Tips on Barter and Incentives

Can you use your friends to promote your product? Find out how you can make word-of-mouth campaigns and social media tactics work for your business.

Ever since we’ve been watching sitcoms like Friends and Desperate Housewives, we’ve come to understand that friends are always there for us, have been, and will be. A few have even come to believe this ever since their baby days, when friends would draw graph charts for each other or complete another friend’s homework assignment.

Is life all that rosy and happy, even in business and advertising? If you launch a new campaign and look at your friends just like Puss-in-Boots looks at Shrek, will they sell their soul to help you achieve good results? Heck, will they at least take the pains to even tell a few people about your product? Perhaps, you’d say they would.

But as a seasoned oak that’s been bracing the strong winds of branding for a good amount of time, I’ll reveal a shocker.

Fact: Friends never sell for their friends.

Could it be true? Yes. It most definitely is. Friendships look pretty in sitcoms, but in the world of advertising, they could give you more trouble than good. I met a fresh entrepreneur at a business networking event, and he had the three most important things in the checklist to be a good and successful entrepreneur. Passion. Determination. A great product.  But unfortunately, he had nothing else on his side.

After the initial introductions, he told me about his publication and how he was going about to make it work. He asked me if it was worth telling others about his publication. I was surprised. Here was an enthusiastic kid with a good idea that could take him places, and there he was, asking if he should let people know about it. Of course, he should! I told him he should let people know about the idea ASAP! And he should definitely spread the word.

About a month later, he called me and told me that he was a failure. Apparently, the very next day after our meeting, he mass-mailed all his friends in his 200-odd member mailing list and told them about his new publication. He asked all of them to forward the mail to all their friends, and pester those friends to mass mail it forward to their friends and so on. Basically, he wanted to grow like rice on a chessboard! He even added a P.S. note saying “Please, please, please, please, guys, please forward my mail so people will think my book is a good one. With you guys to help me, I can seriously make it big through word-of-mouth. Thanks a lot for all the help. I really can’t do this without your help. You guys are my best pals! And hey, don’t forget to delete this part of the message before fwding! ”

You can probably figure what happened next. A few friends did forward his mail after deleting his P.S. note as real good friends do. Most of his good friends didn’t do anything more than glance over it once. Quite a few others smirked to themselves and forwarded the mail along with the P.S. note!

With all the drama though, he got no calls, and my guess is that his mail probably didn’t cross the first two chains to achieve a strong chain-mail status. What went wrong here? How could best friends not help? There’s always the jealously and the what-if-he-becomes-bigger-than-me syndrome. But most importantly, keeping the advertising perspective in mind, what would his friends get if they promoted his book? The simple answer is a big blip. Nothing.

The most basic concept in the world is that of Barter. We’ve been doing it for as long as we can remember. And another important concept that matters is Incentive. If a barter doesn’t work for someone, they look for an incentive. If that doesn’t come into the picture, people don’t promote. A simple, straight fact.

If you decide to retweet an article or tweet-follow Guy Kawasaki or follow Ashton, it’s probably because you think it makes you look better than the others around you. It either makes you more knowledgeable or better connected, and you want to let people know about it! You don’t do it keeping your friends’ sole interests in mind. You do it for You! So why should your friends be any different?

Fact: Friends never sell for their friends. Business associates do.

On the other hand, if you really want your word-of-mouth campaign to start off on a successful note, tell your business associates about it. There’s a big chance that it may show you better results if your idea is a good one. There’s always a good incentive in this picture. And as long as people can get something by associating with you, they’ll gladly pull your cart for you.

By talking about a good idea, your associates can pass the word around to people who may be interested in your product. This makes that particular associate seem well-connected and informed, which increases their brand value. They will talk about you as long as they think your idea is worthy enough to talk about. That’s Barter.

On the other hand, some associates may talk about your idea with their own business associates in the hope that they may be able to crack a deal in between and obtain a commission. That’s Incentive.

There could be several other reasons too. Perhaps, to impress someone, to gain brownie points for being well informed, to be in your good books, or plainly, to suck up to you! All this as long as you and your idea seem worthwhile. So word-of-mouth, my friend, can be just as fickle as fame. But what matters most is that IT WORKS!

Friends are personal contacts, and they’re great for a good time. Business associates are professional contacts, and great for your business. Never mix business and friendship. This is just one of those things all over again. So if you want to take your company to the next level, remember the fact about Barter and Incentive. As long as you have one of these, who needs friends?!

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Things you should never do while custom publishing an in-house magazine for your company. Using an in-house magazine for any of the purposes mentioned here could turn out to be disastrous for your company’s branding.

If you’re convinced that custom publishing is the ideal path for you to connect with your customers, and want to publish an in-house magazine, well, that’s a great start. There’s a lot of good that your company can get from a custom magazine. But at the same time, it can turn around and hit you right between the eyes if you misuse a company publication. Here are twelve “what-not-to-do” pointers when it comes to publishing an in-house magazine.

