Just about every business has a byproduct of some sort. Next time you think about the next product line look at what is being thrown in the trash. Time and time again you hear stories about how one company turned their trash into a pile of money. One of my favorite examples is Kingsford Charcoal. After all, it is grilling season now and people are lighting briquettes like nobody’s business. Here is an excerpt from the Kingsford Wiki page:

Kingsford is a brand of charcoal used for grilling, along with related products. The brand is owned by The Clorox Company.

The Kingsford Company was formed by Henry Ford and E.G. Kingsford during the early 1920s. Charcoal was developed from Ford Motor Company’s factory wastes (wood scraps). The Kingsford Company was formed when E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Ford’s, brokered the site selection for Ford’s new charcoal manufacturing plant. The company, originally called Ford Charcoal, was renamed in E.G.’s honor.

Today The Kingsford Products Company remains the leading manufacturer of charcoal in the U.S., enjoying 80 percent market share. More than 1 million tons of wood scraps are converted into charcoal briquets every year, making Kingsford the pacesetter in the charcoal industry.

Pretty cool to be able to take your scrap wood and turn that into a $350 million a year business! Who knew there was so much money in making, selling and marketing charcoal?

When looking for your next great marketing idea take a look around your trash bin at the office and see what it is your are scrapping that could be re-proceeded and turned into money. Talk about being “green” – more like making green from your trash heap.

Of course this doesn’t stop with physical objects, how could you transform your extra processing power or rack space into a product people need or want. It doesn’t cost you much to convert the things you already have into additional revenue generating sources.

Lately, I have noticed a big jump in Subway’s brand awareness and marketing. I wanted to point out a few things they are doing to hit one out of the park. When you are selling a consumer a product, there are some traits Subway is hitting more than most in a very tactful way.

Eat Fresh

Subway’s slogan is perfect. How much more simple could they make their slogan to imply so much? Does any other national food chain come close to competing? You can see your food being made with tons of leafy greens piled high right before your eyes.

lesson: simple, powerful, implicate message

$5 Footlong

A Subway franchise owner by the name of Frankel started something huge. He was looking for a way to increase slumping weekend sales at his restaurant, and that triggered the idea of selling Footlong subs for just $5.

“There are only a few times when a chain has been able to scramble up the whole industry, and this is one of them,” says Jeffrey T. Davis, the president of restaurant consultancy Sandelman & Associates. “It’s huge.” Just take a look at what the competition has done since the $5 Footlong introduction. In fact, the $3.8 billion in sales generated nationwide by the $5 footlong alone placed it among the top 10 fast-food brands in the U.S. for the year ending in August, according to NPD Group.

lesson: pricing and branding rolled into one

Same but different

One of the biggest reasons I personally love going to Subway is for the food and how it is the same sandwich yet it is just a little bit different every time. I can order the same Roasted Chicken Breast sandwich from 5 different Subway Restaurants and they will be just a little bit different each time. Not to mention a few extra or fewer veggies or sauces adds an element of satisfaction you are looking for at that moment. Having the ability to add or take away as you see fit is a nice and welcomed change from the other fast food joints.

lesson: meeting people’s immediate needs

Carved out niche

The health industry is a multi-billion dollar annual business. Subway has carved out their niche in the fast food industry in a healthy way. They have become the default for a healthy and fast meal, two huge points.

Biggest Loser – By sponsoring a run-a-way success tv show focused on raising awareness of obesity and healthy living, Subway has cemented themselves in the health niche and is expanding quickly.

Marketing/Advertising – Eat Fresh and Fast but not Fast Food. These mantras are simple yet imply so much.

Don’t forget Jared – Subway placed a lot of faith in their spokesperson Jared. Imagine if Jared packed on the pounds again or died of a heart attack. Ouch. A very big and bold move that sets themselves apart from so many of their competitors.

Picking a fight

Subway uses its own products against the competition in their quest to elevate themselves. Subway says look at how bad McDonald’s or Burger King is for you and look how great our food is for you. The names, products and health information of different brands are listed right on Subway’s packaging and marketing material.

All food, all hours

Most fast food restaurants have to switch systems over in order to make breakfast items vs regular menu items. Subway doesn’t have this problem because they are only adding egg as an additional element. No matter what type of person you are, you’re able to enjoy breakfast for dinner and visa-versa.

Conclusion:

Use these same elements for your own business. Find new ways to challenge the status quo, pick a fight with your competitors, carve out your niche and provide a predicable yet unique experience every time.

Resources:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/a-five-dollar-footlong-success-story.aspx

The term firing on all cylinders is another way of saying things are working and flowing smoothly. For a company or business online this could mean a variety of different things. You could streamline your processes to optimize profits or you could find ways to boost sales and services. I’ll be focusing more for boosting sales and services.

Not long ago my compadre in arms talked about how Walmart’s Official Blog is completely failing at the moment. If Walmart has the horsepower to do just about anything it pleases how can it be that its blog is failing? It isn’t for lack of resources but lack of firing on all cylinders.

I am a fan of using a system called the Trade Ring for boosting sales and referrals from other similar (not same) businesses. You promote them and they in turn promote you helping all ships to rise together. Create a trade ring for your online contact points.

