Insight To Marketing

It’s a team, not a staff

Fulton Smith-Sykes — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:26:18 +0000

So did anyone miss the whole David Letterman fiasco? Of course not, but did you miss what I wrote about last calling your team….STAFF. David Letterman in the many interviews continued to refer to his people, his team, the very people that make it possible for him to be a Successful entertainer, as his STAFF. It was terrible and it truly sounded demeaning. Of course we can’t forget the other degrading part of his actions, but the rest of you can make your own judgments about those actions. In closing……Never, Ever refer to your team as STAFF. And that is all I have to say about that today.

Dress For Success!

Fulton Smith-Sykes — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:44:34 +0000

What is your restaurant team wearing……. Front and Back of the House? Is your team proud of what they are wearing? If you represent a large chain, you are likely to think about the associated costs, but smaller companies can really have fun with their attire. You should seriously think about your staff’s attire as “Wardrobe” because every time they hit the floor it is a performance. You want them standing tall, looking good and ready to rock n’ roll.

Have you ever seen restaurant employees that have “Staff” printed on their backs? OMG it screams you are just an employee. You are saying you are not really important and that I can always replace you with the next person that applies for a job. Never ever do the “Staff” thing! Also, black and white have become so overused and standard these days. I encourage you to think color! Offer a selection of colors so your team can pick something that expresses their individuality as well as representing your “Brand” in a positive light. People tend to be more focused on the front of the house, but don’t forget the back of the house! They are part of your team and your success, make sure you reinforce that to them. Everyone contributes and let them know that they are as important as anyone within your four walls. Go and see what your competitors are doing and you may have an “AHA” moment. Make sure your team’s “Wardrobe” sets you apart and clearly gives you a Point of Difference.

The restaurant business is hard work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help to improve their jobs and their work environment. Once again, make it fun and enjoyable for everyone you employ and they will reflect that happiness and warmth to your customers.

I hope you have a smile on your face!!!

Is Your Restaurant Staff Really Happy?

Fulton Smith-Sykes — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:52:01 +0000

I never really intended to discuss the wait staff as much as I am, but it appears there is a real need to revisit this topic.

Have you ever walked into an office or a meeting and the atmosphere was thick and unpleasant and you just wanted to leave? Make sure that doesn’t happen in your restaurant! If the staff is tense and not happy for whatever reason, your customers will feel it and it will become a part of their experience and that doesn’t help you get them back into your restaurant. No one likes “negative energy”. Yes, there are times when you have to give the staff, of any organization, a very direct and sometimes uncomfortable conversation about your business and what is happening within your four walls. Just make sure your timing is correct and not before your team hits the floor to take care of your most prized possession…Your Customer.

Before your service team begins waiting on your customers, lighten up the mood. Be happy. Give clear direction about what needs to happen during that day part and move to a positive conversation. Make a joke, ask everyone something they are thankful for that has happened to them recently. Tell them you are very thankful to have them represent your company and reinforce the many contributions they make day in and day out. Make everyone laugh, give a high five or slap on the back. One of my doctors has an open-gratitude based practice and when you walk into his office everyone is smiling and laughing and it is genuine. Make the experience real for your wait staff and they will make sure it happens for your customers. Remind people to be genuine, smile, be happy and be their for your customers. Pay attention.

You are responsible for creating a happy environment and it only takes one negative person to taint the entire team. Don’t allow that to happen. Do not allow negative thinking or behavior. Set a positive example and they will follow.

The Restaurant Brand Marketer

Fulton Smith-Sykes — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:42:48 +0000

I’m a restaurant person. I love restaurants, the fun and the experience. The people, the music, you name it…I’m hooked. My profession is Marketing and Advertising. I build and evolve Brands. But over the years, I have become an astute business person and an excellent listener. I think that happened because I spent half of my professional life on the Agency side of the business and the other half as a client.

Now as a “Brand Helper,” I work in the world of “Brand Space” and help people fill it with perspective that can grow their business. I go to every type of restaurant from fast food establishments, to biker bars, to casual dining spots (which are losing their way) to posh eateries.

Going back to the restaurant discussion, don’t do this “Mr. Restaurant, Owner, Manager, Partner, Employee thing! For example, I went to a much anticipated dinner for a special occasion, and since I’m a restaurant geek you should get the message. It was horrible. I can’t tell you how disappointing the entire experience was from start to finish. Even though my ” little restaurant warning bell” was slightly dulled from a few martini’s, it was still ringing. Instead of “Don’t do This” commands, I’m going to put in more directive terms.

