Monday, August 01, 2011

Service Merchandising and Selling

There is a constant drive to find new ways of product display. All the traditional channels have been used in various imaginative ways (and some not so imaginative). Given that advert regulating agencies now discourage the use of posters on the streets, new channels such as SMS, MMS and other forms of mobile advertising are being exploited often to the point of being intrusive to the proposed client. Sometimes, this service is not appreciated and can be downright rude.

But it is easy to sell a product. Just put it in the customer’s face and he (or she) will eventually give it a try. Even if it is only to prove that they do not really need it after all. At that point, the product better sell it self on its merit or else. Then the next step is to continue harassing the public to remember that the product is there for their use (benefit or otherwise).

So, how does one do the same thing for a service?

The current direction is to create an identifiable brand image and quickly make it recognisable tie the service to that image.

But branding a service is not the easiest thing in the world. Branding is relatively easy for a product, company or person. some services are completely far out unique and completely intangible so much so that they defy description to all but the creators. That said, one just has to create an identity for it. Build a brand that is “remember-able” so that when a prospect sees the name, ..aha!

How was it done in the days before the internet, before the television, before the telephone, before the megaphone, or even before the kite. yes Kite!

So, how did the christian cross or the swastika achieve recognition? How did your country’s flag become associated with the country?

…but leave all that. Suppose we define a service properly first, then add a few character attributes (say for example, accuracy of data or facts; timely delivery; or honest accounting or billing) which we consistently impress on the receiver of the service. Then, after this achieved, we then introduce a mark which certifies the service, and then after the mark is recognised to a few, we then create a campaign to broadcast the service.

Of course in planning the campaign, one should not forget the goal. Yes! it is often so easy to forget the goal especially when planning a multi-media, multichannel campaign. The use of technology and new media often makes us focus on the possible tricks and not on the message. The simple way is to hire a professional. Sometimes though, hiring a professional may not be so easy, but that is another story.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Before you ask for a raise, please learn from Mr Penis and evaluate your position critically before you do. Mr P did not do that and got turned down.

Request of the Penis:

I, the Penis, hereby request a raise in salary for the following reasons:

1. I do physical labor.
2. I work at great depths.
3. I plunge head first into everything I do.
4. I do not get weekends or public holidays off.
5. I work in a damp environment
6. I work in a dark area that has poor ventilation.
7. I work in high temperatures.
8. My work exposes me to diseases.

Management Response:

Dear Penis,

After assessing your request, and considering the arguments you have raised, the management denies your request for the following reasons:

1. You do not work 8 hours straight.
2. You WORK IN SHORT SPURTS AND fall asleep after EACH brief work period.
3. You do Not always follow the orders of the management team.
4. You do not stay in your designated area, and are often seen visiting other locations.
5. You do not take initiative - you need to be pressured and stimulated in order to start working.
6. You leave the workplace rather messy at the end of your shift.
7. You don’t always observe necessary safety regulations, such as wearing the correct protective clothing.
8. Every time you get excited, you throw up and then faint
9. You will retire LONG before you are 65.
10. You are unable to work double shifts.
11. You sometimes leave your designated work area before you have completed the assigned task.
12. And if that were not all, you have constantly been seen entering and exiting the workplace carrying two Suspicious-looking bags.

Sincerely, The Management

4 reasons not to be a penis…
1. You’re bald your whole life.
2. You have a hole in your head.
3. Your neighbors are nuts.
4. The guy behind you is an ass hole

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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Give thanks

Thanksgiving approaches. Ok, for Americans, it's still a bit way off. But should giving thanks be put off till that one day every year or is it something one does regularly?

Lots of people have a few things to say for gratitude:

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
Melodie Beattie:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Leroy [Satchel] Paige:
[D]on't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.
New York Post, October 4, 1959
Marcel Proust:
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Meister Eckhart:
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.
Margaret Cousins:
Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.
John F. Kennedy:
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
and finally,
William James:
The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.

Even God wants to be appreciated as can be seen from the story of the ten lepers in Luke 17:12-19

Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~

Sites dedicated to the Gratitude:
Go Gratitude
Gratitude Theory
Thanksgiving Square
Wisdom Quotes
Quotes to live by

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Thursday, September 28, 2006

Phoney Insurance

I got mugged a while back and lost my phones. One a Sonyericsson K700i GSM phone, the other a Nokia 6225.

