Getting ready for a speaking engagement is a lot like getting ready for an athletic event or for a theatrical extravaganza. I generally know which topic I will be speaking about and have talked about or taught on the subject many times. I think about how my feelings on the topic of the speaking engagement have changed or stayed the same. I look for ways to tie current events into the subject matter. I look for interesting stories or humorous anecdotes that I can use during the speaking engagement. Sometimes I have a favorite that still works. Sometimes I want to try something new.

I also think a lot about who the audience is, what part of the country they are in and what their day to day concerns might be. One speaking engagement is not at all like the next speaking engagement. Even if I am asked to do a program I have done for others in the past, the audiences change, my outlook changes and the mood of “the times” change.

The night before the speaking engagement, I comb through my notes and slides, looking for ways to improve the material or to tailor it to the audience. I try to get some exercise and limber up before I get my rest. On the morning of the speaking engagement I get some more exercise and limbering and eat a good breakfast. I try to get to the location of the speaking engagement very early so I can scout out the surroundings, get a feel for the venue and check out the crowd.

I do some stretches to make sure my posture will be good and my energy will be vibrant. I do some vocal warm-ups so I can project well and so I do not trip over my words. I coordinate how the staging will work and go over the introduction the host will give. Then I mingle as much as I can until shortly before curtain time. Then I sit and relax a minute until the host gives me the nod and I know it is time to play ball. That’s when I take the field and make my best pitch.

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I acknowledged the nod she gave me as I wandered around looking at trailer hitches and boxes. Then another employee showed up behind the desk and asked if he could help me. I said I might need a storage space. He pointed at her and said, “She’ll help you.” After she hung up the phone, she maintained the same scowl she had while leaving the message and asked how she could help me. Put yourself in my place as a potential renter. I am not sure I like these people. They have not been very respectful so far. I told her I didn’t need it for a few weeks and she offered a free month if I would sign the lease now. 

That sounded like a good deal for a self storage unit, but I honestly did not know if a real buyer would take the deal and accept the less than charming staff, or look elsewhere. There was another storage place across the street. So I went across the street to see what I could find across the street. Isn’t that what you would have done?

So if you are in the middle of being “bad cop”, you better be able to switch gears and become “good cop” in a hurry, or your new customers will go across the street.

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Unlike our usual mode of reporting about a particular product or services after we are certain that we have given it a fair chance, we wanted to report on AdlandPro rather more quickly.

The reason for this decision is simple: for good or bad, since we started participating in their program, we have seen an unbelievable amount of activity. Unlike most other similar sites that drag until something happens at all, at AdlandPro we started getting initial response from the community members within minutes. The actions included invitation to be friends by community members, information, lessons, and guidance as well as in dept coverage of all kinds of related topics.

To our surprise, however, their admin has not managed to verify our membership via visiting our site for the link. Otherwise, the response has been rather unique and refreshing.

As up right now we see a great potential based on their Alexa.com ranking, their massive online traffic, quick community response as well as the great deal of tools to enhance the experience.

We give them 4.5 out of 5 but we will keep you up to date on our experience and development.

In essence, a service strategy can be either referring to the overall strategy or as a part of marketing and advertising a product. However, service strategy in general is associated with service providers rather than tangible consumer goods.

One of the rather interesting examinations in failed service strategy is in the Airline industry. In spite of past decades of turbulence in Airline industry consumer have witnessed many ups and downs including great changes in prices, offspring of new low budget competition, local and regional small competitors, governmental bail outs, reduction in perceived and actual services including in flight services, arrival and departure delays and cancellations as well as lost of luggage.

Additionally the public relations aspects of the Airline industry have farther complicated matters by allowing the public to perceived the Airline industry as one particular odd yet constantly governmentally protected private industry which is in real and philosophical conflict with the free market concept.

However, many proponents and even some segments of public have accepted the blame of terrorist attacks as well as national security interests as justifiable reasoning to offer public funds to protect a private industry. Similarly there has been a comparative linear argument that Airline industry has received less protection than some other industries such as automobile manufacturers or the farming industry.

All of the above point to only one conclusion: the airline industry with its tremendous assets, debt, political influence and revenues has miserably failed to create even the most basic condition to be self sufficient as well as massive failure to be at least perceived as private business. Nonetheless, the specifics of individual members such as Jetblue are not comforting either.

Jetblue has been celebrated as one of the rather relatively successful newcomers to the airline industry. Its service model of operating at lower cost yet offering low cost fairs that are attractive to both price conscious shoppers as well as low budget travelers has been hailed as successful.

The complements that have been made to JetBlue are based on theoretical assumptions such as it pricing strategy devised to attract a segment that is price conscious; market segmentation that is devised to attract the greatest possible subset of consumer; differentiation efforts tailored to maintain better than industry standards of service, predictability and punctuality, as well as positioning efforts to be perceived as a viable alternative to aging giant competitors.

All of the above theoretical strategic decisions appear to be viable, yet all of those efforts did not help in preventing one of the most publicly embarrassing and humiliating episodes of organizational failure combined with greed and incomprehensible incapability’s and incompetence during the Valentine day episode.  

Considering such massive failures in spite of the theoretic attempts, it is hard to suggest short term fixes for such a failed industry as well as its individual members such as JetBlue. The most obvious yet avoided issue is certainly positioning. JetBlue, for instance could build on their earlier less successful attempts to position itself as the service provider with customer oriented business model. This would certainly be a new concept to airline industry; it has not been tried yet.

