• Home
• Services/Rates
• Market Research
• Portfolio
• Contact
• On Target: Blog
• About Longbow

January 12, 2012 by Rita Marshall 

2012 is supposed to be the year of the QR code, but not everyone has figured out how to make their QRC provide value to customers.

Looking for ideas? Here are three great and innovative ways companies have made their QR codes stand out.

Tesco’s South Korea subway campaign

What makes it great: Convenience. Mind-blowing convenience.

I actually had this idea first. Exhausted in the subway station, hungry but with a lack of groceries at home, I would dream of being able to touch the posters of food I passed in Toronto’s PATH system and have them appear at my house.

Tesco improved on my idea (which involved magic powers) with QRC-embedded posters of groceries on the wall instead. South Koreans scan each picture with their smartphones and the food is delivered to their homes. Click above for a demonstration.

Ethical Bean’s Back of Bag Story

Why it’s great: builds Ethical Bean’s eco-friendly, fair-trade brand, provides unique information, showcases the company’s social responsibility efforts

When you scan the back of a bag of Ethical Bean coffee, you are treated to pretty much an A&E Biography of your coffee. “This QR code contains the unique story of your coffee–from where it was grown and who picked it, to cupping, scoring and roasting information,” writes the company on its website.

Ethical Bean even takes their QR code beyond smartphones — typing in the number underneath the code into an online app lets you see the same information from your computer.

Heinz Ketchup’s “Our Turn to Serve”

Why it’s great: Engages customers, builds customer goodwill, showcases company’s social responsibility efforts and charity work.

Customers could scan a code on specially marked bottles of America’s favourite ketchup to send a digital postcard to US troops. Heinz would also make a small donation to the Wounded Warriors project for every message.

But even the best marketing idea needs near-flawless technical execution — over at Consected blog, Phil Ayres found Heinz’s QR code unwieldy for older smartphones. Read his analysis of the problem and suggestions for improvement here.

The possibilities of a QR code seem endless. What are some of the best uses of QR codes you and your smartphone have come across lately? Which are the worst (or most boring) ones?

January 9, 2012 by Rita Marshall 

In December, CareerBuilder.com released the 17 most odious business buzzwords as decided by a survey of 5,300 people.

Here’s the list in descending order of offensiveness, along with their definitions and what someone thinking outside the box might say instead. Also check out which words I actually don’t mind. I make my case for which ones we should keep and which ones will outlive the cockroaches in a later post.

Outside the box 
What it means: creative, creatively
What to say instead: creative, creatively

Low-hanging fruit
What it means: an easily attainable goal
What to say instead: the easier goals, the simple things

Synergy 
What it means: better value or better results from combining resources or using teamwork
What to say instead: better results through teamwork / combining resources

Loop me in 
What it means: keep me updated
What to say instead: keep me updated

Best of breed
What it means: the best of a certain type of software, hardware or business
What to say instead: the best

Incentivize
What it means: motivate, strongly encourage
What to say instead: motivate, strongly encourage

Mission-critical 
What it means: critical, the most important
What to say instead: critical, the most important

Bring to the table 
What it means: has or have
What to say instead: has or have

Value-add 
What it means: an extra or enhancement to a product which is either free or low-cost
What to say instead: An extra or enhanced feature

Elevator pitch 
What it means: A quick, succinct definition of an idea, business or product
What to say instead: I actually like the poetry of “elevator pitch”, the idea so compact you could recite it during the seconds you spend in an elevator.

Actionable items 
What it means: Tasks or objectives that a business can complete on its own, immediately
What to say instead: The things we can do now, the things we have control over

Proactive
What it means: Show initiative
What to say instead: I don’t mind proactive either, actually.

Circle back
What it means: Come back to
What to say instead: come back to, return to

Bandwidth 
What it means: The time or ability to perform a task
What to say instead: I’m not able to do that right now (instead of “I don’t have the bandwidth”)

High level 
What it means: the big picture
What to say instead: overall, the big picture

Learnings
What it means: lessons
What to say instead: lessons, what we’ve learned, so far we’ve learned

Next steps 
What it means: things that need to be done next
What to say instead: I don’t mind this either, actually.

Sources: johnsmurf.com “Where business jargon goes to die”, online dictionaries merriam-webster.com, the freedictionary.com, businessdictionary.com and learnings.org “where corporate buzzwords go to die”

photo by Dalbera

January 4, 2012 by Rita Marshall 

Oh, dear. Christmas may be partly to blame for the difficulties Twitter and global intelligence company Stratfor currently find themselves in.

