Octarine Communications

 

Man is, by nature, a social animal. Okay, that’s not an entirely accurate translation from the Greek, but it is the usually accepted one.  The point is that networking is nothing new; even as long ago as a couple of centuries BC, Aristotle recognised that people need relationships.  For generations old boys’ networks, sports clubs, church groups, charities and of course political groups have provided opportunities for business people to develop relationships that work for business.

Networking has become a buzz word, but it’s hardly a new way to market your business.  Of course, the fact that it has been around for generations underscores that it does have merit.  The only real change is the way in which networking has been formalised. 

A wide variety of professions and special interest groups, including the Institute of Civil Engineers, the Law Society, the Chamber of Commerce and the Businesswomen’s Association aim to promote their profession or opportunities for members and offer their members a forum to meet, develop relationships and, yes, even look for business opportunities.  In fact, some groups host meetings with the explicit objective of networking.

But the reality is that simply going to a networking function and swopping business cards isn’t going to be as effective as using networking opportunities to build relationships.  Developing trust and respect among other members of a group is a far more potent approach to networking.  And one of the most effective ways to build trust and respect is to contribute your time and talents.

Many business associations operate largely on a volunteer basis.  Organising committees work hard to find interesting speakers, plan social events and commit to social investment projects, and helping hands are welcomed with gratitude.  Joining committees and sub-committees gives members the opportunity to truly get to know their colleagues.  You soon learn who is reliable, energetic and committed; who you’d be happy to recommend for their professionalism and integrity.  Sadly, you sometimes discover occasional passengers too: those who either don’t deliver or simply decline to contribute, leaving you wondering exactly why they are on the committee. 

But those who do make a contribution not only get the satisfaction of a job well done, they also gain a reputation among an influential group of business people, and enhance their business profile, surely a powerful consequence of networking.

Ann Druce is the Chairman of the the Businesswomen's Association in Durban.  For more information on BWA, please email or phone 031 261 8668.

 

Have you ever deleted an email because it was written entirely in capital letters?   It might actually have had something worthwhile to say, but so what if you didn’t read it?   

The same principle applies to advertising and design.  There are countless ads crammed full of information, with loads of large fonts and capital letters.  Every line of copy competes for attention, and the final result is that nothing stands out and everything fades into insignificance.

If you are developing an ad for your business, it is important to make it as simple as possible for your target to read your message.  And while media selection is important (should you be in the Yellow Pages, the local community newspaper, regional newspapers, on radio?), it is also as elementary as making your ad easy to read. 

1.       Use clear and simple language

Make sure you say what you mean.  Choose clear, unambiguous language and check your spelling!

2.       Focus on one single-minded message

Pick your most important message and focus on that.  Don’t try to tell them everything; if you try to list every single thing you have to offer, nothing will stand out.  

3.       Don’t state the obvious

I’ve just seen an ad for dentists promising implants and aesthetic dentistry.  Which tells me they are sophisticated and offer advanced dentistry.   And I know without being told that they can do fillings too!

4.       Limit your content

Do you need to include your email address?  And including your email or fax number could mean that your phone number is less visible.

5.       Don’t crowd your ad

Lots of open space makes it easier to read an ad.  The cost of an ad is governed by size, but if you can only afford a small space it is more important than ever to keep it clean and simple.

6.       Bright colour is not necessarily better

Evaluate where your ad will run – if every other ad is a blaze of colour, a black and white one might stand out more than colour.

7.       Don’t use capital letters for your headlines

Headlines that are written in capital letters are harder to read than lower case.  In fact, this is true for the body copy too.  (Just think how annoying it is to get emails or sms messages in capitals!)

8.       Full stops in headlines are not a good idea

Odd as it might seem, it is fine to use question marks and exclamation marks, but research has shown that using full stops in headlines can create confusion.

To find out more about reader-friendly print ads, visit or contact .

Any junior brand manager can tell you that it is absolutely essential to maintain a consistent brand image, but sometimes even major brands can get out of synch.

Take Vodacom, for instance. I’m not sure exactly why there is a Vodashop and a Vodacom4U shop at my nearest shopping centre. The both seem to provide identical services, so why do they need two different names? Clearly Vodacom4U targets the youth market while the original Vodashop aims for a more established target, but then why are the two shops selling exactly the same product range?

I suspect that Vodacom4U was initially a promotional concept with airtime packages designed specifically for teenagers, and that somehow it morphed into a retail chain without any real retail strategy. But Vodacom is an immensely strong brand, so this is hardly likely to impact on their shares.

But have a look at Ferrero Rocher chocolates. On one hand, they try to present an exclusive, top of the range image, and on the other, they are forever on promotion in Clicks. And while this is a great retail chain, and no doubt gives them wide distribution across South Africa, Clicks isn’t exactly exclusive. In fact, surely the appeal of Clicks is quite the opposite; an accessibility and value proposition.

So I, for one, never see Ferrero Rocher chocolates as a luxury. In fact, because they are always “on special” I harbour a suspicion that they couldn’t possibly live up to the Food for the gods message of their TV commercial. And I’d certainly be loathe to buy a gift for a friend that looks like it might only have been chosen because it was at a discounted price!

Kulula.com, on the other hand, is very consistent. Next time you fly Kulula, make a particular point of listening to the on-board safety messages – even these are whacky and irreverent. Who’d have thought aviation regulations would provide an opportunity to entrench an impudent and innovative brand image?

Maintaining a consistent image is not just about making sure the integrity of your corporate ID is in place; it is also critical to ensure that every touch point with your consumer is consistent. At Octarine we focus on creative and strategic marketing solutions. To find out more, visit www.octarine.co.za or contact [email protected] for more information.

Entrepreneurs tend to be control freaks; it’s the nature of the beast. Corporate life might entail reporting to the Board or having some Group Financial hotshot examining your results, but you are probably a harder taskmaster than any corporate executive. It might have something to do with the fact that your own money is on the line!

And this has consequences for your ad agency. You are probably concerned that the agency doesn’t quite understand what you need, or that while you might not be an expert in advertising, you do have broad experience and proven acumen. And you’ve given the matter quite a lot of thought. You might find it hard to trust that they will be able to deliver, or secretly believe that, given enough time and a little effort, you could do it yourself. You may look at their proposals and wonder if they really added any value, and nitpick and challenge along the way. You may be anxious that you are spending money for something that might not work and your supplier can’t really prove that it will until you are way down the road.

I know this first-hand! When we decided that Octarine really did need an internet presence, we contracted a specialist web company to help us. We knew we could do the design – it was the technical issues with which we needed help. So we designed our site, and handed it over to the specialists to translate it into a living web site. And then we stressed.

We learned that just because we had used a beautiful font in our design, it didn’t mean it would show up on your screen. And that it was best to stick to the basic fonts installed on most computers. But wewould really havepreferred our fancy font.

We knew that the resolution of any image has a dramatic impact on the loading speed of the site, we didn’t want to compromise the quality of the pictures. After all, we are an advertising agency; if our pictures look blurry our work won’t look good. But we still wanted a fast-loading site.

But we were right on a couple of issues too. For instance, our meta-titles and meta page descriptions were better than the onessuggested by thetechies, so we used the ones wecame up with.

So when a client finds it hard to relinquish control, and criticises when we need to do things they don’t quite understand, I get it.And we never getprecious about being the advertising "experts".

Visit www.octarine.co.za and discover some of the other reasons our clients like working with us.