As some of you know, I’ve written about six half novels — create a good beginning and good end but no middle — I just write better in spurts. So after watching Julie&Julia and thinking a lot about goals of late, I’ve been wondering about a blogging goal for one year — what could I write.

I think I’ve hit on it. To start on September 1 – Project184. 184 is the average number of elementary school days  Deadline is June 1st to complete 184 short stories with people providing me two “items” to include — locations, colors, a name, drink, mood, etc.

I’ll post to to my project184 blog which will be connected to my Facebook too and we’ll see if putting all these short pieces together into a collection doesn’t get me a published book. Or a few together spark me to really write a novel.

I’ve got a lot of energy right now to channel and this feels like a good direction to go.

Looking forward to your thoughts and ideas.

So much has been going on for me that I have neglected this blog. I plan to do better in 2009.

I could not leave 2008 without commenting on all the trend articles that are out there. So many viewpoints, so little time. To that end, her eis my last bit of help in 2008… here are the 2009 marketing trends articles I found most thoughtful, thought-provoking and pretty on target from what I’m seeing in the world.

Many blessings for business prosperity and talk to you in the new year!

BEST MARKETING TRENDS of 2009 ARTICLES

1. Felipe Korzenny’s Hispanic Marketing Trends for 2009

2. KEY MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2009 (Canadian but definitely going to see south of the border too)

3. PART 1: 50 Youth Marketing Trends for 2009 by Graham Brown

4. Strange Corporation – News – Online Marketing Trends in 2009

5. Greg Verdino: Marketing, Media & Trends: If 2009 will be the ‘year …

6. Email Marketing Trends for 2009

7. Cliff Allen on Marketing: 9 Marketing Trends for 2009

This week in USA Today I learned the following news…

Krispy Kreme’s signature glazed doughnuts may be best hot, but its sales have been anything but in recent years. Now the chain is hoping that going cold — with its new soft-serve ice cream — will be the catalyst it needs.

The company has been trying to revive its sales for nearly three years, amid a health craze that made its glazed doughnuts an indulgence that many just couldn’t stomach.

Now industry watchers say Krispy Kreme Doughnuts’ latest turnaround plan — which includes launching the new ice cream as well as opening smaller stores and expanding overseas — still may not be enough to help the chain climb out of its hole.

WHAT?!! You know in television this would be called “jumping the shark.”

So much for building credibility as a doughnut god. At the very least they could have selected a by-product as Dunkin’ Donuts did with coffee.

Why not work to develop a “baked” variety of doughnut like so many potato chips company have done for health reasons. Or an alternative gluten-free version? This makes no sense other than the company’s mission is to make America fat.

I truly wonder what their management is thinking and what kind of research was done that said this has a shot of working. Or perhaps research was not done.

Marketing research is cut from the marketing table many times so that more can be spent on media buys and product development. “We don’t need to do research. I asked ten people I know and they love this ice cream recipe. It’ll be great.”

Hmmmm… will it?

For full article, click here.

What does your brand smell like?

Okay… too tough for you? How about… what does your company sound like? If I picked up the fabric of your culture what would it feel like?

This week, I’ve been conducting internal interviews for a hotel looking at its branding. Industries like hospitality need to understand their brands from all five senses and more. People want the “experience” of your brand and if it is a fabulous time, they’ll come back again and again.

Take a tip from hotels and explore your brand from more than just sight. Make it really come to life.

A new report from iProspect, conducted by JupiterResearch,  says that 45% of search engine marketers do not integrate their search marketing efforts with offline channels.

In addition, it uncovers a big disconnect between search engine marketer strategy and search engine user behavior…The study finds that just over half of search engine marketers (55%) intentionally integrate their efforts with at least one offline marketing channel.

Other key findings: The two integration techniques most frequently employed by search marketers are prominently including the company Web address (84%), and the company name (66%), in offline marketing initiatives.

Only 26% of marketers utilize the same keywords in offline campaigns as are used in search marketing campaigns in their integration efforts.

24% of companies do not participate in offline marketing at all.

Can you hear me grinding my teeth on this one.

It’s articles like this that bother me as a marketing professional. I have been saying for years that it is not about Search Engine Optimization but Web Optimization that must happen which includes getting your PR efforts and branding materials to all be utilizing the same language, content, tone and keywords.

It irks me more to know that small business owners everywhere get sucked in by some so-called SEO expert that this will solve their marketing woes when in reality what they get in sales goes right back out in word$.

If you are working with an SEO “professional,” challenge them on this. Question how they plan to cross-train your SEO with your direct mail piece planned next month. If they give you a deer-in-headlights look or it’s silent on the phone, cut your losses and find a true marketer that gets it the first time.

See full article here.

Done ranting.

I have just returned from a long weekend in Michigan. Headed back to visit with old friends and made some new ones. I needed to turn off, shut down and reboot… don’t we all sometimes?

