Our T-shirts Arrived!

We've been waiting for months to be able to say that.

Our Arkansas Diamond Mine Adventure T-shirts finally arrived from the printer last week, just in time for David and Diamond in the Rough's birthdays. They were a great birthday gift for David.

Our T-shirt features the ADMA logo and the winning slogan: Join The Adventure, We'll Show You The Ropes.

"How can I get one of those beautiful T-shirts?" you ask. Until Oct. 5 you can go to our Indiegogo proposal site and purchase one there. Your purchase will help give our crowdfunding proposal more visibility on the Indiegogo website.

However, if we do not reach our overall goal by the Oct. 5 deadline, your T-shirt order will not go through. At that point, you will need to order ADMA T-shirts directly from our website. For now, we would appreciate it if you would order them through our proposal site on Indiegogo.

Thanks, and this week we will ship the first T-shirt to Scott Brooks in Atlanta for submitting the winning slogan.

Check Out Our Proposal on Indiegogo

Late last week we returned home from our trip to help take care of Robyn's dad. Our total travel time was 29 hours. That's hard on a body, but it's good to be home.

We learned a great deal on our first international trip. Perhaps we will share some of those lessons in future posts.

In our March 20 blog post we shared that our proposal was rejected by Kickstarter because they do not fund business startups. We researched other "crowdfunding" websites and read articles about them in the Wall Street Journal and other places and discovered Indiegogo.

We invite you to visit our business-funding proposal on Indiegogo to see our latest effort to raise money on the Internet for our American dream, the Arkansas Diamond Mine Adventure. It is similar to Kickstarter, but this website allows people to seek funding for business projects and just about anything else.

Would you go to our Indiegogo proposal page and consider making a $2 donation (we get about $1.48 of that)? We need our family and friends to "prime the pump," if you will, so that Indiegogo will give our proposal more visibility. The more people look at our proposal and make donations, the higher it goes on the Indiegogo website, eventually making it to their front page.

Keep in mind that even if you pledge $10,000, you will not be charged a penny unless we reach our total goal. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement, and thank you for considering making a donation.

Promotional Tools for Your Tool Box Part Enam

Having spent the past five weeks in Bali helping Robyn's dad recover from his stroke, we have been fortunate to be exposed to the Balinese culture. The food is great; the sites are beautiful; and the experiences are amazing.

One thing I (David) have missed is the American broadcasts of the Summer Olympic Games. We had to watch the ESPN Hong Kong channel's coverage, and it was as dry as toast. I assumed that all Olympic broadcasts began with the famous Olympic fanfare music that NBC begins and ends every telecast with, but they don't.

All that to remind you that music is one of my passions. It is a big part of many people's lives, I'm told, and that brings us to our enam (sixth) and final post on promotional tools for your tool box, and our final post from Bali. We didn't include this in our list of 63 promotional tools for entrepreneurs and small business owners because it may be more costly than many small businesses can afford.

Our tip for entrepreneurs and small business owners today is: hire an ad agency and create a memorable jingle for your company. I mentioned music before in a previous blog asking our nephew Devon (and you) to come up with a zinger for our business dream, the Arkansas Diamond Mine Adventure. (I consider zingers to be a very short jingle such as: "We are Farmers, bum be dum bum bum bum bum," and the five-notes at the end of Intel commercials.)

I have no idea how much it costs to create a good jingle, but it is worth every penny when you come up with a catchy, memorable one. Mostly, large companies use jingles, but small businesses certainly can, too. When I lived in Atlanta I liked a local nursery's jingle about playing in the dirt again. That was 16 years ago. And I previously wrote that I remember the TV commercials from the Arkansas-Texas football game in 1971. That's 41 years ago. Music stays with you. That's why teachers use music to help children remember things.

Here are 14 (oops, I caught that after I published this) of our favorite jingles. Many of these bring back good memories, much like the Holiday Inn sign we previously discussed.

Number 14: "Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?" for Dr. Pepper

Number 13: "Have it your way" for Burger King

Number 12: "Two scoops in a package of Kellogg's Raisin Bran"

Number 11: "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" for Almond Joy and Mounds bars

Number 10: "Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar"

Number 9: "We're American Airlines, doing what we do best"

Number 8: "I am stuck on Band-Aids 'cause Band-Aids stuck on me"

Number 7: "My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R" for Oscar Meyer

Number 6: "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup" (I sang this three days ago!)