Additionally, a company such as JetBlue could assist its overall market penetration by appealing and attempting to penetrate markets that are otherwise either entirely ignored or at best neglected. Taking a lesson from the mortgage industries  play book to penetrate the minority segment of the market, JetBlue would certainly make its mark if it is able to become attractive to particular minority segments such illegal immigrants.

Moreover, the current pricing strategy implemented by JetBlue that is designed for differentiation purposes as well as position JetBlue as the low cost service provider can be improved on. Nowadays it is not enough to have just low cost, rather than offer equal or greater value combined with low prices. Taking an example from Wal-Mart’s play book which just recently started to offer the same generic drugs for as low as $4 for 30 day prescription, JetBlue could and should offer greater customer service including in-flight free movies and phone calls, additional gratuities such as alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages,  and with proper technology even may include free internet access.

Ultimately, it is obvious that the above analysis and recommendations are theoretic and may not be particularly suitable after cost benefit analysis as well as potential conflicts in technology or federal regulations. Yet the greatest lesson from the above analysis should not be the details rather then the overall troubled environment in a private industry that has been protected by federal government which has not resulted in any visible improvements or benefits to consumers. Maybe it is time to allow the free market economy to sort out the weak and incompetents; yet allow the most business and consumer minded enterprises to survive and grow.

First and foremost the neutrality of Alexa.com to evaluate a “snap shot” of the traffic to a give website is extremely important. Many argue that the numbers are either not accurate or not representative because of the methodology. Alexa.com evaluate the traffic based on the users which have an Alexa bar installed on their browser; hence providing simply a summery of their own users. However, it is not clear if those users are a sample representative of all global users. Yet, it is really a one of a kind service that is widely available for users and non users. Even more importantly it is free.

Second, the function to leave feedback that is unaltered and available to all internet users creates a great deal of possibilities to evaluate actions before entering into business relationships. One may argue that it can be misused or abused by competitors or the web site owners to leave positive or negative feedback. But again, because of the fact that is publicly available and it is free, it can be effectively used to counter minor issues.

Third and finally, the comparison tools allow for evaluation and competitive intelligence which may be of assistance to webmasters and decision makers. It simply provides a snap shot comparison accompanied by visual graphs that may aid in collecting unbiased information.

Ultimately, though not perfect Alexa.com illustrates the spirit of World Wide Web: for users by users is a sort of fair and balanced virtual existence that may contribute to neutrality as well as overall advancement of virtual world.

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It is no secret that branding simply refers to the process of establish differences and emphasizing the benefit of the particular product and or services. There are five different dimensions in establish the differences which include product, services, personnel, channel and image.

Each of the above dimensions or points of differences enable marketers to either establish the benefits or establish differences. Such differentiation is geared toward brand recognition as well as brand loyalty among end users as well as increase in overall market shares.

Looking at Silver Dollar jeans; in this case an assumed name and brand rather than actual Silver Dollar jeans product line, it is rather simple to use the previously named dimensions to establish and brand such product. For instance, the first step could be a campaign to associate the product with trendy and hip stars to establish uniqueness of the product. A similar approach could also entail staged stress tests such as spills or tear and wear simulation. The second step could include the emphasis on wide availability or deliverability by mobilizing the greatest number of point of distribution such as availability in many stores, online and catalog ordering possibilities. The third steps may include providing information about product and production personal; alternatively, the product could also be related to known and famous people. Channel and image dimension could simply include proper selection of techniques and modes of information distribution which may include utilization of product related venues as well targeting of new market segments by utilizing web 2.0 and social networking means.

Essentially, it is a question of market research as how to approach the marketing of a particular goods or services. The selection and utilization of five dimension of differentiation and the ultimate success of implementing such techniques is mostly depended on the reliability of available research and information.

The stakeholders, decision makers and end users will all benefit from proper and reliable multi dimensional research which may lead to greater and improved targeting of particular market segment which in turn may even result in greater effectiveness and efficiency as well as improved return on investment.

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It also means that the big energy producers will be creating enough revenue to shift their investments into clean and green power sources. It means the cost of doing so will start to “pencil out” for investors. It means consumers will flock to clean and green technology where it will save them a nickel or two.

We could be at a major threshold in our economy. This could be the birth of a whole new system based on solar, wind, geo-thermal, hydrogen and other new energy sources. We have seen these shifts before. Steam power, the internal combustion engine, and jet engines all changed our systems profoundly. On the other hand, it could mean we are just going to suffer with higher and higher costs of transportation, heating, cooling and construction while the planet continues to get dirtier and dirtier.

As far as our day to day livelihood goes, those of us in the property management world will find that location will become more important than ever.  People will be less willing to travel distances on a regular basis. And we are going to have to find new and interesting ways to get people to travel to us. It might mean we experience longer lengths of stay as the cost of moving out of our properties will rise to the point where people will need a really good reason to move.

In the mean time, I am going to get my bicycle tuned up and go buy the deep discount transit card at the bus station. I guess I’ll be leaving my Impala in my storage unit a lot more than I’d like.

Tron Jordheim. Your number one choice for all your speaking engagement including topics such as Business, Sales, Marketing and advertising.