Archive for the ‘The Business of Getting Started’ Category

Bridging Business twix the West and East and cultures inbetween…

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Often, we ponder over the possibility [and futility] of embedding ourselves into another culture. Like immigrants off the boat, eking out a living from humble roots means a multitude of trials and mistakes await our aspirations. When we meet the natives, no one seems to have a clue of the history of their kind and any strange cultural nuances to be encountered…

This is pretty much what happens when east meets west, or vice versa. Language barriers, religious practices, climate and trade restrictions are the norm when companies are attempting to gain a foothold while contemplating a presence in a foreign country. It seems the key lies in having a local professional with the business intelligence and savvy to make the marriage work.

This is the cause I had taken upon myself since a few years back, and over time, assembled a team of mentors situated in various Asian countries to facilitate the bridging of business opportunities, as well as a small club [now numbering 27,000 members] of value-added suppliers and SMBs keen to team up and handle what each country needs.

hence, for those who are looking to tap the huge new market in Asia, I have built www.CatalystConnector.com, which is designed to place your business needs and services out there in the Asian markets.

Drop in, sign up, and post up your skills or solutions. We’ll attempt to match your business with the right projects, and likely, save you the angst of a painful belly landing [ouch].

good luck! stay connected!

felix

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eMarketing Tools: Uncommon Valor

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

 

Uncommon eMarketing Tools Make Nicer Waves During Hard Times

A dedicated monitoring and tracking centre gives a boost to manipulating media resources. Hang the stats for now, until some proven measurement tool is accepted, you only want to see sales at your outlets online or in real life. You want to be having honest, sincere conversations with your audience, assuring them of support or giving advice or recommending buys. Any organisation would also want to buy media wisely. That’s where the analytics on both response and contact fronts kicks in. Build your own ratings engine to sync with the ROIs, so expectations are matched with the right budgets.

Without dashboard integration for easier media buys and ad reporting, mobile and social networks advertising will continue to struggle. It is good to see a burgeoning understanding and movement toward integration from key players. Online content requires a basic understanding of the combined use of words, pictures and videostreams. Creative content can be driven by yet another seldom-noticed tactic – product placement. Placements connect a brand directly with content producers and perhaps best overcome fans’ initial objections to advertising. Sponsors should also consider user-gen contests and other means of interacting with viewers which will increase brand lift and long-term sales much better than online video advertising alone. Brand engagement is both powerful and sensitive, so err on the side of caution because word gets around fast.

Making the conversation interactive opens up a whole new world.


In reality-type videos or programs, the main cost comes from hiring talent. Actors should be paid whatever the producer and the network agree on, not their professional rates. With the publicity they have gained from appearing on such a show, and should they then want to continue to make public appearances, they should join a guild. That’s because they have become what one calls a performer. I say that because not all performers are actors, but all actors are performers. This should be the guide when engaging reknown talent to endorse a brand in a production.

Manage the talent, but never forget to manage the budget.


Another powerful tool disguised as a media is the casual game. In the commercial sense, these are free. They are called advergames. The best casual games are free and will always be. Their quality and selection continues to grow, becoming the favored end of casual game play because they are “classics”. Women form the majority of this target segment [66%] almost because their limited attention span and patience for learning dictate that. Measuring demographics is a major challenge for location-specific promotions or activations, but brands do not experience this if uplift and mindshare are the objectives. Many popular casual games like Bejewelled are “brand-agnostic” and make great ambassadors. Majong is used to great effect by juice company Minute Maid where the tiles are designed as juice cartons. Online casual games also make the crossover to mobiles as favourites. Brands then get moved by another viral tactic, word of mouth. Targeting players is a no-brainer, they download it [IP address], play it [consumption], comment on it [feedback], and tell their friends [WOM]. If the mobile element is done well, you already have an opt-in. How you reward loyalty can be made within a “personal conversation” mode. Are you game for a longtail relationship?

Entertainment is addictive. You can make your brand a blockbuster classic.


Thanks to many friends engaged in conversations in the marketing columns, I was inspired to put these favoured tools on the table. If these insights give you a new perspective to how complex e-marketing is, and why measuring media effectiveness is tough, do leave your comments here.

