HOW I STARTED #HOUSEOFINNOVA

HOW I STARTED #HOUSEOFINNOVA.

In year 2011 in the city of Ibadan the Oyo State capital, I went to drop a proposal of an upcoming event in a new world-class fashion store that just opened. While we were talking, with my friend and the manager of this newly opened store, he mentioned that he employed a vendor to distribute 10,000 copies of flyers, and to his surprise, he found almost half of the quantity under a staircase of a building not far from him.

I was concerned about the investment that had gone into that process, from design to print, to money paid to the vendor, and how this guy was complaining about no return on the investment made on the publicity.

I told him to give me the flyers and that I would distribute for him Free of charge. He asked if he could trust me, and I said yes. I told him to ask people when they patronize him “Please, how did you hear about us?”

After four days, he called me and said “I am grateful for the help you have rendered, please let us meet on Saturday”. I met him, and he told me how the feedback from the flyers had been tremendously positive. Before I came, he dropped our proposal at the headquarters in Lagos, and it was already approved, he also gave me money to say thank you.

I looked at it and I made a decision to start a business of helping people in that way. Now, I have a team of more than a dozen young and energetic guys that can deliver in any state of Nigeria.

House Of Innova is a company poised for effectiveness, and that’s what we always make our watchword. We basically solve problems to make you happy.

Damilola Oladehin

Twitter: @damioladehin

7 Signs Of A Bad Brand Consultant

I had a long and eventful evening last Friday in Soho with an old University friend, who had just been stung for one of the worst bits of brand consulting I have ever seen.

Then it was my turn to feel the pain as he admitted how much he had paid out for the worthless report and consulting advice. Many beverages and an incendiary curry later, we had hashed out a foolproof seven-point system for identifying bad brand consultants before they can take/burn through your money and/or lead you astray.

First, any mention of millennials means you are dealing with a marketing moron and should lead to immediate cessation of all discussions. I’m serious about the “moron” tag. Anyone dumb enough to think that millennials qualify as a segment needs their head examined. They fail every possible test of segmentation and anyone who refers to them in any context other than to point out that they are a total load of clichéd crap should not be trusted.

Second, look out for brand consultants that are happy to advise without any data or with just qualitative or quantitative data and not both. Any decent consultant should be asking for or generating significant amounts of qual and quant data to understand your brand from the target consumer’s point of view and avoiding the naïve ‘expert’ approach of giving you their personal experience of your packaging, pricing, store layout and new ad campaign. One of the signals of a bad consultant is a comfort with making big decisions with no data and one of the most reassuring things you can experience from a good consulting firm is a resolute refusal to avoid knee-jerk recommendations without data first being collected.

You can also judge the quality of brand consulting advice by the number of concepts the consultant tries to sell you. There is no one accepted term for what most call brand positioning. You can call it brand values, brand attributes, value proposition and so on. But a decent brand consultant will focus you on one concept to represent what you want to stand for in the market. The worse the brand consulting firm the more concepts they try and sell you. Circles atop circles, concepts upon concepts, and before you know it you have a brand essence that looks like the D-Day launch strategy and your staff need a PhD to work out what it all means. You can rely on some brand consultant in the comments section below to explain why brand attributes are distinct from brand emotions or how a value proposition is different from a positioning statement but ignore them. They are, by definition, useless.

Next, look out for certain trigger words, which, if your brand consultant proposes them, mean he or she is unworthy. Innovation is a product-orientated word and worthless as a result. For every customer who tells you they bought your brand because it was the most “innovative one” I will give you a thousand bucks. Remember as well that thousands of brands, badly advised by an army of unworthy consultants, have already claimed innovation as their own differentiating value, so the only way to be innovative is not to use the word. Words like “lifestyle” and “aspirational” mean absolutely nothing too and should tell you volumes about your consultant’s abilities to guide your brand. And if anyone from your consulting firm even starts to utter the dreaded words ‘integrity’ or ‘trusted partner’ stand up and run for the nearest exit.

If they even say the magic words ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’, throw something heavy at them and ask them to leave. Ditto, if they have a picture of a cow being branded in their slide deck or a quote about reputations taking decades to build, you know what you have to do.

If your consulting firm has a trademark attached to their special branding methodology or they have an approach named after an acronym that spells something sexy like “RESULTZ” or “PERFORM” you should immediately stand up and write CRAP on the nearest whiteboard and exit the meeting room stage left.

A separate but equally indicative failing is to incessantly cite Apple and Steve Jobs to any and all clients as a paragon of excellence and instruction for brand building. If you find yourself sitting through a ninety-minute sermon on the power of Apple’s branding and its relevance for your portable toilet business it may be time to press the escape button.

It’s not a magical list but, in my experience and that of my slightly depressed marketing mate, it could just save you a six-figure sum and a report that is literally not worth the paper its written on.

This thought piece is featured courtesy of Marketing Week, the United Kingdom’s leading marketing publication.

 Source: Mark Ritson

Why is Public Relations Important for a Start-Up Company?

Why is Public Relations Important for a Start-Up Company?

“Public relations” is a form of communication that is directed towards gaining public understanding and acceptance.  The primary objective for a public relations program is to establish and maintain relationships and credibility with the people who create and/or communicate the news.  The end result is ultimately media coverage that provides third party validation of your business which could directly and positively impact your bottom line.  A simple news story on your product or service could open the door to new sales opportunities, business partnerships, or investor interest and that is why you should consider adding public relations to your start-up company marketing strategy.

If you haven’t already thought about implementing a public relations strategy into your integrated marketing plan, now is a great time to get started.  It’s a cost-effective approach to marketing, and companies that do it well typically see an immediate return even if minimal time and budget is invested.  A solid public relations foundation relies on support in three specific areas to achieve success:

*Commitment to a proactive approach to obtaining positive exposure.

*Relationship building to gain public understanding and acceptance.

*Consistency of communication via messaging and positioning.

Outlining the Strategy

The goal of your start-up public relations program should be to obtain maximum positive exposure for your company by creating awareness and understanding of the business both within and outside of the industry.  To support this, you must develop and deliver clear, consistent, and concise communications to all audiences.  Sub-goals that fall under the category of gaining exposure for the company are as follows:

*Leverage awareness and acceptance with targeted media, industry analysts, financial analysts, and end users.

*Increase and maximize exposure through events, articles, white papers, success stories,   sponsorships, award nominations, industry reports, etc.

*Disseminate knowledge of business model within and outside of your specific industry

*Promote company benefits that express differentiation from the competition

*Generate future editorial opportunities including industry expert interviews

*Build and maintain national media presence.

*Produce partnership interest.

The goal will be reached by implementing a steady stream of media relations activities targeted to editors, industry analysts, and financial analysts. 

You are ready for the best as you take this important role in a more serious note. Take the actions, meet the people, and if there is any detailed information(s) you need, don’t hesitate to consult a PR Expert or Organization as needed.