Starbucks Five Ways of Being are a roadmap for
creating a great brochure in addition to a great coffee experience.
This week on The Blogger’s Bulletin, I wrote a piece on why the Starbucks Five Ways of Being are appropriate advice for bloggers. Here, I’m continuing the analogy with how we can take tips from our local baristas and learn how to improve our brochures and marketing material. There’s more than coffee that you can take away from a Starbucks encounter.
In The Starbucks Experience (2007), author Joseph Michelli reviews what has made Starbucks not just a new product
or service, but part of our current cultural experience. Starbucks has had some trips since then, but likely its strong corporate credos have allowed it to be flexible in better responding to market changes. At Starbucks, they are called the “Five Ways of Being.”
- Be welcoming
- Be genuine
- Be considerate
- Be knowledgeable
- Be involved
It’s a great map for great marketing, particularly a brochure. Here’s how:
- Welcoming – I recently saw a brochure where the first page was solid type. It wasn’t a letter or designed as part of the brochure. It was intimidating to read, heavy on the eyes and not welcoming to the brochure. It made you want to close the piece rather than dig deeper — kind of like a huge Victorian novel with tiny type. You likely won’t approach it unless it’s assigned reading. Make sure your opening brochure material is just that – open with welcoming content enticing your reader to enter and linger awhile.
- Genuine – Don’t use flamboyant language, make promises you can’t keep, or statements that don’t ring true. Advertising and marketing materials already have a bad rap for puffery. Not everyone is the best, brightest, cheapest, highest quality. The trick to real marketing is being real and finding your true unique selling proposition. If you don’t know it, don’t spend money on puff pieces. The reader can see right through it.
- Considerate – Be conscious of your customers concerns and address those rather than your ego. No one likes meeting people at parties who just talk about themselves and yet we think marketing is a business resume letting the reader in on all the wonderful things they need to know about us. It’s not. Marketing is your introduction. Tell the customer a little about yourself and a lot about themselves. If they self-identify, they’ll know you’re the right match for them.
- Knowledgeable – Give some information away for free. You’ve already paid to send people the brochure, so give them some value. Read Chris Anderson’s Free, or link to my post about him and think about what you can already provide for free to give prospects a taste of what you have to offer. Consider Anderson’s Jello example, where free recipes entices people to want to buy Jello as an ingredient.
- Involved – Show how you are up-to-date and involved with your area of expertise. Is it a passion? Why would we know? Bring us into your story and show us how you evolved and are involved. People like to work with people they feel they want to know. Get involved with your customers and give them a behind the scenes look into who and what you are.
There they are – the five ways of being and how you can use them in your next brochure. So before you start your next marketing endeavor, slow down, get a cup of coffee and ponder how you want your brochure to come into being.
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