Be a part of it.


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Who Do We Like To Learn From

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Who do we like? What would we like to learn? Who would we like to learn form?

Not an annoying 101 tips, nor the textbook signups for database scams.

We want to listen to heroes who appeal to us, folks who are the simple people with the real world problems struggling to put food on the table. To nail the corporate suits, it also makes sense to learn from our competitors. After all, they probably spent a million dollars researching something before implementation, and we can save all that cash and angst if we just paid attention. I would like to learn all their mistakes, too. Please teach me.

Put aside the hardcore lesson takeaways, but the feelgood factor has to evoke tears in our eyes. Because we can’t afford to cry and show weakness. Because we can’t show fear in the face of our business adversities. Because we can’t show our human front in a business forged in a corporate world. We take no prisoners, right?

 

 

Wrong. 

What utter rubbish! Pish and tush! Crap! Poopoo!

Of course, we can. After all, humans run companies. Companies need faces to sell stuff.

Would you prefer to face an understanding financial advisor hired by your creditor to arrange a payment plan? or his bulldog-toting debt collector issuing you a letter of demand? 

Miller Brewing Co, unionised brewer of great beer [ i love the crispy bite without the bitter aftertaste] used to have a tagline:

“Think when you drink!” in a symbol of a hazard signboard. It was in all their posters [I like].

Now, why would a beer company want to caution you from drinking their beer. It’s plastered on THEIR posters and in all their ads, right? Then it sets you thinking… if a beer drinker, one of their fans, actually had an accident, there’ll be one LESS customer! Whoa..

That is truly business, responsible to the end of the consumer’s wallet, with the signoff that the company cares. 

Small lesson. Big takeaway.

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The Mistake That Learns

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Never forget that we are someone else’s lesson. In whatever we do, we perform responses to every stimuli that surrounds us, speech or action, all form part of the drama we act in. How we react will inspire and influence our colleagues, children and impress our parents or friends. The same is equally true for any evil we create or participate in, only who we impress, is a subject of controversy.

The true lesson of any mistake is in the realisation. The experience of making a correction, and understanding that added value to your life, makes a solution possible. We now know there’s a way to solve that problem if it shows up again, in whatever form.

A teacher inspires, as part of his or her job, because it is a committed passion or a requirement for the post. But a teacher who smiles sincerely, or steps out of the way, is not doing so for money alone. Neither is a mentor who leads by example. 

Substance that is distilled from mistakes, shows/tells us that there is no hopeless solution. It is yet another problem in a different disguise. We need to look for the similarities, which will point us to the path around the problem, or the way toward tackling it. If you share a problem, there will be others who may be able to spot a pattern, then transpose [identify] yours onto their experience, and offer alternate results. 

There is always a solution to every problem. Do we know why?

 

Because every ONE of us has a choice! 

 

CHOICE is the single most powerful word in the world. 

 

Warren Buffet mentions that, like all of us, he was born with the options afforded to equal opportunity. It is how he used his choices despite the difficulties faced in his childhood, that made him the person he is, today.

How we use that to our advantage, cannot be explained by all the books in the world. How we use that to enrich others’ lives, is another challenge because free will belongs to one person only. It is really rare to find many who will share free will of theirs with you in almost everything. They will be giving up their choices in life so you can make it for them, or use their choices for your benefit, or better, for the collective benefits of others. 

The Dominican Monks is an example of those who do that, but it is also THEIR choice to be physically cut off from the world, and live by a vow of silence. Special charity causes to save the whales, sharks or tigers, perhaps. Or something as simple as following a leader on a hike. Maybe even listening to a lecturer. He point is, we have a choice.

Having a choice allows us to make mistakes. From those mistakes, we acquire wisdom. Sharing wisdoms is like sharing mistakes, so to a point, we are sharing opportunities to solve problems. Hey, that might be a business partnership!

