Jimmy Rabitte – Commitment to good brand projection
How many businesses don’t know what’s hiding in the back of the cupboard?
A weekly domestic ritual at our house is the weekly shop. The routine is that we check the larder and the fridge-freezer (and underneath the kids’ beds) to see what we already have in supply and what needs replacing. Then a meal planner and shopping list is written. A shopping expedition is mounted and the hunting/gathering for the next 7 days is done.
It’s a vital (and not always unpleasant) undertaking, that ensures we don’t oversupply on one thing and that we have enough of the others, and furthermore that we have all we need for the week’s meals and treats, contingencies, staples etc. Without it, we’d eat crap, dine too late, ruin recipes, suffer diet moodswings, increase stress, be out to the shops every five minutes for emergency dashes (and that always leads to trouble like over-spending) and generally fail in this most basic of house-keeping chores.
Chore it may be, but with the right supplies, tools and so forth it can be more than just functional; it can be fulfilling, creative and save big money.
The business equivalent of the family food supply is marketing collateral. And the odds are good you’ve never gone to the back of the cupboard to see what’s there. You might have the makings of a cake, a cheese fondue or build-your-own-pizza family extravaganza.
If you know what marketing collateral you’ve got, it can boost morale, sales, turnover and brand equity. You need never be lost for a tweet, posting, e-mailing, thought leadership-quote, sales pitch, strapline, mission statement or news release ever again.
The trick is to get the job done in the first place.
One novel and high-ROI approach is to source the information not like a revenue inspection, but along the lines of a press interview, or an on-the-sofa TV chat show interview. In this way it feels less like an interrogation to establish an alibi, but a conversation held to give quality insight.
With all the data gathered, it needs assimilating and indexing for easy access. Then it just needs updating as you deem necessary or as strategy dictates, needs require and market events present opportunities.
If you struggle, ask your PR people. If they have a news nose or any kind of journalistic acumen at all then they ought to be able to help. If you ain’t got PR people, you know where I am…