Marketing the Undesirable

I had an interesting conversation with someone from Yayasan Sejahtera yesterday. I met her to discuss the possibility of working together, to promote their cause. They "help the extreme poor create a better life for themselves by equipping them with the necessary tools, skills, infrastructure and opportunities to break out of the poverty cycle", a cause that I believe to be extremely important. I once wrote about how those who need help the most are the ones who don't know they need it, or are utterly helpless to do anything about it. If they are lucky, someone outside the cycle is able to intervene.

Aishah shared the difficulty of 'marketing' their cause: to the public, the sponsors and even the people they are trying to help. Just like a commercial product, it is extremely difficult to promote something so far from 'sexy', so time consuming to see results. Yes, even humanitarian causes can be sexy or not. Disaster relief, for example, is extremely titillating. Helping a Mak Cik to sustain her keropok business, to feed and school her children, is not.

Another difficulty is that the cause is asking us to face the undesirable truth. In Malaysia, where there are comforts and luxury in the urban cities, it is hard to believe that in certain corners of the country, there are still fellow citizens who have no access to clean water and live in shacks, much less have electricity. Indeed, telling the well-to-doers that such living conditions still exist in Malaysia usually evokes disbelief. It's not a pretty picture that it's trying to sell, hence, it's hard to get people to 'buy' into the truth, before we can even get around to rectifying it. A weight loss ad promises that we can lose 10 pounds in 10 sessions, and we believe it because we want to. A property ad promises great investment returns, and we believe it because we want to. These ads can achieve great impact with very little effort because they are selling highly desirable products. On the other hand, Yayasan Sejahtera will have to put in a mountain of effort to achieve a molehill of a result. Because poverty is something that makes us uncomfortable.

So, what do we do? We need to give poverty a makeover. It needs a good stylist. Feature a young, kampung girl, with fresh, natural beauty, tending to her vegetable farm, with butterflies flitting around her like an exotic Snow White. Capture images of handsome, muscular young men, casting the fishing net, while the setting sun reflects off his wet body like a golden Adonis. Show good looking children playing by the river, like a GAP ad.

You, reader, may roar rahr-rahr at my suggestion. But black cat, white cat...what does it matter as long as it catches the fish?

Branding for Charmnote

Year-end is always a busy time for Wit & Words.

It's the time that companies begin to think about revamping their profiles, websites and brand. Perhaps it is also when they find they have some leftover in their marketing budget to spend on copywriting services. I'm more than happy to help them find a way to use the remainder...in a value adding way, of course.

This week, while most were merry-making throughout the Deepavali and Awal Muharram holidays, I've been delving into several projects. One of them brings me back to the time when I was involved in the spa industry.

Charmnote Asia Pacific is the manufacturer and distributor of eco-friendly cleaning products. They've recently created two retail product brands, for household cleaning and pets, which they wanted Wit & Words to help craft brand stories, product packaging content and fragrance names. It's quite unique to find such a variety of fragrances for cleaning products. Usually it's just lemon, lime or floral.

So I've spent a few days sniffing the miniature amber bottles (pictures above) interspaced with a whiff of coffee grounds (in the green cup) to clear the nose in between. 

A naming project is always nice to have in between heavy writing ones. Although less words are required, sometimes it takes even more time to  find the right direction and meaningful words that say a lot with very little. It certainly challenges the creative mind, which I firmly believe requires occasional prodding or it just dies a boring death.

TAMBI needs YOU!

Oh, I love this!

http://www.tambi.my/

It's an outright appeal by Malaysian, obviously Indian, comedian, Kavin Jay, to advertisers to feature more Indians in their ads.

'Manipulate us!', 'Exploit us' and 'Sell to us!' he says.

Brilliantly stereotype jokes aside, it's true that the Indians are seldom represented in the media (unless it's near Deepavali or election). It explores the problems of Malaysia's biased society in a very, very funny way. I hope the message is not completely lost on the viewers.

Created by Creative Juice (who also brought us my favourite Nandos Ads), this campaign (simply because I lack a better word to describe 'this nonsense') is cheeky and sassy, and I'm happy to say wholly local production!

Entrepreneur Mindset

A fellow business owner once said to me that the most important thing a business owner needs is hope. Those profound words have replayed in my mind many times. Indeed. Most SMEs 'wrap up' their businesses within the first five years. As a start-up, you may falter, you may despair, you may consider giving up, but dammit, with hope you'll carry on!

