Cornerstone Business Strategists

05/03/2018

Photos taken during the conference on 27th Feb 2018 by David Weeks Photographic

16/02/2018

I was with the great tribe at Cornerstone Business Strategists this morning, presenting a Bite-sized Management talk on Communication Skills – what it is, why it's (almost) impossible and how to make it work. And all in half an hour. What a pleasure.

16/02/2018

Meet Dianne Perrett, one of the awesome speakers who will be talking about Collaborative Business on 27th Feb. Dianne authored the book Simple Solutions to Effective Marketing, is the founder and owner of Cornerstone Business Strategists, she's a National speaker, CEO of AdventureEscapades.co.za and also chairs several boards and provides voluntary services to several NGOs.

"In a tight-knit and very focused industry where is the murky line between competition and collaboration? Can multiple service providers really benefit from working together more closely? Do you maintain the high-performance habits that entrepreneurs need to survive and thrive in the current economic times? We’ll explore these questions together with the aim of developing some 2018 business and personal goals to make this your best year yet!"

06/02/2018

Consumers look for love by Alta Keyter, The Witness (2 February 2018)

When does ‘like’ actually mean ‘love'?

February, the month of love? With Valentine’s Day around the corner I asked myself, “If our brand was a human being, would it receive chocolates and flowers on the 14th? Would it be asked out on a date or receive marriage proposals? When does ‘like’ actually mean ‘love'?

If you work in marketing, communications or PR, I would highly recommend you attend The Loeries Creative Week (www.loeries.com). My highlight of the week is the DSTV Seminar of Creativity where the organisers spoil us by bringing the best in international thought leadership right to our doorstep.

One of these innovative minds, Pum Lefebure, an award-winning creative director, co-founder and chief creative officer of the Design Army in Washington, spoke about the love relationship with your brand last year.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Do you remember that feeling of joy when you first experienced something for the first time? It always kind of stays with you.

Pum says the problem with the communication world today is that on average a human being receives 360 ads per day. We have learnt to shut off all the noise. We have developed filters that enable us to decide in a second if something is right for us or not. Why is that? Currently the average human attention span is 8.25 seconds. This is shorter than a goldfish.

The way Pum practices design today is far from how she practised design 20 years ago. She believes design is no longer executional or cosmetic, it’s strategic. Smart designers and marketers really know how to seduce consumers. They flirt with all your senses.

When Pum receives an assignment she asks herself ‘How do I make people fall in love with the brand? How do I seduce people to buy more of the product or service? I don’t think of myself as a designer anymore. I think of myself as a seducer.”

So what do brands have to do these days in order to get attention? Pum suggests, first you have to flirt, then you have to romance and then you have to seduce.

Why? Because more and more people want to experience a brand. They want to fall in love with something. It is no longer about creating a cool campaign and a journey to purchase. It’s about creating a journey for someone to fall in love with your product or service which is worth sharing with their loved ones.

Flirt to catch attention.

Marketing is a lot like dating. Imagine yourself going into a bar. You look around and all of a sudden you see someone that is your type. That is the brand identifying their target market. You make yourself look good and make eye contact with that person. It is the same with a brand to get someone’s attention. Flirt, how to catch attention.

Romance: Begin the conversation

And then it’s time to romance. Begin the conversation. You get that person’s attention and you walk over and introduce yourself. You tell them about yourself. That is when the brand is trying to introduce their product to their target market. They tell you who they are, their philosophy and what their brand is all about.
Take time to seduce

Then comes the hard part: Master the art of seduction. It’s hard because the brand has to be very strategic in their thinking. It requires a lot of planning to seduce someone successfully. Brands have to differentiate themselves from others. Seduction takes time to build. A lot of brands think you seduce once and you launch the product or service. Consistency and continuity is key in creating a brand that has a lasting impact year after year. You have to keep seducing daily to keep the romance alive otherwise people will get bored and they will move on.

I’d love to know how you keep the romance going. Email me at [email protected]. Have a great Valentine’s Day.

