Values = Marketing

We've been in business a little over two years and have spent relatively small amounts on traditional marketing and advertising. Yet we are growing rapidly and are currently expanding our office.

How so?

We let our values lead. Of course, we do excellent work and have a compelling value proposition but like an ante, those are required to play. We are trying to move beyond that.

In our office expansion we've taken the following steps to walk our triple bottom line talk:

• We made sure we had a construction bid from a minority contractor (didn't win but that is business, at least we made the effort to reach out and be inclusive).
• We purchased Steelcase Think chairs made out of nearly 40% recycled materials and with Cradle-to-Cradle design, are over 90 percent recyclable at the end of their lives.
  
• We had made a custom built receptionist station built from locally sourced reclaimed wood, designed by a Meld-Design, a customer of ours.
• We had custom round meeting tables built from locally sourced reclaimed wood and designed by Endurawood, another customer of ours.
• Endurawood is also building us end tables and a coffee service table for our reception area, again from locally sourced reclaimed wood.

While we probably spent 10-20 percent more than we might have had we gone CHEAP and only considered short term costs, I believe these are great long-term investments due to the longevity and craftsmanship of the furniture, the comfort and pride my employees and customers have sitting in excellent chairs while meeting over handcrafted furniture, and the "marketing" story we have communicating our values to our target market.

Richard Seireeni coined the term the "Gort Cloud" which helps describe the network I feel we've tapped into.

Perhaps you could redirect your marketing and advertising budget towards authentic messages about who you are?

Connection, experience, meaning

It can be hard to keep up with blogging. I hit a peak back in February but then slowed. Summer in Portland is not the best time to be sitting at a computer writing. I apologize for not posting more often but my inspiration/time ratio hasn’t been there, until today.

I just got another piece of junk mail from Office Depot. They purchased our name from the business license list after we opened TriLibrium and we’ve gotten bombed with their catalogs ever since, despite repeated requests to stop mailing to us. We are primarily a paperless firm and it is discouraging to consume more paper in their worthless catalogs then we’ve put through our printer in a nearly a year.

I hate Office Depot and other advertisers who bombard me with their junk mail. I don’t want it and yet they continue. Is this how they win over customers?

Permission based marketing is the rule these days. If your prospects don’t want to hear from you, don’t continue pestering them. You’ll waste your money and might actually create an “enemy.”

Here in Portland, I would venture to say there is a significant percentage of the population who despise getting junk mail and other unwanted and intrusive solicitations. If you are responsible for marketing, you must figure out a way to reach people in ways that don’t offend.

Jelly Helm, a casual friend and the former Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy, gave a talk on advertising and the consumer culture back in December for the Oregon Council for the Humanities “Think & Drink” series. It was a great event and the one thing that really stuck with me was Jelly’s contention that advertising was dead and no longer worked.

People are essentially immune to advertising at this point he said. Advertising used to move products but no more. Given the current state of technology, people expect control over what reaches them.

Jelly claimed that consumers now make decisions based on meaning, connection and experience. If your company isn’t delivering on those intangibles, you will lose customers as someone does.

Finally, if you want to get off mailing lists and reduce the amount of junk mail you receive, this blog post had the addresses and websites so you can make it happen.