Managing Yo-Yo Style
Does being managed by others smack more of “Survivor” than Stephen Covey for you? Could there BE any more management styles out there—have you gotten to experience all of them yet? And what kind of manager are you—or should you try to be?If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with too many types of management and leadership styles—more flavors than months, for the most part. On the leadership, not so much. I offer to you now an additional insight into a newly designated style that you will recognize, and may even find funny. Or not, depending on life at work.And speaking of life at work, what could be more fun than children’s toys at work? How about just the thought of them? No, wait—how about BEING them?Befo

Get Back to What You Love and Increase Your Bottom Line With These Time Savers
It’s the same old story. You don’t spend as much time together as you used to. You’re trying to get that “loving feeling” back, but, as usual, you’ve got too much on your plate. There are leads to follow, faxes to send and business trips to plan. It doesn’t leave room for much else.Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can fall in love all over again – with your business. And doing that means that you’ll be able to spend more time at what you’re really good at – which means you’ll also be making more money! And isn’t that the whole point? But in order to do that, you’re going to need to free up some time.Here are a few tricks:· Put systems in place to save you time. Even looking for passwords or addresses ca

Six Sigma Employee Assessment
A typical business environment would like all processes to be assessed for improvement possibilities. The competitive business world demands that all business processes be at their peak performance levels at all times to meet challenges. These challenges, as defined by the ‘Voice of Customer’ and the projections of ROI, are not fixed but moving targets.For business success, organizations have to realize the contribution of employee assessment. Employee assessment results in measurable metrics called ‘Employee Ratings’. Business organizations embarking upon an employee rating exercise, use internal and cross organizational surveys which assess ‘as is’ conditions with regard to perceptions of employees about their work environment.pect. Remember your mailbox when you left for work this morning? How many leaflets were shouting for your attention? And what did you do? Opened all these mailers, studied the message, took the time to respond to their call of action, missed the bus, got fired? No, you threw them straight in the bin.

It is miraculous so many of us are still using these outdated marketing methods.

So how has the direct response market evolved to cope with the clutter?

There was need for a change, and a clever little company in the UK started brainstorming about how to create a direct response vehicle that could achieve stand out for the brands they represented. The answer was Direct Response media pads, positioned at the bottom of an advertising panel that deliver the main marketing message.

How does it work?

The success of any marketing campaign is always based on a few simple factors:

- The message must be away from distracting clutter, it should be the only message to absorb.
- The message must be easy enough to absorb in seconds.
- The message must be targeted at a prospect that has an interest in the information.
- The prospect should ideally be in a situation where he is held captive to the marketing message, to allow deeper absorption.
- The message must be accompanied by a powerful call to action: now that you know what we have and you know that you want it, how do you get it?
- If the action required is likely to be delayed (and lets face it, it almost always is) it must be somehow memorable enough so that the prospect can remember what it is he or she must do in order to obtain the product.
- Ideally, the advertising media should be able to randomly remember the prospect that he has not yet taking any action to obtain the desired product.
- The genius of direct response media pads are that they have all of the above qualities. Allow me to demonstrate:

Uncluttered environment

Currently, Direct Response media can be found in 1000+ bars, pubs & clubs (generating 131.3 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 2. 200 of the busiest shopping centres (generating 52.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 3. 170 Health clubs (generating 27.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); across 131 Motorway service stations (generating 87.5 impacts every 4 weeks). The pads are attached to washroom posters, positioned above a hand dryer, with the main message repeated on panels all over the washroom (sometimes the main mess

ands they represented. The answer was Direct Response media pads, positioned at the bottom of an advertising panel that deliver the main marketing message.

How does it work?

