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National Skin Care Awareness Month – Time for a virtual holiday makeover. In 2008, Sephora, the beauty and skin care company launched a holiday makeover initiative at MistletoeMakeover.com where women (or daring men) could get a virtual holiday makeover using advanced photo-realistic technology to try out the season’s hottest holiday makeup trends and share with like-minded friends. “Mistletoe Makeover” was created by digital marketing firm, EVB San Francisco, in partnership with virtual makeover company, TAAZ.com. “Mistletoe Makeover” exploded online with hundreds of thousands of women creating holiday makeovers. Take a look at Reese Witherspoon’s makeover as Santa’s Little Temptress!!
For more holiday marketing ideas, see my book, Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays at www.QuirkyOffer.com. Free updates for 2010 when you purchase the current edition
September 14th, 2009
Gifts From the Garden Month - People like to do business with people whom they have a relationship. They tend to trust people they meet outside of the business setting. So how about it? Do you network in line at the grocery store? Do you take every opportunity to meet people and listen to their problems so that you can offer a solution?
Here’s what my good friend Bea Kunz of Sage Hill Farms and Vintage Store does: “I have two sets of business cards, one is my regular website with product for sale. The other is a card inviting you to join us for a introduction to “cooking with herbs.” This is the card I hand out to those I meet in grocery stores and other places where we are both strangers. I pay attention to what others are putting in their carts, this gives me an opening to a conversation. I can access the areas people might want or need help in by seeing what types of food they buy. I’m also aware that many are a bit sensitive to having a stranger or anyone interject their ideas on their choices. When offered something that is fun and free, it’s much easier to then introduce them to something better. Sage Hill Farms has gained more than a few small accounts just through this medium. Small accounts make large accounts when tallied up at the end of the month!”
Excerpt from the book “Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany & Non-traditional Holidays (the original holiday marketing guide) ~ www.QuirkyOffer.com
May 2nd, 2009
They each celebrate April 22nd!
April 22nd is Earth Day - In celebration of Earth Day 2008, WE magazine hosted a Green Commerce Survey and invited women and men all over the world to participate. For their time, WE gathered more than 100 resources to share with them as a special gift. WE magazine also focused their entire Spring 2008 Issue on Going Green issues. You can read it here: http://www.wecai.org/wemagspring08.pdf . Here is the list of Green Resources we compiled from the survey: http://www.speakingwithspirit.com/pdf/WOMENSGREENRESOURCES.pdf.
April 21st, 2009
Today April 16th is Guitar Picker’s Day
Invented by the people of Malaga, Spain in the 15th century The first guitars were very small and strung with four pair of strings. Each pair was called a course. As the guitar later changed into a larger instrument, this “four course” guitar became known as the ukulele. During the Renaissance the guitar was not taken seriously as a musical instrument, because the lute was the intrument of choice by musicians of that day.
Can you name a famous guitar player? How about George Harrison, lead guitarist for the Beatles or Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. There’s also Carlos Santana and of course who could forget Elvis Presley…..
If you are in the music business you could host a “world’s largest guitar concert” in the world. Call your local musicians union to contact guitarists. Go to local night clubs, lounges and of course look in the phone book and even Google local guitar players to get your band on… Contact other local music outlets to co-sponsor your event.
If you want to learn more about guitars visit Josh’s Guitar Lifestyle blog
Find your favorite Guitarists at Guitar 5 Day
Check out these great guitar trivia quiz’s at Fun Trivia
For more great ideas like these, check out Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and non-traditional Holidays.
April 16th, 2009
Did you know April is National Humor Month?
No wonder April 1st is April Fools Day ~ a day for fun pranksters to have some fun playing innocent “jokes” on others (at least they should be innocent)
And Funny Sells! Just ask Sarah Lefton! Her quirky sense of humor and her Jewish pride were the impetus for a successful home based business. As the marketing director for a Jewish summer camp at Yosemite National Park, Lefton discovered that by changing the emphasis of the word Yosemite she created “Yo Semite”. She silk screened the term on a few T-shirts for herself and wore the Yo Semite T-shirts around the streets of San Francisco. People started coming up to her and asking her where they could buy one. Two days later, she had taken orders for 36 shirts and her Internet based business, Jewish Fashion Conspiracy was born.
