_Don Lange is the Senior Vice President and a partner in the “Cornerstone Group of Companies”:http://www.cstonecanada.com. He was one of Cornerstone’s first employees and has seen the company grow from a 6 person operation to almost 300 full and part time staff over 8 business units. From the beginning, Don’s role has been to develop new businesses for Cornerstone based on providing existing clients with new direct response media opportunities. Don has started 4 of Cornerstone’s businesses as well as conceptualizing and developing Universe Canada(tm), the largest and most comprehensive consumer database in the country._
*One Degree: Cornerstone has a long and successful history of helping enable direct marketing in Canada. How is classic direct mail been impacted by the Internet?*
It’s an interesting question. On the one hand if someone were to invent direct mail today it would be revolutionary. And, direct mail is still a very strong channel in this country. On the other hand, the rising costs of production and postage coupled with smaller mailing lists has resulted in direct marketers looking for solutions to complement direct mail campaigns. For the most part, direct mailers are embracing the Internet as a channel that meets their requirements of measurability. Some categories have been faster to move. For example we have seen a reduction in business to business mailings steadily over the last 5 years. Most of these companies have invested in online media.
*One Degree: My gut says that smart direct marketers are making the move to search engine marketing – it fits their way of thinking perfectly. I hear that Cornerstone is about to get very active in search marketing – can you tell us a bit more about your plans?*
Category: Five Questions
_”Speaker, Entrepreneur, Award-Winning Copywriter, Sales & Marketing Expert, Internet Pioneer, Facilitator, Name Developer, Consultant, Author, Whitewater Paddler, Martial Artist, Idea Generator, Advisor” – that’s how “Michel Neray”:http://www.essentialmessage.com/ (at right with his daughter – photo by Yuri Dojc) describes himself. Michel created The Essential Message for consultants, advisors, coaches and other independent professionals who are tired of pushing so hard to get sales, and are looking for a better way to differentiate, position and brand themselves. As a long time reader of his newsletter I wanted to ask Michel five questions about how the Essential Message concept fits into the world of Internet free agents._
*One Degree: What do you mean by “Essential Message”?*
Let me start the answer to that one by telling you what it’s not. Unlike what most people think when they are first introduced to the idea on an Essential Message, it is not an elevator speech, infomercial or (if you’re old enough to remember this one) your cocktail talk.
These things are all 30-second summaries that you have to memorize, rehearse and spit out without thinking. As a result, elevator pitches end up being boring, contrived one-way communication full of generic statements that make you sound like everyone else.
Look, there are two fundamental ways to go about your sales and marketing. The first way takes you down a road that begins with the question, “How can I modify my services or change the way I speak to people about what I do, in order to appeal to the maximum number of people I encounter?”
The second way takes you down a road that begins with the question, “How can I gain greater clarity about who I really am and my true value, so that my clarity and confidence attracts more of the people who want what I have to offer?”
That’s how you truly differentiate, position and brand yourself. And that’s what your Essential Message is all about. So, when you talk about your business – whether you’re at a networking event, across a boardroom table or on a beach in Mexico, it comes out naturally and conversationally.
*One Degree: Has the Internet changed the importance of having an Essential Message?*
David Crow loves his Mac. He is a software designer, an agent provocateur, and a general trouble maker. When he’s not busy with client work, David can be found in downtown Toronto trying to build the next big cross-platform thing.
*One Degree: I’m not sure that many people in Canada are familiar with the major buzz happening around “camps” these days. Can you give us a little background on FooCamp and BarCamp?*
“FooCamp”:http://wiki.oreillynet.com/foocamp05/index.cgi was started by Tim O’Reilly, the publisher of O’Reilly books – the technical ones with the woodcut drawings from the Dover copyright-free archive. FOOCamp, FOO stands for Friends of O’Reilly, is an invitation only event at the Sebastopol, California campus of O’Reilly publishers where 200 people spend the weekend sharing their works in progress, the latest tech toys, hardware hacks and tackling interesting problems together.
“BarCamp”:http://barcamp.org/ is a response from the community. Where FooCamp was invite only, BarCamp is open. “BarCamp”:http://factoryjoe.com/blog/?p=55 is an non-exclusive, open alternative to FooCamp. BarCamp is an opportunity for people to share and learn in an open environment. There have been BarCamp events in Palo Alto and Amsterdam, and planning for New York City, Boston, London, and Vancouver.
FooCamp and BarCamp are based on the OpenSpace conference concept. “OpenSpace”:http://martinfowler.com/bliki/OpenSpace.html is an unstructured format, where you do not pre-plan activities and speakers. Instead, you provide a basic framework of time and space, allowing the attendees to figure out what happens. The conference self-organizes around the attendees and ideas.
*One Degree: Why did you instigate TorCamp?*