The success of any marketing campaign is always based on a few simple factors:

- The message must be away from distracting clutter, it should be the only message to absorb.
- The message must be easy enough to absorb in seconds.
- The message must be targeted at a prospect that has an interest in the information.
- The prospect should ideally be in a situation where he is held captive to the marketing message, to allow deeper absorption.
- The message must be accompanied by a powerful call to action: now that you know what we have and you know that you want it, how do you get it?
- If the action required is likely to be delayed (and lets face it, it almost always is) it must be somehow memorable enough so that the prospect can remember what it is he or she must do in order to obtain the product.
- Ideally, the advertising media should be able to randomly remember the prospect that he has not yet taking any action to obtain the desired product.
- The genius of direct response media pads are that they have all of the above qualities. Allow me to demonstrate:

Uncluttered environment

Currently, Direct Response media can be found in 1000+ bars, pubs & clubs (generating 131.3 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 2. 200 of the busiest shopping centres (generating 52.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 3. 170 Health clubs (generating 27.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); across 131 Motorway service stations (generating 87.5 impacts every 4 weeks). The pads are attached to washroom posters, positioned above a hand dryer, with the main message repeated on panels all over the washroom (sometimes the main mess

he is held captive to the marketing message, to allow deeper absorption.
- The message must be accompanied by a powerful call to action: now that you know what we have and you know that you want it, how do you get it?
- If the action required is likely to be delayed (and lets face it, it almost always is) it must be somehow memorable enough so that the prospect can remember what it is he or she must do in order to obtain the product.
- Ideally, the advertising media should be able to randomly remember the prospect that he has not yet taking any action to obtain the desired product.
- The genius of direct response media pads are that they have all of the above qualities. Allow me to demonstrate:

Uncluttered environment

Currently, Direct Response media can be found in 1000+ bars, pubs & clubs (generating 131.3 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 2. 200 of the busiest shopping centres (generating 52.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 3. 170 Health clubs (generating 27.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); across 131 Motorway service stations (generating 87.5 impacts every 4 weeks). The pads are attached to washroom posters, positioned above a hand dryer, with the main message repeated on panels all over the washroom (sometimes the main mess

y have all of the above qualities. Allow me to demonstrate:

Uncluttered environment

Currently, Direct Response media can be found in 1000+ bars, pubs & clubs (generating 131.3 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 2. 200 of the busiest shopping centres (generating 52.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); 3. 170 Health clubs (generating 27.4 million audience impacts every 4 weeks); across 131 Motorway service stations (generating 87.5 impacts every 4 weeks). The pads are attached to washroom posters, positioned above a hand dryer, with the main message repeated on panels all over the washroom (sometimes the main message is also supported by brand domination in the bar, by advertising on bar runners, beer mats, staff t-shirts, scratch card competitions and Bluetooth content.)

Because there is only one message to absorb within this environment, there is no battle for attention, compared to the more ‘traditional’ media.

Captive audience

On average, men visit the washroom for 55 sec, and woman 105 sec, so that takes care of the captive audience.

Gender and lifestyle targeted.

Washroom posters are gender targeted by default. And scrupulous gathered data on all venues advertised in have resulted in ‘laser-precise’ targeting of different lifestyle and interest group.

Memorable media

The response pads are business card size, sit easily in a wallet, and act as a reminder of the precise call to action, whether it is calling a number or visiting a website. Even if you forget to take action at the time you promised yourself, the response pad in your wallet will remind you of the desired product each time you search for your credit card or money.

Compare this to television. You’ve eaten too much, lounge in the sofa, tired, and see an advert for a product you are interested in. It tells you to call a number NOW to enjoy a discount. What are the chances that you will jump out of the sofa and ring that number? Nada. You’ll need some sort of reminder.

Direct response media pads offer this reminder.

Direct Response media pads and its benefits:

(taken from responsedirect.org, leader in cost-effective direct response marketing information, non-profit organization).

- Target your audience very precisely. Direct response media pads can be targeted by gender, life-style orientation or age.
- There is no need to have a mailing list prior.
- The direct response campaign can help you develop a mailing list of prospects that are truly interested in your product.
- Protect yourself against overwhelming response: you can limit the size of your direct response campaign in order to limit the potential response. A problem that small companies often face is the volume of responses after running a radio or television ad. Their staff cannot answer all the calls or emails, and as a result the relationship with the prospect is damaged before it even began. Direct response campaigns can help you avoid logistical problems.
- Cost is relatively modest.
- A direct response campaign can happen fast. You can run a campaign in the next two week