providing your audience with a “taste” of your product or service is a great marketing tactic. depending on your product, you can give away free samples to people as they pass by in the streets, you can attach a small pouch of your product in a magazine insert, or you can give a free performance for the lunch crowd. that’s what the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra did today in a foyer of a downtown building in Calgary.

by providing a free sample or a “no commitment” introduction to your product or service, you are exposing your product or service to an audience that otherwise would not have invested in trying it out. the interaction is also much more compelling, in this case you could not help but hear the beautifully played music and many were also curious to see an orchestra that close up. 

sampling can be very effective although more costly than other methods. it costs more to have a large group of musicians bring their instruments, some of them quite large, and spend an hour playing live music to a few hundred people rather than posting a video of a performance in Youtube where thousands of people can view it. but sampling provides the opportunity for interaction and there is nothing like a live performance.  

so sample away and be sampled. you will expand your audience and raise awareness.

the expression “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”, comes from the idea that trying to improve or change a process that works is senseless and may even be damaging. i think this concept leads to a stagnant existence and lack of innovation. 

i can tell you your competition will always be trying to improve on your processes and become more effective and better than you.

there is incredible power and value in thinking you are never perfect. in knowing everything you do, no matter how good it is, can always be improved.  that is what will make you unusually good, that is what will get you the attention of your target audience. being outstanding is a never ending pursue.

this doesn’t mean you scratch your old processes, it simply means you build on them, take them and make them even better. this is about giving your audience better than expected, paying attention to trends and needs and providing products and services that are much better than what exists or what anyone else could have imagined. if you can do that, you are the trendsetter, you are the one to follow, you are the market share owner.

the “Here is what is” documentary film, which shows Daniel Lanois producing his own music as well as working with other musicians such as U2,  contains an interview with Brian Eno that I find extremely important. in this interview Eno says how great ideas or masterpieces come out of nothing.  

so many of us think that only those gifted artists or genius have the talent or gift to produce art, to come up with great ideas or concepts and that they appear suddenly as true stroke of genius. Eno explains how we all have the same ability to create and great work comes out of “unpromising beginnings”. great ideas or masterpieces come out of nothing, they are the result of curiosity, discovery, collaboration, interaction and inspiration, which is being open to be stimulated to do or feel something. 

in reality those ideas are evolutions of many previous prototypes if you will, and are the result of many conversations, observations and rehearses. they are polished versions of much earlier preliminary concepts.

imagine the confidence that we would feel if we all truly knew and believed in that notion. If we all knew that we have the same capacity to create great work as the artists we admire.  

i’m not talking about paintings or songs, but rather problem solving, new product ideas, marketing concepts, presentations, whatever you are faced with in your work life. if we knew our ideas, as unpromising beginnings as they may seem, once worked on and evolved could become true master pieces, we would not stop, or give up until they did.  our fear of failing would diminish, if not disappear, allowing us to freely engage, contribute and create. 

we are all unpromising beginnings and we all have the potential to nourish those beginnings and see them turn into master pieces. don’t hold back ideas, don’t be close to ideas from others, the great concept is there, you just need to nourish it. 

nothing you do is insignificant. how your powerpoint slides look, the level of energy and effort you put in the last meeting on a friday afternoon, how you answered that call… everything you do either adds or take away from your brand, your reputation. there is no insignificant effort. it all adds up.  and one “small” slip can cause years of work, of building on your brand image to regress.  

the level of energy, focus and interest you, your staff and all the outputs your company does is of value.  seek excellence in everything you do. very often excellence is in the details, in how that cuff is sewn, in how that cupcake is packaged… and excellence is never achieved, as if you truly seek it you’ll always be perfecting everything you do and will always do better, raising the bar even further.  

effort and details are noticeable. your audience appreciates it and will reward you for it.