Her Yo Semite shirts took off and Lefton has now added additional designs to her product line. They include Chanukah panties, and a “Jews for Jeter” shirt to honor the New York Yankee’s star Derek Jeter. She created her designs as a way to celebrate being Jewish and have fun at the same time. Her ingenuity and humor has received media attention from a variety of Jewish publications as well as Time Magazine.
Beginning at midnight April 1st, I will be posting April Fools quotes, trivia, humor and history. If you’d like to join in the fun, follow me at http://twitter.com/heidi
For more great ideas like this, check out my new book Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.
April 1st, 2009
March 26th is Make up Your Own Holiday Day - What a great way to get recognition, locally, nationally and even internationally. We have made up a few of our own. In addition to Virtual Woman’s Day™ (3rd Week in March) we have Get out of the Doghouse Day™ which is celebrated the 3rd Monday of July; International Women’s eCommerce Day,™ which is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in September; and International Romance on a Budget Day™ which is celebrated on February 28th.
To read more visit: http://speakingwithspirit.com/books/romance-on-a-budget/. To read more about Romance on a Budget Day™ visti Tulips Talk Blog at http://www.tulipstalk.com/today-is-romance-on-a-budget-day/
Get out of the Doghouse Day™ is the time for those who spend time in the doghouse to make amends and minimize their stay with “old scruffy.” International Women’s eCommerce Day™ is a day celebrating women doing business on the WEB.
March 26th is also Legal Assistant’s Day and Sing Out Day.
On this day in 1984 Part of Central Park was named Strawberry Fields in honor of the late John Lennon. In 1983 the only know typo on Time Magazine Cover was discovered. It was the word Contol (should have been control). Time recalled all magazines! In 1917 Loretta Walsh became the 1st female U.S. Naval Petty Officer and in 1868 the 1st U.S.professional women’s club called Sorosis was formed in New York City.
For other ideas to market your company, check out Quirky Marketing, 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays at www.QuirkyOffer.com
March 26th, 2009
The game of bridge evolved from a game called Trump played by the English in the 1500’s. Trump eventually turned into another game known as Whist and became popular with the upper-class in the middle 1700s. After going through many changes, and eventualy became the contract bridge game played today.
How can you turn bridge into a marketing vehicle for your company? Search for local bridge clubs and tournaments in your community. Ask if you can sponsor their events. If they don’t have events other than their monthly games, offer to host a city-wide bridge tournament. Believe me, no one is doing this. The media would love it because it would be like resurrecting nostalia we knew as kids (or our parents knew). It would be a fun way to teach the youth about the game. Maybe you could host an online bridge tournament where the players participate via their iphones, ipods etc. Now wouldn’t that be something?
Today in history:
Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp changes name to IBM in 1924
American Hall of Fame was started in 1900
American Negro Academy forms in 1897
It’s also Name Tag Day ….
For more ideas like this, check out my newest book Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote YOur Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays at www.quirkyoffer.com.
March 5th, 2009
Did you know….
March 3rd is Unique Names Day - Have customers call in about their names (their origin, why they were named that name, etc.) or have them post them online and have a contest for the most unusual name. While my name is not that unusual anymore (Heidi), growing up it was a real pain some days. Especially whenever the movie was aired on TV. I would get teased unmercifully the next day about it. My mom chose that name because she loved the book by Johanna Spyre. A few years ago I met a man named Twig and since I had never heard the name before asked him how his parents chose the name. He told me it was because when he was born he was the smallest baby in the nursery and the name “twig” just seemed to fit him.
March 4th is OLD ROCKS Day – Fossils have been called “Mother Nature’s diary” … they tell the history and secrets of life before us. The word “fossil” comes from the Latin word fossilis (which means “dug up”). Although most “old rocks” are are dug up by paleontologists, if you are lucky you might just dig up a few in your own backyard.
