Choosing A School

When I was in high school I was quite the overachiever. I took AP classes along with evening classes at the community college. I thought I was something special and the most brilliant person ever. I was sure that I would end up at Harvard or another Ivy League school. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life: major in Biochemistry and then go to medical school. It’s funny how much things change and how different reality is from high school fantasy.

Of all the Universities that I applied to, I got into all of them, including Emory in Atlanta, Georgia. Among the schools that I applied to, the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona flew me out to Tucson and gave me the royal three-day treatment. I got to see the campus, meet lots of people and go to a college party at just 18. Naturally I signed on the dotted line before really thinking it through. When I returned home, reality set in a bit more. I talked to my Mom and my “second Mom” (high school biology teacher) and we discussed the numbers. Even with a full academic ride, a bachelor’s degree at the University of Arizona, if completed in four years, would cost me $20, 000 per year. That’s $120,000 if, by some miracle, I actually finished in four years. No one finishes in four years.

Also I had no job lined up in Tucson while I had a pretty good one in San Diego. At the last minute, literally a few weeks before I was supposed to leave for Tucson, I changed my mind, withdrew my admission and decided to attend Southwestern Community College here in San Diego instead. At first I regretted it but looking back I think it is one of the best decisions that I ever made, especially considering I graduated from high school in 2007 and am just now graduating from SDSU. It would not have made good sense to go $80,000+ in debt for the same degree that I can get in-state for a fraction of the cost. Plus a part of me knew that my Mom would have lived on ramen for four years to help me pay and it’s time for her to enjoy her life. She had to pinch pennies for my entire childhood.

Community College

Since I had been attending classes at Southwestern College since I was a sophomore in high school, I was pretty comfortable there. In a lot of cases, the coursework at Southwestern was easier than it was in high school. Despite being “thirteenth grade” I have a lot of very fond memories from Southwestern. I started out as a Biochemistry major, changed to a Computer Science major and finally decided on a Business Administration major. In terms of fun experiences, the year that I was a Computer Science major stands out in particular as a really happy time in my life. I was working a part time job in real estate which paid pretty well and had a car for the first time in my life. The car allowed me to have a pretty good social life. I spent a lot of time with these two guys Josh and Leo who were also Computer Science majors. Fun parties, fun all-nighters writing code and great coming-of-age experiences. I’m really thankful for the opportunity to get to know them.

After changing my major two times, I felt like I was going to be in college for the rest of my life. So I finally decided on Business Administration because business is what people do when they don’t know what they want to do. Once I started taking business classes, I found out that I was actually really good at it. I especially loved Marketing. I have a lot of really fond memories and I’m especially thankful to have met my best friend Alyssa along with some other good friends in Astronomy class.

Looking back, life was so much easier in community college. The classes were easier, working part time as an employee was easier and life in general just seemed more innocent. I don’t necessarily miss those days because I wouldn’t be where I am today without having gone through some trials and tribulations related to growing up, but the “good ol’ days” are fun to reflect on. Oh, nostalgia.

Going to community college was also rather humbling. When I was in high school I looked down on people who went to community college and people who went to SDSU. At the time, SDSU would take any student from my school district with a 3.0 GPA or higher, so I used to make comments like “SDSU will take anyone who can breathe”. And community college really will take anyone who can breathe. Yet even at the community college, I was no longer the smartest kid. There are a lot of REALLY smart kids who go to community college, who, like me, want to save money.

San Diego State University

I feel like the luckiest guy in the world for being accepted to San Diego State University. Despite the budget cuts and really large classes, I feel like I got a world-class education. I am even luckier that I was admitted to SDSU when I was. Because of California budget cuts, SDSU had not offered Spring admission for at least four years. I happened to apply on a year that they got extra funding, so I was one of very few people who were admitted Spring 2010. Not only was I admitted but the extra money that the school had this particular semester allowed them to offer enough classes that I was able to get into every class that I needed. There were enough sections that I was able to structure my schedule so that I only went to school on Tuesday and Thursday.

