As the New Year gets underway, here at our Webarts company we are getting into serious rollout time for a couple of new business services.

One of those, which we have been developing over the past couple of months, is Webarts Online Marketing.

Webarts Online Marketing is basically about helping “offline” businesses engage effectively online with their customers and prospective customers, to gain new business and more repeat business from their existing clientele.

But it’s really just struck me today that when I say Webarts Online Marketing is a new service, it’s also very much in line with what we’ve been doing for years.

To make sure I was not kidding myself about that, I refreshed my memory this morning about what we had said when we first launched on the Web back in 1996. I was aided in this endeavour by the wonderful – and wonderfully named – “Wayback Machine”, on the excellent Archive.org site. (For those unfamiliar with the Wayback Machine, you can search for older websites, or older versions which might not be findable any more by just entering the web address.)

What I found was that the services we are offering now are essentially what we offered then, although after fourteen years there is inevitably some change of language and change of emphasis.

In December 1996 we offered “multimedia and Internet consulting and contracting services” (some will remember when “multimedia” was as much a buzzword as “social media” is now!). And about the kind of service and resources we would bring to bear we said:

To help our clients turn their dreams into effective communication, we draw on our skills in communication, coordination and project management, and the diverse talents and resources of an extensive network of associates.

So what’s the same and what has changed?

Our focus now, as then, is on helping mainly or wholely “offline” businesses get increased business and more repeat business through smart engagement in the online environment, so that hasn’t really changed. We use our skills in “pulling everything together”. And we have a network of very skilled service providers to call on.

One of the main areas of change is that we now include a specialized capability to help clients engage with their market through effective use of social media (which we hadn’t, to the best of my knowledge, heard about five years ago, let alone fourteen).

We hope the fact that we have been operating in the Web space for a long time will help us win business. We are also fully aware that there are plenty of very capable, very skilled competitors who are much newer on the scene.

No resting on laurels here!

But if you know of a business that would like some help in the online environment from people who are both experienced and up with the game, we’d be happy to have a complimentary consultation with them, to see if we can help them or at least give them some useful pointers for their search. Our contact details are here.

Last night, as a panelist at the Networx Marketing Meeting in Brisbane, Australia, I received a delightful – and tasty – gift.

At the end of the discussion session each of the panelists was presented with a bouquet. When I saw the bouquets being brought up my first thought was that this was unusual, especially as three out of the four panelists were male.

I’m more used to getting a bottle of good wine at that stage.

Then I realised that the “flowers” under the cellophane wrapping were actually chocolates.

This was fun. And even more so when I got to taste the gift after I’d removed the cellophane and taken the picture here.

It was an example of being remarkable.

It was a purple cow.

Earlier in the evening, my fellow panelist Richard Slatter of wotnews and wearehunted fame, had talked about being remarkable – with a hat tip to Seth Godin and his famous purple cow.

I thought I had a fair idea of the precise meaning of “remarkable”, but looked it up anyway.

remarkable adj. 1. worthy of note or attention a remarkable achievement 2. unusual, striking, or extraordinary a remarkable sight

Clearly Richard (and Seth) were talking about the second meaning - unusual, striking, or extraordinary.

The chocolate bouquet qualified. It was made by the appropriately named Edible Blooms – whose tag line is “We make indulgent gift giving an easy and memorable experience!”

Worked for me.

So now I’m thinking, what am I doing or could I do with my business to be remarkable?

“Competent”, “capable”, “interesting” won’t cut it.”Unusual, striking or extraordinary will.

Please share, in the comments, what you do to be remarkable in your market.

And what are those signs supposed to convey? Things will be better? In what way, better prices, better service? But they don’t say that, do they? So when you think about it wouldn’t you say we’re really none the wiser?

I mean, maybe the prices are going up rather than down, maybe the range of goods or services is being “streamlined” so you can’t any longer buy your favorite items there, maybe staff numbers have been “rationalized”, so now it will take even longer to get served.

Whereas the sign on a coffee shop at my local mall today says something different. It says “Under New Happy Management”.

And while passing by the other morning I noticed a woman from the coffee shop serving some people. She was bright, cheery, efficient. Of  course.

Thinking about writing this post I asked myself, how do I deal with clients and business colleagues? Do I let the challenges of business and the GFC get me down so I act and sound overwhelmed and grumpy? Or is my home based business always (or most of the time) under happy management? It’s been going for 21 years, but I’d like to think so, at least for now and the future.

Is your business under happy management? Any tips? Feel free to share your story here of how you’ve made it so.

This sign at the local Sunday market, for strawberries, is even simpler than the honey sign the other week.

The appeal is direct and the message instantly absorbable: even without words you know it’s a strawberry stand; the words and numbers tell you it’s half a kilo for $5, which is very good value compared to any local supermarket.

We know from previous conversations and from the look of the strawberries on display that they were probably picked the previous day or evening and had not been in a truck or a coolroom since.

But what I really love about the sign is the “Yum Yum”. That’s the emotional appeal and for most people will probably have more impact than the price, which as I say is a very good price anyway. The sign’s real appeal is to the taste buds more than the calculating brain.

As I learnt when I studied the Sandler Sales System at great expense – and this farmer probably knew without having to do a course or pay money – people buy emotionally, they only make decisions intellectually.

The strawberry sign was a good reminder to me to check my marketing and see whether I am trying to first engage people’s intellects or their emotions.

By the way, the strawberries were scrumptious – Yum Yum indeed – and we went back for more the next week.

Do you have a story you would like to share about marketing and emotional appeal or emotional responses?

This one I love for its simplicity of style and for the beautiful succinctness of its message.

Theoretically, the message on the sign could be just as legitimate if the honey had been farmed in Outer Somewhereorother, shipped across an ocean or two, bought at another place and re-packaged for this local growers’ market. Taken alone, that is. But the implicit message, that there have been no intermediaries other than the bee farmer, is clear and is validated by the fact that the bee farmer himself is here – or his wife on the rare occasion that he is not here himself.

They have the stall set up so you can taste the different honeys and it always fascinates me how different the honey tastes, depending on what plant is involved. Two of my favorites are ironbark and macadamia.

The farmer doesn’t have brochures or flyers. If you have a question he is happy to explain and he clearly loves what he does and what his bees produce. And because his prices are just neatly below, but not too much below, the “no name” honey (shipped from Outer Somewhereorother) at the local supermarket, you would need to have either no functioning taste buds or an iron will, if you were to walk away without buying.

The one change I would make to the sign would be to lose the inverted commas (quotation marks) – but maybe that’s just the unreconstructed English teacher in me.

(I called this post “Honey Man” because that’s how we refer to him, as in, “Is Honey Man here today?” or “Ah, there’s Honey Man!” I’ve had enough chats with him now, I really should find out his real name!)

Marketing lesson for me: tell the story as simply, honestly and directly as you can, know your product and trust the intelligence and taste of your audience to figure out some interesting nuances for themselves.

Do you like this sign? Do you think you could improve on it?