North San Diego Business@Large

A message from the Chamber for all small business owners!

Make your voice heard! Attend the FINAL California Public Utilities Commission hearing on 760 in Carlsbad this Thursday, September 4, 2008 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at City Hall, 1200 Carlsbad Village Dr.

Carlsbad Chamber along with Assemblyman Garrick and other local chamber’s have filed a petition with the CPUC to Modify their decision and to keep 760 in North County. Join us this Thursday, September 4, by testifying and telling the CPUC commissioners how much money this area code change will cost your business and why you support the Chamber’s PETITION TO MODIFY DECISION 08-04-058 (to split area code 760)!

What: FINAL California Public Utilities Commission Public Participation Hearing on Petition to Modify Decision of 760 area code split.

When: Thursday, September 4, 2008

Where: Carlsbad City Council Chambers,1200 Carlsbad Village Dr, Carlsbad, CA 92008

If you wish to attend please contact Michael Babowal at (760) 931-8400 x 208 or MBabowal@carlsbad.org

Can’t attend,but want to help? Click here to find out how.

HISTORY

With over 1,700 members, representing over 75,000 employees, the Carlsbad Chamber is the 10th largest chamber of commerce in the State of California. Over 90% of our members are small businesses, so we have had serious concern with the California Public Utilities Commission’s Proposed Decision in the 760 Area Code proceedings since it was announced in 2007. The Chamber attended a meeting in Carlsbad and submitted letters opposing the potential split of the 760 area code and urged an area code overlay. We believe subjecting the people and businesses of Northern San Diego County to yet another area code change is especially unfair since for many in the area this will be the third time they have had to change their area codes from 714 to 619 (November 1982) to 760 (March 1997) to 442 (April 2009) in less than 30 years.

Area code changes are burdensome and inconvenient for anyone with a phone, but the burdens are particularly significant for companies which rely on their telephones to conduct their businesses. Companies expend significant financial resources to promote their businesses contact information.  For a business, a change in area code means they must incur costs to change a number of key documents including, but not limited to: stationary, yellow pages entries, advertisements, business cards and to effectively "re-market" their new number.  More significantly, our members face the very real risk that they will lose business and revenue from customers who cannot locate their business because of a new phone number.  These costs are significant for all business, but are extremely burdensome for our core membership; small businesses.

On April 24, 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to split the 760 area code in a majority of North San Diego County to the newly proposed 442 area code. This was against the recommendation of the impartial North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA). Starting in November of 2008, those in the affected region will be forced to switch to area code 442. (A list of affected phone number prefixes is here.

Assemblyman Garrick along with several of their state and local colleagues and several affect chamber of commerce have composed and signed a letter address to the CPUC and Governor.

ARTICLES/LINKS

760 area code could be pulled from San Diego

REGION: Cell phones, too, will switch to 442 area code

KEEP760.ORG

The best way to build trust in any relationship is to create a sense of familiarity and comfort. Look at your relationships currently, the best ones are the ones where you have these very aspects. It’s not so different in business. The idea of branding can cause some people to go mad trying to figure out what to get across in order to create the correct position in the mind of their target audience.

Let’s strip everything away and build the familiarity and comfort level. Go to your top 5 ideal customer’s websites and take notes. Look for the following:

·         Use of Color
·         Style of Writing
·         Font Choice
·         Use of Pictures
·         Overall Feel
·         Emotions Elicited

With this information you can now create your brand to Mimic the ideal customer’s. Don’t copy their brand, but utilize similar color schemes, pictures, fonts, writing style, etc. With your new brand, you should be able to begin the trust building through familiarity and comfort. It’s that simple.

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, an International Marketing Strategy and Branding Agency in San Diego County. Miser Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that acts as a complete marketing department for small businesses in the San Diego area and the World. You can reach Paul Miser by emailing him at pmiser@miserad.com.

Where does your brand fit into the Day-to-Day routine of your customers? No answer, huh? That’s because no one has ever been asked this question before. Why would we want to know where our brand is in the daily lives of our customers? Simple, if we can ensure our company or brand is integrated in to the daily activities completed by our customers and core target, we can ensure top of mind awareness, brand loyalty, point of sale positioning, and can take us to the promise land of our brand; complete brand saturation.