Even though the classes are much more difficult at SDSU than the community college and took getting used to, there was something absolutely magical about my first semester there, taking classes in a theatre of 300 other students. Not only did I survive the transition, I actually did pretty well where grades are concerned. I also made new friends and rekindled relationships with friends from high school. I literally wouldn’t have been able to survive my first semester without their help. I’m especially thankful for my friends Joey and Carolann.

Between my first and second semesters, I decided to study abroad to Vietnam. At first it was culture shock and I was pretty homesick, but I grew to really love the country. Unfortunately I had to leave early because we thought my Dad had prostate cancer. It turns out that it was a false positive. One of the biggest regrets in my life is leaving Vietnam. I still made a couple of lifelong friends from the trip but I feel lost when I look at all of their pictures because I wasn’t able to participate in a lot of the adventures. Yet, at the same time, I would not be where I am today in terms of business if I had stayed. A lot of my valuable business relationships were developed the summer that I returned home.

The second and third semesters weren’t as exciting as the first, mainly because my classes got much more difficult. I still learned a lot, was challenged and had opportunities that most other students didn’t get. In Summer 2012, the marketing department sent myself and my friend Breanna to New York City for a week. Not only did they pay for everything but we were put up in a five star hotel, got to meet marketing students from all over the US and got to interact with people from Ad Agencies. Even though New York City has miserable weather in August, I will look back fondly on this experience for the rest of my life.

I took the Fall 2012 semester off from school and decided to travel instead. I went with my cousin and his best friend to the Republic of Ireland. Ireland tops all of the experiences that I have had in my life. It is literally the most fun that I have ever had. There hasn’t been a day that has gone by that I haven’t thought about Ireland. I really want to go back. But there are also a lot of other places that I want to travel.

My final semester at SDSU has gone by in a blur. I feel like it just started yesterday yet I am taking my last final on Friday. It’s like, the older that you get, the faster time flies by. It’s crazy. This semester was completely different than my other semesters in that I didn’t have any reading or tests. All three of my classes were project based group projects. For my Small Business Consulting class, my entire grade is based upon a thesis and a final presentation. In my Integrated Marketing Communications class, my entire grade is based upon a large paper. And for Advertising Campaigns my entire grade is based upon three presentations that my group had to give. As someone who likes to know where I stand, it was stressful to have such ambiguous classes. It’s a lot easier to memorize a bunch of junk, take a test and then forget it all. Working with real businesses on real problems was much more challenging yet I feel like I learned 100x more than just memorizing theories.

Despite the intense workload, I’ve survived all three classes, presumably with A’s or B’s. In my Advertising Campaigns class I’ve made two life-long friends and have memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Further, I plan to go and visit both of my partners in Europe. One is from Denmark and the other is from Germany. Together we took on a really hard project and came out smiling.

I am very proud of the paper that we wrote in my Small Business Consulting class. I spent many sleepless nights editing and working on the paper, but at 130 pages it is probably the piece of work that I am the most proud of. Hopefully the client company actually implements it.

People can say a lot of things about the California State University and San Diego State. It’s overpopulated. The classes are large. The professors don’t care. There are a lot of frat tools and sorority skanks on campus. Maybe that’s their experience. But my experience was very positive. I made friends that I will have for the rest of my life. I was mentored by professors who literally changed my life. I got to go on two trips that changed me as a person and gave me a global perspective. I found Buddhism and learned about microfinance, two things that radically changed my life and my whole perspective.

Ultimately, despite the size of a school, despite the apathy of certain professors, if you want to learn and if you want to succeed, you will find a way. You might even meet some people along the way who surprise you; people who radically impact you for the better.

I want to say a big thank you to Dr. Olson, Dr. Peter, Dr. Giordano and Dr. Randel. Of all of the professors I had at SDSU, these professors impacted my life the most and I’m thankful that I was able to take their classes.

