*****************************************************************
Message delivered directly to members of the group:
internet_marketing_articleblaster@yahoogroups.com
*****************************************************************
Please consider this free-reprint article written by:
Jerry Bader
==================
IMPORTANT - Publication/Reprint Terms
- You have permission to publish this article electronically in
free-only publications such as a website or an ezine as long as
the bylines are included.
- You are not allowed to use this article for commercial
purposes. The article should only be reprinted in a publicly
accessible website and not in a members-only commercial site.
- You are not allowed to post/reprint this article in any
sites/publications that contains or supports hate, violence,
porn and warez or any indecent and illegal sites/publications.
- You are not allowed to use this article in UCE (Unsolicited
Commercial Email) or SPAM. This article MUST be distributed in
an opt-in email list only.
- If you distribute this article in an ezine or newsletter, we
ask that you send a copy of the newsletter or ezine that
contains the article to info[at]mrpwebmedia.com (replace [at]
with @)
- If you post this article in a website/forum/blog, ALL links
MUST be set to hyperlinks and we ask that you send a copy of
the URL where the article is posted to info[at]mrpwebmedia.com
(replace [at] with @)
- We request that you ask permission from the author if you
want to publish this article in print.
The role of iSnare.com is only to distribute this article as
part of its Article Distribution feature (
http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php ). iSnare.com does NOT
own this article, please respect the author's copyright and
this publication/reprint terms. If you do not agree to any of
these terms, please do not reprint or publish this article.
==================
Article Title: The Sound Of Business Part 2
Author: Jerry Bader
Word Count: 890
Article URL: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=22596&ca=Marketing
Format: 64cpl
Author's Email Address: info[at]mrpwebmedia.com (replace [at]
with @)
Easy Publish Tool: http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=22596
================== ARTICLE START ==================
SONIC PERSONALITY� STARTS WITH BUSINESS PERSONALITY
Creating a 'kick ass' Sonic Personality� for your business
requires that your business have a personality in the first
place. Of course every business has one, whether you are aware
of it or not, and this is a real danger. Your customers'
understanding of who you are, and what you do, as a business,
may be very different from the vision you have of yourself.
This can be a very serious problem for owner-managed
businesses, where the personality of the entrepreneur oft times
gets substituted for the personality of the business - big
mistake! So what's the first step in crafting a marketable
business personality?
What Business Are you Really In?
OK kids, its story time. Back in the day, the railroad barons
were the most powerful business leaders in the country. They
had the money, the power, and the political 'shlep' (that�s
drag for the uninitiated) to do pretty much whatever they
wanted. Today railroads are a depressed industry. So what
happened? Simple, they didn't know what business they were
really in.
If you could have asked Leland Stanford or Collis P.
Huntington, what business they were in, they would have most
likely answered, 'the railroad business'. And in the long run,
that was their downfall. Instead, they should have thought of
themselves as being in 'the transportation business' and if
they did, they surely would have used their money, power, and
influence to control the emerging automobile, trucking, and
airline industries.
Before you can craft a Sonic Personality� you first must
understand who you are, what you do, and why you do it better
than the other guy. If you can answer those three questions
clearly, then you have the beginning of a coherent business
personality that must first exist before you can have a Sonic
Personality�.
Focus On One Core Value
One of the hardest things for entrepreneurial businesses to do
is to focus on one core value. This may sound, on the surface,
to be contrary to the lesson learned from the railroad barons,
but it isn't. Your core value focus has to be broad enough to
be able to sustain your business through the onslaught of
competition and fast moving technological change. When the
railroad barons focused on just one form of transportation they
let all the other transportation opportunities slip through
their fingers and ultimately overtake them.
Most accountants and bankers will tell you to 'stick to your
knitting' and not let yourself be spread too thin with
secondary initiatives. This is generally good advice, however
there is a fundamental difference between going off on a
tangent and sticking to your core values. Knowing who you are,
what you do, and why you do it better than the competition will
help you keep your focus while at the same time allow you to
critically determine whether new opportunities are ones that
you should pursue.
Create Definition: Lift and Separate
So far I have managed to avoid using the term, brand, because
it is generally misunderstood and ignored by most owner-managed
businesses. Substituting 'personality' for 'brand' puts the
notion of brand in context. Think about it. You may have
thought your business doesn't relate to branding concepts, but
you've accepted, or at least are intrigued by the idea, that
your business needs a clearly defined personality.
Al Ries and Jack Trout have written numerous books on branding
and marketing, including 'The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing."
One of the lessons to be learned from this book is 'The Law of
Opposites'. Simply stated, unless you�re the 'top dog' in your
industry, you have to define who you are in contrast to the
industry leader. This is not dissimilar to The Theory of
Contrary Thinking.
The example sometimes used to explain The Theory of Contrary
Thinking is Tulip Mania. When tulips were first introduced to
Holland in the middle to late sixteenth century, people fell in
love with them. By the early 1600s, an exchange market had been
created that dealt with tulip futures. Similar to what happen
in the Roaring 20s, everyone got involved in purchasing tulip
futures for ridiculous prices, until some wise guy yelled SELL!
Panic set-in and like in the 1920s, the market collapsed. The
moral of the story is simple; if everyone is doing it, you
better do the opposite.
By defining your business in contrast to the industry leader,
you create a separate and distinct business personality that
gives your audience an alternative to the 'big guy'. You no
longer are a second banana 'wannbe' imitator, but rather a
distinctive company with your own image, strengths, advantages
and of course, personality.
Customers Are An Audience
Finally, this distinctive personality needs to be communicated
to your audience, and you'll notice I've called your customers
an audience, because that is exactly what they are. If you
think in terms of audience, it will open up a whole new
understanding of communication techniques and media, that will
lead to better audience recognition, acceptance, and ultimately
sales. Now we have to give your finely crafted personality a
voice. Tune-in next time for 'How to Give Good Sonic
Personality�.'
About The Author: Jerry Bader, is a partner in MRPwebmedia, a
website design firm that specializes in creating multimedia
websites with audio, video, Flash, and interactive elements.
MRPwebmedia developed the Sonic Personalities� concept using
custom-crafted voice-overs. Phone (905) 764-1246 and visit
http://www.sonicpersonality.com and http://www.mrpwebmedia.com.
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=22596
================== ARTICLE END ==================
For more free-reprint articles by Jerry Bader please visit:
http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Jerry+Bader
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internet_marketing_articleblaster/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
internet_marketing_articleblaster-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
No comments:
Post a Comment