Exploring Personality Profiles

Information About Personality Types

Here's some web information on personality typing I found fascinating. It's a good read if you've ever wondered why you may view things differently than your client, friend, spouse, boss etc. It's fun to "find" yourself through personality profiling. I'm an ENFP by the way. To learn more about yourself and others go to the source at http://www.personalitypage.com/

Personality typing is a tool with many uses. It's especially notable for it's helpfulness in the areas of growth and self-development. Learning and applying the theories of personality type can be a powerful and rewarding experience, if it is used as a tool for discovery, rather than as a method for putting people into boxes, or as an excuse for behavior.

The theory of Personality Types, as it stand today, contends that:

• An individual is either primarily Extraverted or Introverted
• An individual is either primarily Sensing or iNtuitive
• An individual is either primarily Thinking or Feeling
• An individual is either primarily Judging or Perceiving

The possible combinations of the basic preferences form 16 different Personality Types. This does not mean that all (or even most) individuals will fall strictly into one category or another. If we learn by applying this tool that we are primarily Extraverted, that does not mean that we don't also perform Introverted activities. We all function in all of these realms on a daily basis. As we grow and learn, most of us develop the ability to function well in realms which are not native to our basic personalities. In the trials and tribulations of life, we develop some areas of ourselves more throughly than other areas. With this in mind, it becomes clear that we cannot box individuals into prescribed formulas for behavior. However, we can identify our natural preferences, and learn about our natural strengths and weaknesses within that context.

The theory of Personality Types contends that each of us has a natural preference which falls into one category or the other in each of these four areas, and that our native Personality Type indicates how we are likely to deal with different situations that life presents, and in which environments we are most comfortable.

Learning about our Personality Type helps us to understand why certain areas in life come easily to us, and others are more of a struggle. Learning about other people's Personality Types help us to understand the most effective way to communicate with them, and how they function best.

Practical Application for Personality Types

• Career Guidance - What types of tasks are we most suited to perform? Where are we naturally most happy?
• Managing Employees - How can we best understand an employee's natural capabilities, and where they will find the most satisfaction?
• Inter-personal Relationships - How can we improve our awareness of another individual's Personality Type, and therefore increase our understanding of their reactions to situations, and know how to best communicate with them on a level which they will understand?
• Education - How can we develop different teaching methods to effectively educate different types of people?
• Counselling - How we can help individuals understand themselves better, and become better able to deal with their strengths and weaknesses?
  

For more info go to: http://www.personalitypage.com/

USPS Upcoming Self Mailer Regulations

Just a quick update for all the folks out there using a self mailer format for your DM communications. The USPS has apparently been having several mechanical issues while processing some versions of self mailer formats. They have recently concluded testing on several format types to identify key design considerations. Below are some notable changes to the existing rules that you may want to incorporate into your self mailer designs after May 2009. Not doing so may invalidate your ability to receive the USPS automated rate on your DM campaign...ouch!

Changes include:

• A new definition of folded self-mailers which limits pieces to those made from one continuous sheet of paper.
• Maximum size: 6 inches high by 10-1/2 inches long by 0.25 inches thick.
• Paper stock from 50 to 70 pounds, depending on the design of the mailpiece.
• Increased size, placement, type (non-perforated) and number of tabs

To learn more details about the upcoming changes click here. Information courtesy of NASML Inc.

How SMART is your Overall Marketing Effort?

Many believe that budgeting for and distributing corporate marketing materials and promotional items is part art and part science. However, one of the reasons why most marketing managers rely more on gut instinct for their marketing spend is that in many instances, real time data is hard to come by.

How easy is it to determine (1) how consistently are we using our promotional materials AND (2) how much of what materials are being used AND (3) exactly for what purpose. The marketing budget in most companies is significant. Managers are forced to rely on anecdotal data from the sales team on fulfilling their needs for printed marketing collateral and promotional items. This is a potentially wasteful and hard to trace. So there is a tendency to either throw unnecessary money at the problem or allocate the budget in a way that could be more effective given better data.

One of our successes at dbpchicago has been in helping our corporate clients to gain control over their marketing budgets and order economically with better data reporting. We call our program SMART, which stands for Supply chain Management and Requisition Tool.

In the simplest terms, we create a custom online order system for your corporate printing and promotional sales materials, and then help you excercise controls via access through cost center logins. We then overlay reporting functionality and control usage through predetermined budgets and order amounts.

The result is a win/win - where your sales team feels better serviced and more empowered, and management feels more in control of its marketing budget with less waste and better branding and control over its corporate identity standards.

For more information or questions on our SMART system, please email bobk@dbpchicago.com or call direct 312.377.6007.