Everyone uses the Internet differently. I like to focus on blogs and Twitter as my main methods for connecting with others (slowly growing Facebook and LinkedIn). I am sure some people love to spend most of their time navigating Facebook for online news and interaction. The combinations are endless in the different ways you can mix and match online outlets.

Here are some ideas for different things you can do to bring these all together.

Website

Typically an online business will have a website. Most offline business do too. You don’t want to have a plain Jane website that is more like an online brochure than an information and connection portal. Instead, really step back and look for the different ways branching out online can help your business grow more profitable, connect you to your clients or connect clients closer to each other.

Consider adding a blog for starters and then start engaging in other ways to connect with your clients. Take a couple minutes to ask 10 of your clients if they read blogs, use Facebook or Twitter and so on. It should only take a minute to figure out where you could focus your attention for the quickest return on time and investment.

Blog

Starting a business blog is a great way to enable people talking about your brand, product or similar to be social on your site. A blog is a perfect way to build a brand online that doesn’t involve building a brand on someone else’s site or service. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are great but it’s a great idea to make your homebase somewhere you can call the shots. Blogs are excellent for this.

The idea around blogging is to create content by sharing ideas, thoughts or just about anything. A terrible idea for a blog is to use it as a permanent archive for all of your press releases. No one cares about press releases. If fact, I delete every press release that hits my inbox unsolicited or that is not over the top personalized. Use your blog as a tool to engage with others and help people when they have concerns.

Just maybe you’ll hear how someone did something totally different with your product that actually works. Now you can use that idea to help market that product to a completely different market. Who knew pantyhose could be used to buff your shoes.

Don’t forget to add your social media links to your blog/website with plugins like Sociable. Feed the circle from every angle.

Newsletter

Newsletters are becoming quite the norm now with just about every business. One of the largest problems with running a newsletter is not allowing people to take part in the conversation or to take action. If you are blasting out a newsletter with a weekly special you are running but don’t invite people to give current or past feedback about the product you are missing a great opportunity for them to interact with you. Don’t forget to include links to those lovely online profiles (Facebook/Twitter) or your blog. Make is a useful and desirable resource for your subscribers and they will continue to purchase and share with others.

Twitter

Not everyone gets Twitter and how it can help their business. There are a couple different ways Twitter can really assist in your online ventures. The first way anybody or business can use Twitter is to determine new trends or information in your industry or to find current consumers and interact. I said interact not shout at them. Shouting is the opposite of interaction and doesn’t encourage a response. Try to encourage a response.

Sites like search.twitter.com will let you search all day everyday tweets that people are sharing that revolve around your niche. Jump in there and see what’s going on. Take a long hard look at what people are saying about a niche and think of ways you can improve it. If you are an established brand, look at brand perception and see how you can start engaging the talkers to increase positive interactions.

This leads into helping those who use services like Twitter find and follow you. I typically start by interacting with someone a number of times and then follow/friend. Report is established and more than likely they will reciprocate. Sites like Tweepsearch.com help you find others who are in the same niche or you can use search.twitter.com to see who actually mentions your niche, then engage. One downside with search.twitter.com is only the ability to see current tweets and discussions not bios or past discussions.

Facebook

Due to the closer knit community that people of Facebook have, ideas and brands that one person likes might often be liked by others. So if someone follows your new startup brewery in Fargo and you become a fan, that will be seen by your friends. Chances are that your close friends would also think the idea of a new brewery in Fargo is intriguing, leading to more and more people becoming a fan. Because of this things can spread really quick over Facebook. The downside is, if you’re boring or shouting few will listen or interact.

The key to Facebook for a business is to get people to interact. The more who interact, the more times you’ll be seen by their friends and the more likely you’ll gain even more friends. See how this works? Pretty simple, eh?

Overnight you can have a brand’s fanpage explode from a couple hundred followers to thousands. But all of the friends/followers in the world won’t continue to participate or care about your brand if you don’t give them reason to get involved. Provide feedback loops for ideas and concerns. Allow the negative feedback to come and address it head-on and in front of everybody. Your fans will love you for the transparency you offer. They will feel/grow more connected and want to share their positive experiences with everyone.

But remember to bring those discussions and ideas back to your own turf. You never know what the gods of the social media industry will one day deem something as inappropriate for their community or best interest and shut it off.

Look for the right social media numbers or metrics, not just more followers or fans.

LinkedIn

Not quite as fancy or flashy as the other kinds of social media sites, LinkedIn definitely has its place. If you are looking for a group of people that could help move and shake things for you, look no further. You can make a connection with hundreds of the top people in just about any industry overnight. LinkedIn networking might have a little different purpose than shooting a few tweets back and forth with someone, but where else can you find this level of talent so easily?

Taking the time to build and nurture a relationship over LinkedIn is a constant work in progress but in the end can drastically change your strategic partnerships and connections helping to boost awareness for your brand. Think about the ways you can use powerful business connections to your advantage and how you can in turn help others. There is a huge opportunity to establish long lasting partnerships. I would compare this to those awesome roommates you had in college, you know, the ones that attended your wedding and your 50th birthday.

Conclusion

Find the ways to find and interaction on a high level with your customers. Meet them where they hang out and bring the focus on them. They will in turn find ways to give back in many different forms, whether it’s promotion, ideas, thoughts or sales. How have you used these sites to connect yourself with your clients?