Make sure your host or first person of contact with your customer has what it takes….happy smiling faces and treats the customer with the ultimate respect. I guess you forget that point if you are a really “Hot Spot” and have a big following with a lot of repeat customers! But even still, you need to keep growing and expanding your customer base. The first contact person should introduce themselves and welcome them into their home. Are there events going on in the community? If so, that first contact should be aware of those events and inquire about the customer’s evening. “Are you going to the show tonight?” or “Are you just enjoying the evening with us tonight?” You get the idea. You have established their evening’s expectation and, of course, you should know if it is their first visit. The person should then give a code to the wait person that defines new or repeat customer. I don’t care how busy you are at the time, these are the basics that should become second nature to the staff. I don’t care if you have one customer or 150. What happened to being charming? Oh yea, no one goes to charm school anymore.

Not to worry. I’ll give you an example of bad service. Okay you know where I am going with this. No new news with this. Do you think a coach doesn’t make his team do the basic drills everyday? There is a reason that he does- so it becomes second nature and natural. It becomes “How I do business”. I engage my customers. I embrace them and let them know they are special and that I really am happy that they have come to spend their evening and their hard-earned money with me. Like when we are treated like lepers because we aren’t regulars, the wait staff is bad and rushed. The waiter just wants us to order and get a table turn. Great. Thank you very much. Then the unthinkable happens….. piece of wire in my dinner! Can you believe it? The waiter asks if I would like something else. Would I like Something Else? And then he doesnt immediately remove our plates, he leaves them on the table. Wire and all. Unfortunately, we all have a similar story.

Had to share this story so that each restaurant owner shakes everything up. Start over and get your training into gear Be in your restaurant or restaurants and look at everything like your customer is seeing it for the first time. More to come…Our ultimate goal is to give you a different perspective on the restaurant business.

Best Marketing Practices

Terry Zelen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:51:57 +0000

There is so much hype today about the overarching concept of Internet marketing and how to best position your company on the web for success. What is the best solution and how can you take advantage of this virtual universe?

At Zelen Communications, we don’t think there is a single silver-bullet solution to this question. The reality is that the whole process is far more complex than just creating a web presence that will cure your ills. There needs to be a well thought out strategic plan that fits your company’s needs. From our experience, a 10,000-foot view perspective should be implemented first. What we mean by that is take a giant step back and take a more global view of a business before planning out the minute details.

When we look at an overall marketing strategy for any of our clients, we need to step back and look at all aspects of their company and how they do business. Are they an Internet-only business with no brick-and-mortar facilities or do they have a physical presence in the form of storefronts that need to be factored into the equation? There is, after all, a huge difference between the two configurations.

A web-only business does not need to concern itself with driving traffic to a store for the purchase process. Instead, they are solely focused on generating traffic to their site for purposes of business transactions. However, a business, such as a restaurant or retail outlet, needs to drive consumers to their stores as well as their web site. The strategy for traffic building is distinctly different for each organization. The key is to be able to step back and understand what each client’s needs are and how to best handle them.

Too often, we see firms guiding clients down a path that is not a good fit for them. “If it worked for one company, then it should work for another” is the rationale. That simply is not so and we do not subscribe to that doctrine. Instead, we do our due diligence and research to determine all of the factors that go into each equation in order to get the best possible results, Although it may be more time consuming at the beginning of the process, we are certain that this is completely necessary to achieve a client’s desired results.

Lest we all forget, there are innumerable avenues in the traditional realm of marketing to reach a specific target audience and the Internet, albeit a powerful medium, is not the sole source of connecting with your customers. We approach things a bit differently in that we prefer to look at all forms of communications, and the associated costs, to put together a sound plan that will help our clients to reach their goals in the most cost-effective, yet efficient methods possible. Often there needs to be a hybrid approach between traditional and online components working together to solve the problem at hand.

Here is where we stand apart from online-only firms. Because our roots were set down in the traditional arena of marketing, we understand the power these tactics still hold and know how to best implement them in tandem with Internet-based executions to develop a powerful solution to achieve success. We invite you to join with us to help your business grow in today’s economy. We’ll work closely with you as a partnership for the success we both seek.

The Human Factor

Terry Zelen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:08:21 +0000

To follow up on my previous post about Social Marketing, I have some additional insights for you. How important is the human-factor in relating and communicating with other people whether it’s clients, acquaintances, friends or family? I recently attended a Social Marketing seminar to keep up on the latest trends in the industry. There was a panel of speakers and they all had a central focus to their businesses, such as a Blogger, a Vlogger, an online PR person, etc. The format was set up so that each of the speakers was given questions that directly related to their expertise and allowed a set amount of time to offer their viewpoint.

