In a challenging economic market, make your company stand out and be memorable. We talked before about being remarkable (also think: Seth Godin‘s “PURPLE COW”), but the goal is to create the “HUH?” moment in the conversation – it stops the flow of the mundane – and in the end, you get noticed or at least remembered when the others all blend in.

John Jantsch, creator and founder of Duct Tape Marketing, calls this marketing technique “creating your Talking Logo”:

Like a traditional printed logo, a Talking Logo is a tool that allows your firm to communicate verbally the single greatest benefit of doing business with your firm. A Talking Logo is a short statement that quickly communicates your firm’s position and forces the listener to want to know more.”

When you are at a networking luncheon and someone says, “so, what do you do?” and your response is “I help people busy moms lose weight and find twice the energy they have now.” It’s hard to just say, “oh, OK.” You’re immediately drawn into “so tell me how you do that.” When you do you’re farther down the road than the other salesperson who responded, “I’m the area sales rep for Vitamins & Nutrition of Texas.” Stand out.

Maybe it’s in customer service where you do something your competitors would never think of doing! Maybe you’re the kitchen remodeling contractor who not only cleans up the job site every night, but also chooses to promote themselves to neighbors in the area with door hangers that say “Pardon Our Mess, We’re Putting in a New Kitchen over at Paul & Mary’s house and Achieving Great Style is Messy Sometimes”). Or if you are the online company who puts a hand-written note into your shipment (making a distinction by saying, “Sorry we can visit face-to-face about your new purchase, so we wanted you to know REAL PEOPLE put your order together – please call us if there’s any reason why you are not fully satisfied”).

One tax preparer I heard about invited people to a FREE seminar in January about “Finding Those Hard To Find Deductions” – he did this as a FREE educational seminar (in hopes of finding new leads) and while the 25 people were inside learning about tax stuff, the tax preparer had contracted with a mobile auto detail company and they washed every attendee’s car and then left a note that says, “Mr. ______ thanks you for attending his free seminar – enjoy your clean car!” When the attendees came out of the building with a mountain of stress about the pending tax preparation season ahead of them, they were greeted with a special treat: a clean car! Mr. Tax Guy became the tax man for several of those attendees (and their fees over the years far surpassed the small upfront fee of paying the auto detail firm – plus, he worked a deal with them so they could put their ad on the thank you note as well so they game him a discount on the services they performed for all those cars.

I like watching this guy who gives a 3 min video on “Point of Dissonance” (dissonance is the inconsistency between what someone’s belief is and what is actually experienced: surprising people with the unexpected influences their minds!)

Here’s one article that could be useful to small business owners facing hard times and a challenging economy (Preview: Ramp Up Your Marketing!!)Speaking of that gloomy economic outlook, if you are in the DFW area, Mitchell Schnurman’s article paints a different picture! Don’t swallow the doom and gloom that is often reported on the national news – the local economy seems strong!

-Randy

I vary my Talking Logo from time to time. Right now I might say (in some cases where I’m trying to gain leads, NOT in casual conversation with friends who might think it’s a little odd),

“I create marketing solutions so you can do GREATER THINGS.”