As desert play within the renowned Burning Man event continues to jump into trending mainstream awareness, you may be surprised at what this booming culture of a non-culture actually means to its growing masses. There are 10 Principles of Burning Man that guide one’s experience built upon this once barren landscape. Believe it or not, marketing is not invited to the party. Not even in the form of unintentionally dawning a brand logo-ed t-shirt. So, how does a self-sustaining community look without marketing?
There is a creative bone in everyone’s body. Some are just better than others at cultivating it. Creativity can be nurtured. Best of all, the right creativity creates the right results. Here are some simple ways you can put your creative mind to work for your business’s marketing efforts.
Being a business leader is a full time job. In a small business or start up, you have some level of understanding in every discipline it takes to run that business: accounting,administration, human resources, sales, marketing, and so on. What most “manage” to do is focus on the most immediate need first or what one enjoys most, while the rest of what needs to get done suffers. If growing your business is a priority, you can not do this with sales or marketing.
When you are a marketer, you can never turn off your mind even when on vacation in Croatia. Every place you go you see ways businesses, from the shops to the street vendors, could be doing things a bit differently to generate more sales. Surprisingly, you also find is what many of us have forgotten in the digitally drenched world of the United States.
Your business is clicking along. You have enough business that you are not in excruciating pain, but you aren’t living on easy street either. When you are in this place you are working extremely hard. You’ve set a good pace with a lingering concern about how long you can maintain it. This is wear I typically ask you, “Do you know where your sweet spot is for business growth?”
Being halfway through the year is just a fact of life, but how much closer are you to achieving your end of year goals? Do you even know?
If you are still sitting there trying to address these questions then chances are your current position over all is confusing. This is mostly because the goals you set at the beginning of the year had one or more of the following issues:
No matter what business you are in, if you have employees and are not looking at them as an extension of your brand, then you are missing the boat. People who interact with your business see the face of your brand not just as a well light up sign, but in every experience they have with your staff.
Nothing ever seems to slow down. And it’s your fault. You see some free time on the horizon, and what do you do? You fill it with things that have to get done. As a professional we often wonder if this is wise, a necessity, or something else. Frankly, it’s all of the above. It..
Yesterday, I sat in on a military leadership training session focused on self-assessment. Amazing people serving our country just looking for ways to do there jobs better and lead their people better. Their base has its own culture and concerns like any organization. What was different? Their mindset.
With Spring finally in full motion, we literally all begin looking at our own with a bit more intensity backyards. Mine is just starting to turn green, which I find is the best time to track down weeds in my lawn that are easier to locate now versus later. Funny enough, this exact point of view is one you can use to “root out” issues at the cusp of Quarter 2.