Everything went along swimmingly in that each of the speakers were competent and confident about their subject matter, until it got to one individual. This particular person was a Twitter expert and had a large following of her Tweets. Her credentials in the program were solid and she had a list of very respectable clients to boot. However, when it came her turn to speak, things went south and quickly. She froze on stage and wilted like a fresh cut flower in the desert!

I was basically dumbstruck, as were a number of other attendees as I glanced around the room. Okay, I know some of us are better speakers than others and stage fright can take down the most seasoned pro. I’ve had my own moments of brain lock and terror so I can relate, but this was a small audience and she knew what the question would be before she received it. That hit me as a bit odd. Maybe I’m being harsh, but this is just a single story that struck a cord. I have been in many other social situations where I can be truly awkward myself. It’s difficult to overcome some things like this. But, I have seen this in other instances where individuals have frozen solid and it likely cost them business.

Here’s the thing though for me. Okay, let’s say you have an entourage on the Internet. Your Twitter followers are in the thousands and you really are linked in on LinkedIn, but this is easy because there’s no face-to-face interaction, just keyboard to screen. How important are real-world social skills today? Are we all satisfied with typing in place of talking?

So many things are changing so fast that it’s a blur some days. Newspapers are sinking like rocks, phone books are filling land fills at an alarming rate and television is so diluted due to the daunting number of channels. I can only hope that the social skills we have been taught in school and by are parents are not heading for the trash heap as well.

I mean imagine a world where our only human interaction is conducted through machines. The thought of it is rather scary, but is it really out of the realm of possibilities? I wonder.

At our agency, we were falling into this rut ourselves. Communications with clients were overwhelmingly performed via email to the point where if we did not get a response to this form of contact, we’d just shoot off a second “reminder” message via email. I mean seriously, we expect everyone to respond instantly and that they all must be garnishing their smart phone 24/7 as well.

We have since corrected this process, by placing a level of urgency on each communication that needs to take place with a client or vendor. If it’s really important, the phone is it. If it’s not on fire and it can be floated out there for an eventual response, then email does the trick just fine.

A funny thing happens when you actually converse with a person though. It’s personal! You ask how they’re doing, and mean it, and small talk takes place in the form of a touch point interaction. There’s no mistake about the person’s mood or if they are feeling good about the relationship. Obviously it’s even more enhanced face-to-face as body language also enters into the conversation giving even greater feedback.

I just am hopeful that we don’t “evolve” to the point where we no longer need to be able to converse with spoken words and in place we seek out a keyboard to do the talking for us.

Social Marketing: the Network of Networking

Terry Zelen — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:32:04 +0000

As a progressive-thinking agency, we are doing our due diligence by thoroughly immersing ourselves in the burgeoning realm of “Social Marketing”. We have now built our own little network of networking on the web so we can intelligently assist our clients should they decide to take the plunge as well.

Our footprint is not as large as it could be, but we feel confident that we have established enough of a presence that we can judge the relevance of this new frontier. We have set up two blogs, the one you are currently reading is for promoting ourselves as well as a concept blog that we are testing as more of a social experiment if you will. In addition, we have set up camps on LinkedIn, Plaxo, FaceBook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, Whrrl and soon, MySpace. We regularly Tweet and our blogs are just getting under way. We have had Plaxo and LinkedIn accounts for some time and see the value in these sites as a business network, but the vote is still out on some of the others.

The funny part is that this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the social universe. There are literally scores of other sites that we could establish bases on if we had just two more assets available to us: Time and Manpower. All of these new sibling sites need nourishment and someone has to feed them regularly. It’s not as if they are self-sufficient once you set up house. If that were the case we would adopt every networking site available in hopes of this creating greater visibility as a company to a far larger audience than what is available in our own backyard. But alas that is not the case.

From all of our research online, news articles, other blogs and books, the word is out that social marketing is the greatest thing since sliced bread. We do believe that this does represent a very exciting new marketing realm, but we view it as just another avenue for marketing efforts and not as the ultimate solution. Marketing departments have their fingers in all forms of marketing these , online and off, in an attempt to capture their fare share of the market.

The dirty little secret is that social marketing is one hungry child when it comes to consuming time. In order to keep all of your social outposts healthy and growing, someone has to constantly feed them with new content as well as continuing the process of growing your audience and reach. That is what is not clearly conveyed in most articles we’ve encountered. I am not saying that it’s all rouse to get others to join this bandwagon, but I am saying that clients need to clearly understand what they are undertaking before they are led down this path. As a partner to our clients, this is our duty.

