Upcoming Napkin Concept seminar series will also be video tapped and posted for the public to view.

Sales and marketing is important for EVERY business, and yet so many SME’s miss the train.  Napkin focuses on developing USP’s with statistics , WIFM, and actionable keywords.  For the more developed client we’ve teamed with a renowned brand strategists focused on delivering intangible value to your business by developing a closely a unified brand, streamlined systems, and monetized business relationships.

What can Napkin Concepts do for your business. A hell of a lot.  You’ll find out….just…ya know check back here and see the awesome come to life!

For a few years I’ve been curious how human beings are attracted to things.  How their mental conditioning makes them want things.  Even things that they don’t need.  It boils down to a basic primal level that a) we wish to be accepted and part of a community and b) we love new, we love things other people don’t have to define our individuality and specialness in society.  Saying that seems like a general contradiction…but if you juxtapose the two ideas differently, you’ll see that really, people want to be the “social dominator” of their community. 

I don’t really know if you can get away from that.  Ever.  I don’t think the collective human psyche will allow for such a thing to happen. 

Why?

Here’s an example.  I just finished the Autobiography of Marilyn Manson, a person I am deeply interested in due to his ambition to break the traditional mold of social conformity.  Though he boast in this book that he aims to have people think and act for themselves, he still has fans. He still has the need to form a sub-culture that think and act the same way.  So even “thinking for yourself” and “breaking out of the mainstream” or “being independent” simply become part of a smaller community that thinks the same thing – a total contradiction.  Thus I maintain, that even subculture whom “think for themselves” still essentially think on mass, and that there is relatively no way to achieve total independence from a culture or community.

I feel that “community building” i.e. fanpages, etc, are a perfect opportunity to capitalize on “shock advertising”, with the intent to go viral.  It’s the system that appeals to the mass.  Giving someone in a social community something the community hasn’t seen before elevates that person to a trend setter, a visionary if you will.  Of course that person will accept your form of advertising – anything to get ahead in the eyes of their peers, no matter how “independent” thinking that community may think they are.

I was always creative, helping others, planting trees, turning off my car…all the nice person things to do.  Activists were no more to me than a bunch of complainers screwing up traffic.  I had to look past that…I began getting interested as I always do as to the reasons people were so passionately getting in the way, what they needed to say, or what could even mobilize an all out culture jam in the first place.

Activism took on a whole different level.  One which I could compute at.  It is literally social art.  True belief, passion and love are what drive it.  Isn’t that the epitome of creativity?  Of art?

Activism is a way of connecting. Ensuring community survives in critical, dissociated times.  A way to breed human love and self awareness to a point that, yeah, you can actually feel alive.

It’s a way to express, a way of unmatched creativity.  Being alive, feeling alive and feeling the rush of going against the grain of the an all to accepted sedentary culture allows us to fully evolve as people.  Dr. Thomas Campbell even stated that the nature of breakthrough is to transcend all paradigms; cultural, religious, personal.  Open-mindedness is essential for innovative ways of thinking. 

Raw passion and the unwavering plight of activism, or passionate action, is a state in which we should all strive to achieve.  Imagine how dynamic the world would be if we to all follow what we truly love to do, be, and give.

Innovators, activists, shit disturbers.  Whatever your name for us, remember we’re here to do what most don’t.  Create instead of react.

Thus how do we take the Machiavellian principle and correlate it to consumer behaviour, the “what’s in it for me” and segregate and influence markets using the conditions set forth by Neuro Linguistic Programming.  Yes its a great juxtaposition, one which I’m exploring more in depth.  Creativity must contain strategy if results are to be measurable.   

I have a list of books I’m putting together on the subject, which I will list later.  I love to share my knowledge.  I hope that it helps all!

“The Napkin Concept Project” is a new introduction.  It is a team of  creatives put together to create new advertising strategies and place them through marketing channels to create consistent viral campaigns.  Projects are in the works. You’ll know they’re out when you see them.

PEACE ONE DAY, and peaceoneday.org is commited to bringing world peace together.  For now the event focuses on a single day for this call to action. September 21′st MSI Group put together a regional signage, decal, and various outdoor promo pieces to raise awareness about the event.  It was a major hit including local radio stations, school boards, and military installations.  What an awesome turnout. 

On another note, my move out West is posing challenges which I am to overcome through perserverance.  I would like to be managing a couple of SNAP newspapers for the Vancouver region and are currently looking for franchise investors.  Its an awesome opportunity for them to sit back and basically make money…minimal sweat equity on their part…I’m the workhorse, but thats JUST FINE with me! It right up my alley.  Ad sales, event coverage…what better fun!

So, it just really boils down to the franchise sales.  I’ve got one guy that’s a for sure.  I need more. 

Third project…helping Off The Wall rock climbing gym boost their sales.  It’s not very well marketed, and really needs to attract more youth…I’m putting together a pitch for them and taking it to the Simcoe County School Board in which we already have an established relationship with.  More on this to come!

1) Figure out how much money you have to market with.

2) Figure out the most efficient way to use that money.  Thus your formula should be:

Most amount of heads / The least amount of dollars, or if the norm is one impression costing $1, than in your case it should be 3 impressions for $1 or one impression for $0.33. 

So how do you? Look at the cheapest marketing forms available.  Internet marketing via directories, and your telephone.  If you have a niche product, and your target market all laid out in a database…well you’re off to the races.

3) From there move up, start paying for the use of different directories, like the local chambers, etc. 

4) From there, throw another sales guy on to take care of a new or existing territory.

The best thing to remeber is the 4 P’s and a lean marketing mix, which will eventually turn into an effective mix.  Product, Price, Promotion, Place….

This is about as grassroots as it gets, and I’ve been doing this for so long I feel that I should write a book on how to market with no money…but then I’ll probably have to figure out how to market that with no money as well (haha, j/k really).

Really the communication channels that this product is breaking down to is:

Social Media

Traditional Marketing Initiatives (Direct Mailers, etc)

Networking

Event Marketing

(don’t think that’s it for one minute! There’s way more detail to the marketing mix….if you want the novel I’ll email it to you!)

Over the past couple of years of learning about marketing and sales in the field, its quite amazing how much you can learn to do from being at the bottom.  Somedays I wake up imagining what it would be like doing sales for a corporate machine with all its lead generating tools in place…what I life that would be, but what would I have learned about the whole process, from beginning to end!

I go source the product, plan the promotional strategy, price, and place of promotion and then develop the marketing channels to employ the strategy.  From there, it turns into the sales game with consistent contact (in various formats) with prospects.  Its about generating awareness, retention, and trust all by myself, and I couldn’t imagine working for someone that didn’t understand this.  I guess that’s why its just me right now!

So just got the website nearly complete for my new graphics framing product at www.modmysign.com  It’s been a lot of work pulling together any sort of picture from the supplier and moreover testimonials from their major clients, but its almost done.  The email blast design and content is finished, now I just have to implement the database to send it to, but I forgot database list at home, sooooo I might just call it a day today!

I think this product is sooo friggen cool, and the price is right.  I haven’t seen anything built in North America that has the ease to change static media.  Once I measure a favourable response, I’ll link some sales people up from there! If anyone wants to check it out, www.modmysign.com.

Next on the agenda is stocking interactive touch surface technology!

Building the marketing strategy for it right now, and implementing it on a shoe string budget.

As web based applications used within these sites increase in their features, social media will become ever more targeted to people you need to meet with that personal touch….is cold calling dead?  I think it soon will be.