Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 123

I have lived for quite a few years in a building that is full of sports stars, business leaders and semi famous faces.

One of the penthouses is owned by Lleyton and Bec Hewitt and quite often when they are in town, I see them in the lifts or in the car park as do many of the other residents.

They and their extended family are very polite, often chatty and seem to be fairly well rounded given their circumstances. They use the facilities with all the other people in the building and are pretty much left alone most of the time.

I always marvel at the fact that I rarely see Lleyton without a tennis racket or training apparel in his arms and typically, no matter what time of day I go in and out of the building, I see their car leaving or arriving presumably from some form of training.

It’s of course, Australian Open season and their visibility is at an all time high in Melbourne.

Yesterday, as I was leaving my building just before midday, I saw Bec Hewitt driving out in her Black ML500 4-wheel drive Mercedes. With her window down, her hair and makeup absolutely perfect, I began to think about how hard life must be for this beautiful young lady.

Here I was with no makeup, my sweat pants on and an old daggy shirt that wasn’t in the best condition after a run in the park. I am quite comfortable in this attire and could bump into anyone without thinking twice about how I look. As I get older, I am far more comfortable in how I look and as long as I can dress up when I have to, I am pretty much fine with dressing down.

Then you have Bec. Now it is mid morning and here she is, hair and makeup perfectly done – for what? To do the shopping? To catch up with girlfriends?

No, for a photo opportunity. As I picked up the Daily Telegraph (Syd) and the Herald Sun today, there she was… front page news! Lleyton’s family outing to watch his warm up for the Australian Open.

Looking after brand Hewitt must be a very tough job and looking your best for every photo opportunity obviously is paying off. I don’t recall seeing a bad photo of Bec ever and fortunately she doesn’t look like many of those young things with bee stung lips and botox. If she has either of these things, she obviously has a very good surgeon! Her fresh face is really quite stunning and girl-next-door-ish.

Brands are funny things. You can’t ever let your guard down not even in your own time. Each entrepreneur and employee of an organisation are all part of the overall picture a brand gives. Brand ambassadors are as important as the work that a company does, but often are forgotten when companies are thinking about their brands performance.

Whether it is at work or socialising, re-inforcing your brand and position in the market is a 24/7 job and every single person who works for you holds that same responsibility.

On Friday I was at a very trendy bar/restaurant in Prahran and within an extended group of people that I was socialising with was a sales rep for a liquor company. She was delightful. Her personality as you would expect was full of life and excitement. I remember thinking to myself how apt it was that she was in this particular field of work.

Then, she did something that made me cringe. I can’t say what, because it isn’t right to put this type of thing in a blog, but it did make me reflect her actions with that of the brands she represents. They are good quality brands. The best. Yet, this little part of me thought less of the brands because of her actions. When I decided to leave and let the young ones enjoy the night the way that they do, I thought about the impact my staff have on my brand in their own social time. I see a pep talk coming up at 8.30am Monday morning!

The impact people have on their brands cannot be disregarded. Think about when someone gets bad publicity – instantly you resonate this with the brand they represent.

Likewise, when someone keeps on getting good publicity, their brands get more kudos and we tend to have a better affinity with it.

How do entrepreneurs protect their brands on weekends? The answer isn’t simple. The best you can do is hire people that depict the values of your brand and that come naturally in doing so.

Educate your employees on the after hours branding no-nos. Explain to them examples of bad and good after hours branding.

Whilst you can’t control what people do outside of the work place, you certainly can educate and promote better behaviours.

Ok, I have had enough! It is the fourth time this month that I have had to spend more than 30 minutes on hold because my message bank keeps reverting to an automated message that has nothing to do with my business.

When is enough, enough?

How many times should someone have to ring a company to tell them that they are not providing an adequate service? Why is my phone doing this? It hasn’t happened before and ironically this has only happened since my Blackberry was taken to a service centre for 7 weeks to be repaired when I was told it would be 2.

It gets worse. I only know this, when a client takes the time to tell me that there is no message bank on my phone. How many calls have I missed?

7 weeks for a Blackberry repair that was purely the fault of the phone, with no replacement phone and a number of Optus representatives lying about when I would receive my phone back. I was told that I was in fact getting a new phone from Canada and that is why it would take an additional 2 weeks, only to receive my old phone 3 weeks later. Unbelievable!

Never will I have a contract with Optus again. They should be bending over backwards to fix the situation and yet, they have their Indian Call Centres answering the phones and have no regard for customers whatsoever.

Optus… not a ‘YES’ company, but a ‘I DON’T CARE’ company.

Whether it’s in life or business, it’s the lessons we learn along the way that make us.

In life, I have kept on learning lessons – some I have learnt from and others I have ignored only to find that I should have learned my lesson the first time.

 Helen Jarman is one of Australia’s most respected and awarded female entrepreneurs who against all odds, has built a multi-million dollar company in a male dominated industry. She is an advocate for woman making a difference not only in business but in the community and has worked hard in promoting the responsible disposal of e-Waste in Australia. Her tireless work towards ensuring that the community and corporates take responsibility for e-Waste and that we all work towards zero landfill from electronic waste disposal makes her one of Marketing Eye’s most favoured female entrepreneurs. Find out what makes Helen Jarman so great.

Next, I raced down the shop and bought every possible magazine that might have a story on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Afterall, they had separated right? Wrong!