Routine Branding is the marketing of the future. It will soon become commonplace, much like relationship marketing or duct tape marketing, but is now the idea that will change our Brand as we know it. It will look the same from the outside, but inside the customer’s life, it will take on a whole new meaning. It will become a catalyst for their life growth. It will become so ingrained in their routine that, if removed, would create a void that could equal the loss of a friend or family member. Routine Branding is the crowning achievement for any brand. Forget about brand awareness or brand loyalty, we are creating a Routine Brand, a part of the customer’s life.

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, an International Marketing Strategy and Branding Agency in San Diego County. Miser Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that acts as a complete marketing department for small businesses in the San Diego area and the World. You can reach Paul Miser by emailing him at pmiser@miserad.com.

For many years the ideal of business is to get as many customers as possible and retire a multi-zillionaire. But as a small business owner we can’t afford the time and resources to do so and many of us like to perform in the smaller scale. This is great for the most part but has a potential to become problematic. With our smaller focus and income we can’t afford to compete with the Wal-Mart’s and the McDonald’s because we can’t lower our prices to compete or we won’t make enough money to survive. I have heard many sob stories on how Wal-Mart ran me out of business. I think to myself, did they or did you not adapt to the situation? The fast-paced business world coupled with rising customer expectations has given us all a sense of urgency. We all, as consumers, have the mantra, “I want to be able to buy everything in one place at the lowest possible price to get back to my life.” But is this what we really want? I think, as people, what we really want is an excellent product, with personable, friendly customer service at a reasonable price. This is why we need to think Mayberry, Not Wall Street.

1. Gather Information: Knowledge is power! You need to fully understand your business, customer, industry and competition. Where do you sit in the minds of these entities? Where is your business in the universe? To put up a victorious fight, you need to be able to leverage your message and operations in a way that will retain and grow your customer base.
2. Tweak Your Image: Utilizing your information you will know what your market is looking for in a product or service. Your message should portray this ideal and lead to a purchase decision.
3. Create a Culture of this Image: To increase effectiveness of your newfound image, you need to implement it in every aspect of your company from operations to customer service. To win this war, you need to be able to scream louder than the Big Box store.
4. Don’t Skimp on Operations: Whether you produce widgets or provide eye exams, you need to provide your customer with a top-notch, five-star product or service. I guarantee the Big Box store will fall short in this arena.
5. Increase Your Customer Service: The little things matter here. The courtesy calls, thanking them for their business, going above and beyond the call of duty, offering value-added information for free, building a relationship, etc. This shouldn’t be very time consuming if done correctly and the investment of time is well worth every second. The little things are what will help retain your current customers, who will then spread an ever-valuable viral campaign.
6. Remind Your Customer’s of Your Added Value: Toot your own horn. Let your customer’s know how great of a company you have and how much better your service is than the Big Box down the street. This has to be subtle but effective. Don’t brag, just remind.
7. Think Mayberry: Sit down and watch a few episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. Watch for  how people are treated, what the reaction is, what the lifestyle is. How can you implement these values into your business? Doing it will provide something that the Big Box will never be able to meet; Personable, Appreciated relationships. 

As I look around at my current, past, and future clients, I see that a lot of them are struggling to get their leads into the sales column. Their marketing helps them generate the leads but find themselves falling short in closing them. Why are there so many people out there willing to put forth the effort in being a lead, but not willing to go the next step and actually make the sale? What could be the main factor here? Consumer spending was up in 2007, so that’s not it. And the Real Estate meltdown can’t effect this many industries; can it? Should we blame it on our industry? Should we blame it on the economy? In a world full of blame, so many small business owners want to point the finger at something they can’t control. But, in this instance, we need to turn the finger on ourselves because you are generating leads, aren’t you? So if the leads are coming in through the marketing efforts, the real question becomes “What can my company do to close this sale?”