And so I take a moment to give myself a boost of hope. 

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), the founders of several renowned multinational ad agencies started out as copywriters.

| See the List here |

That's Hopeful.

To add to that, Google recently performed another crawl and my website ranking has gone up again.

We must remember to celebrate even the small successes.

Bodyform Brilliant Comeback on Social Media

Bodyform is a sanitary pad company in the UK.

They created this video in response to a man's sarcastic remark on their facebook page, angry that their advertisements lied about periods.

His remark included: 

"There was no joy, no extreme sports, no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack"

Bodyform's comeback was much more clever in its sarcasm and brilliantly funny:

My favourite parts are the 80s test subjects 

and the phrase "the blood coursing from our uteri like a crimson landslide".

(We'd never see such marketing ploy in Malaysia. We're too 'polite' and safe).

Berita Tan & Tan 2012 completed!

It was a 6-month labour of love. Working hand in hand with the client, our work on Tan & Tan's revamped annual newsletter is complete:

To view the newsletter in its entirety, click here.

Logos Are Pictograms

I've been thinking about logos lately. 

Essentially, they are pictograms that summarise

the name and business/product

of the company. 

I stumbled upon this website - Logo Faves 

which have a great collections of 

clever, cute and beautiful logos.

Here's some of my favourites:

These designers were just brilliant 

at capturing the whole business in one tiny icon.

DOs and DON'Ts of Logo Designing

I'm late in posting this logo, but I wanted to do this after Independence Day to show a little respect to my country. Or am I just reopening old wounds?

The Don'ts 
(1) use multiple font types, sizes and colours
(2) have too many elements (in the example below, they are the '1', 'M', 'erdeka', '55', 'Janji Ditepati' and the flag.
(3) overlap the elements
(4) repeat elements (Malaysian flag pattern within the '1' and an undulating flag)

The Dos
(1) check if the individual elements will be clear and aesthetically pleasing when in black & white or grayscale, for news print, or colourless collaterals (the flag would not survive the transition).
(2) check if it is still clear when scaled to a small size, for it is such on advertisements, t-shirt embroidery, sponsorship acknowledgement, etc (the flag would be unclear, the multiple elements difficult to decipher).

When the design was revealed, it received so much negative response and even sparked competitions and voluntary designs for the logo that should have been. The government eventually denied that the above was the official logo and used the '1' (only).

Pity. They could have a good laugh with the citizens, announce a nationwide competition, since it had already gained some traction, and get the entire country involved. Another marketing mindset we must always have - there may be an advantage lurking in a disadvantage.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Marketing Ploy

BookXcess created a mascot for their annual book sale and used it thoroughly to promote the event. They've used the Big Bad Wolf with great wit, creating an entire personality and story for the fictional character.

The next sale isn't until September, and the marketing campaign has already begun: pseudo news coverage spinning a fictional story surrounding the disappearance of The Wolf. It's wholly unrelated to books, but Facebook Fans are already a-flutter, getting excited about the event.

Here's the first three 'posters' in the series so far...

https://www.facebook.com/bbwbooks

Wit & Words Website on Page 1

i always believed that (in most cases) that whatever takes time to develop is harder to undo (love, for instance).

After many rounds of fine tuning during the initial stage, a little bit spent on paid advertising (<RM200) to boost traffic, and then simply months of patience while the website gained traction by itself, it's finally listed on page one a year after its launch!

I'm going to open a bottle of wine and clink glass against the monitor.

Overused words: BESPOKE

 The title says it all. It is the trending overused word. Its predecessor, customise. 

I did a quick search on Thesaurus.com to predict the next trending word, with the same meaning. Now which could it be?

I like transmogrify. 

"We transmogrify our services to suit each client's needs"

Attune?

"Our flexibility allows us to attune to every situation"

Refashion or reshape?

"We refashion our products to suit your style"

...

...

...

Yup, I'm betting on transmogrify.

Inspirational Everyday People

In my last post, I said that the favourite part of my job is client liaising.

Occasionally, I'd come across individuals who have inspirational stories of their own. In the last month, I met a hotelier who started out as a factory worker and is now the GM of a hotel in KL; I met an executive chef who worked the paddy fields at age nine and broke his spinal bone carrying 40kg of rice on his head; I met a lady entrepreneur whose paper trading business makes millions, allowing her to now pursue her real passion of interior design; I met the founder of an international training company whose first job was making roti canai.

