"Inspire me" marketing

Football season is right around the corner. And you know what that means: It's almost Rosh Hashana! And of course, my yahoo inbox is seeing a good share of Rosh Hashana greetings. Amidst the well-wishes, two emails that I got seemed eerily similar to one another - yet significantly different.

On Tuesday, I got an inspirational video greeting from Aish HaTorah and then another one from my alma mater on Wednesday. Here are the links:

http://www.aish.com/h/hh/rh/49592942.html

http://www.yu.edu/president/messages/ecard0909/

Which was more engaging and inspirational for you?

Normally I wouldn't compare these two videos. One is from THE Jewish outreach organization, the other from THE Jewish University. Presumably they are reaching out to different audiences and trying to acheive different goals. What's to compare?

Plenty. Firstly because they arrived in my mailbox one after the other on subsequent days. In my mind, the second email felt like a response to the first (no conspiracy theory here, but I have my suspicions). But more importantly, I'll compare them because the structure was the exact same for both of them. As was some of the content. That tells me that on some level, both organizations are trying to acheive the same thing here.

They both have the generic but inspirational New Age / Contemporary / Jim Brickman-esque piano music thing going on. That's a must. And they both have the obligatory-inspirational-sentence-fragments (OISF for short). Plus the uplifting pictures in the background. The 3 amigos (music/words/pictures) of the genre.

But in my mind, one of them does a far better job of engaging the viewer. It provokes us to think about the big issues by asking us questions that we know are important but rarely stop to ponder. It provides us with a picture of a potentially better future - along with concrete steps to acheive that goal. There is a call to action. Something to do with the inspiration after the video is over.

The other one throws random OISF's at us and hopes we will somehow be inspired (to do what exactly?). There is no structure. No cohesiveness. No prodding our curiosity.

I still think they are both effective on some level. But one of them had a far greater impact on me than the other. Can you figure out which one yet? If you haven't, watch them both and decide for yourself. Am I totally wrong?

Non profit never tasted this good

Last night I ate at a great restaurant in Tel Aviv. Lilit is the name. I had Atlantic Cod with portobello mushrooms in a pumpkin sauce as my starter, and the grilled entrecote steak for the main course. Both were phenomenal. In fact, Lilit has a reputation as one of the better

restaurants in Israel, and certainly as one of the best kosher restaurants out there.

I know what you're thinking. This sounds like the start of a very unsophisticated restaurant review. One which concludes like this: good food, I'd eat there again. Which is true, I would. But this is a blog about marketing, not succulent cuts of meat.

And Lilit, after all, is much more than just a restaurant. Non profits take note: Lilit is an example of social entrepreneurship at it's best. Here's their story:

Partnering with 'Elem', the Israeli organization for Youth In Distress in Israel, Lilit offers vocational training to at-risk youth in a therapeutic, supportive environment.

The teens undergo training, with the objective of later integrating them into the restaurant industry. They receive both theoretical and hands-on instruction in cooking, baking, waiting tables and bartendering. Fifty-four teens have succesfully completed this program.

On its own, Elem is a wonderful organization. They do good work, and help children that others ignore or assume will never amount to anything. But the merger with Lilit takes them to another level. It's ingenious in many ways.

1) Great publicity for Lilit. It doesn't hurt that the food is amazing. But this partnership makes Lilit unique. They were the first restaurant in all of Israel to do this. Many people now have heard of them simply beacuse of the good work they do. And a good number of socially conscious people will go out of their way to eat there to support their work.

2) Great publicity for Elem. On the flip side of things, the excellent food has an attraction in and of itself. People come for the food, but then hear about Elem. When I sat down at the table, there was an elegant card next to the place setting explaining the Lilit/Elem partnership. BAM! That's one more potential donor to Elem.

Ok, so it's a good publicity stunt, yes. But it's more than just that.

3) "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime." Lilit is the perfect expression of the ultimate level of charitable work. Helping people help themselves as opposed to furthering people's dependencies (though often times necessary).

4) It's a unique example of a successful merger between the non profit world and the business sector. And neither side has to compromise on their principles. Lilit runs a successful business (judging from the full house last night) with professional employees and Elem gets to train youth in a serious, hard-working environment.

Normally the words "non profit" and "business sector" do nothing but stir up a little bit of cognitive dissonance in our minds.

But why should they? Why should we seperate these two worlds from each other? They're just two sides of life that we usually don't see operating in tandem. Bringing them together can unify a needlessly conflicting universe.

Lilit and Elem show us the mutually beneficial results that are possible from a merger between these two worlds. And beyond the particulars of this type of merger, they have taught us the power of teamwork, the wonders of creativity, and the limitless potential of human nature.

All it took was a little imagination and some pumpkin sauce.

Job Fair in Tel Aviv, September 8, 2009

The Ministry of Absorption is holding a large job fair in Tel Aviv at the beginning of September 2009.

Who

This job fair is aimed at new immigrants (olim hadashim) and returning Israelis (toshavim chozerim) but any job seeker can attend.