Reference: You can watch Pum’s seminar presentation on “How do you put your brand on top and drive your audience absolutely wild” by visiting http://bit.ly/2BEreDl.

Media24 The Witness The Loeries DStv DESIGN ARMY

25/01/2018

Thank you Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business, we are delighted to have pioneered this partnership. Wedgewood Nougat and Villiera Wines produce a superior quality product and we treasure the opportunity to celebrate our family owned manufacturing businesses. We hope Champagne and Nougat tastings will become a tourist hot spot on the Midlands Meander

Bubbles and nougat on menu - http://mailchi.mp/pcb/e-biz-blitz-22-january-995645?e=cb415eeccb

25/01/2018

Get involved! Like our page Cornerstone Business Strategists

23/01/2018

Stay up to date with the latest developments in strategy by following our company page on LinkedIn

Learn about working at Cornerstone Business Strategists. Join LinkedIn today for free. See who you know at Cornerstone Business Strategists, leverage your professional network, and get hired.

19/01/2018

Thank you Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business for the support. Subz Washable Sanitary Pads She Conquers SA KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health

Power to the sisterhood - http://mailchi.mp/pcb/e-biz-blitz-15-january-995609?e=cb415eeccb

19/01/2018

3 Generations of Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business leadership celebrating Brenda Eckstein’s new book ‘GROW: How to turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones’

16/01/2018

Employees make best marketers by Alta Keyter, The Witness (9 January 2018)

Kevin Daum, an Inc.com columnist, media strategist, and an award-winning, bestselling author of 5 books including ROAR! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle and Video Marketing For Dummies recently travelled to South Africa, and I had the privilege of attending his workshop “Empowerment through storytelling”.

Kevin shared a time effective way of introducing yourself consisting of five elements. One of the elements was explaining what your company/employer does in five words. The workshop was held at a big corporate and I was stunned at how differently the sales team described what their company does.

At its core, employee advocacy is the promotion of an organisation by its staff. As a new year’s resolution for your company, I would like to encourage you to explore social media employee advocacy because of the changes in the way consumers shop. For example:

• According to Cisco, your employees have 10 times more followers than your company and 8 times the engagement you do
• People are 16 times more likely to read a post from a friend about a brand than from the brand itself
• Brand messages get re-shared 24 times more frequently when shared by employees’ vs the brand
• Leads from employee advocacy are seven times more likely to close than other forms of leads
• Customers referred by an employee advocate have a 37% higher retention rate

Your employees are often your best salespeople even if they’re not in sales. They have more influence over the products and services their friends and family buy - according to a report from Ogilvy, Google and TNS that found word of mouth is still the number one influencer for buyers.

Let’s say a company of 100 employees has 2,000 fans of their Facebook business page. Their potential total reach is 2,000. Now if every employee in that company had an average of 338 friends on Facebook, the total reach of all the employees combined is 33,800. This equates to a 1,590% increase in reach. By utilising your employees’ social media networks, you have the ability to reach a much larger audience and have your message seen by exponentially more people.

To ensure your employees feel comfortable about advocating for your brand be clear on the guidelines, violations, and the best practices. Use their incredible social influence by empowering them to share preapproved content for your organization so that messaging is accurate, clear, and on-brand.

Clarity lets employees become a living, breathing testimonial for your brand without the worry of what they’re doing wrong. They have the potential to amplify your company vision, mission and message, so why not let them?

One of the best social media employee advocacy examples I’ve seen in the last year was Dunlop Tyres SA with their . We also recently started a social media employee advocacy campaign, , and it’s great watching the momentum grow.

So what stories are your employees telling about your brand and are you winning or losing business because of it? I would love to hear your views on the topic. Please email me at [email protected] to discuss.

References: Pindex, Hootsuite and Bambu

Dunlop Tyres SA Media24

26/12/2017

We recently had the great pleasure of paying it forward with Cornerstone Business Strategists and Subz Washable Pads and panties