My life is based around a schedule. I’ve given up being spontaneous because it doesn’t work for me. Whether I’m on vacation or at the office, I consult my calendar and follow a plan.

Growing up, the new school year began after the Labor Day holiday. As an adult, my “new” year starts in September and involves a new wardrobe, new calendar, fall cleaning, organizing my home and creating new goals. While the business world continues to plan — and often recognizes a January-December fiscal year — fall is a great time to re-engage your personal brand and re-charge your efforts to be organized in your personal and business lives.

Start anew and revitalize your life by meeting your personal goals, while also being proactive with your schedule by:

• Actively responding to meeting invitations in a timely manner
• Being on time to events (this includes lunch with your best friend and internal business meetings!)
• Weighing the outcome of taking on too much responsibility. Whether it’s volunteering or signing up for too many activities, don’t over commit and get yourself in a bind!

A few strategies that I have found helpful are:

• Use a single planning tool (e.g., FranklinCovey®Planner, Google Calendar, iCal, etc.). Choose a tool that reflects how you manage your time: Are you on the go? Usually at your desk? Are you a visual person who needs to reference a physical calendar?
• Make sure you account for all reoccurring meetings so you don’t miss a beat.
• Be planful … plan ahead as best you can.
• Refer to previous goal-setting documents and see where your areas of growth have been. You can also initiate new goals in areas where you fell short in the previous year.

Enjoy your summer but consider embracing the new New Year. Fall is the season for a fresh start.

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Go East has experience with both business-to-business and business-to-consumer product launches. While many of the product launches we have worked on have been successful, some of them have been painful from a planning standpoint and in attempting to meet much-too-early deadlines. Often by the time an agency is brought in to work on a launch strategy and creative execution, it is too late to back out of already committed deliverables and to-market deadlines. The graphic below is a good representation of the steps a product launch needs to complete in order to be successful. Many people believe that once the product is launched, the process is over and success is immediate. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

FOUR PILLARS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT LAUNCH

1. Assign dedicated resources
2. Avoid overcommitment
3. Implement scientific process
4. Leverage collaboration tools

Ramping Up
In many cases, product launch strategy development begins too early. Sometimes R&D and marketing are working on product claims, key features and benefits while product names are still under development and packaging is incomplete. It’s the cart-before-the-horse scenario. Of course, unforeseen exceptions can creep up but, for the most part, all of these situations should be completed to allow enough time for the strategic and creative processes to successfully drive deliverables, meet timelines and ensure a successful launch.

Once the details are worked out, it’s important to assign dedicated resources to those who can deliver a consistent, integrated plan of attack – resources that have the brainpower to carry the product launch into the marketplace. You want to grow your business by communicating the product’s value proposition, which will also reflect on internal and external partners and your bottom line.

Strategy and Planning Development
Working with dedicated resources who have the knowledge and expertise needed is a huge gain for you, as well as your product’s success. Make sure your resources work together to deliver consistent, integrated messaging and imagery.

In today’s marketing strategy development, your resources should be able to deliver on multiple touchpoints and strategies, whether it be interactive, advertising, public relations, social media, etc. All touchpoints should be considered from the start and chosen or eliminated based on your audience. Try not to over-deliver, but look at the big picture and hone in from there.

Go in for the Kill
At launch, deliver with a splash, a pop and a bang! Make it well-known that this product is at the top of its game and, depending on whether it’s a business-to-business or business-to-consumer launch, hit your audience hard by being on brand, on message and on time with deliverables.

Keep in mind you need to be communicating to internal and external resources, keeping them in the know on what is happening and when and how it is happening. This will be appreciated by those involved.

Evaluate, Evaluate, Evaluate
So, once you launch the product it’s all said and done. Or is it? Have you measured results? What key points can you take away from the launch? What have you learned, both pro and con, which should or shouldn’t be implemented in the next product launch? Have you debriefed all involved, both internally and externally, to regroup and share experiences? These are key factors in delivering a successful launch.

Source: “Four Pillars for Product Launch, Best Practices from World-Class Companies,” by Rick Sklarin and Ling Gee, Crimson Consulting Group.

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Fourth quarter is here. Are you ready for it? Are you ready to be proactive in your 2010 sales and marketing plans, to pick up from where 2009 might have left you: in the lurch or in a downward spiral? Maybe you were one of the lucky few whose companies will end the year in successful up-ticks in sales. Even you need to look forward with care. We all want next year to be profitable, and to make that happen we need to start now.

Do you know where your brand will be and where it needs to be to justify your marketing budget forecasts for next year? How will you get the greatest bang for your buck in 2010? (more…)

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Watch out Cannes and Sundance, there’s a new film festival in town! Go East recently created the identity for the Beyond Borders Film Festival, which launches its first festival March 25-29th, 2009, at The New Parkway Theater.  Although in its premier year, Beyond Borders hopes to become a larger more interactive event for Twin Cities film enthusiasts and spiritual dwellers looking to diversify their creative, cultural and spiritual selves.

Beyond Borders may not have the rich history that Cannes International Film Festival has — commencing in 1935 with political feats, a budgetary crisis, and embracing documentary skill-sets and the arts. Working on a new start-up event like this,  I was fascinated to read how other film festivals had endured political fiascos, budget crises etc.  All of these groups had to start with nothing and make “something” out of nothing … which created and grew into history in the making! Such film festivals are renowned for their works of art, star sightings, fashion trends and paparazzi scandals. 

Although the Beyond Borders Film Festival started its program from the bottom up (again, with nothing but an idea) a few of the titles have been handpicked from the Sundance Film Festival ’09. These award-winners have film enthusiasts excited to not only view local screenings but also to grow film groupie membership. While there is a children’s program on Saturday, March 28, there are also late night screenings of Bill Plympton’s Oscar-nominated Idiots & Angels, as well as Hot Dog, shorts that premiered in 2008. Other diverse films include some from Native American women filmmakers, a Buddhist documentary and U.S. Indies and world cinema features, to name a few.

Twin Cities, a new film festival is born. Be the first to experience a tradition!

www.beyondbordersfilmfestival.com

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I couldn’t agree more with Karen Sams recent blog about online pressrooms. She essentially said that putting critical, time sensitive information online so that journalists, who depend on the information, can access it easily is crucial. A business doesn’t lose anything by creating a press room –it still controls the strategy and messaging of its news and information — but it gains a lot. The positives of online media sites are: repetitive visits from journalists and editors — which ensures how your message is delivered, since you are providing the content — from the perspective of online vs. print and mail, a cost savings.

(more…)

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Everyone has an opinion and everyone has their own experience of the ever-swirling, ever-changing, available-at-a-moment’s-notice technologies. I find that current trends in mobile media are fed by actual pros, benefits that I am able to make work with my lifestyle.

I am all about keeping my personal and professional life as organized as possible. Is this doable? Can I actually stay “with the program” and keep my wits about me? In the end, the buck stops here, with me.

Isn’t that the most important point here, me?

I work full time and am a mother of two growing boys. Business deadlines, sports practices, classes, birthday reminders and bills all need to be dealt with … before they come due. Therefore, my most prized possession is my mobile handheld unit. 

The handheld is an all-knowing one-stop-shop where I can monitor all of the developments, schedules and activities in my life. It is a necessity. Franklin Covey watch out! If planning-on-the-go is the wave of the future, you may be going out of business!

(more…)

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