Friday, November 11, 2011

Men's Night Out



Here's a clever marketing idea:

An Oregon microbrewery is bringing in outside vendors who sell women's gift items for an event specifically aimed at men. Frosty mugs of beer and help with Christmas shopping for the better half, a full 3 weeks before Christmas. They have done this event before, and it is reported to have been very well done and very well received.

While this event is designed to help men with their Christmas shopping, this kind of event would also work well for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day shopping. The theme could even be turned around to help kids pick out a present for Mom for these holidays - The entry price would include a set price for gift and pizza or cookies, plus help with gift wrapping. 
Join us for
Men's Night Out
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
6pm-9pm
Seven Brides
$10 pre-sale, $12 at the door

Gentlemen, join us in the Brewery for an evening of shopping, music and beer! 

Seven Brides has taken the dreaded task of Christmas shopping for all those wonderful ladies in your life and turned it into something to look forward to. Come and get all your Christmas shopping done all while holding a beer in your hand! 
We will have an array of great vendors on hand selling their fantastic products, music throughout the evening, a ton of great raffle prizes to win, food and of course frosty pints. 

Admission is $10 pre-sale and $12 at the door and includes entrance into the event, entry into the raffle for tons of great prizes, and one drink of your choice (beer, wine, soda or coffee). 

While the event is only for the gentlemen, the Tap Room will be open for normal business so all those wonderful ladies can tag along, grab a drink and some food, and socialize while the guys shop.

To pre-purchase your tickets or for questions please call the Tap Room, 
503-874-4677.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Could you use this idea for your business? 


If you own a shop that sells gift items for women, could you invite a local brewer or pub to co-sponsor your event? You could even make it more of a block party with other shops in your vicinity. Or if you own a brewery, pub, sports bar, or restaurant, could you host this kind of event in your venue? Even a local Etsy Team could capitalize on this idea.


Regardless of your business, you might be able to think up a manly/girly combo; even if you are a financial planner, you could bring in some guy-themed refreshments and some vendors who sell gifts for the wife/girlfriend and put your financial security spin on the whole thing.


Of course, you would have help with advertising: not only would you advertise to your customers, but each vendor would be advertising to their customers, some of who are not familiar with your business. What a smooth way to bring in new customers!


Now that you've got the idea, how could you make this type of event work for you?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Wow, thirteen!

Happy Birthday, Google.
Love ya -



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Monday, March 28, 2011

Reverse Engineering

Since I was a kid, I'd stop whatever I was doing and pay attention to whatever ad happened to be running on tv or radio. I even paid attention to in-store ads and other marketing campaigns. The mechanism and psychology behind the ads fascinated me.

Today, some ad and marketing campaigns stand out brilliantly and others are easy to ignore.

I'll be starting a new type of blog post here, which reverse engineers advertising and marketing that I observe. These could be tv or radio ads, things noticed while driving past, in-store promotions, things that show up in the newspaper, etc. I'll share the brilliant ideas and explain why they work and I'll dissect the ones that flop.

Each reverse engineered concept will include some ideas you might be able to use for your own business.

If you see or hear any ad/marketing campaigns that get your attention and want to know how to use it for your business, please let me know and I'll try to reverse engineer that as well.


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Sunday, March 27, 2011

PamHawk.com is now on Facebook

At long last, I have set up a Facebook page for PamHawk.com!

Please click the link above and Like the page. Thanks!

I have been using Facebook for a while, with just a personal profile, but now that I'm seeing more friends and associates on Facebook, it became apparent that my marketing tips and suggestions would be more accessible if they were published via Facebook. Like the old adage suggests,

"Don't try to redirect traffic to you;
find where the traffic is and get in front of it."

This blog will still be here - I'm just importing all of these posts to Facebook and using Facebook applications to interact more with my fans.

To all my friends and associates who have small businesses: This venture is dedicated to your success. 

Cheers!
Pam


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Monday, January 3, 2011

27 links to help you with your product launch

Are you introducing a new product line, new feature to your existing products, or going for the mother of all new things: starting a new business? You may want to consider using a Product Launch to get your new ...thing... off to a great start. Nothing like a big wave of good publicity and a lot of buzz to get things moving, right?

During the past few weeks I have been studying how to plan and pull off a successful product launch. While I'm still learning about it and don't have any tips to provide - YET - I wanted to share some links with you in case this is something you're thinking about doing for your own business.

Here are some links discussing how to conduct a successful product launch:
  1. http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Do-a-Proper-Product-Launch&id=2308719
  2. http://www.developer-resource.com/planning-a-product-launch.htm
  3. http://www.dbmarketing.com/articles/Art122.htm
  4. http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/5462/7-Uncannily-Obvious-Lessons-From-A-Product-Launch.aspx (scroll down for the article)
  5. http://www.business.com/directory/advertising_and_marketing/product_development_and_management/product_launch/
  6. http://www.managesmarter.com/msg/content_display/marketing/e3iffc7fbfd6e3d9a0597dc29c9ba9010b4
  7. http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/452/podcast-michael-cheney-product-launch/
  8. http://www.instigatorblog.com/launching-with-a-bang/2008/07/02/
  9. http://www.copyblogger.com/internet-product-launch/
  10. http://www.productlaunchblog.com/
  11. http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/may2006/sb20060512_948264.htm
  12. http://ezinearticles.com/?Product-Launch-Secrets-%E2%80%93-Why-Do-A-Product-Launch?&id=462049
  13. http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/duris1.asp
  14. http://productlaunchformula.com/
  15. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/christine-comaford/business-renegades/turbo-charge-your-product-launch-optimize-buzz
  16. http://gmj.gallup.com/content/21334/How-to-Ruin-a-Product-Launch.aspx
  17. http://www.npd-solutions.com/launchcons.html
  18. http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/category/articles/product-launch-article-pillar/ (I have been a subscriber to his emails for the past year - Yaro has all kinds of great info)
  19. http://marketing.about.com/od/eventandseminarmarketing/a/tradeshowcomp.htm
  20. http://marketing.about.com/od/strategytutorials/a/serviceproducts.htm
  21. http://marketing.about.com/cs/a.htm
  22. http://calacanis.com/2008/12/23/how-to-launch-a-new-product/
  23. http://www.chicagobooth.edu/news/2005-09-29v_ent_roundtable.aspx
  24. http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=880
  25. http://www.morebusiness.com/getting_started/primer/d991601332.brc
  26. http://knowledge.emory.edu/article.cfm?articleid=339
  27. http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=60971










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