Having a cohesive brand image is essential in this day and time. Everyone and their brother has a small business, clothing line or record label. If you want to survive, you need to stand out. The best way to do that is to create a strong brand identity that expands to every aspect of your business.

I love working with startups and small businesses, in fact they are the bread and butter of my business. And most of the time a new client will have such a diluted brand image that we start over, from scratch, rather than trying to make sense of their many variations.

The best thing that you can do for your company is to hire one marketing firm or one graphic designer or web developer to make sure that every aspect of your business is streamlined. Every aspect counts: color palette, artwork, imagery, copywriting, website design, print design, photography, social media personality and media personality.

If you still decide to do your own marketing and branding, either because you have the skills or because you don’t have the budget for a professional, here are some tips and tricks that we have found over the years to help guide you in the right direction.

1. Pick one color palette and stick with it.

These colors should ideally match your logo or at least complement your logo. You should figure out what their RGB value is and their HEX value so that you can make sure all future web design and graphic design match these exact colors.

If a professional is out of your budget, here are two good resources to consider when choosing a color palette:

• Colour Lovers – http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes
• Color Scheme Designer – http://colorschemedesigner.com/

If you are new to color theory, familiarize yourself with the color wheel. Know it and love it. There is nothing worse than colors that clash in regards to branding.  Here is a great website that we frequently show clients: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

2. Pick 2-4 fonts and stick with them.

Like colors, it is very important to use consistent fonts throughout your branding. I know typeface seems almost trivial, but it isn’t. It’s very important and becomes the heart and soul of your company.

There are two classes of fonts: Serif and Sans Serif. Sans Serif is Latin for “without serif”. For an idea of difference, Times New Roman is a Serif font while Arial and Helvetica are both Sans Serif fonts. In modern design it is unusual to see Serif fonts, although they are still used in professional industries such as legal, accounting and medical.

A big consideration with fonts is web usability. To be able to use a font on your website, the user must have the font installed on their computer. Because of this, traditionally web designers were limited to a handful of fonts. Thanks to Google and their Google Web Fonts, there are now hundreds of fonts (614 as of the time of writing) available for use on the web. The great thing about these free Google fonts is that you can also download them to your computer for use in print design.

My personal favorite fonts that you will see frequently in my designs are: Ubuntu, Droid Sans, Prosto One and Oxygen.

3. Use consistent design elements

Have a graphic designer create custom elements for you for your website. Or buy a set of custom elements created by the same designer. Make sure that your website, social media and print design use these custom elements as much as possible for a consistent look and feel.

If you use other graphics or stock photos, try to find images that have a consistent look and feel. For example, you wouldn’t want to go with super heroes on one page of your website and then have romantic sunset images on another page of your website.

4. If possible, find a theme for your company

If you are a vacation company and you like sunsets, stick with sunset photos. If you are a dog washer and want pictures of dogs in the park, stick with images of dogs outdoors. If you are a chiropractor and acupuncturist and want to go with a Buddhist / Zen theme, make sure that every aspect of your branding uses that same theme.

I recently met the owner of Ruff Haus Design, a marketing agency here in San Diego. Her website and business are themed very well. They have chosen a dog theme, so every aspect of the business uses images and words related to pet dogs. I found it rather bizarre at first, but now that I’ve gotten to know her brand, it works very well for her. It’s very cohesive. And you don’t soon forget about it. It has top of mind recognition, which is one of the most valuable things you can achieve for your brand. You can take a look at her website for yourself at: http://www.ruffhaus.com/ – note the consistency of images, text and color palette.

5. Have a consistent voice

Having a consistent voice is very important. We strongly recommend hiring copywriters. Copywriting is a lost talent that very few people are truly good at. If you have a limited budget and have to choose between hiring a copywriter or hiring a graphic designer, hire the copywriter.

