Mud Swallows

These are mud swallows or barn swallows and they build and nest in the mud structures you see above.  They come to this area in the spring to build and mate.  When they arrive, they swarm the peaks of your home and little bit at time, they pack mud and grass together to construct their nests.  They are not dangerous but a pest, because of the mess.

One of our current clients has a beautiful home in Gallatin River Ranch, and every Spring the mud swallows nest in the peaks of their home.  They are tired of cleaning up after the birds, so they asked us to research tactics to rid their house of the birds.

Last Fall we blasted all the vacant mud homes away with a pressure washer once the birds migrated south.  This Spring we rented a paint sprayer and sprayed their house with canola oil.  When the birds came and tried to build the mud would not stick to the house.  The swallows didn't stay long before they became discouraged and left.

This client could not be happier and we now have an excellent new marketing tactic. 

SWMBIA

I realize this looks like a plug for the Southwest Montana Building Industry Association, but I want to explain what they have done for our business in term of marketing.

We joined SWMBIA in 2011, and the membership has brought us incredible networking opportunities.  The organization encompasses many business involved in all aspects of the building industry, and we have now had the privilege to work with many of the members.

They have introduced us promotional events including the Home Expo, the Parade of Homes, and the members golf tournament.  All of these events have increased our brand awareness in the community and boosted our customer base.  They have linked our website to the SWMBIA website, which has widened customer access to our business.

Thanks SWMBIA for bringing our business to this community.

Did You Know?

The Southwest Montana Building Association (SWMBIA) is a Bozeman-based trade association representing over 10,000 residential home building and remodeling industry members. As Montana and the Gallatin Valley continue to grow.

    

Giveaway Promotions

The SWMBIA Home Expo held at the Fieldhouse on campus is something we have participated in the past two years.  It is a great opportunity for us to meet the community, work with the local builders, and promote our service.  

At this event it is popular to hand out swag with your logo on it.  This giveaway promotion is an excellent way to get our name out there, so we want to hand out something memorable and useful.  

Our service is cleaning glass, so naturally what giveaway item would be better than an eyeglass cleaning shammy with our logo on it.  YAY!  The shammy went over well, but we are always looking for new ideas.

So, get those marketing minds in gear and help a classmate out! 

Here is our logo...maybe that will spark...something.

  

Brand Positioning

The Persuaders discussed how a trend of "being outside the box" in advertising has grown, and some commercials lose sight of their products because they are so "out there."  On the other hand some commercials' comedy makes the product impossible to forget. 

The clip below highlights a few ads that have used "funny" and creativity in a way that informs consumers about their products.  I hope they bring a smile to your face.  

Celebrities selling your product?

Consumers can identify products through their brand name, brand mark, or spokesperson.  I can see that when launching a product, that you want these items to be bold, influential, and unforgettable.

I see so many celebrities today selling different products, and I wonder if the high cost of a celebrity spokesperson is worth it.  Not only the cost, but the risk involved with having someone you can't control as the face of your product.

What do you do when the spokesperson chosen, messes up big time?

I found an article called Celebrities in Advertising are Almost Always a Big Waste of Money, and discussed is Nike's endorsement of Tiger Woods, and how in the end they spent advertising dollars addressing Tiger's "mistakes" instead of selling their products.  Ad Age the authors of the article also conducted a study and concluded that in 2010, one fifth of celebrity ads actually had a negative impact on the effectiveness of the ad.

Hopefully this means consumers are buying products based on things like:  quality, usefulness, and desire.  Not just because Tiger told them too.

       

Bad Commercial = Poor Perception

We've all seen some commercials that after we watched, we wondered, what they were thinking!

Check out this run of poor publicity.

I can see how ideas can backfire.  Perception is crucial in the buying decision process, and in our book, Marketing by Pride & Ferrell, they discuss selective distortion.  Selective distortion happens when people disregard information that they don't agree with.

In business and in life we hope that our messages are saying what we want them to, and we hope that we can fix any misconceptions.  

It's a terrible thing to lose business because of a negative perception. 

I can't even watch it anymore...

I was flipping through the channels the other day and one of the Transformers movies was on.  Within the first 5 minutes of watching I counted at least a dozen brand name products.  Now, thinking about all these marketing themes and ideas, I had to google product placement in Transformers.

What really got me thinking was the presents of the Army.  Did the Army pay Hollywood to be in that movie?  Is part of our military spending budget labeled Hollywood?  So, dollars that could be spent taking care of soldiers past and present is use to show how the Army can kick some fictional robots butt.  Does anyone else see a problem?

I guess I wouldn't say I didn't know it was there, but The Persuaders had said something about becoming desensitized... I really didn't think about the actual money spent until we began discussing product placement.

I can't even watch it anymore... I've been trying to find any kind of dollar figure on what the military spent on product placement.  I found one article from USA Today discussing Army spending with NASCAR.  If they continue their sponsorship of NASCAR it will cost $8.4 million this year.  They're talking about discontinuing sponsorship, but how much have they spent already?  That's just with NASCAR... it's makes me wonder if the payoff is worth it.

U.S. Army to discontinue NASCAR

A Lesson In Marketing...

When we started our window cleaning business, I was hesitant to spend, spend, spend.  I wanted to buy only what we NEEDED to get the business off the ground.  There is so much uncertainty, and I was worried about the risk.

My husband insisted that he needed a new truck complete with logos to get the business off the ground.  I told him he was crazy.  He should use the truck he had, and put logos on it later when we can afford them.  I told him not even to put logos on it after I saw the $$$$.  I said, "Wait a couple of years so we can build up some money, and we will get a new truck and then put logos on it."  I couldn't have been more wrong...

I guess you could say, I was persuaded, because there it is, the truck.  Before driving to see his 1st customer he had it ready to go, and we have never regretted spending the money we do on that truck since.  It is our best form of advertising!

The other day, Brett pulled-up to a job at the same time as one of our competitors, and we received the job even with a higher bid, because of Brett's image.  Sometimes it is upsetting when he is right about issues we disagree on, but today I am happy to have "learned this lesson" because business is BOOMING!
       

I found this short video.  It is very helpful in learning what the 4Ps are and how they are the gears that drive success in business.

WATCH IT!

Product, Place, Price, & Promotion are the 4Ps.  

Offer Products customers value

Configure Price including all $ transactions

Include a wide range in Promotions

Place = proper distribution

I agree, that marketing to so many, is just the promotion aspect of the 4Ps.  I can see now that marketing encompasses all of theses elements.  Each part equally important in building sales. 

SWOT

As I have been reading through the beginning chapters of the book, I immediately became interested in SWOT analysis.  I can see the value of determining each of these elements in business and in personal life.

business-docs.co.uk

I saw a few videos on youtube of people using this analysis to evaluate themselves, and I can see where this process would bring many things to light.

In business I can see the value of this analysis. Summarized from Marketing by Pride & Ferrell, once written out for everyone to see, organizations can match strengths with opportunities to build competitive advantage.  Also, this visualization can spark action towards converting weakness into strengths and threats into opportunities.

New to this...

I would love to find a niche to utilize a blog in our business too!