerce business, there are few businesses in the class of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Being social is a core component of Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategies. It is the integrating ingredient of their online and online to traditional marketing/media.
Not all businesses can go to the extent that Ben and Jerry’s does. But they can support local issues and do weekly online promotions to increase customer engagement. Always looking to gain new customers and convert good customers to advocates.
The bottom line
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated. Which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve the Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy for your business?
Give it a try and show some patience. You will be surprised at how well at works!
Ben and Jerry’s is one of many businesses we can learn from. Please post your comments below, offering questions or your own great examples of social marketing strategies.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Like David Freemantle says, feelings have a critical role in this regard. Few of any ads will make an emotional appeal. They will try to amuse and dazzle more than touch the heart.
Which factor do you feel is most effective in drawing attention to your advertisements? There are many to choose from, aren’t they?
Leo Burnett’s fledgling firm got off to an inauspicious start when it opened in 1935. With one client account, a staff of eight, and a bowl of apples in reception, cynics said that he would soon be selling those apples on the street.
Yet, even in the midst of the Great Depression, the firm survived, and Burnett, along with other pioneers such as David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach helped create the consumer culture that defined the post-war economy. Those halcyon days are now long gone.
If you’re in advertising, then The Advertising Effect: How to Change Behaviour is probably one of the best books you can read on your craft right now. It’s Nudge for advertisers.
Outlining ten evidence-based effective advertising strategies, each with a scientific underpinning, Adam Ferrier (psychologist and founder of Naked) is up there. He is up there with fellow Antipodean Byron Sharp regarding must-reads for marketers.
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.
David Freemantle
Related post: What to Expect from a Creative Advertising Strategy
This is a critical missed opportunity in our view. We have studied and evaluated commercials for more than five years.
Our focus is somewhat unique; we aren’t interested in entertainment value, we are interested in business impact. We study each spot and evaluate its power to build the business and the brand.
What is the best advertising media design you have ever put to work for your business? We would love to hear about it. As a favor, please share it below. It would be greatly appreciated by our readers and us.
While emotional spots are not common, they are some of the most active we have seen. Consider these emotional spots:
Jeep
Last year Jeep ran a remarkable commercial saluting the troops fighting overseas. The ad was grave and emotional. It noted,
“There will be a seat left open, a light left on, a favorite dinner waiting, a warm bed made…because in your home, in our hearts; you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed, you’ve been cried for, prayed for. You are the reason we push on.”
Jeep touched deep emotions about loss and longing. And the spot worked to build the brand; it made people feel proud of Jeep and its values.
Perhaps more than any other advertiser, Budweiser knows the power of emotion. Over the years the brand has run a series of emotional spots featuring the iconic Clydesdales.
The 2013 spot, for example, highlighted the emotional bond between a horse and its trainer. It was one of the top spots of the year.
It isn’t easy to create an emotional spot for any commercial. Many environments are fun and energetic, and people aren’t primed for serious themes.
And, in many ways, the safe approach that many brands will take is to air the funny and lively commercials.
But, if we are lucky, some brands will tap into our emotions. And if they do it well they will emerge as some of the most efficient spots. Here are eight great examples we have reviewed recently that certainly touched and won our hearts.
Related post: Creative Secrets from Budweiser Advertising Examples
Extraordinary commercials … Guinness
In this commercial, Guinness uses an inspiring story to convey its emotional influence. Like great stories, it has a beginning where sympathetic characters encounter a complicating situation.
It has a middle where the characters confront and attempt to resolve the situation.
And it has an end where the outcome is revealed. It does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience.
Instead, a good story allows each member of the public to understand the story and its emotion as he or she understands the action. This is why people find good, emotional stories so appealing. It is why they find advertising that merely conveys facts and information boring.
Here is the Guinness ad video to refresh you or for you to review in case you haven’t seen it.
Guinness’s marketing story based on emotion has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template. Instead, it tells a real emotional story – that connects with people.
The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The emotion in this marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
Breathtaking commercials … Zillow
The family in this ad is looking for a new home using the real estate company Zillow. It eventually can find exactly what they are looking for.
What the mother and children don’t expect is what is waiting for them on moving day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHLoWctz8q4
Some of the best emotional stories effectively use the element of emotional surprise like Zillow has done here.
Bell
Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a real man of character.
The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music and the emotion. It certainly finds emotional triggers.
Not a real secret here. The story and music that are created, while familiar, are as distinctive as they are heartwarming. Watch the faces, actions, and passions of the people in the story and listen to the music. They draw you into the emotion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. Why you ask?
It is because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Certainly, there is that kind of emotion in this story, isn’t there?
If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes, and it will inspire you. It is certainly easily in our top 5 of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VteDp3IK-60
Apple
Apple makes the messages as clean and straightforward as possible in this ad. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message.
