Agency Blog

New Year, New Me

Ty Larson — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:54:02 +0000

With a new year comes endless possibilities. Though time is relevant, it’s easy for everyone to single out January first as the beginning of a new period in your life. People get together and celebrate with friends and family to count down the seconds until the past year has ended and the new has begun.

A popular thing to do at the start of the New Year is to make resolutions and set goals for what you want to achieve during the coming year. The most common resolution is to go on a diet and get fit, but with our economy just starting to make a recovery, many people seem to have made financial resolutions this year.

With January 1, 2010 as the start of not only a new calendar year, but also a new decade, some may see it as a great starting point to put their lives back on track. Who doesn’t want to get rid of their debt and become financially sound once again?

I usually like to have fun with resolutions and have a tradition with friends that we’ve done for a few years now. We get together on New Year’s Eve and as soon as the clock strikes midnight, we fill up our glasses with some sparkling cider and sit in a circle. We then take turns making resolutions, and taking a sip of our drink until we’re all resolutioned out and have nothing left in our glasses.

And though I spent the evening with my friends this year, I didn’t partake in the resolution making. I had decided earlier on in the week that I wanted to set my yearly goals even higher, so I got a new haircut, a new pair of glasses and a new state of mind.

January 1, 2010 means a new year and a new me.

I’m going to work harder.
I’m going to get tighter control of my finances.
I’m going to put more into savings.
I’m going to encourage and partake more in teamwork.
I’m going to be more creative.
I’m going to enjoy and appreciate the little things more.
I’m not going to give up.

I know that those may sound like resolutions, but I don’t see them as separate goals; I see them as all being a part of the same plan.

I’m very thankful to have my job here at SRJ Marketing Communications. It was almost a year ago that Steven Jolly hired me on as his assistant and the company traffic coordinator/office manager. I feel like the opportunity that was given to me has provided with more than just a sustainable income; I’ve learned and grown and evolved as an individual.

The team here at SRJ is great, and I’ve seen them develop amazing concepts, then pull together to execute them and bring those ideas to life. I’ve seen us grab hold of new social media and use it as a valuable tool in an integrated marketing communications program. I’ve watched as clients come in hurting from the recession, and walk out with renewed ambition and hope after hearing fresh new ideas to boost their bottom line.

To witness this all firsthand has been an excellent learning experience and has opened my eyes to the fast-paced world of marketing communications. It is also what gave me the inspiration for my "New Year, New Me" project.

2009 was horrible in so many ways, and I’m glad to see it go, but it also gave me, and I’m sure others as well, an opportunity to learn and grow. So here is my challenge to you: It is now the first Monday of the New Year, the new decade; what are you going to do to become the new you?

Un-Cola: Steer Clear of the Cola Wars

Phillip Murrell — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:09:40 +0000

The beloved companies Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola are the dominating forces in the beverage industry. It started out as a war between the popular fizzy, golden-brown fluid products, Pepsi and Coke, and eventually expanded into flavors like Sprite, Orange Soda and 7-Up. Even still, in the past decade, both companies have further diversified their offerings with juices, energy drinks and sports quenchers. While the two enormous soda companies have virtually acquired all of their smaller contenders, people have made millions by considering the “un-cola.”

Have you heard of Odwalla? The company was started by three kids who made juice with a second hand juicer and sold it from the back of their Volkswagen. The company was acquired by Coca-Cola in 2001 for 181 Million dollars! If these guys had tried to create a “better” coke or a Pepsi cola with more efficient operation management, would they have found this kind of success? Don’t think so.

I always tell my clients, build your own ladder to top-of-the-mind awareness instead of trying to play push and shove with the industry giants. If you’re business is selling cola, you are a pee wee baseball team playing against the Yankees and the Red Sox. Instead of playing in the big leagues, give your customers something your larger competitors can’t, or something they haven’t thought of yet.

Try these things:

Ask yourself and others: Does my business have a competitive advantage?
Re-assess your resources and capabilities: What can I do with what I have?
Create an “un-cola”: How can I reposition or change my product/service to give it a new edge?

Ask someone outside your company what new things could be done with the assets your company already has. At SRJ Marketing Communications, our goal is to see your business succeed. This could through creating advertisements and public relations schedules, or it could mean helping you find your “un-cola”. Give us a visit today and we’ll point you in the right direction.

How Barack Obama Used Facbook To Help Win The Election

Braydon Medlin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:00:49 +0000

This past election, due to all of the pomp and circumstance, the underpinnings of a brilliant strategic campaign were lost in the shuffle. How did Barack Obama rise from his office as a relatively unknown state Senator to capture the collective attention of the nation and make history as our country’s first elected African-American president? The answer is a sound and astutely managed campaign strategy that harnessed the power of integrated social networking.

Recent Events Making it Harder to Discredit Twitter

Jeremy Ash — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:52:45 +0000

There is no denying that there is a lot of buzz around social media, especially its current darling, Twitter. It has grown almost 1,000 percent in the past year. News stations, celebrities, restaurants, politicians and maybe even your parents are all on Twitter these days. The unprecedented growth of Twitter has left a lot of people confused and skeptical as to the use and validity of such a real-time micro-blogging site.

The Social Media Bandwagon

Michael Heil — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:45:56 +0000

For a while now, I’ve been talking about the importance of using social media as a marketing tool. Social media is no longer an emerging technology on the fringe of the business world. It has quickly become a social phenomenon that is actively being used by businesses everywhere to communicate to prospective stakeholders.

Twitter’s Business Use Still Increasing

Jeremy Ash — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:30:30 +0000

Twitter has fast become a social phenomenon. It has intrigued, excited and in some cases, confused a lot of people. Who would have ever thought the simple question “what are you doing?” would have ever caused such a global phenomenon. As with all communication tools, from magazine and newspapers to Web sites and e-mail, Twitter is now being utilized for marketing and promotional purposes by businesses everywhere.