1. Go unprofessional

This is probably the biggest factor you need to consider while publishing your own company magazine. In your own line of work, you must have heard the old adage, “If you can’t do it yourself, give it to someone who can”. Employ a team of qualified professionals to work on the magazine internally, or contact a custom media house to publish it externally on your behalf. As an added perk, you may also be able to generate additional ad revenue to self-sustain the magazine by tying up with a custom media house.

2. Never go unqualified

Today, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. Good for them. But is that good for you? Don’t publish your magazine by tying up with just about anyone who says they know to write and design. At the end of the day, a custom publication is a very strategic medium where every single page has a direct consequence on your profits. Underqualified people can publish brochures and booklets, not custom magazines.

3. Assume you have all the PR you need

You can’t get any further away from the truth here. An in-house publication is a start, but it’s by no means, the means to the end. Follow up your custom publication activity with additional activities to pack a power-punch.

4. Brag about yourself

Launching an in-house magazine is a proud moment, but try not to take it over your head. Just because you have the editorial control doesn’t mean you have to exploit all of it. Remember, Spiderman’s uncle once said “with great power comes great responsibility”. Try to keep the directors’ and boss’ family pictures and tall tales to a minimum. This is a company magazine, remember? Not an “I’m-paying-for-it, I’ll-stick-what-I-want” self promo piece.

5. Glow too bright

You’re obviously proud of your company and achievements. An occasional air-punch or thumbs up is a good boost of morale. But let’s not stretch the facts too far and take the tales of glory to far-fetched heights. Brag about your company in your magazine, but do it discreetly and professionally.

6. Promos galore!

An in-house magazine is a means of communication between the company and the customers. It’s not a regurgitator of promotions. Company advertisements and self-promotion pieces should not exceed twenty percent of the total number of pages. Anything more than that and your magazine loses its credibility.

7. Badmouth competition

This is a rather self-explanatory pointer. Much like we know that a person is judged not by how they treat their peers, but their subordinates, this is similar. When it comes to companies, people judge them by the way they talk about their competitors. So if you want to be respected through your publication, talk about your achievements without overly comparing and gloating over your success and your competitors’ losses in the pages.

8. Straying away…

This usually happens when an underqualified team is delegated to work on the custom publication. Unfortunately, for many writers who aren’t qualified in the custom publishing industry, sticking to the core ideology and long-term strategy of the magazine can be a hard task. But no matter what, retain the core focus of your in-house magazine. Your readers don’t want to read page after page about celebrity gossip in one issue, and read about luxury tourism in another issue. If they did want that sort of content, they could buy a mainstream magazine instead! Stick to your niche, and provide your readers with interesting, relevant information that focuses on your industry.

9. Partial distribution

This can be loyalty roadkill of the worst kind. If you’re publishing a magazine for your customers, or for a certain niche segment of your preferred customers, be fair to all. When you’re going to take the pains to publish a magazine for a few customers, print enough number of copies to ensure that you have spare copies to distribute the magazines to all your preferred customers. You don’t want to hear from a few disgruntled customers who are rather annoyed at being treated unfairly for no fault of theirs.

10. Rebuke customers

You may have a point to prove or a settle to score with a certain segment of the public or a few irate customers who would have created an issue about your company or a product. You definitely would have to bring up the issue in your publication. It’s always better to nip any gossip in the bud. But sort it courteously, making your customers aware of certain developments without insulting public sentiments.

11. Publish low quality mags

Deciding to launch an in-house magazine may only be the first of many strategic decisions that have to be made under careful consideration. However, one of the more important aspects of a publication is the number of pages and the quality of the publication. If you were a customer of a company that provides a thin, centre-pinned magazine with low quality paper, what would you do with it? Roll it up to swat flies or drop it straight over the stack of old newspapers? You be the judge.

12. Go Sleazy Sleazy

Unless you’re a company that promotes mature content, stay off the minimally attired covers, peek-a-boos, the oops! and the teeny swimsuit spreads. At the end of the day, you’re publishing a magazine that will stay on the coffee tables of your customers for quite a while. You wouldn’t want your customers curling their toes or shuffling awkwardly when a visiting kid starts flipping the pages in front of his parents, would you?

The round-up

With these twelve pointers to avoid in mind, you’re almost ready to launch your own company magazine. But for the finer details that are specific to your company, well, call a custom media strategist who can help you add the right content and play the right strategic game. But however you choose to go, a magazine has always been one of the finest ways to firmly pave your path to success, positive customer feedback and branding.

P.S. If you’re looking for a custom media strategist, I know a really swell guy who’s all that and more. Look at the top right corner of this page. You’ll find him!!

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How did Custom Media become the new King of Media Strategies?

How can Custom media strategies help your company? Why is Custom Media better than traditional advertising? Find out all the answers to why Custom Media is the real king of Media Strategies right here.

Primitive Advertising

Mankind has always been into the business of advertising. Perhaps, from the very first time we started communicating with crude hand signs. If there’s something we have that’s better than what’s available around us, that’s worth a brag.  It’s not too difficult to imagine what our ancestral primates could have been bragging about to each other. “I. Big. You. Invisible. Ha. Ha.”