A message that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
Have you seen the Apple iPhone5 TV ad? If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out. It will grab you with the simplicity of the emotional influence.
Budweiser
The Budweiser puppy love commercial was, by most accounts, the biggest winner of the 2014 Super Bowl. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion for animals.
Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. It is because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Check out this ad here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNO2trC-mk
There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences.
Remarkable isn’t always the same. Get in the habit of doing the “unsafe” thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what’s working and what’s not.
The key to being remembered is remarkable. Don’t let your marketing take the back seat; stand out like Budweiser does in this commercial.
This puppy love commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this business’s success.
Use breathtaking commercials … Samsung
In this great commercial, Samsung uses pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Here is a four minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown for their iPhone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest.
And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in emotionally. Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet clever design, don’t you think?
Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler yet still emotional based on the music, does it? A great ad design emotional element is to match what viewers see with what they hear.
People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages because those messages are easier to process, feel, and understand.
A very simple, yet interesting design.
Dawn emotional appeal
Dawn emotional appeal
We recently viewed a Dawn Liquid Detergent advertisement that caught our eye for several reasons. An effective TV ad that combined traditional advertising with advocacy advertising. Something you don’t see very often.
Interesting information, well presented, showing emotion, always holds attention, yes? Keep in mind that people don’t watch ads … they watch what interests them. Your ad messages must be compelling to your target communities.
This message certainly grabs and holds attention based on emotion, superb visuals, and great issue advocacy.
Letting the visuals be the best influencer. People will watch, remember and most likely talk about, won’t they?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9qLIz1SJsk
The recent Dawn TV commercials started as YouTube videos and grew out of the success shown on that platform.
Use breathtaking commercials … Chrysler Dodge
“And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made a farmer,” preached Paul Harvey in the advertisement’s opening lines.
The message delivered by Harvey’s oratory became immediately clear: It was a celebration of the hard work of America’s farmers.
The two-minute advertisement for Dodge Ram, which paid tribute to America’s farmers and was composed entirely of still photographs depicting the farming industry, won the hearts and minds of viewers by evoking strong emotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdR5TOhHJGM
Harvey’s narration, patterned on the Biblical account of the creation, was taken from a 1978 speech, “So God made a farmer,” which Harvey gave to a national convention of the Future Farmers of America. It was set to a collection of stark, still photographs — both color and black and white — of farmers at work.
As the advertisement concludes with the still image of a brand new Dodge Ram against the backdrop of a U.S. farm, we are reminded of one final message: “To the farmer in all of us.”
Key takeaways
The higher degree of emotion creates the more differentiation and makes it easier for your brand to project uniqueness and its word of mouth messages.
Emotion is the secret language of the brain. Work on emotion if you want to improve your persuasion or influence.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on, and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Beat Amazon? All of a sudden, Walmart has gotten serious about this ecommerce competition. Why? It’s all about the future and the current trends. And the Walmart e-commerce strategy.
According to Nielsen, ecommerce will gain more ground than any other segment of the retail industry by 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 11% each year. Supercenters come in second, with their growth rate projected at only about half that of web shopping. When you consider sales for consumer packaged goods online — food, groceries, everyday items — are more like high double digits, almost 20%, you can see Walmart’s concern.
Both chains dominate their areas of expertise. Once just a bookseller, Amazon is now the biggest online store in the world with $61 billion in 2012 revenue. Walmart is the world’s largest retailer of any kind with $469 billion 2012 revenues (estimated $7-8 coming from E-commerce in 2012).
Related post: Secrets to the Remarkable Innovative Lady Gaga Brand
Walmart is doing all it can to catch up with Amazon online. But lots of obstacles exist.
Here is a short video that will refresh a brand for you:
We don’t think Walmart can catch Amazon for these 6 reasons:
Amazon’s singular focus
Amazon is an e-commerce company in everything they do. They have developed all their expertise in full support of e-commerce. In fact they now do e-commerce for many other businesses. They are not hamstrung by an enormous brick and mortar business like Walmart.
No internal competition like what Walmart faces day-in day-out. Walmart doesn’t discuss this subject and probably would deny it exists. But it does. No question there. And it yields a gigantic silent advantage for Amazon.
Walmart E-commerce logistics
Logistics is what made Walmart great. But delivery is a different matter. Walmart is dabbling in same-day delivery and even going a step further than Amazon by using stores as fulfillment centers and if expanded, could turn 4,000 stores into bases for same day delivery.
Two-thirds of the U.S. population lives within 5 miles of a Walmart, and trucks crisscrossing the country arrive daily to replenish the stores, which can greatly reduce shipping costs. However, the process comes with serious limitations, particularly since it diverts workers’ attention away from ensuring stores are clean and properly stocked. But it is still a possible big advantage to Walmart if they could think like one business instead of two.