If you still choose to do your own writing, make sure that you have a consistent voice. Are you serious? Fun? Professional? Whichever it is, make sure that all of your branding reflects this mood.

Do you have a slogan or any buzzwords? Try to be repetitive with those. Apple’s iPad is “magical and revolutionary”. At Nike you “just do it”. At Burger King, you can “have it your way”. These are ideas that are in the brands’ copywriting but are also part of popular culture now.

6. Create variations in your logo

You never know what kind of space you will need to print your logo in, so it is important to have different versions of the logo. Is your logo a combination of some icon and text? Ask your designer to create you separate versions of just the icon and just the words.

Create versions of it for light backgrounds and versions for dark backgrounds. Make sure to get a vector logo design in case you ever want to blow it up big to advertise on a bus or the side of a building.

7. Protect Your Assets

Last but certainly not least, protect your brand. If you haven’t trademarked your company name or your logo, you should do that as soon as economically possible. You can trademark for as little as $500 at LegalZoom.

I have a client with 437 product images on their website, all with rasterized text. What this means is that the text is part of an image rather than HTML text, meaning the search engines cannot read the text. Because of this, their website is not as indexable as it should be by the search engines.

As part of our optimization process, we are optimizing all of their rasterized text into readable text. It is a lot of work, but fortunately parts of it can be automated using Photoshop.

We can use what is called an action in Photoshop to record our workflow (provided all input items will be treated the same way) and then run that action against an input folder and an output folder.

Within Adobe Photoshop

1. Open an example item in Photoshop.
2. Navigate to Window > Actions to make sure the actions pane is open
3. Within the Actions pane, click the icon for “create new”
4. Give the action a name, a set (folder) and click “Record”
5. Make the necessary changes to the image – these will be recorded as part of the action
6. When you are finished, click the stop icon in the Actions pane

Within Adobe Bridge

1. Browse to the input folder of images
2. Select all images that the action should be fun on
3. Go to Tools > Photoshop > Batch
4. Choose the appropriate Set and Action at the top
5. Under Destination, choose “Folder” (this is your output folder)
6. Browse to the appropriate destination and click “Choose”
7. Choose the file naming convention for the output file – if you want it to remain the same then choose “Document Name” + “extension”.
8. Do not check any of the checkboxes
9. Choose “Ok” in the top right corner to run the action

If everything goes well and there are no errors, check your output folder once the action completes.

First I went with a Kindle Fire HD because I love my Kindle eReader and I’m a huge fan of Amazon. However, I was not impressed with the Kindle and returned it.

• The Kindle Fire HD uses the Amazon Android store rather than the Google Play store.
• It uses an Amazon browser called Silk that has limited functionality (no flash). Since you can only get Apps from Amazon’s App store, you’re stuck with the Silk browser and flash is also unavailable.
• The battery life isn’t that great.
• Every aspect of the tablet tries to sell you something from Amazon. If you do a search for Google Chrome on the App Store, Amazon will try to sell you a book about Google Chrome since they don’t allow Google Chrome on their app store.
• The interface is weird. It’s a custom Kindle interface that glorifies the Kindle functionality and media but makes it inconvenient to get to Apps.
• Since you can only get Apps from Amazon, many of the Apps that are important to me on my phone are unavailable.

I understand the Amazon sells the device at a loss and makes it up on content purchases, but I don’t want to spend $400 (between device, warranty, case and screen protector) to be limited by Amazon. Not cool. I understand trying to create an idiot proof and unified user experience, but many users want flexibility and customizability. That’s why we buy Android rather than Apple.

On the plus side, the Dolby Digital sound is really good. And the screen quality is good.

After I returned my Kindle to Amazon, I went to Google and bought the Nexus 7 tablet. It arrived in 2 days and was ready to go out of the box with stock Android. It automatically downloaded all of my Apps from the Google Play store and came with free media content.

Like Amazon, Google makes most of their money from content purchases rather than the device itself. Unlike Amazon, Google only subtly promotes media purchases on the device. Out of the box it comes with a “My Library” widget that can be easily removed.

