Passionate Communication, #2
I started class last night with a plea to participants to be passionate about their businesses. I emphasized that passion is a small business's strongest driving force and that if they're passionate about what they do, others can't help but get excited.
There's a story I found in Jeffrey Fox's How to Become a Marketing Superstar about the Snapple brand. He talks about how Snapple's developers were passionate about their brand and, with a lot of creativity and passion but not a lot of cash, were able to achieve national distribution and recognition for their products. In short, Snapple was then sold to Quaker Oats which tried to commercialize the brand and take away it's marketing flava (not flavor, mind you). Snapple actually did poorly under Quaker Oats because its people didn't "love" the brand. Then QO sold Snapple back to a small but passionate group, and once again, the brand came alive, fueled by passion.
I love that idea, because the people taking my Image is Everything class in little Frankfort, Indiana, are likely not aiming for Snapple heights (but wouldn't it be cool if they got there because of this class?). Still, this is a real-life, larger-than-we-are example of how passion supersedes money in small business.
Today, one of the participants e-mailed me and said, "I was so geared up that I couldn't sleep with all of the possibilities that this class would open up for me."
Now, that kicks *ss. And then she e-mailed a whole promotional piece that she'd just done. Talk about passion!
There's a story I found in Jeffrey Fox's How to Become a Marketing Superstar about the Snapple brand. He talks about how Snapple's developers were passionate about their brand and, with a lot of creativity and passion but not a lot of cash, were able to achieve national distribution and recognition for their products. In short, Snapple was then sold to Quaker Oats which tried to commercialize the brand and take away it's marketing flava (not flavor, mind you). Snapple actually did poorly under Quaker Oats because its people didn't "love" the brand. Then QO sold Snapple back to a small but passionate group, and once again, the brand came alive, fueled by passion.
I love that idea, because the people taking my Image is Everything class in little Frankfort, Indiana, are likely not aiming for Snapple heights (but wouldn't it be cool if they got there because of this class?). Still, this is a real-life, larger-than-we-are example of how passion supersedes money in small business.
Today, one of the participants e-mailed me and said, "I was so geared up that I couldn't sleep with all of the possibilities that this class would open up for me."
Now, that kicks *ss. And then she e-mailed a whole promotional piece that she'd just done. Talk about passion!
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