They are also attempting to crowdsource package drop-off among customers.
But Amazon has non-perishable products like diapers that its infrastructure allows shoppers to set up regularly scheduled deliveries, a service popular on Diapers.com. A fantastic feature.
And Amazon is already a step ahead with its Amazon Fresh same-day delivery, currently available in the Seattle area but soon headed for California. Amazon is building out this infrastructure for perishables. Groceries will be the battleground very soon coming to the forefront. This will further eat into solid Walmart business.
Related material: Here’s How to Make Your Brand Awesome
But what is Walmart doing? They are creating a vast new logistics system that includes building new warehouses for Web orders. Hedging their bets so to speak. More illustration of the internal competition in our mind.
As Walmart’s online orders have grown, it has turned to makeshift spaces carved out of store-serving distribution centers and third-party warehouse operators to help handle the load. The extra layer added to its costs. Walmart’s online shipping can cost $5 to $7 per parcel, while Amazon averages $3 to $4 per parcel, analysts say—a big difference considering some of Walmart’s popular purchases are low-cost items like $10 packs of underwear.
Walmart e-commerce strategy … agile innovation
Amazon has existed in the ecommerce technology world since their inception. They think like a technology company and agile innovators. They are not afraid to try new things and they can get things done quickly, thanks to the culture their CEO Bezos has instilled.
The big box behemoth may not be a start-up, but it does try to think like one with its Walmart Labs division. Those groups is developing Pangaea, a global technology platform with scan and go apps that let shoppers buy in store via a smartphone, and online operations in growing markets outside the U.S. such as Brazil and China. They’re doing more new things, but they are slowed down by their legacy business and its mindset.
They are as trying out lockers, one of Amazon’s hallmarks, allowing shoppers to order items online and pick them up in stores — crucial for the Walmart demographic, a quarter of whom reportedly do not use debit or credit cards or even have a bank account. But why would an on-line shopper want to deal with the congestion of a visit to a Walmart mega store? Not us.
Walmart ecommerce strategy customer set differences
Walmart demographics, a quarter of whom reportedly do not use debit or credit cards or even have a bank account, represent a big difference with their key e-commerce competitor.
While we have not found any statistics on Amazon customer set, we speculate a much larger representation of higher end incomes among their shoppers. Big advantage to Amazon we believe, both in consumer disposable income, but also in ability to operate and shop on-line. And take advantage of frequent new technology features.
Existing in-store strategies
Walmart has an enormous and growing network of brick and mortar outlets — 4,000 in the U.S. and counting. More internationally. With those stores goes an equally enormous product offering. A blessing but an equal curse. They are a long ways on being able to put all the products on-line where they can be easily found.
At some stage these stores and product line may be an advantage for Walmart. But those are technology constrained goals that are, for now, out of reach. And that is not even considering how Walmart might solve its internal competition problems. Can you imagine the Wal-Mart cash cow making compromises in terms of revenue and profit to help their e-commerce business? Not us.
Walmart ecommerce performance.
Walmart e-commerce strategy … e-commerce technology lead
Like Amazon, Walmart has a massive product offering. This isn’t a new problem for either of them, but as the race to fulfill orders guarantees quicker turnaround times and more convenience after placing the order, Walmart must control everything it can before the order is placed to ensure it’s actually placed through them.
In this case, that means making sure customers can find what they’re looking for, quickly and easily. Or, in the case that customers don’t know exactly what that is, helping them figure it out with a fairly high degree of accuracy.
Walmart must transform itself into an invisible personal shopper to help customers navigate its vast inventory.
What exactly would that take? A lot. But Walmart’s two most crucial priorities will be helping online customers navigate its extensive product list easily and quickly, and streamlining online and offline operations to create a turnkey overall experience.
To act as an invisible personal shopper, Walmart must master what they do with this powerful combination of content and data—and when they do it. The goal is to use it in real-time, as customers are browsing their online store.
Walmart is trying to improve links between its store inventory, website, and mobile phone apps so that more customers can order online and pick up their purchases at stores, which half of Web customers do already.
Walmart is trying Web-based shopping tactics, like its Pay With Cash program for Walmart customers who don’t have credit cards. The new program allows them to reserve products online and pay cash at their nearest store.
Key takeaways
At the end of the day, Walmart’s rise to online dominance really just revolves around turning an otherwise complicated shopping experience into one that feels quaint and easy. It can accomplish this by setting up a strong behind-the-scenes infrastructure that puts the customer experience at the forefront.
And isn’t that what their new strategy is all about—giving the customer what they want where and when they want it?
Unfortunately, it is much easier said than done.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your brand marketing better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