Since it uses stock Android, all of the apps I know and love were available. It is also thinner, much faster (quad core processor) and has an LTE (4G) Antenna.

Overall it is at least twice the bang for your buck at about half the price of the Kindle Fire HD.

The moral of the story: if you just want to buy digital content from Amazon, get the Kindle Fire. If you want a tablet that does what you need it to do, when you want it to do it, with flexibility and the ability to customize, buy the Nexus 7 from Google.

I’ve found some simple steps you can take it to make it less miserable and a few home remedies that help a lot.

1. Vicks Vaporub – apply to your chest, throat and nose. It helps break up the congestion.
2. Neti Pot – irrigate your nose in the shower, it helps to get out all of the sickness.
3. Ginger Tea – helps to boost your immune system and break up chest congestion.

I’m not a huge fan of ginger, but this tea really does help.

1. Fill up your teakettle and get it boiling.
2. Meanwhile, grate a one-inch piece of fresh ginger root.
3. Get out a teapot or thermos.
4. Put the ginger in the teapot.
5. Put four tablespoons of lemon juice.
6. Add four tablespoons of honey (to taste).
7. When your water is boiled, pour it into the teapot.
8. Cover it up and let it steep for 20 minutes.
9. Strain into a tea cup and enjoy!

When it comes to being sick, I always prefer to try natural remedies to taking drugs that will damage my liver and cause side effects.

One key misconception about Linkedin is that it is just for people looking for a job or for recent graduates. Lies. It is very beneficial for any businessperson, even if only to maintain a digital version of your resume.

Advantages of Linkedin

1. Very easy to setup and use. It has a step-by-step walkthrough for new users to help setup skills and work experience, upload a headshot, join groups, etc.
2. Recent changes at Linkedin now make it more of a professional networking platform rather than just a digital resume. Members can tell their professional story and even maintain a blog on Linkedin, sharing ideas and tips with others. Many famous businesspeople also maintain blogs on Linkedin allowing others to follow them and learn from their successes or mistakes.
3. Linkedin makes it easy to endorse those you have done business with and receive endorsements from customers. For those looking for a job, it is an easy way to maintain digital letters of recommendation from past employers and University professors.
4. With more than 116M active users, it is a great platform to use to your advantage when broadcasting your thoughts. For users who are more experienced with social media, Linkedin offers WordPress and Twitter plugins. When you post a new blog on WordPress, it will automatically broadcast to a potential audience of over 166M Linkedin users.
5. Linkedin is a great way to stay connected with real world networking opportunities in your industry. Use is to connect with new people, old colleagues and friends of friends.

Regardless of the industry you are in, you should have your resume on Linkedin. It is one of the few social networks that is beneficial even if you’re only passively using it.

Through industry groups, common interests and random connections with strangers I have gained access to a lot of networking opportunities I would not have otherwise had. Such as “networking after work” events downtown, open houses at ad agencies and technology conferences.

The next time you are going to meet up with someone for a One to One, research him or her on Linkedin first. You might find out that you have similar interests, used to work together in the past or an interesting icebreaker.

As a startup business, our first initiative is helping girls and women in developing economies. Something we call The Girl Effect.

Women are over half the world’s population, working two-thirds of the world’s working hours, receiving just 10% of the world’s income and owning less than 1% of the world’s property.

Stop and think about that for a minute.

Women do TWO-THIRDS of the world’s work, for ONE-TENTH of the world’s income yet own only ONE PERCENT of the world’s property.

Women in developing countries, specifically developing Islamic countries in Africa and the Middle East, have it the worst. Through a combination of religious tradition and cultural ignorance, many women are refused any kind of education, prevented from handling any of the family finances and oftentimes not even allowed to leave the house without a male family member.

They are expected to do the majority of the household work, beaten and raped by their husbands or other male family members, yet reap few, if any, of the benefits of their labor.

