Samsung, the company that holds the top unit volume share in the U.S. for LCD TVs, isn’t resting on its laurels.

Forward thinking product development and marketing took Samsung to number one in the first place. They haven’t forgotten that.

Samsung initially put in-store displays at 2,000 U.S. retailers to educate consumers about high definition technology. That’s a good thing. 90% of American consumers don’t understand HDTV.

One fascinating aspect of all this: no product is better suited to POP marketing than a product whose purpose is display.

Even more fascinating: not every manufacturer is taking the bull by the horns and using all the resources at its disposal to enlighten and inform.

To some degree, many are. Maybe the rest  aren’t as confident about their products as Samsung. Certainly, not every manufacturer has the resources that this global leader does.

More likely, the answer lies somewhere in the imagination and energy that created Samsung. That spark of ingenuity combined with enthusiasm has grown Samsung to its premier position.

Samsung’s HD displays are irresistible combinations of its HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc player, 2.1 channel home theater system (it delivers 300 watts of audio power through 2.1 channels), and the most advanced home receiver and speaker system on the market. Consumers can step up and learn all about these offerings through interactive displays that encourage customer involvement.

Will anyone introduced to HDTV in this way not be inclined to “go Samsung” for their next entertainment system?

Samsung is going beyond limits, and inviting consumers along in the most user-friendly, interactive manner possible. Wow Samsung!

Contact Us

What do you believe?
What do you do?
How do you do it?

Are there three questions you’d rather have answered by a charitable organization you’re considering donating to?

I didn’t think so.

Yet not every charitable organization or relief fund takes the direct, no tiptoe approach followed by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles on its website. Maybe that’s because not every such organization is ready to be so upfront. Simple, isn’t it? “What we believe. What we do. How we do it.” Unitedwayla.org presents itself through that triumvirate.

Think about it. The basic public relations tenet “do good then tell the world” requires a major element that many would just as soon see left out of the equation these days: the “doing” part.

That can make it much more difficult to present a clear statement of purpose and where one’s at on the way to ones goals.

But being willing - no, eager - to say what one believes, what one does, and how one gets there is the approach of an organization that has a true sense of self. It wants you to come along because you share its core values and trust its ability to make the best use of the faith you’re placing in it through donations and volunteer efforts.

In a way, aren’t these three questions you’d want to have answered by any individual you might see as a future friend or associate?

Honest communication works when there’s no reason to be dishonest. The United Way of Greater Los Angeles presents its beliefs, reasons and methodology in as clear and direct a manner as possible. It’s a living example of “do good then tell the world.”

Contact Us

Samsung had to find a way to separate itself from the rest of the global electronics market. How are they doing it?

By being Wow, Simple and Inclusive.

The product has to be “Wow” enough to catch consumers’ imaginations. In the crowded electronics arena, that can be a tough one. But for a company with the history and market share of Samsung, it’s definitely doable. And it’s very closely connected to the other objectives.

Simple is key. Because no matter how computer-oriented and electronically sophisticated the target audience has become, there’s nothing as appealing as a product that performs hi-tech miracles with a minimal amount of learning required from the consumer. In fact -

Simple +Inclusive = Wow!

So what’s inclusive, you ask?

Ease of use as well as accessibility are two very important factors from the consumer’s perspective.

The 3-pronged approach hits on such key consumer issues that the Samsung product meeting all criteria almost brands itself.

In a time when consumers are bombarded with ever-expanding features from a seemingly endless supply of product names, it’s the “Wow” product that will stay in the fore of consumers’ consciousness.

Not to mention: it doesn’t hurt to advertise during the Superbowl. Samsung will be.

Wow Samsung!

Contact Us

Got a call from a colleague recently who had a big problem. As in big bio. My friend was willing to put in all the information the executive wanted, of course. But she wanted to make sure her client realized most readers were going to stop reading after the first paragraph.

It’s understandable that individuals want to shine when the story is about them. But unless what they’re selling is themselves, is that the real story?

Not really.

Think about the old features versus benefits principle. Inventors of a new piece of hardware may be in love with the nanotechnology that’s involved. Consumers want to know how much more convenient being able to put the device in their lapel pin makes it.

Well is a bio any different? As nice as the personal aspect makes things, the most effective corporate bio is the one that connects the individual to his or her corporate mission.

It might be relevant and interesting that the CEO of a dessert maker remembers the first time she baked a cake. Cake baking is probably less relevant to bring up when the bio is about an aerospace engineer. Being educated at Cal Tech is more on track.

In other words, think of a corporate bio in the same way you’d think of a resume. Provide the most significant information that indicates why you, as an individual, are the right person to run with the ball in your current position on the team you’re with.

