Business & Marketing

First impressions count..a lot. We know how true is this when grocery shopping or buying a random gift for someone whom we like but don’t know them well enough. I highly respect product packaging designers because they not only design for the product but the customer as well. They take into consideration the demand and behavior of the customer.

My friends, if you’re running an e-commerce store or even a small little bulk order in Low Yat forums you’d better have some packaging strategies for your products. This will not only help you bring more business but it gives your customers more confidence in buying from you again and even again.

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I’m not sure if many web agencies, designers, developers and freelancers noticed this but there’s a new breed of web agencies today. Traditionally (old school and conservative) in Malaysia, a web agency set up here would take on projects from all walks of the Internet. They tell customers we service web design and development from small 1 product businesses to large corporations with branches all over Malaysia.

Well, it looks like this path is about to change soon. The agencies are branching out from the tree and becoming more specialized. They’re targeting niche markets and have become really professionals in that area.

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Or the leading Malaysia budget airline company calls it; AAVG. Sounds like the AVG antivirus, doesn’t it?

Not long after the release of Microsoft Vista, Air Asia made its own wave of headlines along side Microsoft promoting its new customer oriented feature called the “gadget”. I only found out about this feature via the paper media today and had several thoughts come to my mind.

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Being a website designer, this is one of the more familiar phrases heard from potential customers. The culture here in Malaysia practices price before value. Even for a rich, high society member sometimes question the high price of a product in regards of its value.

The number of designers or developers asked that same question doesn’t get tiresome by the customer. Reason is that he’s judging the best bargain and perceived value he thinks the website reference is worth. Not the value and results he is aiming.

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Business and marketing might not be a passion for me but I’d call it an interesting hobby. I don’t know why and can’t understand why business seems like magic. It isn’t like a cycle you see happening in forums or a website that becomes old due to its design or its technology.

In my blood and upbringing I’ve asked the question before, “Why do I like business and marketing?” Is it a genetic thing (though my parents aren’t business people) or is there something intriguing about the whole subject?

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Other than writing at this blog, I’m part of a team of specialized individuals who design and develop corporate websites for not too big and not too small business owners. Therefore, when the Taiwan earthquake hit the network lines and affected countries like Malaysia our business was affected as well.

Though we’re not a fully online company (thank goodness) like most Web 2.0 agencies today, there were still obvious effects to our process of working. So what I’m going to share with you is what happened and of course, how bad was the damage caused.

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Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, & Branding for the quick-read crowd was really a quick read over at SmallBusinessBranding.com. The part I liked best was the graphical explanation of marketing, advertising, public relations and branding. For a visual person like me, these pictures did all the speaking.

But that’s just the introduction of what I’d like to share with you. When you have a blog or website like FlyingSolo with more than 11,500+ readers and with a probability that a client might be reading your article, it’s worth putting some marketing and public relations (pr) budget to such a website.

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One of the hardest things I’ve learnt in a business network is being able to present yourself, your job and your company in merely 60 seconds. It’s like one of those scenes in a movie where the boss is too pre-occupied and the lowly employee with a groundbreaking idea ends up too tense to even blurt out a word.

Imagine you were given 60 seconds to secure a job from everyone in a board room who’s interested to build a website. All of them have the general requirements to build their website but all that’s between them and you is the confidence to pass on the job to you. In that one minute they want you to tell them why they should hire or give you $5000 to build their website and not someone else outside the boardroom awaiting their turn.

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Being in a hall full of formally dressed businessmen and women is rather scary with everyone trying to exchange business cards with you. Some times you don’t even have the chance to actually ask about their business let alone getting to know personally. Well, now I know how scary a business networking event can be.

The most unexpected happened at the event where I met a former college friend and someone that I only met once in my entire life of blogging. Sitting down at the same table his face was just too familiar to put aside and brushing the feeling that I really didn’t know this guy. But his identity was revealed after giving an energetic speech about his business and later shouting his tagline; Always Wow!

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Almost a year ago while in Melbourne I questioned my ability to be called a Web Designer, it was the time of depression being trapped in a room with only assignments to do. Traveling back to the present, such a question surfaced again but from the posting of Andrew Neitlich over at Sitepoint.

I highly respect Andrew as a savvy business marketing consultant and sharing his knowledge with a lot of readers at Sitepoint. But when it came down to his post it confused me.

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