Anyway, I was discussing the event when this insurance salesman jumps in and tries to sell me insurance on a new phone so it wont cost a thing to replace next time. I mean the guy was already talking about a next time!

I replaced the Nokia though, but I have not made up my mind on which Sonyericsson to buy yet.

Any suggestions?

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Friday, September 22, 2006

The Nigerian government has repeated over and again it's commitment to information technology. The senate has also several times pushed for more government involvement in the affairs concerning IT and communication.

Now you can communicate with members of the Nigerian senate by email. Staff and members of the senate now have thier own email address as you can see from this advert shown below.

I wonder why the senate does not host its own email. The advert above appeared on the Punch newspaper September 22, 2006, and both contacts have thier yahoo addresses listed.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

The Kingdom

Dictionary.com defines kingdom as follows:

1. a state or government having a king or queen as its head.
2. anything conceived as constituting a realm or sphere of independent action or control: the kingdom of thought.
3. a realm or province of nature, esp. one of the three broad divisions of natural objects: the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms.
4. Biology. a taxonomic category of the highest rank, grouping together all forms of life having certain fundamental characteristics in common: in the five-kingdom classification scheme adopted by many biologists, separate kingdoms are assigned to animals (Animalia), plants (Plantae), fungi (Fungi), protozoa and eucaryotic algae (Protista), and bacteria and blue-green algae (Monera).
5. the spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ.
6. the domain over which the spiritual sovereignty of God or Christ extends, whether in heaven or on earth.

The Bible says: seek ye first the kingdom… (Matthew 6:33)

What are the benefits of the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom protects and provides for it’s citizens.
How does one enter the Kingdom?
Just as the best way for one to become a citizen of America, England, Germany France or where ever, is to be born there, the best way to become a mamber of Gods Kingdom is to be Born Again

To know more about the kingdom, one should look at the government, rights of the citizenry, the domain, how the kingdom protects, etcetera, there are

A Host of sites dedicated to the Kingdom:
Seekyefirst
The Word of righteousness
The Kingdom A Reward
Born Again Info
If you know of any other significant site, please leave your comment.

Bibles?
The OnlineBible
Bible Gateway

Seek ye first the kingdom of God

Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you;
allelu-, alleluia:
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This Post was originally posted on Talk About It!

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Gmail Tips

I introduced a few people to "Google's free webmail service. It comes with built-in Google search technology and over 2,600 megabytes of storage (and growing every day). You can keep all your important messages, files and pictures forever, use search to quickly and easily find anything you're looking for, and make sense of it all with a new way of viewing messages as part of conversations."

While they are generally impressed with the demo and wish to continue using it, the differences and feature set keep them coming back to me with questions about using it. A complete list of tips on how to get the most from gmail can be found here.

I like the ability store your files offline in the space allocated using third party extensions, and you can use gmail for POP and forwarding. If you have a domain name, you may even use your gmail account to host your company's email for up to 30 accounts.

Gmail's filter lets you set rules for organising your mails as well as any. With it, you can do selective back ups and even send multiple mails at once. details of how to do this are on GOS

There are also some fun elements such as the ability to show avatars in the mail.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Baby Photos

I was going through my baby's pictures with my wife and we got arguing about who the baby looked like.

I could see alot of myself in him. However, I have changed a lot from how I looked as a baby. This made it hard for those who did not know the little me to see things my way. My wife got a picture of herself as a baby and everybody said "Yes, he looks like her. There was a strong resemblance especially when he was not smiling".

So, this weekend, My sister brought pictures of me as a baby. I wait to see the reaction of all now. One would have thought the only thing he got from me were my bow-legs, feet and a few habits.

Ok, he still looks a lot like her when he has a straight face, but there is a a lot of me there. That is until he smiles. Then he is all me -- without the dimple.

I posted picture of him on his first day on a random blog here and here. I have some of his pictures on flicker and will make it public soon as he gets to 3 months.

But for now, here is a composite of my wife and I. She's the one on the left.


Tuesday, September 05, 2006

RIP (Crocodile) Hunter



Steve Irwin.

Lots of people are going to miss him. Its a loss for those who never watched him.

I loved to watch this guy on Animal Planet. He was good with the animals, not just the crocs and other reptiles.

Steve was great at charming shy creatures out of hiding and always enjoyed playing with them. Makes you believe theres nothing to fear from these animals. He tell you of course how to be careful when dealing with them.