When you invest in women in the developing world, through academics or basic economic education, the investment grows ten fold. The most powerful thing you can do for the world is empowering girls. Therefore we choose to empower women entrepreneurs who in turn empower their children who in turn empower the entire village and eventually the world.

The women we work with do a variety of things from making and selling handicrafts in Ethiopia, to running small markets in Vietnam, to leasing heated garages in Mongolia to protect cars during the harsh winters.

Regardless of how big or small their businesses are, women reinvest their earnings into education and healthcare for their family. By bringing home money, they gain economic independence from the men in their lives to the point of being treated like a human being.

When you empower a girl, you empower a whole village.

The main way we empower women is by giving them a microloan on Kiva. Kiva is a web 2.0 social media platform that connects those in need of a loan to microlenders on the ground to people all over the world who give loans as small as $25.

Two years and 115 loans later, we only have a 1.56% delinquency rate and that is a result of a civil war in Tanzania making it impossible for the lender to collect payments rather than inability to repay.

This Holiday rather than being part of the problem by consuming more things that you don’t need, consider being a part of the solution by buying Kiva cards for your customers, colleagues, friends and family. Not only will they be able to make a difference in the life of someone less fortunate, but they will eventually get the money back to either take and spend or re-lend.

Whereas most countries use GSM (sim card) technology, use a pre-paid business model and charge the caller rather than the receiver, like most things in the United States we do things backwards. Our market is largely CDMA based, phones generally require a 2-year contract and both parties are charged minutes.

We have “the big four” carriers: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile along with a few smaller companies that piggyback off one or more of “the big four”. Since Verizon formed out of the ashes of Airtouch Cellular in the 90s, the model in the United States has been for the carrier to lock consumers into a 2-year contract in order to buy a subsidized mobile device.

Even today, this subsidy model largely continues, despite the emergence of discount carriers like Leap Wireless (Cricket) and MetroPCS.

I have personally been a customer of all of “the big four” companies. I started out with Sprint, moved to T-Mobile, briefly joined a friend’s account on Verizon, moved to AT&T when I got an iPhone and finally moved to T-Mobile in 2010. More or less they are all the same. Some have faster data, some have clearer calls, a few treat you like an actual human being rather than a number.  But they are all more-or-less inflexible since they own you for at least two years.

However, over the past few years there has been growing trend of consumers moving away from “the big four” to discount carriers. The discount carriers charge full price for mobile devices, but the service is significantly cheaper with no long-term commitment, resulting in a net savings over time.

As “the big four” have continued to lose customers, they have been slow to adapt. In fact, rather than trying to retain customers, AT&T and Verizon eliminated unlimited data in early 2011 and T-Mobile began throttling customers once they reach a certain point. The only carrier, until recently, that continued to offer truly unlimited data was Sprint.

Fortunately, after T-Mobile’s merger with AT&T was blocked by the FTC, they stepped back, reevaluated their business model and decided to do something truly revolutionary – shake up the status quo. They not only acquired MetroPCS but have adopted a discount European-like business model, offering customers options that none of their big three competitors do: pre-paid sim only options, pre-paid monthly options, daily pay options and value contracts.

Customers traveling to the US on holiday can now go to a T-Mobile store or kiosk, buy a sim card and pay as little as $1 a day to use their mobile device in the US. In the past, they would have to pay exurbanite roaming charges to their home carrier.

For monthly contract customers, T-Mobile now offers an alternative to the mobile phone subsidy, at a significant savings to customers. Whereas they would give up to a $400 retail subsidy in the past toward a new mobile device but make it up with a higher priced monthly plan, they now amortize the full value of the phone over the 2 years of the contract and provide their plan at a significantly discounted rate. The result: significant savings over time. They have also (smartly) brought back truly unlimited data as well as a value-added bundle of services for free.

