Why is a hotel always full while the next door one is empty, although they offer the same services at comparable prices? Why does a certain video game convince millions to play it, while others struggle with a lot less buyers, although they are a bit cheaper? Why does an IT product sell, while others don’t, although they provide similar features? Why do you need an appointment made weeks in advance for some beauty salons and you need none for others, as their personnel seems to always be waiting for customers that never come?

It’s easy; people are not buying products and services only. They buy experiences which include those products and services. Everything else going on while they are researching, testing and buying is of ultimate importance, just as how they are treated after getting the product or service and they come back to either buy more or require assistance. Continue reading

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I have always been intrigued by the relationship Romanians have had with their car brand, Dacia. It is the only brand that still exists and that did not disappear after the Revolution that put an end to communism. But the way we’ve seen the brand, the way we’ve related to it or chosen to ignore it, makes for a very interesting story.

Dacias were not the best of cars during the communist period.  But they were one of the few types of cars you could actually get. Long lists and long waits came before any car purchase. And when I say long wait, I mean years. But then again, that gave you time to raise the money for it. The design was outdated, there weren’t that many options to choose from, and some relatives told me some now funny stories about how they prayed for their car to arrive with most of the parts on it.

After the Revolution, we finally had choices. And we went for them. Foreign cars, used at first, brought from nearby countries, Germany being the leading supplier. I grew up with high-school friends that made a business out of driving to Germany in one car and returning in three. They would work on them for a while, then resell them for some extra cash.

Old school Dacia, Sandero and Duster

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The past couple of weeks have brought in quite a few articles and blog posts about driving traffic as the new leverage of PR professionals. Pitch the story and have the traffic to back your pitch. But is this practice really new? Haven’t PR professionals already been driving traffic to online stories? I know I have and I doubt I’m the only one.

What stories do we drive traffic to? Well, almost anything showing up online.

Product/service reviews – all independent reviews, neutral and positive, are a gold mine for PR and Marketing pros. They are seen as objective points of view by customers and the bigger the publication, the more valuable the endorsement. Reviews are usually posted in a special website section, added to newsletters, used as literature to close new deals, twittered and blogged. Continue reading

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Do you really listen to those around you? Family, friends, employers, employees, clients, acquaintances, bartenders, would you say you actually know how to and can really listen to them? I’d say that theoretically, a lot of us know how to. Everyone who had a few college classes talking about active listening, please raise your hand now! But I think we phase out our knowledge, the very same way as we tune out commercials, product placements in movies, people we’re not interested in, things that bother us. And I also believe we sometimes overlook and downright forget the benefits of opening our mind and souls to those around us by listening.

It took reading a great book, Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone by Dr. Mark Goulston – to remember the benefits of listening, the techniques and the investment it takes to make it all work. I know what some of you would say! All shrinks think they know how to listen and help you, but what does it have to do with business? I for one know for sure you can pretty much find valid business advice almost anywhere, so a psychiatrist that gets hired by businesses to get them to work better sounds like a sweet deal to me.

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2009 has definitely been a wonderful year. Twists and turns, drama and excitement, all for the better in the end. After a thorough review of what has happened in the past year and with a little inspiration from Chris Brogan, I’ve moved on to putting my 2010 wish list on paper. Virtual paper that is!

So after a lot of thinking, prioritizing and plotting (yes, I love the added evil touch), here is what I’ve come up with, in a more or less particular order.

1. I wish to help more companies in the IT filed to better communicate with customers, partners, the media and their employees and show these different audiences how their products and services manage to solve real issues and make their business or personal lives a little better.
2. I also wish to gain more customers from the tourism and travel sector. I have started with a hotel in 2009, but I want to expand my portfolio and work with other companies, be it hotels, online booking sites or travel agencies. I know my mixed knowledge of PR & Marketing and the travel industry (I’ve studied it for about 3 years) is perfect to help them attract more local or international customers.
3. For my PR blog, Words of a Broken Mirror, I wish to write more posts helping my readers with their PR and Marketing activities. More readers and subscribers would also be great I also wish to extend my article writing on my PR and Marketing agency’s website. I also wish to guest post more, so that I’m able to reach and help other audiences with my content.
4. I wish to help companies integrate social media tools into their overall PR and Marketing strategies. I really, really hope I’ll be able to and see at least a few companies switching from misuses to effective campaigns targeting online communities. As part of this effort, I plan to help them realize it’s not only new tools they are adapting to, but also a new way of doing their marketing. Although we kept talking about conversation, dialogues, engaging the customers, a lot of businesses are still perfectly happy with just broadcasting on new channels.
5. I wish to adopt a Romanian NGO, preferably one dealing with children/women/animals rights. I always complain I don’t do enough to make things a little better and doing what I’m good at for free seems like the best possible investment of my time. But this I plan to write more on in Romanian, on the PRwave Blog.
6. I’d like to participate, as a speaker, in more PR, Marketing and Social Media dedicated events. I feel I have a quite relevant experience worth sharing with other professionals in both my field and other industries. I’ve started doing this in late 2009, together with Loredana Pascal and it turned out pretty great!
7. I wish to turn my Travel Spells blog into a fun and profitable project. I have a few plans for it and I am sure I can make them work. Up to now it has made me about 25 euros so there definitely are a few possibilities.
8. I also want to work with my partners and turn the online magazine for women, Cenusa de trandafir, into a profitable one. It’s been 4 months since we’ve launched it, we have a great community supporting it, all the stats look good, so let the money pour in in 2010
9. I wish to be a published author by the end of the year. That’s the worst case scenario plan. The optimist view is that my vampire story will be published on my birthday, April 3rd. Either way, I’ll be extremely happy to see people reading and enjoying it.

These are the big things I plan to focus on in 2010 in what my business life is concerned. I hope I get to accomplish most of them and make new ones for the future.

Is your business wish list for 2010 ready? If it isn’t, hurry up, you’ve got a few hours left to put it all on paper

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