What

According to the official announcement, there will be hundreds of positions available in these fields and more:

• Programming
• Lab work in the field of life sciences
• Language teachers
• Customer Service and Sales
• Mechanical Work
• CNC, Factory and Technicians
• Chefs and Food Service
• Industry and Management, Electronics, Mechanical, Civil, Structural, and Electrical Engineers
• Construction and Building
• Warehouse
• Administration
• Hotel and Guest services

Where

Tel Aviv Fairgrounds (Ganei Hata’arucha), Bitan 20
Tel Aviv

Train: get off at Tel Aviv - University
Bus: Egged: 521 or Dan: 47, 48, 28

There might even be free transportation from cities in the Center of the country, call these people for more information:

• Tel Aviv: Miriam 03-5209171
• Petach Tikvah: Zimrah 03-9123006
• Rishon LeTzion: Esther 03-6337666
• Kfar Saba and Netanya: Avi 09-8890307
• Ashdod: Aliza 08-8546004
• Holon: Osnat 03-5023107

Entry is free.

When

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009, 12-5pm.

Bring your Teudat Zehut (ID card) and copies of your resume.

Originally posted on http://jobmob.co.il/

Delusions of Expertise

The other day I was eating lunch with a friend in a nearby park. We noticed a newlywed couple behind us being photographed. So we congratulated them on their recent marriage.

Just as they were finishing, we heard a random man passing by yell at the photographer, "That's a bad angle. You should take it from over here!"

We waited until they left and then we both starting laughing hystarically. I'm no photographer, but I'm smart enough to know that, a) this guy was dead wrong, and, b) if he was right, he should have been holding the camera instead!

Not everyone is an expert in every area. I can't sing "Heart Of Gold" as good as Neil Young can (or as bad, depending on your taste). When I try, my brother is always there to ask me, "Who sings that?" When I respond with the name, he replies, "Let's keep it that way."

This guy was no expert, and even if he was, nobody was asking for his opinion.

In business as in life, we need to be clear about we're good at and what we're not. And beyond that, we need to be clear about what we have time to be good at, and what we don't. Bill Gates may be a computer programming whiz, but I doubt he's doing much of that anymore. Just because we are experts at something, doesn't mean we should be the ones to take care of it.

This is a subject often discussed when hiring freelancers. "Why should I hire her, I can do the same thing?" Maybe yes, probably no. But either way, you have your own job that you should be doing.

If you do what she does, who's gonna do what you do?

Cheaper is better than cheap

I have the good fortune of living close to an incredible open air market. Yes, it's noisy, crowded and dirty, but cheap fruits and vegetables are in abundance.

I passed through today around closing time, when many vendors are trying to get rid of extra merchandise. At the bakery I really like, the guy was offering rolls for half price. I probably would have bought one anyways, but he made my decision a lot easier. The answer was 'yes'.

This old-fashioned marketplace has a lot of valuable marketing lessons to teach us. This time-tested selling principle never fails to impress me:

People are more willing to buy something that's cheaper than something that's cheap.

Let's say I know that Product X normally costs $5 but now it's on sale for $2.50. Compare this to the same product in a different store which is regularly sold for $2. The first product is more attractive even though it's more expensive. Why? Because humans like to compare things. And they appreciate novelty.

A $2 product costs $2 more than I would ideally like to spend. A $5 product that's now $2.50 is $2.50 that I now don't have to pay. That's the comparative element. It's the draw behind the "Comparison shopping" phenomenom which is so popular.

And the break from routine is the novelty. $2 all the time is boring. Yeah it's cheaper, but since it's always the same there is nothing attracting my attention. The $5 halved is out of the ordinary. It grabs us.

More marketing lessons learned from "the shuk" coming soon.

What "language" does your audience speak?

Working with Jewish non-profits has exposed me to the wonderful and not-so-wonderful traits of many of these organizations. Of the latter category, one of the more common faults is a failure to truly appreciate their audience. So I ask you:

How well do you relate to your donors, clients, or potential customers? Do you understand their needs and interests?

Like most organizations, sometimes you probably feel like you're just not getting through to them. What can you do? Elie Rosenfeld, COO of the Joseph Jacobs Agency gives some solid, big picture advice on how to make yourself relevant to your desired audience.

Typos gone good

I've been known to rant about misspelled words and how much they annoy me. I even posted about it a while back. I do differentiate between digital typos and physical typos, if we can call them that. Misspelling a word in an email or even on a blog post is regrettable, yet understandable. Doing the same on a traffic sign is appalling. Emails get sent by the boatload. They're a casual means of communication. Mistakes happen. Traffic Signs....well, a little more thought should go into them.

So you can imagine how annoyed I was when I read this from Jeff Brooks of the Donor Power Blog:

13. Typos improve fundraising results. I’m sorry, but I can’t prove that. Seriously, I can’t count the number of times we discovered an egregious typo, then waited in horror for donors to voice their wrath and confusion by not responding in droves … only to experience instead an unusually high level of giving. My theory: Once someone finds a typo, she pays a lot more attention — and that dramatically improves the chance she’ll be moved by your message and give.

I don't think you need my editorial advice on this but I'll give it anyways: Don't bank on it! Overwhelmingly, typos send the wrong message about the professionalism of your organization. Take the time to check your work.