And when the individual is what’s being touted, such as on a campaign website, it can be even more crucial to be certain most of the information on the bio page connects the candidate to the mission. So that first memory of baking a cake? Don’t neglect the important lesson learned about being patient but acting quickly when the time is right.

Then add a wisp of human interest frosting for good measure.

You’ll have a concise, relevant, compelling corporate bio.

• Contact Us

Nah.

Ads and PR are still different.

If Stephen King loves your new novel and writes an article saying so? PR. It’s an unpaid plug that’s sure to boost public perception of your baby.

Then you buy space on the 10 hottest book discussion websites quoting King’s endorsement? That’s an ad. Bought and paid for with rock-solid, good old-fashioned credit.

The first one? Prayed for (as the saying goes).

Second one? Paid for.

Got it?

Now BOTH, conceivably, could be part of the entire marketing process:
Should you plan on upping printings of the book to 10 gizillion, since that King comment is sure to increase demand? Schedule more signings? Increase the ad budget to pay for more web, TV and radio space focusing on the book? Plan for an expanded horror division, since this new horror book could mean bigger things are coming that way for your company? It’s that total planning/execution marketing pie.

• Contact Us

Branding happens.

A relationship occurs between your business and consumers whether it’s the one you’re hoping for or not. Take things in the direction you want them to go.

Are you a neighborhood hardware store that folks enjoy mulling around in? But you take your time on that special order? You might have a reputation as the friendly place around the corner where people go for an occasional role of duct tape. And your neighborhood customers are regularly hitting the national chain a mile away for advanced power tool parts.

That’s okay if you don’t mind giving away the business. Just know you’ve been branded. Either promote your current brand or work on the image you want. Tell customers what you’re about. Then make sure you live up to the promise. Hand customers a newsletter that tells people you’ve got their power part. Know the answer when customers that start buying it from you have questions.

Has your store had an “adorable” sign out front with a letter missing for years? Maybe your neighborhood regulars even tell you how cute it is. That doesn’t stop them from spending money at the national chain.

Evaluate your marketing communications. Make sure they’re in line with exactly what you’re trying to communicate. Your balance sheet will thank you.

• Contact Us

Want to learn Web 5.0 fast?

Take on a crisis management assignment.

Responding to a state of affairs these days means hitting the net as the situation unfolds. Because video and audio about anything contrary to your interests can be web ready immediately.

Anything?

Anything.

Like someone’s footage of himself expressing his opinion on Facebook.

Is your media rep ready to -

1) Seek Out

2) Analyze, and

3) Diffuse

Right now?

Because YouTube isn’t waiting.

New media practice includes social media.

Social media is a large part of lots of lives. Know your way around it. Or be sure your media people are.

Is the crisis issue coming up on Second Life?

Don’t react.

Act.

As if everything you do depends on it.

It does.

• Contact Us

A Hollywood Tale

There once was a Hollywood talent agency where all the top honchos drove the same make of luxury vehicle.

One time they hired this ten percenter from just down the road a piece (that would put the L.A. distance at about twenty billion dollars worth of L.A. real estate away).

The newbie’s first mistake? Monday morning he drives into the lot reserved for only the head honchos. Forgivable maybe. But what does he glide in on? Not their particular brand of wheels. A perfectly fine ride for the rest of glitzville, but not this place. And the color stood out something awful.

Now I’m not saying this was the ONLY reason - but a few weeks later? The guy was outta there.

Corporate Culture Defined

• Corporate culture has been defined as “the way things get done” around a place. But from the perspective of a business writer - especially if you’re being asked to put out an in house newsletter going to hundreds of employees? Then it’s something more ethereal. More like, “the way things feel around here.”

• When you’re sending a newsletter out it’s that indefinable something that will be obvious without having to explicitly announce it as the reason for your corporate existence. Corporate culture relates more to the fact that the hallway has two life-size photos of the CEO and COO playing 3rd base and outfield, respectively, on the company team. And have there been corporate picnics for the last 10 years? That could clue you in as to how well the families of employees know one another.

• How do the folks that work in a particular division relate to each other? If a few of them have been getting together twice a week since forever doing their musical thing with banjos and harmonicas, that provides a clue.

• Some of these things won’t be entirely obvious if you’re just coming in off the street. So ask.

It can start as simply as a few minutes talking to a veteran receptionist. Just be sure you don’t get in the way of anyone’s work routine. Keep your radar up, and pretty soon you’ll have a feel for where you are. And that’s something invaluable to the company you’re writing about.

We’ll assume you’re already an excellent writer who goes the extra mile when it comes to teaming with graphic designers and doing super interviews. But corporate culture? It’s the company’s fabric that’s as subtle as a single thread throughout an entire jacket. But it adds a uniquely tailored quality that puts the jacket miles above the rest.

