September 1st, 2009 → 2:42 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Or is it? What if you really DO think outside of the box? What can happen?
Well, you can truly come up with something that is unique. Like Fancy Fast Food, check it out. They take fast food and turn it into gourmet looking food. Look at what you can turn a bacon burger from Wendy’s into.
So while you may hate the saying “out of the box”, you have to appreciate the uniqueness that can spew out of the practice of it.
What are you doing to “think outside the box”? Don’t discredit it. Try to live it and work with it and see what happens. You just might be surprised at what you come up with that succeeds beyond your wildest dreams.
August 24th, 2009 → 3:10 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
John from Duct Tape Marketing sent out a tweet today that featured this clever story.
A six year old wrote a letter to the National Rail Museum applying for one of their board posts. A relatively gutsy move for a wee fella. In a move which I can only describe as brilliant and inspired, Museum management decided to grant him a board position. He is now “Director of Fun”.
Brilliant on many levels:
>> Clever PR (which alone makes the move worthwhile for the Museum)
>> Excellent differentiation in an era when not-for-profits are finding it hard to get attention
>> A brilliant example of understanding your buyer personas (see David Meerman Scott on this subject) and arguably the most important ones for the museum – is there anyone more important to a rail museum than a six year old train enthusiast?
>> Most importantly, imagine how that little chap (and his parents and friends) feel? Possibly the highlight of his life so far.
I agree. I used to work with a guy who had a title of “Sales Weasel”. It poked fun at his sales weasel-ness and lightened the conversation with prospects. I also knew a person that had “Rocket Scientist” on his business card. But that one was real, he worked for NASA. 
What can you rename to get attention? Think about it.
One last thing I love about this story is the vision of the museum board to have some fun and give this a try. It really does start at the top with the people in charge.
August 19th, 2009 → 10:31 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
I love tools like this one that give you a valuation of your website. Check it out. JimKukral.com is valued at over $500k.
Sure, totally meaningless really, but effective in terms of giving me something to share with my friends. And also serves my vanity of seeing my own “stats” and “rating”. Makes me feel good I suppose.
What’s even smarter about this is that they offer me a badge I can put on my blog very easily that allows their product to go viral.
My site is worth$523,505Your website value?
People love to hear themselves talk. It’s true. Vanity works, and it’s the dirty little secret successful marketer’s use every day online to get you to take action.
By the way, BlendthisBook.com is only worth $17k or so.
May 13th, 2009 → 10:18 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
So today I got a Fedex package and in it was a neat little package of chocolate covered grasshoppers.
YUMMY! Not.
But the promotion I loved. In fact, it was done so well on so many levels, well, you see the result here of me writing about it.
The packaging directed me to here: http://grasshopper.com/idea
On that page is a fun viral-type video. Watch:
Also included on the page are tell a friend email scripts, plus links to easily let you share it to Twitter and Facebook and other places. Then a nice subtle link to “What is Grasshoppper?” which brings you to a nice clean and easy explanation of what it is.
Well done. Great attention-getting technique here, and more importantly…. great follow through. I will definitely be contacting them to do an interview for the book about this campaign.
December 21st, 2008 → 11:31 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Over at JimKukral.com, I wrote about how my project called YourPitchSucks.com has gotten written up in all kinds of major media publications like Entrepreneur, Forbes, INC. Magazine, Brandweek, and The Wall Street Journal… all because of the name.
The point is, the name matters, most of the time. Here’s some tips for you when considering a name for a project or business.
Brainstorm It!
Sit down with a piece of paper and write down the craziest and most outrageous names you can think of. Don’t hold back. If you’re in a room of people, make sure everyone understands that you’ll be considering everything and nobody should worry about coming up with something off-limits.
Test It!
Take that list afterward and take it home to your spouse, or family member and read them off. Share them with your employees, peers or customers. Why not?
Choose It!
While you’re testing your names, remember, the ones that get either a gasp, or a laugh, or both, are usually the good ones to keep. Think about that for a second…
