Marketing Your Consulting Services.pdf - epiheirimatikotita.gr

Personally I like to sit down with catalogs—a picture list that generates ideas
for me. Your company probably receives corporate promotional catalogs and corporate
paper catalogs. These are great for identifying a theme and a concept to get
you started.
ebb associates also keeps boxes, files, and drawers full of ideas. It may be a cartoon
someone read, an ad we clipped, a picture we found, a geegaw or gadget we
purchased, or just the bud of an idea described in words. When we need an idea,
we may turn to our idea files for inspiration.
Your Challenge Create at least one “trigger list” of your own. Personalize it for your
use. If you have strong auditory senses, you may choose word lists. If you have
strong visual senses, you may choose pictures or catalogs. If you have strong tactile
senses, you may choose to collect a box of miniature things or toys. Then identify
one marketing tool, for example, publicity, direct mail, or trade shows, and pair it
with the items on your list. The challenge is to add at least four possibilities—no
matter how wild and crazy—to your marketing ideas.
10. Youth’s Advantage
Remember as a kid how creative and free you felt to put on a red cape (your
mother’s dishtowel) and imagine that you could fly through the air like Superman?
Well, the “youth’s advantage” creativity technique asks that you tap into that same
Superman feeling. As a child you had the advantage that you had not yet been influenced
by adult thinking that might have suggested that “You look ridiculous
with that red dishtowel flying from your neck” or that “It isn’t logical to think you
can fly” or that “You should stop fooling around and get to work!” (All of which
you may notice inhibit creativity.)
“Youth’s advantage” suggests that creativity will flow (just like that red cape) if
you think like a child. Look at your marketing plan and think “fun.” Your brain is
more likely to create new ideas when you are having fun. A child’s thought process
is innocent and curious. It asks lots of “why” questions. It is playful and spontaneous.
There is an easy free-association of ideas. To emulate a child you will most
likely need to loosen up a bit.
How can you loosen up? How can you get in touch with that child inside? Try
doing what a kid does. Play. Get down on the floor and play with your own child or
Marketing: Can It Be Fun? 235