One newspaper reported that they had separated and had gone through a divorce settlement  of sorts (they are unmarried) that saw their millions divided and the custody of their children shared.

Like millions of people, I was enthralled with the gossip that surrounded this duo and have spent at least $30 in the last couple of days buying every possible editorial that may have just a little bit of information on what actually has gone on.

Well, what has gone on is that this story has sold millions of newspapers and magazines worldwide and is highly likely to be made up. The story derived not from a reputable editorial, but from gossip newspaper who quite frankly cannot be trusted. They may have sold newspapers, but it has further enhanced in the minds of people who little you can trust the tabloids and how much of the stuff we read is made up.

Any story on Jolie-Pitt sells newspapers and everyone knows it! The journalists have no integrity or concern for what they or their families might think. What if their children read this on the newstands and all of a sudden got concerned that the unit they thought they could trust might be torn apart.

There is a message in this medium mayhem.

What do you have that sells newspapers? There is a few journalists out there that would like to know!

News can come in many forms and it might not be worldwide news or news that is going to have gossip magazines begging, but it might be of interest to business journalists or general news journalists who see what you are doing as unique and interesting.

You may have your product or service endorsed by someone famous, or perhaps you have a world first.

Read the newspaper and watch the news… you never know… it may just give you an idea of how your brand can become better known.

Every day small businesses are written up in newspapers and magazines. Next week it could be you!

Melbourne Cup is recognised as one of the top racing carnivals in the world. It’s well branded and attracts every celebrity and their hanger-on in abundance.

There is much debate amongst my colleagues, friends and clients on what is an ‘effen great bloke’ because through Marketing Eye’s promotion of effen Beer, we have all been absorbed with the entries that have been rolling in for the competition.

Everyone has their own idea of what an effen great bloke is and I am sure by December 1, 2009, all of Australia will know what the general consensus is on the topic.

Whilst we all have an opinion, the reality is that there is no right or wrong answer. Afterall, it’s just an opinion.

Ask around your office and find out what each person in your office thinks about what an effen great bloke is. Then log onto www.effengreatbloke.com.au and enter. I am keen to hear what you have to say.

For your efforts, you may just win a year’s supply of beer for you and a mate.

It doesn’t matter if you are a woman or a man. We all drink beer and if you don’t, it’s always handy to have beer in the fridge for when someone comes to visit and particularly if you are thinking about having a Xmas Party.

Mellissah Smith
Marketing Eye

Marketing Eye promotes brands we believe in. effen is a great tasting beer that is smooth and reminds me of a quality Belgium beer. Recently, it won an award in Melbourne for the best Lager at the Micro Brewery Showcase. Now the many thousands attending this event can’t all be wrong – right?

Whether due to lack of knowledge, time, budget or planning, many companies fall short of the mark when it comes to targeting the right audience.

It is essential that business owners, marketers or the person driving a direct marketing campaign know exactly how to define, segment and target prospects in order to maximise ROI.

Today, many businesses realise the importance of segmentation – the process of subdividing customers and prospects according to common attributes and characteristics relevant to a product or service.

Time for a new brand?Where should a business begin when thinking about re-branding?

There are rule of thumbs – but beware. Like most things in marketing, not everything is for everyone.

Believe it or not, brand makeovers are not simply a response to businesses in a downward spiral. Successful companies revamp their brands just as much as ones that have experienced a downturn in their fortunes.

I have to declare, I am a wannabe surfer. I say wannabe because I don’t go out and give it a go nearly as much as I should for someone who really wants to be able to surf some big waves.

I am clearly the amateur that is thrilled every time I catch a wave and ride it. Actually, thrilled is an understatement. I am jumping out of my pants every single time I catch a wave and stay on the board longer than 3 seconds.

The reason I am so eager to surf is that when I go out and watch people surf, they don’t have a care in the world. All they think about is catching the next wave (and of course, making sure that there are no shark fins hanging around given the media over the last couple of months reporting so many shark attacks).

I want to be just like that.

With the Quicksilver Pro on at Rainbow Bay at the moment, I ventured down to join some friends to watch the pro’s in action.

I wasn’t disappointed. I saw Joel Parkinson put in a few great heats, even though he did not make the cut.

Then I saw the man everyone has been talking about. Yes, I have read gossip magazines that picture him with Cameron Diaz, Pam Anderson (what was he thinking?), Giselle to name a few. I have also watched him a couple of times on television and until recently thought was quite a hot looking man.

Well, nothing prepared me for seeing him live at the Quicksilver Pro. As he walked down the beach, about 500 people followed him just hoping for a glimpse. Kids raced into the water and tried to swim up to him and he politely acknowledged them with some high 5’s and words of wisdom.

He is the waters version of a rock star. The 5000 strong crowd could not get enough of him. They were mesmerised by the sporting great who has won 9 world titles, more so than any other person.

Why I am writing about Kelly Slater is simple. He is a human brand that has an insane following. Insane!

I have been to every major sporting event that has hit Australian shores and yet I have never seen such a dedicated group of followers for just one man.

Now, he is not only on a mission to win his 10th world title, but also to sell a few boards through brand Kelly Slater.

Riding a radically short five foot four inch board even though he is going for the big ASP World Tour 10th win is a marketers dream. I bet after the weekend there was a sell-out of radically short boards because let’s face it, every surfer wants to be just like Kelly Slater.

What a legend!