It’s that season

Elections are coming up in America. Our mailbox provides abundant evidence. A flyer from one political candidate or another comes just about every day. Sadly, most of the ink is spent on saying how bad their opponents are.

I wish there was an “opt out” button.

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Cultural differences

Dear friends recently left us to return to Malaysia. They gave us some Boh Lemon Myrtle tea as a parting gift.

It’s nice – not a flavor (or flavour) you will easily find on the shelves of your local supermarket in North America or Europe.

So first, myrtle is a tree, I think. That might hurt their marketing efforts, should they try to launch in the States. Second, we rarely put single quote marks around the title of any product.

For those of you who are into Facebook, as of an update to this post, Boh Tea is liked by 17,019 people.

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You must speak their language

My Aunt Mary hadn’t heard from us in a while. She doesn’t do email. So I picked up a pen and applied it to paper. So she will receive a nice letter this week.

Takeaway? Do something that communicates to people in a language they understand. They will be grateful. And it may well be a satisfying experience for you too!

(Besides, I like getting letters in the mail. So I was just passing that joy along. My brother does do email, but we still exchange letters. There is something about the hold-in-your-hands experience that can’t be beat.)

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Simplify

Two receipts were given to me after I bought a few pieces of flagstone for a Saturday afternoon project. One was nicely generated by the cash register – complete with a little marketing message at the bottom (“On August 28th, the first 40 customers receive a free reusable bag!”). And then there was the no-technology carbon-copy of a hand-written receipt, showing the weight of the flagstones I purchased.

Santa Fe Sand & Gravel could save themselves time and money by integrating their systems – so that all the info is on the computer-assisted receipt.

Takeaway: Simplify. What are some ways you can simpilfy your business – or life – by eliminating redundant systems?

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You must stand out

This tower of public notices stands in downtown Boulder, Colorado – the home of a university with more than 30,000 students. Most of the posters are for live music events.

Did you notice that all of them look more or less the same?

How hard would it be to design a poster with catchy full-color photo surrounded by a significantly large white border ? Or maybe a 98% black poster with just a tiny bit of white type in the center? Then just put one on top of about every fifth standard poster. Those would stand out.

Takeaway: Let’s think outside the box, my friends.

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Unpublished?

A very minor shiny bit to leave you with for this long holiday* weekend…

I found it highly amusing that in the latest Communication Arts magazine, there is an entire section devoted to unpublished artwork. How can the works be unpublished when the magazine has published them?

(*Independence Day in the States, to those of you not here.)

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What’s a better use?

grabill-campaignMy friend Jon Swanson spearheaded a great campaign to reduce the debt his church has on their building. He came up with several ways to view how the monthly mortgage payments could be better used – in this instance, one monthly payment could be used to fund a large number of New Testaments, rather than paying interest.

Takeaway: What are some ways you can use your resources in a better way?

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Who responds?

spam-namesThese lovely names are the supposed senders of spam that appeared recently in my gmail spam folder.

They have these characteristics:
– They are not normal spellings of English names.
– They are all female.
– Often the last name is a first name.

What does this tell me about spam?
– Those who respond are usually male.
– Those who respond might speak English as poorly as the spam authors.
– It’s fun to read these bizarre names.

More on spam.

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Retire online

retire-onlineI thought that this headline represented an unusual choice. I chalk it up to marketing innocence – or ignorance.

My thoughts were several: does this mean that I can retire if I start an online business? That Patty Duke has already retired online, except for her promising modeling career? That this website (not prominently featured) would help me to learn how to retire? That as an internet user, I am encouraged to help an older person who does not know how to use the internet?

Takeaway: Writers, let’s think a little more carefully before we publish those headlines.

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