• Contact Us

11. Lists force you to write better sentences.

Most peoples’ sentences are too long. Structure your points into a list and every point has to be concise.

12. Search Engine Guide likes lists.

Three of the top pieces on a recent Search Engine Guide:

• “28 Resources for Paid Search Strategies” by Manoj Jasra

• “11 Ways to Fill Your Shopper’s Cart” by Stoney deGeyter

• “Four Social Media Lessons from SXSW’s Mark Zuckerberg Interview” by Jennifer Laycock

Marshall Simmonds, VP Enterprise Search Marketing at the New York Times said, “Search Engine Guide is hands down my favorite e-pub for keeping up to date on daily SE/Industry news.”

Any questions?

13. Lists are user friendly.

Lists are how we divide our lives. Groceries or frequent calls - we like categories. Put your information into a list and your message digests as easily as instant oatmeal.

14. Lists promise a treat.

Ever want to be on Santa’s good list as a kid? Ever make a list of favorite songs or movies?

Everyone likes to see how someone else sequences something. Even if the subject matter holds no particular appeal . . . at first.

15. We love to compare. Lists let us.

Unless the subject is SOOO hyper-tech, well . . . readers have most likely already formed their own opinion about some aspect of your list - whether they realize it or not. Coming across another’s list makes readers want to stop and compare notes.

And if the subject IS that technical the list makes it that much more digestible.

16. Numbers, bullets and arrows are appealing.

Those display aids get readers’ attention. They work especially well on the internet.

17. Lists force you to tighten the entire piece.

Many of us throw a lot of excess fat into what we write. Think in “list mentality” and you’ll trim as you go.

18. Lists allow you to create mental links in readers’ minds. This helps you make your point in a very efficient way. See Nos. 11 and 17.

19. Lists provide maximum flexibility.

If you’re presenting rotating or time-sensitive information, the list format allows maximum opportunity to discard the old and bring in the new. This is especially helpful on the internet.

20. A list can comprise your entire piece or one part of it.

A list lets you step away from conventional narrative style in one paragraph or for an entire piece. Lists adapt.

• Contact Us

Emphasizing benefits over features is a basic marketing principle that’s easy to forget. Invest three seconds and you’ll remember to apply it.

Many of you are familiar with the marketing principle that it is better to emphasize benefits rather than features.

Do you remember to use it?

I treasure three seconds that will always remind me to emphasize benefits. I’m betting three seconds will do the same for you.

The Rule

To review: features are physical facts of your product or service. Benefits describe what a customer can gain from the product or service.

A manufacturer might fall in love with the technology that creates peripheral vision mirrors (feature). A driver will remember the image of someone’s life being saved when a shopper backs out of a parking space (benefit).

An Unforgettable Image

I came across an old article in Rediff News titled What’s an iPod? The Lowdown. It took me three seconds to read Krish Iyer’s line: “Your iPod is like clay which can be modeled into anything you like.”

Forget that the article was supposed to be a review and not a marketing piece.

Iyer’s review continues, “This means that, since the iPod is just memory space or a hard drive we can use a lot of applications on it . . . as long as it is compatible with the device.”

It’s irrelevant for our purposes that the article goes on to describe items that have been around for a while.

The image of a substance as simple and malleable as clay doing all these wonderful things stuck with me.

Of course the product has to live up to the promise. But somehow I’ll always visualize that clay media player’s customized benefits that I shaped with no fuss.

Benefits win big.

Hear, See, Feel: Your Choice

What makes this image super-useful is that you can easily personalize it to the way you most effectively process information. The image will be with you next time you write copy to promote a product or service.

Try three quick techniques. One will work best for you:

• Hear: Listen to the music coming out of the soft clay in your hands. Connect your earphones. Imagine turning up the volume.

• See: Look at the clay. Can you see a video jump off the screen in front of you? Close your eyes. Let it sink in.

• Feel: Touch the cool sticky clay as you adjust the volume.

Now Stick It!

Remember to take some of that imaginary clay and stick it on your computer screen next time you begin a piece. Then imagine a bit of clay stuck to a consumer’s hands and eyes every time he or she reads, hears, or sees your marketing material.

You’ll never forget to write copy that, like Iyer’s image of clay, expertly conveys the benefits of your product or service.

Go Forth and Demonstrate Benefits

I hope the three seconds it took you to read Iyer’s line - “Your iPod is like clay that can be modeled into anything you like” - put that image of a pliable hi-tech device in your head forever.

Whatever brand of portable media player you use, the thought of customized clay will help you market your product or service in the most effective manner possible.

• Contact Us