I have a good friend that is the “Twitter Master“ of Tampa. He is a “ghost” writer for several of his clients and this is how he now butters his bread in a downturn economy. I consider him an evangelist for this new media and why shouldn’t he be, he’s making ends meet doing this and enjoying himself to boot. What’s not to love? However, as I watch his list of Tweets propagate like weeds in a garden, I can’t help but wonder how many hours he invests into this endeavor and how big are the returns?

He has the time and resources to make an impact and generate the kind of following needed to reach the point of critical mass where he will eventually win this numbers game, but what of others? Can they enlist an army of social marketers to proclaim the word and get a return that offsets the cost of feeding this new army? I think it’s still too early to know for sure, but what is certain is that this new road is paved, in concrete, and it isn’t going to go away.

So, for now, we will guide our clients through the jungle of social sites and help them to understand that there is no simple recipe for success when it comes to creating the perfect network for networking. Each client’s needs and solutions will be different and it requires a well thought out strategy to make it all work. There must be a marriage of traditional and new media mixed together properly to get the results a client desires.

Again, would like to get your input and to know if you feel this is nirvana or narcissism

The Lost Art of Design?

Terry Zelen — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:39:03 +0000

As an owner of a design firm and web development company, I have recently been awakened by an alarming trend that I can no longer ignore. My humble beginnings sprouted up through the trenches of advertising by starting my career as a mechanical artist. Ah, the days of hot melted wax and drafting boards are still fresh in my mind, all be it not as nimble as it used to be. Well, that was a long 20 odd years ago, yet as I fondly recall those days of yore, I can’t help but remember the golden rule of achieving perfection.

Yes, back in the “old days” we had only one drumbeat to follow: perfecting our craft. Whether you were a grunt in the pit and pasting up mechanicals, or you were in the lofty tower as a Creative Director, the goal was to create a masterpiece of personal triumph. The type had to be perfectly spaced, the copy must be eloquent and thought-provoking and the design was king. Stop the consumer with simplicity and brilliance, but master the art of persuasion with deft skills.

Well, fast forward those same 20 years and yes it’s a different landscape altogether. For the most part, the journey has been one of discovery, of refinement in the art form know as advertising, of design, of relentlessly crafted words and conceptual epiphany. All of this tortuously culminating in the ever-popular utopia of “social marketing”?

How can this be? I understand the ubiquitous charm of social marketing as the final frontier of finally communicating with the consumer one to one, mano a mano. But I have to ask myself, and everyone else willing to intake these humble words, is this really it?

I am stunned, confused and any other such adjective you care to throw into this sentence. Have we really traveled and toiled all this way to arrive at a destination where YouTube, MySpace, Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn are considered the epitome of excellence in the realm of communication platforms? Surely a mere everyday mortal cannot achieve “God” status by shooting a group of friends in rapture at a sporting event and turn the heads of a nation, let alone the world.

Oh but I’m afraid it may be true. Yes, gone are the days of sophistication in terms of art, design and concept. Here are the days of instant gratification, self-expression and world-wide fame. Where has the art form been vanquished to and will it ever return again to shine upon the hills? I fear not, but hope that I am, once again, incorrect.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s fantastic that we can now, as never before, reach an audience of millions in moments. But what of the magic that has made Hollywood glimmer for so many years? Has everything from newspapers, TV, radio, outdoor, phone books and publications become so diluted that there is no longer any equity in these mediums? Did they sink themselves out of pure competitive overload? I have to say that even if this is the case, should quality be thrown overboard along with them? This is the root of the root for me.

I am just as entertained by social media as the next Internet addict, but where is the art of design? When I state design, I am not just saying pure design of graphics, I am describing all, that goes into a video, a web site, a Twitter page. It’s a fusion of message, design elements, but most of all, meaning. That is the heart and soul of a communication in any form. Is there is no overriding meaning and interaction between writers, artists and designers? If not, what was the journey for? It is, at its purest form, a collaborative effort, not one of self-indulgence and vacuum conceptualism.

So, I leave you with these words and ask for your feedback. Are you offended by advertising, by communications to you as a consumer, an individual? Are you tired of being interrupted by messages of creative excellence in your day to the point where you only want to see what you want and when you want it? Even if it’s done at the hands of others that have no love for true art flowing through their hearts, their fingers or minds? I, for one, still yearn for excellence, craft and love of pure brilliance no matter where it may choose to express itself.