Ralph Null, AFID
Design Concepts
Columbus, MS
It's a green world and we can't get enough of it. The advance of green and its influence is seen everywhere. The race for different, more exciting plants with a new or different shade of green is the opportunity to spur significant sales. Plants are a natural to supply this commanding need in society for a green world and abounding opportunities exist. But, as a designer, I am often perplexed by the amount of energy spent by some of my colleagues deciding if these greens "go together".
"God didn't make any clashing colors" is a mantra that I have lived by when making choices for combinations whether it was a garden design, interior plantscape, container garden, or floral design. Appropriate combinations are less about the "clashing of greens" and more about the proper proportionate relationships of the combination. Too many differences lead to confusion and disjointed unity within the total composition.
Many of the new colors of today's plants which create excitement would have been dismissed yesterday as chlorotic, ugly and totally worthless in the commercial marketplace. Today, the excitement of gray, blue-green, rust, chartreuse, yellow, burgundy, near black, speckled, mottled, pubescent, wooly, variegated, segmented, mosaic, and plain green is abundant. Wow! What a wonderful palate from which to work! Bring on the green!
Steve Miller
The Aventure LLC.
http://www.theadventure.com/
As we roll into the end of 2006, I've been thinking about what big stuff I learned and observed while consulting and speaking across the US.
My list grows, but one top observation regarding almost every organization I've consulted and spent time with, large and small, nonprofit and for-profit, (heck, even my country club) stands out above the rest - the lack of REGULAR, ONGOING, DAILY MARKETING ACTIVITY.
When meeting a new prospect for the first time I always ask, "What do you DO exactly?" The answer repeatedly comes back in some form like:
* We publish books for the Christian marketplace.
* We develop solutions for radiologists.
* We do landscaping.
* We design and manufacture garage doors.
* We create and manage trade shows for the XYZ industry.
The fact is, these answers are not the primary business for these organizations. The correct answers would be:
* We market books that we publish for the Christian marketplace.
* We market solutions that we develop for radiologists.
* We market our landscaping services.
* We market garage doors that we design and manufacture.
* We market trade shows that we create and manage for the XYZ industry.
This is not just semantics we're talking about here. This is important. Filling the funnel of future customers should be Job One of every organization every single day. Peter Drucker said the purpose of business is to create a customer and the first function is marketing. I would go a step farther and say the purpose of business is to create and maintain long-term, profitable relationships.
Yet almost all of us fall into the daily trap of confusing busyness with effectiveness. Our To-Do lists, voicemail, and email overflow with items marked "Urgent!" We dutifully tend to these tasks that, more often than not, have nothing to do with creating new business. The Tyranny of the Urgent, it's called.
It's cliché to say there's a big difference between something that's Urgent and something that's Vital. Of course we know that something Vital is more important than something Urgent. But the truth is, we get done what we think we should get done, and something marked "Urgent" sounds, well, urgent. Isn't it interesting that we don't have a button on our email or voicemail marked "Vital?"
What's the answer? It's a lot easier than you might think. Tomorrow morning when you start your work day, don't even look at your To-Do list for the first hour. Invest that first hour on the Vital task of Marketing. Call two prospects and two current customers. Clip out an interesting article and send it to your top ten prospects with a note, "Thought you'd find this interesting." Begin writing a whitepaper. Add an entry to that blog you've been meaning to start. Do something that markets your products or services.
Make that first hour your daily Marketing Hour. Fill that funnel. Nurture a new relationship. And be vicious with that time. Don't let somebody take that away from you with something they think is Urgent. Remember what Drucker said.
Marketing is VITAL.