Just imagine that we have to engage a personal tutor, to help us solve our everyday problems. We pay $1 for every answer he /she gives. Sometimes, it takes a minute for the answer, and at other times, it may take days. If we want to shorten the time it takes, we will have to pay more, or engage another tutor who specialises in that area. Alternatively, enrol for a course every time you encounter a field you are unfamiliar with, purely because you had to learn about the mistakes made in that area. That way, you won’t be making any of your own. 

Life wisdoms are exactly like that. One can never replace ones lessons, but you can add wisdom onto it with other people’s experiences. Learn to treasure them.

 

Hmmm… isn’t that why you are here?

 

 

 

Next…what type of people do you want to learn from?

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Hello World!!!

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Often we rush through every single task and action without a thought for life’s little surprises.

There are simple packages left lying around. we forget to notice, so we don’t stop to open them. after a bit, we forget why they are there. occasionally, something catches our eye, yet we rush off to meet friends, check email, go shopping, the movies, parties, gym, …well, anywhere else except our own personal space.

We are not comfortable being alone. 

Many wise people have uttered this wisdom in more ways than we can imagine:

To enjoy company, we must first appreciate solitude.

Have we listened? seldom? maybe not. it must be the noise that blinds us from listening. those bright blinking lights. the text messages, ringtones, MP3s, vidz, utubes, and a dozen more distractions fed by the commercial world and served with chocolate-dipped, jelly covered nuts and sprinkles. yup, it’s sweet. and we want more.

Just when you aren’t watching, Life changes you!

By the time we take a break from the Rat Race, and rest, it’s late. like falling asleep on the bus, we’ve missed a number of stops, and we need to get off, and walk back. or grab a cab. or run in the rain. so it is like that, every day, every year. that’s 525,600 mins in case you are counting. and reading this, and asking if it will get you somewhere. are you still here, looking for answers?

 

the herd

1. A group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans

2. A group of wild mammals of one species that remain together

3. A crowd especially of ordinary or undistinguished persons or things

The herd wants to belong together, because united, they are stronger. there is power in a crowd. there is anonymity. because no one needs to think much, just follow the one next to you, the one you like, or the leader. whatever.

A herd is its own phenomenon. distinct from another. a certain hierarchy. its own objectives. an instinct to self preserve, in defense or expectation of attrition. then it moves on. to something else. or somewhere else.

 

the soloist

1. Alone: without any others being included or involved

2. Lacking companions or companionship

3. Radically distinctive and without equal

You may be a marathoner, or cyclist, or gymnast. starting within a sea of expectations in a crowd of competitors, and always ending alone. first or last. there can only be one.

Start something. and finish it. or not. look at a problem differently from the many common suggestions. decide there is a better way, a friendlier way. ask opinions whether they be what you want to hear, or not. always learn. in all ways learn. 

 

the garage

1. A workshop where vehicles are repaired or serviced

2. Small workplace where handcrafts or manufacturing are done

3. A place where great ideas are born, where businesses begin, where problem solving is emphasized

The garage is where i spend some thinking time. Tinkering with the little boxes of memorabilia, jars of memories, containers of assortments of screws, and washers, case of bulbs, bag of bolts. unfinished projects. we have the toolbox and the power. we can can choose between batteries and manual muscle. because we can change things.

it starts here. it starts with me.

 

same question, different answers

same day, different shit. is not. in every moment is a choice we can make. it is perfectly fine to choose to make a mistake. as long as others don’t pay for it. after all, aren’t you seeking answers?

Wear this, only when you are with me. Wear this only, when you are with me.

Every single mistake we learn is one more we won’t make. we ask questions because we want to know others’ mistakes. because mistakes have all the answers in them.

We lead, only when we have followed. We lead only, when we have followed. not always true. leaders always attract followers. who may want to know your mistakes, or bask in the halo of your glory. sure, why not. leaders don’t always have all the answers, but build upon their followers’ mistakes from their questions. questions have all the answers. it is either yours or your leaders privilege to keep them. hey, why not share the answers?

the point is always to be curious. curious people get all the answers. not all answers are equal.

not all leaders are the same, either.

 

the plan

a dream is just a dream. a goal is a dream with a plan behind it.

 

[come back next week...plan to do it...if you are still interested in the answers...]

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