You can learn more about this incredible Australian on the website.

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Monday, September 04, 2006

Music While You Work

I used to catch "music while you work" a radio program from back in the day when Sunshine 97.6 was the bomb on the airwaves. Well before Rhythm 93.7 and 96.9 Coolfm were mere ideas.

Now, I have several options for music in the office. I have a large selection of music, mostly old stuff but still hugely enjoyable jams.

Those who know me well know I love Rap and rock. Most types of music... but for me there's nothing like soothing music while @ work. I still dig Lighthouse Family, Seal, Sade and so on, but these are from my private collection (not to say there are no new releases, but then the oldies are solid goodies). Jazz, blues, soul, country and western classical, name it.

I have lots of options when it comes to playing my selections. Windows media player, Winamp, Real media. I have tried a lot of other jukeboxes including media monkey and music match, but media player, real and winamp are still my choice. reason being that with any of them, i can quickly listen to online radio stations for free, without having to register for anything. I just select the online radio station and away I go.

Tell me what's your music?

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Browse and download

I try to do some random browsing after work hours. I notice a lot of things to try. Some applications, games, pictures, movies whatever catches my fancy. Most times I do not have enough time to really study these things before I down load them. I just click to download, and then I will review them later. This way, I maximise my online time and test everything on the weekend when i have a little bit more time.

I use a download manager so I don't have to pay attention to the download, or I can stopit if i think my linkis going slow and restar it later. My combination of Firefox and flashgot and Free Download Manager works rather well. I just fire and forget.

Note however, I do not always want to try out these things on my work machine. I usually move them over to my test bed computer where I try out most software before I later move them to work on another machine. If it is not worth it, I leave it there until spring cleaning time.

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Ruling planets

...just for the record, I'm an Aries.

You Should Rule Mars

Mars is a planet that shines brightly and loops wildly around the solar system.

You are perfect to rule Mars, because you are both energetic and independent.
Like Mars, you seems attractive and bright to others - but you're difficult to pin down.

You are a great thinker, but you only think in the present and ignore the future.
Full of enthusiasm and inspiration, you are into your own thing... and rather insensitive to others.

What about April?

...and while we're still on blogthings, here's what they have to say about April!




Your Birth Month is April



You are trustworthy and highly ethical in all facets of life.

Helpful and steady, you are able to solve any problem.



Your soul reflects: Bliss, playfulness, and curiosity



Your gemstone: Diamond



Your flower: Sweet Pea



Your colors: Yellow and red

What about kissing

The good guys at blogthings gave this test for you to know your kissing rating. Find my score below.

Your Kissing Technique Is: Perfect

Your kissing technique is amazing - and you know it.
You have the confidence to make the first move.
And you always seem to know what kissing style is going to work best.
Sometimes you're passionate, sometimes you're a tease. And you're always amazing!

True Birth Month

Blogthings has a lot of cool things you can add to your blog. One of which is a calculation of your true birth month. I tried this out and hello, they were correct.

But this relies on you putting in the correct attributes of your self a you see it. Judging by luminus'result, I'd say you can get the wrong result if you omit one of your attributes, or if you choose a wrong attribute, or lie.

I guess it's not easy to know your self after all!

...or is it

Your True Birth Month Is April

Hasty
Moving
Consoling
Emotional
Aggressive
Diplomatic
Revengeful
Adventurous
Good memory
Loves attention
Strong mentality
Loving and caring
Brave and fearless
Active and dynamic
Suave and generous
Easily get too jealous
Decisive but tends to regret
Motivates oneself and the others
Attractive and affectionate to oneself
Friendly and solves people's problems
Prone to sickness usually of the head and chest

Friday, August 25, 2006

Top Ten Firefox Extensions

Out of the box, Firefox is a very capable browser. However, if you will get the best browsing experience (especially if you are doing a research - which is what the internet is all about) then you need to add enhancements to your Firefox.


The use of extensions in Firefox can greatly enhance your browsing performance by adding features not originally included. But there is also a caveat: the use off extension increase the memory requirement for Firefox. The additional memory impact of each extension.

That said, I do have a few extensions I would not want to do without listed below, but not in any particular order.

Flashgot
Tab Mix Plus
Noscript
Google preview
Customize Google
Gmail Space
Ajax Yahoo! Mail
Fasterfox
Unread Tabs
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Get Blogging 2

Now where was I?