But today’s modern age has given us a lot more to brag about. But bragging out loud or keeping things a wee bit subtle, we can call them all Advertising. Well, by definition, advertising is letting someone know you have something that they want. Even if they don’t want it, we’ll shove it down their throat anyways. That’s Advertising.

Enter the cycle of Advertising

We’ve been living in this cycle of advertising for a long time now. Around ten decades ago, there weren’t too many products to advertise. There were a few brands of toothpastes and a couple of colas. Clothes? We had neighbourhood tailors for that. But a few people had a few things that were worth advertising. And a few other clever people came up with ways to advertise things. Today, we call these two categories of people, Big Companies and Advertising Agencies. The decades rolled on, and it started coming closer to the ‘80s and the ‘90s. Advertising was on a high by now. People wanted new things. They wanted colourful clothes, innovative bath sponges, and instant noodles. Oh yeah, they wanted noodles!

Everything was so exciting in the early years. Make a mistake, and you bloody well would have made a creative invention. Blotting paper, dry cleaning, revealing clothes, Jim Carrey, they were all mistakes that we’ve come to love with time. Back then, people were hungry for new products. But good entrepreneurs were only a handful. So any product that was advertised was lapped up in a hurry.

Enter the New World of Entrepreneurship

Today, entrepreneurs are even more common than employers and employees put together! They’re everywhere, so much that it’s become an infestation. We have new products all the time. Create web browsers, and you have a horde of browsers in no time. Create Hotmail, and there comes even more mail providers. Make Orkut, and now Foursquare. Today is a bad time for entrepreneurs and manufacturers now.

But the consumers are having the time of their lives. They’re ridiculously spoilt for choice with all the things that clever people think are “worth advertising”. And that creates competition between the products. A good decade or more ago, all the making-products people and the advertising-products people sat together and hit upon an idea – Advertise more, more people will buy. It worked before. It’s going to work again!

And they increased their budgets and came up with clever ways to draw the customer. And it worked! Customers started buying products because advertisements made it look cool. VIP Frenchie’s “what’s he got that I ain’t got?!” was the mother of all underwear revolutions in India. Life was good.

Enter the Internet

Then dawned the era of the Internet. And with it came internet imagery of women. And mail. And web sites. Life in advertising didn’t change. A little over a decade ago though, people started exchanging ideas over the internet. And around the same time, people started getting bored of seeing more advertisements than their favourite soap operas on the idiot box, and being bombarded with flyers and crashing into billboard hoardings while driving. And any layman would know what happened next.

Money pumping brands started seeing a decline in their sales. They panicked. And pumped more money into advertising. It didn’t work. Advertisers panicked, and started creating innovative advertising campaigns to counter the effect. It worked to a certain extent. But the budgets were unimaginably huge. Something was missing though. People weren’t swaying to the tunes of the advertisements anymore. For the first time, advertisements were made to sway to the people’s tunes.

Enter the Immunisation

People had become immune to the traditional forms of advertising. It just wasn’t working. Mass advertising was passé. The Regular Joe didn’t want to be advertised to anymore, he wanted to be connected to. And thus began the new Revolution of Custom Media. Advertising agencies didn’t understand most of it. To a large extent, they still don’t believe it. But today, it’s been seen time and again that the companies that connect directly with its customers are the ones that are thriving.

And that’s where Custom Media strategies take over the throne from traditional advertising. While traditional advertising has always focussed on the product, the essence of custom media is the customer. By focussing on the customer directly and exchanging ideas and feedback with them through different channels like custom in-house magazines, regular publications, social media drives, or personalised campaigns, etc., a company can create a better bond with the customer and increase brand awareness and loyalty.

If you’re still not convinced, think Redbull, Burger King, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, or Foursquare. These are brands that focussed on a new and innovative custom media strategy to connect with the people. They didn’t need megabucks to become some of the most powerful brands in the world. They racked their brains to connect with their consumers, they used Custom Media. As long as you have a powerful custom media strategy that’s unique to your company, you can take it to every single consumer that needs it, and make the money! It’s all about the perfect custom media strategy and nothing else. Even mega brands across the world have now started producing their own in-house magazines to cater to their customers. That’s the big difference between custom media strategy and traditional media strategy.

Enter.

While all advertising campaigns have been revolving around creating content about the product, custom media companies across the globe have been creating content that caters to the customer. Traditional advertising agencies may still find it hard to create compelling content around the consumer, but a custom media house is years ahead of traditional media, with experience in creating customised content that sells directly to the customer.

Today, it isn’t an advertisement that sells a product, it’s the customer. If the customer is happy, chances are, the company’s going to be happy too. After all, it’s all about word of mouth and what the company would be willing to do, to go the extra mile for its customer and prospective customer.

The King.

All said and done, the word is out. Custom Media is out there to make a difference in the world of Company-Customer relationships. Custom Media is here to remind the Big Company that it isn’t the brand that makes the consumer bigger, it’s really the other way around. So take a bow, Custom Media, the new King has finally taken its rightful place. And you know what, something tells me the customers are going to be a happy lot too!

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