So what can you do on Old Rock Day? In this day of WEB 2.0 and new media and social marketing, we often loose site of some of the classic, time-tested marketing techniques we used effectively in the past. Take the business card as an example. Business cards come in all shapes, sizes and materials these days. They can be a mini CD or a traditional size or even a fold-over business card. How about using your “old” business card in a “new” way. To make it a marketing vehicle and not just a means of others contacting you. Say you have several products or services you offer. Why not create a business card specifically designed to highlight each one (or your most popular, or slowest selling, or whatever – you decide). Find places to distribute your business cards. Such as your local chamber of commerce or if appropriate your local tourist information centers. Post them on billboards in high-traffic areas where allowed. Give extra copies to your best clients and ask them to hand out to someone who they know needs your services. Include them in the envelope when you mail a payment or invoice (if you still do that). Where else can you distribute your business card? What other marketing ideas have you used in the past that need to be resurrected? Old Rock Day is the perfect day to do just that!
Today is also: Fun Facts About Names Day, I Want You To Be Happy Day & National Anthem Day.
March 4th is also National Grammar Day & Courageous Followers Day.
For more ideas like this, check out my newest book Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote YOur Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays at www.quirkyoffer.com.
March 3rd, 2009
They both have their own days!
February 28th is Floral Design Day - If you are a florist you could host a design day at your shop and invite your customers to participate. Or invite your local elementary, middle and/or high school to take a field trip to your shop and show them how to make something simple like a corsage or a bud vase. If you are not a florist, you could partner with one and cross promote the day – by sponsoring the event, to help offset the cost of the supplies and refreshments. Be sure to send a media release announcing your plans. Who knows, the media could show up – it’s a nice story for your local paper.
February 28th is also Romance on a Budget Day – save money on romance today – check out the book “Romance on a Budget- 199 Cheap Thrills, Romantic Antics and Love Changing Experiences” then Host a Romance Sucks Contest – we asked our customers to “Tell us why Romance Sucks! In 250 words or less, tell us your Valentine Horror Story!, And we offered prizes including a dozen roses a month for a year, the Romance on a Budget Book, and dinners for two… and more.
One of my clients is a financial advisor and for Valentine’s Day she ordered 50 copies and gave them to her top clients as a thank you with a little note to help them keep their relationships strong in these economic times. GREAT IDEA!
February 28th, 2009
That’s right! February 18th is Play Doh Day ~ created in 1956 by Joe McVicker from modeling clay out of wallpaper paste for his sister’s pre-school students. Rainbow Crafts in Cincinnati, Ohio distributed the off white modeling compound known as Play-Doh to department stores and schools.
Kenner later aquired Play Doh, made it into a rainbow of colors. In 1991 Hasbro toys acquired the rights. Play Doh comes in a variety of products and is sold worldwide!
Have you heard of Play Doh Marketing? According to Doug Hall, Author of “How to Jump-start Your Brain” getting the creative juices flowing can be as simple as opening a can of play doh and what else? Playing with it! Remember when you were a kid and played with this crazy clay and came up with all sorts of shapes. If you were like me you probably even invented a few new “animals” like the the corse (a combination cat and horse) or the allimonkey (an alligator with long arms that swings from trees and eats people AND bananas.
My brother and I would spend hours with our play doh coming up with goofy shapes! Fast forward today. If you had a can of play doh in front of you right now, what would you create? And what would it remind you of?
If you are having trouble coming up with “fresh ideas” in business, take a drive over to Toys R Us or Target or let your fingers do the walking online and buy some play doh! Heck, have a play doh party at work and see what happens!
Feel free to share your play doh memories below. I’d love to read about them.
Happy play doh day!
For more on Play Doh products, go to http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/default.cfm?page=products
For more ideas like this, check out my new Quirky Marketing Calendar at www.QuirkyOffer.com. More than $2,000 worth of bonuses when you get your copy.
February 18th, 2009
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