This, my friends, will require something that is called emotional marketing, which is the answer to many marketing dilemmas, especially getting sales in a Recession Economy. For example, a flooring company in San Diego has had tremendous success in the past with their marketing. They are one of the most widely known names in the industry, but in the past 5 months or so, they have seen the same amount, if not more, leads coming through the door with fewer sales. Their marketing portrays that physical nature or beauty of having a new floor. They advertise the increase in home value a new floor can add as well. All of these are great aspects mind you, but why would I, as the consumer, spend money in an unstable economy on something that I don’t need?

The answer is simple; Emotion. If this same company implemented an emotional marketing campaign that portrayed the feeling that you could have with a new floor instead of the features of a new floor, the results will be outstanding. For example, “With a new bamboo floor throughout your home, not only will your home value increase, but your furniture and paint will look more crisp and your guests will be envious of the way your house looks.” Allowing the customer to build this mental and emotional image of what the product or service offers will give you that edge to turn leads into sales through marketing. It’s that simple. Satisfy the emotional aspects to the buyer and reap the rewards.

Design Your Own Emotional Marketing Campaign

Understand why your market purchases your product or service.Consumers purchase products or services to fill a need or void in their life. Find out what that void is and you will be a step above the rest.

Identify keywords or phrases will elicit the correct emotions for the purchase decision. While identifying the actual need or void that you will be filling for your market, also look for certain keywords or phrases that they say. Look for words like feel, felt, etc.

Define the “Point of Emotion.” Here you need to identify the point in the sales cycle where the emotional aspect is key, then attack that point with emotional stimulation.

The Emotional Aspect of marketing is the most powerful aspect we could ever identify. Utilize this to your advantage.

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, an International Marketing Strategy and Branding Agency in San Diego County. Miser Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that acts as a complete marketing department for small businesses in the San Diego area and the World. You can reach Paul Miser by emailing him atpmiser@miserad.com.

A lot of people have asked me, “How do I break into the competitive market in San Diego?” I have to admit, after just moving my company out here a short year ago; I was extremely intimidated and anxious about how to market my company in this overly competitive, overly communicated market. It seems as though businesses here are extremely set in routine, extremely busy, and don’t really want to hear what you have to say. But, as with anything, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Over the past year, while working with clients, friends, colleagues, and with my own business, I have developed a list of five things to do to effectively and efficiently get your business in front of your target market here in the San Diego business arena. They are:

1. Know exactly what your brand image and message is.
   What is it that you are really selling? Use benefit terminology instead of functional terminology. For example, Kodak doesn’t sell pictures, they sell memories. If you don’t have this information, the business owners in San Diego won’t give you the time of day and look at you as a nuisance in their busy life.
2. Know exactly who your target customer is.
   Here it is again. Know your target. This will save an extreme amount of time and energy. Knowing the following information, you will be able to identify and empathize with your prospects. This will help you build rapport and understand exactly what they want.
   1. Demographic – What your target looks like?
   2. Geographic – Where your target lives, works, and plays?
   3. Psychographic- Why and How your target purchases?
   4. Lifestyle – What does their day-to-day life look like?
   5. Seasonality – This is key for the San Diego Business culture. You must know when your prospect will be available and looking for your product or service. The key season’s to watch out for is Summer and Holiday Season.
3. Identify and Understand how your customer communicates.
   This information will be helpful in putting together your marketing mix. The more you understand this, the more cost-effective your marketing strategy will be. Simply ask your prospect where they gather information, what types of publications they read, etc.
4. Have a plan for every aspect of your Marketing Mix. 
   A great marketing plan doesn’t have to be a long 40-page document with everything written out. But you must have a plan. You must know what you are going to do in every aspect of your marketing mix (advertising, PR, Guerilla, Networking, Sales, etc.) each month. In your marketing plan, you also must outline an execution and accountability plan to ensure it gets implemented. Without a plan, there is no action. Without action, there is no marketing.
5. Test and Evaluate.
   The key to any marketing success is to know what works and what doesn’t. This is especially true in the San Diego business market. To stay competitive, you must be extremely cost effective with your marketing dollars, to ensure growth and sustainability.

All-in-all, the San Diego business market is full of possibility and wonder for any business big or small. Follow these five steps and you will soon realize your potential in the precious San Diego market. 