They are humble people with great stories to tell. Perhaps this will one day be a Wit & Words project - Working title: Dream Big

Tan & Tan Developers engages Wit & Words to craft their annual newsletter

I'm really excited to embark on a new project with Tan & Tan developers, writing for their annual newsletter and providing designing services with my associate designer, Sarah. And I'm always glad when the client tells me they want to differ from the norm. While many people like to do things the 'tried and tested' way, I don't. Sure, trying to be different is always riskier, but the results are always well worth it.

Observing the property arena is my current passion, and I'm delighted when my client's nature of business coincides with my interest. For some fortunate reason, this happens rather often.

For instance:

I'm writing the company profile for NetDomination Sdn Bhd, a digital marketing company, and it gave me ideas to improve my own website.

I'm in the midst of finalizing details with a potential client, The Decorateur Sdn Bhd, who is an interior designer. I've been obsessing with furniture and design ideas for a home I've yet to buy (still looking!). The owner is also a very successful businesswoman in her own right, which is very inspiring for an aspiring entrepreneur like myself.

Perhaps I'm lucky to be so interested in other people's 'business'. Am I shooting myself in the foot to say that I enjoy the client liaising part of my work first, then only the writing? Oh well, bang! bang!

New Name Card

A doctor is the worst person to treat him or herself.

Likewise, a marketing person is the worst person to design her own collaterals.

I had to rope in the help of a fellow perfectionist to work on my new name card.

I started with this:

front

back

And after six rounds of editing, I had this:

front

back

And I'm still not happy.

But I have clients to meet, and cards need to be given, so it went to print.

As a marketing person, i know consistency is key to branding. But I have a feeling I'll change the design again the next time I print new cards.

So, do what I preach, but don't do what I do. 

Making the most of your competitor's mistake

Lately, Nando's has been pretty witty with their publicity and promotions.

I noticed their billboard asking drivers to go "slow slow".

I remember their radio ads to "enjoy enjoy" their "peri peri" chicken.

And this is the kicker. 

In conventional Malaysia where even the fiercest of competitors are nice to each other in public, they are unconventionally taking advantage of the 'KFC employee punching customer' fiasco to gain attention. Riding on top of the wave created by their competitor drowning.

Quite brilliant and amusing:

Local marketers urged to raise online ads budget

In today's edition of The Star, it is reported that local businesses only allocate 1% of their ad budget for online media.

Tsk tsk.

Don't they realise the power of the internet yet? It's time for them to reexamine their marketing strategy.

Why Hiring Copywriters From Malaysia Is Ideal

And Yes, I'm tooting my own horn as well as those of my fellow copywriters from Malaysia.

Outsourcing to another country where the labour cost is lower is nothing new - manufacturing to China, because they have overflowing source of manpower; tech support centres to India, because they are notoriously good in IT.

Now, why hire copywriters from Malaysia? Although the cost of services in Malaysia is higher than other developing countries, we have been colonised by the British once upon a time ago and the legacy is a significant, middle class, urban dwelling population who speaks and writes the English Language everyday. Since the language originated from the Queen's land, I'd say that we learnt from the master. And our accents are generally easier to decipher than the Indians from India (am I being politically incorrect in stating so?), although they too have a similar language legacy.

Besides that, we turn our attention to the most used language in the world - Mandarin - the fluency of which has now become an advantage in business. The diaspora of Chinese to Malaysia back in the mining days, coupled with the British influence, has left behind a group of bilingual citizens who speaks and writes both languages. And though many people, both from developing and developed countries, are learning to speak either or both these languages, their grammatically correct and eloquently put proses seldom translate well when they try to write. Somehow, speaking well doesn't equal writing well.

I would never sell our services by saying hiring copywriters from Malaysia is 'cheap'. Good things never come cheap. But we are truly value for money. '50 dollar an hour' for a writer from, say, the US may get you a more experienced, more professional writer from Malaysia. An English-Chinese (or vice versa) translation job will be executed well by someone speaks both languages well, and many of those 'someones' can be found in Malaysia.

And with the communication technology of today - Skype, emails, IM, online sharing tools - it doesn't matter if the client is from China, America or Timbuktu, it's as if our offices are just next to each other.

Brilliant Viral Ad, with a Punchline at the End