The moral of the story for small business owners is: don’t get comfortable. Don’t ride the wave and milk the cash cow. Continue to innovate and shake up your market. If you don’t, customers are going to either flock to the next big thing. Or compete on price, both of which will hurt most of us.

Photo Credit: manganite on Flickr

During my tenure at Starbucks Coffee, I tried all of their coffees, including the special roasts. And of course I tried all of the espresso drinks as well. Starbucks coffee is good, but it’s not great. I personally think it is roasted too dark and just a mediocre bean. The best coffee I’ve ever tasted was in Vietnam, brewed fresh, in a single cup filter, at my table.

If Starbucks’ Coffee is just okay, why do people wait in line up to 30 minutes for it? Why do they pay two to three times more for a latte than they would in the family owned cafe down the street (odds are the family owned place will taste better too)? It boils down to marketing. In Starbucks’ case, relationship marketing. Starbucks knows what their customers want and goes the extra mile to make them feel like royalty.

Starbucks began in Seattle, Washington in 1971. The original store, which is still there, is at Pikes Place Market. Their claim to fame was fresh, high quality coffee beans and brewing equipment. However, in 1988 the company was purchased by Howard Schultz who changed coffee consumption as we know it.

The company expanded from plain drip coffee to hand crafted espresso drinks, inspired by espresso bars in Italy.  This is where the relationship marketing revolution began.

Baristas were trained to have a “just say yes” attitude with customers. Customers could customize their drink any way they like, from a simple dopio espresso to a complex quad venti soy upside-down extra caramel sauce caramel macchiato. Any barista will craft the drink (mostly) the same, at any Starbucks in the world.

In order to focus on their customer rather than a coffee assembly line, baristas only make one or two drinks at a time, giving them a chance to create a warm personal connection with their consumer. In my store, regular customers didn’t even have to order their drink, when a barista noticed them in line, the drink order would be automatically placed and waiting for the customer when they reached the register.

As the overall brand and the “just say yes” culture grew, Starbucks expanded their marketing to include a “third place” concept. The place between home and work that people go to connect with their community. They encouraged customers to hold business meetings, relax with friends, read books and magazines and organize for the community. To encourage stores to organize philanthropic projects in their community, Starbucks pays baristas up to 40 hours a year for community service work they do.

Using this “third place” approach, Starbucks slowly but surely connected the majority of Americans with their local Starbucks store by providing a safe, comfortable environment with oversized furniture and free wifi.

Once the brand went international, Starbucks moved away from the “third place” culture and went more for a consistent, mass-produced feel while maintaining strong personal relationships. This is where drive-thru locations, Starbucks music stores, licensed stores and kiosks and mass market packaged goods came into play.

One of their most successful relationship marketing tools has been the Starbucks card. Everyone I know has gotten a Starbucks card at some point, either as a prize or as a gift. Starbucks expanded this program beyond a simple gift card into a relationship-building tool by creating the Starbucks Rewards Program.

Using the power of database marketing, they collect information about their clients and incentivize them to return again and again. At the first level, just for registering their card, Starbucks gives rewards program members a free birthday drink, discounts on coffee beans and retail products and special discounts in the mail. At the next level, more frequent guests receive free drink upgrades (syrup, extra shots, soy milk, etc). And at the final level, the Starbucks Gold Card, members receive a special gold gift card in the mail with their name on it. Not only do they get all of the benefits of the other levels, but they receive a free drink for every 10 that they buy as well as better discounts on products.

Starbucks’ ultimate success lies in integrated marketing communications. They coordinate their communication between text, e-mail, direct mail and social media to spread their message to the largest possible audience. They have pioneered new ways to pay like the Starbucks app for smartphones where customers can just scan their phone to get rewards without having to carry around their Starbucks Card.

To better understand their consumers, they conduct frequent market research to see what their customers think. At the most basic level they use in-store observations and at the most technical level they conduct formal market research using surveys and focus groups.