Twitter is facing (and avoiding) questions over a briefly-verified Twitter account for Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng-Murdoch. The account turned out to be a spoof set up over the Christmas holidays — some suggest the prank might have slipped through the gates due to reduced holiday staffing, but don’t bother asking Twitter if that’s the case, because they’re not in the mood to share. Neville Hobson takes a look at the questions over Twitter’s verification policy and their continued silence over the matter here.

Meanwhile, David Henderson at Ragan.com outlines the case for why Stratfor’s compromised security earns the award for hack of the year. Wincingly bad security and terrible crisis communications from a company specializing in intelligence analysis, whose clients are governments, world leaders and CEOs . Oh, and all those clients’ financial information, including credit card PINs, were also taken, according to unconfirmed claims by the hackers.

The hack occurred on Christmas Eve. Another case where a holiday season skeleton staff at a tiny (and easily found) internet hosting company made the difference? It can’t be that much of a factor given Stratfor’s loosey-goosey approach to security. It doesn’t help that the company’s website is still down as of January 4, and their communications have been through their Facebook page. Click, read and cringe here.

So apart from finger pointing and handwringing, what do we learn from these crises? Check out Gil Rudawsky’s advice on who businesses should be talking to (constantly) when something blows up real good. (Hint: there are nine groups to keep in mind, and the media’s not one of them).

photo by kimubert

January 3, 2012 by Rita Marshall 

Now in the shiny new year, businesses are (hopefully) thinking about where their communications focus should be in 2012.

Here are some of the broad trends we’ll likely see along with some resources to help you get up to speed.

Mobile

Expect to see more QR codes as those little black and white boxes in the corner of ads get increased attention from consumers. At Small Business Trends, Lisa Barone notes that there was a 400% increase in mobile searches this year, with some shrewd companies sending promotions to customers’ smartphones when customers were likely to be waiting in line on Black Friday.

Check out Barone’s advice on avoiding rookie mistakes in your mobile advertising here.

Video

David Hsieh, VP of marketing and entertainment for Cisco, predicts that video will account for 90% of all internet traffic over the next three years. Currently it’s at 51%. Constant Contact’s Gail Goodman explains how a business can start communicating with customers through video here while Ashley Zeckman at Ragan.com gives some advice for “PR pros” here.

Social Media

Most companies are already using some form of it — 72% of US businesses and 83% of Chinese businesses do, according to a recent survey conducted by KPMG. But the challenges of social media ahead include engaging customers, especially customer reviews, as Google and potential customers place increased importance on public, positive feedback.

Marketing expert Heidi Cohen gives a simple rundown of social media from A to Z here and has a more advanced checklist for small- to medium-sized businesses using social media here.

image by Nandadevieast

December 30, 2011 by Rita Marshall 

Many people find writing thank you cards as enjoyable as having a tooth pulled, but here are five easy steps to writing a great thank you card:

1. It Is Never Too Late

A common way to deal with thank you cards is to procrastinate until weeks, or months, have passed. At this point you figure it’s too late to send a card. It would probably be rude to send one now, right?

Wrong. Get your butt in that chair and start writing. It will be quick. It will be painless. You’ll have built up several relationships, working ones or otherwise. You can reward yourself with chocolate or SportsCenter afterward.

2. Be Brief

Length does not always equal sincerity or thoughtfulness. Start with “Dear So-and-so: Thank you so much for…” A rambling opener such as, “Dear Bob, I decided I wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how much…” is not necessary. Those cards don’t have much space, you know!

3. Acknowledge the Gift Specifically

What delicious chocolates, beautiful flowers, great party! The only exception, of course, is money, which is always a “generous gift”.

4. Explain Why the Gift Is Useful

Everyone in the office loved the chocolates. The flowers brightened your day and made customers smile. The party was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect.

And if it was a “generous gift”? I recommend something like, “As you can imagine, it will be very useful to our small business/busy family/hard-working group of volunteers.” Some recommend describing what you’ll use the money for, but I find the Tackiness Potential much too high in that. “I think I’ll spend the money on Farmville, Mafia Wars or lottery tickets. I haven’t decided yet.” Thank You Card Fail.

5. End with the Future

End your thank you card with something about both yourself and the reader. The easiest way is to mention an event or time in the future you will meet at, or hope to meet at. For thank you cards written in the holiday season, this line is easy: “Happy new year and a successful 2012″.

image by asenat29

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Copyright © Longbow Business Solutions – Freelance writer, copywriter, blogger. Always on target., all rights reserved. | P.O. Box 117, Mitchell ON N0K 1N0 Canada