I’ve been terribly remiss in my posting… but I’ve been working on one of the ultimate personal PR events this Spring, my wedding.   That’s all done, the honeymoon (that I spent in Chicago at ALA while my new husband rode motorcycles off-road in Moab) is over and I’m all hitched up and ready and raring to start talking about marketing again! 

I  know you won’t believe it (or may be you expected it and that’s even scarier) that even in the midst of the events this Spring/Summer, marketing was on my mind.  So, for your amusement, here are 3 marketing thoughts inspired by my life change…

1.  Brand morphing — So, a change has happened and you’re thinking it’s time to dress up the brand a little.  But you have to weigh the value of keeping the known against freshening up your look.  Sometimes the answer is a mixture… paying homage to the past while embracing the future.  How does this relate to my wedding?  Well… I’ve decide to take my maiden name as my middle and go by all 3.  Gillian Harrison Cain, that’s now me.  For your brand it could be keeping the same colors but a new design, using some of the same words in your tagline but with a new spin, or keeping the logo but develping a new tagline. 

2.  Getting buy-in to your vision — You’ve been working on this campaign for weeks… you’re at one with the concept, the words, the design and it is brilliant in your eyes.  And you talk to your manager, your co-workers, whoever and they just don’t get it.  Trying to get others to understand what you see so clearly can be really challenging.  Especially if they have pre-conceived notions that might be related to the words, images or approach you’ve chosen to use.  So you might have to put it in a different context for them.  A wedding is a classic situation of competing visions with the added bonus of heightened emotions.  It was hard to get our family and friends to understand the very understated backyard BBQ that we saw so clearly in our heads.   They heard the word “wedding” and it conjured up images in their heads that were in complete opposition to what we wanted.  So, we started talking to people about “the party” instead of “the wedding” and it really helped change the landscape.  Sometimes, it’s not as easy as changing a word to help folks get over the hump.  Sometimes the best thing on your side is time.  Remember, you’ve had weeks of working on this to get at home with it.  Your boss may need some time to get on board.  So when putting together your schedule, be sure to leave plenty of time to help others get into the groove.

3.  Things always happen in 3’s – Sometimes we get bogged down into thinking we’re the only one doing x, y or z and we forget there is a huge (or not so huge) community around us tackling some of the same issues and tasks.  And by collaborating, sharing or simply borrowing everyone can accomplish their goals.  Me, my best friend and one of our good buddies all got married this summer.  Because we were in all in the same boat around the same time but staggered, we were able to recognize some economies of scale,  take advantage of research others had done and (possibly the most valuable thing of all) help each other stay sane through the whole process.  It takes a lot of work to put together all the materials (flyers, posters, bookmarks, press releases, newsletter announcements, etc.) to support a program.  If you collaborate with others to develop the templates for those materials and share the big promotional pieces (banners, large posters, etc.) it can help everyone save time and money.  And don’t underestimate the value of having someone else around to help you keep from flying off onto flights of creative fancy/fantasy!