It’s important, especially in one-person operations, that we keep our creative juices flowing. To that end, here are five sites I visit for daily inspiration. Stay passionate!

1. Direct Daily: Great blog that highlights great direct mail and grassroots marketing tactics from around the world. Complete with photos.

2. MelissaJill.net: I think this woman is an amazing photographer and fun human being. Photography is not only a personal passion of mine but I also visit because it shows what happens when you look form a different angle. When I get married, I’m calling her.

3. Logopond: Search and discover logos. Rate them, praise them, add your own. Helps rev up the design juices.

4.  CrazyLeaf: Always sharing new Adobe techniques, design trends, etc. Uber design geeky and I love visiting their world for awhile pretending I fit in.

5. MediaPost.com: Mega-ton site of research and marketing knowledge galore. So much to read! So much to absorb!

Finish out the year: Create a marketing calendar for the remainder of the year. I like to use Word and create a table with four columns:

1. the month

2. product/service specifically to push then

3. what 2-3 marketing tactics I plan to use (pr, direct mail, etc.)

4. creative notes – brief timelines keys, maybe the headline has already come to me, etc.

Review your headlines: Take a look at upcoming marketing materials you have. Direct mail, website, ad, sales letter. What’s your opening line? 90% of the receiver’s decision is going to be made at the gut level by what that one line says. Make it compelling! Irresitible!

Ask for quotes: Contact 3 clients for testimonials this week. Two sentences will suffice. But get them! And then start using them on your site and in collateral.

Got coupons? According to a recent analysis Scarborough Research, Internet coupons are of increasing interest to consumers, 11% of households currently obtain coupons via the Internet, and this has increased 83% since 2005. The Sunday newspaper remains the number one place for acquiring household coupons. Fifty-three percent of households get their coupons from the Sunday newspaper.  Cannot afford to be in the Sunday paper? You can afford to create a simple pdf of a coupon that tells customers to bring it in for a discount or free gift and post this to the home page of your web site.

LinkedIn: If you haven’t already, get your business on LinkedIn. It’s another easy way to get your business promoted and out there.

Human Resources Tip: Take time this week to examine your HR practices. What’s the process for posting a position? Is there some templated information to keep it consistent with what you say in your advertising? Do you respond to every employment inquiry? If you do not, you should. People remember what companies were gracious and what companies didn’t even have the time for them… they may not make the time in the future to buy form you when they’ve landed a new job. Make the effort! This is free word-of-mouth for you — and it’s up to you if it’s bad or good WOM.

There seemed ot be so much negativity today. So I wanted to take a moment a remind all the small, medium and large businesses out there with passion… with a dream… that Coca-Cola was not built in day. Nor was Microsoft. Or Apple. Or Starbucks. Keep believing. Keep going.

And if you’ve just had an idea for something, pursue it a little. Breathe a little on that kindling and see if it doesn’t catch fire.

Some reminders of products and brands that might never had been…
Blue Jeans: Working as a canvas salesman during the California Gold rush, Levi Strauss noticed that the pants of prospectors had a whole lot of wear and tear. Strauss decided to stitch some canvas together and sell them as pants.

Feather Duster: In 1857, Susan Hibbard turned a notion about discarded turkey feathers into a duster that is still around today.

AVON: The first Avon Lady was actually a man, young door-to-door salesman David McConnell selling books. Turns out the ladies liked his free introductory gift of perfume much more than the books.

Band-Aid: Thanks to being accident prone, Josephine Dickson’s husband had an idea. He took some of the manufactured gauze and adhesive tape from the company he worked for, Johnson & Johnson, and put together some sticky bandages. Soon the company was making them to sell on a small scale. Four years later, in 1924, the company installed machines for mass producing the new product, and the trade name BAND-AID was adopted.

Christmas Lights: Thomas Edison might have been the great inventor, but it was his assistant Edward Johnson in 1882 who hand-wired 80 red, white and blue bulbs and wound them around a rotating evergreen tree.

Boardgame, Life: In 1860, Milton Bradley’s lithographer business was in jeopardy. His biggest seller — a clean-shaven portrait of Abraham Lincoln – wasn’t selling so well now that Lincoln had a beard. Out of desperation, he printed up several copies of a game he’d invented called, “The Checkered Game of Life.” It was hot. He sold 45,000 copies of the game by the end of the year and never looked back.

So whatever it is… you CAN do it. And if you need some help, call me.

1. BE CONSISTENT. You need to communicate key messages to audience segments on a regular basis in order to get their attention and create a lasting impression.

2. BE PATIENT. BE FLEXIBLE. Creating awareness takes time, so be patient.

3. BE CREATIVE. Create ads, brochures or other forms of communication for audiences that get the right messages heard — the benefits of who you are and what you do.

4. DIVERSIFY EFFORTS. Not all the eggs in one basket. I would rather plan for smaller ads consistently placed over the course of the year than blowing an entire marketing budget on one insert. I like using free publicity to stretch a marketing budget.

5. MEASURE RESULTS.