Enjoy!

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, an International Marketing Strategy and Branding Agency in San Diego County. Miser Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that acts as a complete marketing department for small businesses in the San Diego area and the World. You can reach Paul Miser by emailing him at pmiser@miserad.com.

So, you’ve heard everyone, including me, telling you that you need to get ready for the New Year. But, what does that mean? Where do I start? What should change?

In marketing, which some might profess to be the most complicated aspect of business, it is a necessity to have a plan to stay on track, keep within budgets, increase effectiveness and efficiency, and build a steady stream of qualified leads to help reach the sales goals that always seen to fall out of reach every year. That’s a lot to worry about. Have no fear, your marketing guy is here to help. We, at Miser Advertising and Marketing, have developed a list of 5 Steps to help you create your best year ever, both in marketing and sales.

Here we go:

• Evaluate 2007 Marketing
  • Identify each aspect of marketing (Advertising, PR, Cold Calling, Etc)
  • What Worked, What didn’t
  • What could be done better this year

• Learn and Grow
  • With the evaluation completed you should know where to spend your marketing dollars for the 2008 year

• Narrow Target
  • I know, I know… you’ve heard this one before, but it is a necessity to get the most bang for your marketing dollar. Even if you take it from "40-65 year old males that live in San Diego" to "40-65 year old males that live in North County San Diego" you have taken that next step to increasing effectiveness and saving you money!

• Revisit Marketing Plan
  • With all this new information, you need to WRITE IT DOWN! Too many people forget to etch their new money-making ideas into stone. Don’t make that mistake. You now know what types of efforts will be in your marketing mix, a narrowed target, and a new found excitement for marketing so take advantage of it and put it into a plan.
  • Create an Execution and Accountability Plan. Who in your organization will be doing what, when, and why.
  • Create a step-by-step timetable to go along with the execution and accountability plan and follow it.

• Take a Deep Breath and Focus
  • Marketing only works if you work at it. Take a deep breath and take everything one step at a time with your end goal in place. Take a little time to focus on it every day.

Make 2008 your best year ever. With these ideas you will be one step farther than you competition. Let me know if you have any questions or comments about this information.

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, a marketing strategy and branding company in San Diego County. Miser Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that acts as a complete marketing department for small businesses in the San Diego area and the World. You can reach Paul Miser by emailing him at pmiser@miserad.com.

It’s that time of year where everyone is turning off their brains and planning out their Holiday Vacations.  This is particularly bad if you are a small business owner trying to meet goals and get things set up for 2008.  You need business and you need to get in front of decision makers to make that happen. But how do you get them to think about you when their mind has already been turned off thinking of Sugar Plum Fairies?

Easy, send them a Holiday card.  This is the single, most effective direct mail piece you can ever send out. How many times have you received a holiday card and threw it away without even opening it to see what it says or who it’s from?  Never.  If you’re looking to simply get your name out there or build brand awareness, you should be taking this time to write holiday cards to every person on your prospect list.  It’s amazing the number of companies out there that don’t take the time to do this.  This holiday season, stand out from the pack and send your clients and prospects a simple holiday greeting.  The power of this little gesture is unparalleled.  Spread the cheer and watch your relationships grow to the next level.

Things to Keep in Mind:

• Notice I said holiday cards. In today’s overly politically correct world, we have to take every measure to ensure we don’t offend anyone.  Regardless of what you celebrate, you should keep it generic and wish "Happy Holidays" or "Season’s Greetings!"
• If your prospect list is too large to get a card out to everyone, narrow it down to your Dream 50 or something manageable for your staff.
• Hand write on the cards if possible.  This shows more of a gesture than the mass produced cards.
• Remember your current and Past Clients. This isn’t just to generate new clients, but enhancing the relationships of current and past clients.

Get your team together and have a Holiday Party writing and sending Holiday Cards to all your clients.  It will make the daunting task of addressing and writing that much easier and will bring your team closer together as well!

Paul Miser is the President of Miser Advertising and Marketing, a small business marketing company in Carlsbad, CA.  He can be contacted by emailing pmiser@miserad.com.