Oh yes, I was assuming you have something one would love to read about. So what do you want to yak about?

Anything really. But if you really want to get noticed and get consistent traffic, you ought to be consistent your self in the topic (never mind that I have not done exactly that), and the frequency of your updates.

Pick a subject close to you, or one you know a lot about and consistently pump out the pages. You are sure to get noticed. Especially if you join a blogging network.

Blogging networks ensure that you get read because anyone coming across a blog on your net work has a chance of viewing your property.

So get a site that encourages communities. If you join one of these communities, you already have readership. The rest is not very difficult. Good community sites like yahoo and msn give a lot of tools to help you. Yahoo! 360° has a slight edge over msn’s spaces, but I am waiting for wallop. This new site from Microsoft is supposed to do all sorts of new things to change the way digital communities work.

But there are more community sites out there. While Yahoo! 360° and spaces, are currently still developing (Yahoo needs to improve the integration of 360 with flicker, and msn needs to marry wallop with spaces) and Google is still building the tools (calendar, video, …) all things to get people talking and building, but Blogger is a heavyweight on it’s own.

Your choice of subject will of course affect where you park your blog. So make sure you review as many sites as possible, before you do so. Also, other activities may interest you. Some sites offer social networking such that you get to meet people and share ideas, while some are nothing more than online diaries.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Males and Females

A friend sent this to my email and I thought you could do with a read (if you have not seen it before. I must have been posted all over the net if I know the source).

It's about the differences in men and women.

...or more correctly what it takes to make the sex happier.

It's not difficult to make a woman happy.
A man only needs to be:


1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

54. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY

1. Show up naked
2. Bring inebriating substances & food

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Start Blogging

Ok. For all of you guys and galls who want to kiss and tell, or just want to let the whole world know what you are all about, or whatever you wanna halla ‘bout, a blog is a very good way to start.

The thing is, you want to be seen and heard (otherwise you would not be doing this would you?). So, how do you start?

I have created blogs on a lot of platforms just for the fun of it when I know I don’t have enough time to update all of them (See my previous entry and there are more than I mentioned in it).

The thing is, there are different ways to start, and there are even more places to start. I found that if you want to be seen or heard, you have to make a noise. Making noise used to be expensive on the net. Well, now it’s a lot cheaper! Notice I did not say free.

It also depends on what you really want to accomplish.

Noise making really, requires a community. What I mean is, if you want to be heard, shout in a marketplace, or in a full classroom, or at a conference. All these places require people. In other words, no one will notice you if you shout in a desert (I’m sure they will though if certain other conditions are met and you really shout loud enough, but you get my drift).

So, where you place your blog is important. One of the most important ways of getting readership of your posts, is to have people you know visit your site, or even get them to create their own blogs, and then link to your. This way, your site gets more visibility.


Of course I am taking for granted that you have something someone would want to read about.

…to be continued

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Blogging


Has anyone compared Yahoo! 360° to other social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, OpenBC. There are more social networking tools if you will have the time to search them out.

What about blogging? there are also myriad tools for blogging. You may even host it on your own site, or any of the many blogging sites. Some of them are owned by the Internet giants such as Google's blogger, MSN has spaces, Yahoo!'s 360° and then you have Wordpress which is exactly in the same leagus as the foregoing.

I have used all of them in some capacity though I do not have the time to update them regularly. You can see my blogs on blogger, 360°, spaces, wordpress. They are all to serve different purposes and I plan to update each regularly at least twicw a week from now on.

These sites actually fall into two categories as i have noticed: Yahoo and msn are buuilding communities which allow you to link with your friends from your blogs, wordpress and blogger are just basic diaries.

Spaces seems more complex because of the heavy use of graphics but is actualy not. You can have more fun with it if you have the time for it.

360° looks basic, but is almost as capable as it's msn counterpart. It's simple interface allows you to focus more on writing, but does allow more flexiblity than the other two.

One of the strengths of blogger is in google's adsense marketing ploy. With adsense, you can turn your blogspot to a revenue generating tool. I also set up some of their links on my blogspot.

My first major write was for wordpress. I love the templates ans the way you can get to host it on your own domain (blogger does this as well, but the templates are not as fun to look at from my perspective). they offer other tools as well to improve the performance of your blog. I still love it, but I have to re position the class of content I intend to publish on it.