The DBP Holiday Party

During the holiday season, we try to take a little time to unwind at dbp. For the third year running, we hosted our floor/office Holiday Party for our 4th floor at 656 West Randolph on Friday, December 19th. The highlight of the afternoon was when John Johnson of Johnson Trading and Bob Kenehan of dbpchicago jumped in on trumpet with jazz pianist Dean of the Chicago Federation of Musicians Union for a surprise jazz rendition of O Christmas Tree. Food and beverages were served along with the sharing of some good stories and cheer. Everybody got to learn with amazement that yes, Bob can play the trumpet (although not half as good as John)

The Value of Good Design

Managing your brand is critical to your marketing success now more than ever. Few consumers will base their purchasing decision on the revenue stream, employee count, or years in business of your organization. Big or small is not what counts — it's the perception of your brand that matters.

Proper design and management over your corporate identity is one that will see returns for years to come. A honed, well executed, and consistent corporate brand campaign will not only attract your target clientele, but it will help build customer loyalty and confidence in your products or services. Furthermore, the process of refining your corporate identity often leads to a sharper focus within your business.

At dbpchicago we always seek to uncover the unique qualities that define an organization before we develop identity design concepts. In so doing, the brands that we help build are congruent with our clients' strategic marketing plan.

Top 5 Tips on Word of Mouth Marketing

Listed below are some of my "aha" moments gained while attending a conference last week held by marketing expert Andy Sernovitz, CEO of GasPedal http://www.gaspedal.com/ Andy runs a terrific program called The Word of Mouth Crash Course and is author of the book: Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. I recommend attending the course. Click here to see upcoming events.

1. Ethics and good service come first.

2. Give your clients a reason to LOVE you and your company.
Remember the feeling of young love? You wanted to tell everyone. Create those moments for your clients by exceeding their expectations and you will create a reason for them to tell the world about you and your company.

3. Market to your "talkers" and get them talking.
Look for marketing opportunities to educate those that will indirectly recommend your product or service. Develop outreach programs to your referral base.

4. Create multipliers within your marketing effort.
Make it easy for your clients to refer your services and create viral opportunities. For example, create a "Tell a Friend" on your website. Hand out interesting and useful marketing materials that invite others to share - multiple coupons for example. Freely give away branded items that create a buzz about your product or service. Use internet forums and blogs to inform and edutain (educate and entertain).

5. If it's not worth talking about, it's not worth doing.
Creativity creates results. Get outside of the status quo and get your customers talking about you.

Let the Force Be with You - Advertising Speciality Items

Hi, it's Bob Kenehan, president of dbp|chicago. There is good reason why so many marketers refer to promotional or advertising specialty items as "trinkets and trash" or "tsochkes" (Yiddish for “trinkets”) First of all, from a moral and environmental perspective, it's really wasteful to hand out marketing trinkets that will be immediately tossed into the trash. Even items that are promoted as "green". Take those really cheesy mini desk calendars you get from your insurance agent for example. Your Agent selected the green calendar this year because it was printed on 100% recycled paper . . . but you still pitch it. (and I keep thinking of all of those kids chucking their unopened McDonalds Happy Meal toys into the trash that end up in land fills . . . one of my pet peeves )

I think of all of the unwanted, cheap or unnecessary promotional items as "the dark side", whereas the really impactful items are the "force". And what a boon it is for your sales force or your marketing effort when you develop a campaign around the "perfect" viral giveaway item that creates a wow factor or a buzz. The ROI on great giveaway items is HUGE. My feeling is it's your moral marketing responsibility to hand out useful promotional items that people want . . and want to keep.

In my experience, there are three things that make for a high ROI ad specialty program. (1) Quality, (2) Uniqueness and (3) Relevance to your target audience.

We have created many memorable programs for our clients. And the funny thing is that budget is not the driver between a good promotion and a bad one. There are many super inexpensive items that are still unique, high quality and speak to your tarket market.

A really great example is from a company called Image 3D http://www.image3d.com/ Image3D is the premiere producer of custom View-Master style viewers, reels and 3-D promotional tools that help companies communicate their marketing messages in unforgettable ways. For about 6 bucks you can create a great giveaway that is fun, unique and of high quality. Here is a link to some great sample success stories http://www.image3d.com/viewmaster_profiles.php

Another successful promotion that comes to mind was with one of our clients, SPSS, who are leaders in predictive analytics software. http://www.spss.com/ Their target audience are highly educated marketers, social scientists and statisticians, (mostly male) Very techie types. We found one of the most successful and coveted items have been the SPSS white retro plastic pocket protectors. Super inexpensive item. Go figure, but they love them because (1) they are high quality (2) they are unique (where do you go to BUY a pocket protector?) and (3) they are relevant and useful to the target audience. When I say love, I mean the SPSS clients LOVE the pocket protectors. (And we love thinking up this stuff)

If you are interested looking for ways to help find the next cool giveaway item for your company, please call us at 312.263.1569 or to start your own search you can go to http://www.dbpchicago.com/promo.htm Cheers, Bob