As small business owners we don’t have the multi-billion dollar marketing budget that Starbucks has, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t employ some of these same strategies to better connect with our consumers.

1. Setup a Client Relationship Management (CRM) database to track information about your customers, past interactions, future opportunities and important dates like birthdays.
2. Send thank you cards, happy birthday cards and sales promotions to customers (with their permission) using an integrated marketing approach.
3. Make your customer feel special: address them by name, establish a human connection beyond business, if possible have the customer always work with the same person at your business.
4. When something goes wrong, own it and make it right. Most of us can’t solve a problem by just giving someone a free drink, but it is important to make every customer feel special and appreciated, even the difficult ones.
5. Reward loyal and repeat customers.

Photo Credit: *Peanut (Lauren) on Flickr

Working in the marketing and web design industry, we do not believe the client is always right. In fact, in my experience, the client is often wrong. And usually doesn’t know what they want until you tell them.

Some examples from web design: musical flash intros. Blinking text and flashing graphics. Splash pages. Graphical mascots. Guest books. These things were great in the 90s. But they are obsolete (and distracting) when it comes to conventional Web 2.0 standards of design.

Is The Client Wrong?

When considering what is right or wrong for a client, we must remove any emotion from the equation. We must distance ego from from the project, perhaps asking the advice of an uninvolved third party, to be as objective as possible. What are the client objectives? What are the pros and cons of this specific client request? Will it help their overall objective or hurt it?

In many cases, the client will know their target audience better than marketers will. After all, they deal with their market on a daily basis. Keeping this in mind, if it still seems that a client is wrong, suggest some alternatives. Compromise on an alternative rather than just telling them they are wrong.

At the end of the day, the client is paying us to meet their needs, not necessarily industry conventions. If a request helps their bottom line, even if it is absurd, just do it.

Speak The Client’s Language

Remember that a client may not necessarily speak “techno babble”. They may not realize that a seemingly simple request may take 20 hours of coding. It is important to communicate with a client in a language that they can understand.

When in doubt, help the client define the following things:

1. Overall Objective(s)
2. Measurable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
3. A Marketing Communications Plan
4. Set & Execute Milestones
5. Compare Results to KPIs
6. Make Changes As Necessary

When client requests can be directly and objectively measured against KPIs, a client is much more likely to take marketer advice.

When To Say No

It is important to remember who is the expert. Clients don’t hire consultants to complete tasks they can do themselves, in-house. They hire consultants to help them improve their business because we are experts in our fields.

As such, it is important to maintain credibility. My motto is to “under-promise and over-deliver”. Set realistic goals and exceed clients’ expectations by meeting and exceeding these goals.

Ethical Conflicts

The following are situations where a client is always wrong and it is okay to say no:

• Being asked to work for for non-monetary compensation or for significantly less than the market rate of compensation.
• Being asked to commit to an unrealistic timeline.
• Being asked to do something you find ethnically questionable.
• Being asked to take on more work when you are already overextended.

In all of these situations, there is big potential to disappoint a client. And as a result, not only fail to help a client, but perhaps hurt a client.

When it comes to ethical conflicts, always say no. It is not worth hurting your reputation for a client. There are plenty of shady companies out there who will take their project. Choose the ethical high-road by saying no. The universe will send you plenty of new business to make up for the one lost contract.

Continuous Changes

In the web design industry, some clients have the idea that they own their designer for life once a website is designed. They expect changes to be made to their website frequently, instantly and for free. Therefore it is important to set boundaries and proper expectations to what is and isn’t included in your service.

At my company, we explain to a client up-front the scope of our service. We outline our 90 day satisfaction guarantee and what services carry additional cost. We still encounter the occasional client who expects free updates, but we can refer them to our written policies, offer to make changes as a one time courtesy and then explain to them that future changes will be billed at our standard rate.

This is not the answer most clients want to hear, but it has enabled us to save a lot of relationships while earning a fair rate for our services.

Photo Credit stratfordcollege on Flickr