Number 5: "When you say Bud" (specifically the Christmas version) for Budweiser

Number 4: "And like a good neighbor, State Farm is there"

Number 3: "Chevrolet, building a better way to see the USA"

Number 2: "I'd like to teach the world to sing" for Coca Cola

Number 1: "You deserve a break today" for McDonald's

If you stop and think, it is amazing how many old jingles you can remember. As I typed this list, my mind wandered back to Saturday evenings and Dad making us watch "The Lawrence Welk Show." I don't remember what I did three days ago, but I remember Lawrence Welk and those ads for Geritol, Aqua Velva and the guy splitting diamonds in the backseat of a car on a bumpy road.

When I worked for TCBY, NBC Executive Pier Mapes spoke at one of our franchisee meetings in 1988 and played snippets from a bunch of old commercials. The attendees guessed every jingle correctly while laughing and singing. It made the impression that jingles are a great way for businesses to communicate ... and get people to remember your product.

Please let us know what are your favorite jingles.

Promotional Tools for Your Tool Box Part Lima

Living on the island of Bali has been quite an experience for us this month. Talking to the natives of this beautiful corner of the globe reminds us of the importance of one aspect of life which encompasses all 63 of the promotional tools we’ve recently posted.

Any tool you use to improve your business or any relationship, for that matter, is built on—drum roll please—communication. Where would we be in this world without communication?

Robyn tries to communicate with our driver, a Bali native, who
drove us, a couple from Moscow and a couple from Singapore
to a day of white-water rafting near Ubud Aug. 6. He spoke
almost no English.

Attempting to talk to someone who speaks a foreign language makes you realize how critical and challenging communication is. We sometimes have to be creative in trying to get one of the Balinese we encounter to understand what we are saying. Speaking slowly and using hand gestures brings scenes from old funny movies to mind.

In part lima (five) of our posts on promotional tools, we are examining communication. If you want to have a successful small business, or if you want to have a good marriage or be a successful politician or just about anything else you can think of, you have to be a good communicator.

The word “communication” comes from a Latin word meaning “common” and means to transmit or exchange information, thought or feeling through common symbols, signs or behaviors so that it is satisfactorily received or understood.

Successful communication requires three things: someone to communicate or transmit, finding shared or common ground, and someone to receive, watch or listen. Our tip for entrepreneurs today is: determine what you want to communicate and what is your desired outcome, and then choose several of the 63 Promotional Tools we've shared to accomplish those outcomes.

Communication is vitally important because people are curious and need to understand. Uninformed customers, spouses, employees, members or volunteers are not happy, and a lack of communication leads to mistrust. And, of course, customers who don’t know why they could use your product will never buy it.

"Experts" say that 55 – 90 percent of all communication is non-verbal. So successful communication means you also must be mindful of your eyes, facial expressions, hands, body language, makeup and clothes you wear and a myriad of other things.

The bottom line is: successful communication is no accident.

Promotional Tools For Your Tool Box Part Empat

When people build houses, they use more than just hammers. When trying to build a business, business owners also must use lots of different tools to make customers aware of their products or services and help them see why they are needed.

In our past three blogs we’ve discussed 57 promotional tools available in your marketing tool box to survive in today’s competitive marketplace. Today in part empat (four) we offer six more tools for generating and encouraging the all-important word-of-mouth publicity.

1. Volunteer to Give Speeches to Local Civic and Professional Organizations
2. Speak to Your Local City Council, School Board or Legislature (Lobbying)
3. Invest in Non-Profit Sponsorships (Community Relations)
4. Offer Community Seminars and Training (at venues such as public libraries and community recreation centers)
5. Make Time to Attend and Get Involved in Local Civic, Professional and Non-Profit Organizations that interest you. Networking with others who do or sell similar things is a good way to get your name out and get referrals. And research has shown that people prefer to do business with companies that support charities.

Finally, we like publicity “stunts,” though you must be very careful with this tool because it can very easily backfire. Stunts come in many forms including amazing acts and using dramatic messages or visuals that present a paradox. A stunt can cost money if it includes buying ads, but with hundreds of cable TV channels today, it is not difficult to find someone who will broadcast your stunt for free. Just like using a chainsaw, use this tool cautiously and sparingly. Here are three examples.

We recently toured the Wal-Mart Museum in downtown Bentonville, just a half mile from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (We highly recommend visiting both) It includes photos and video of a reluctant Sam Walton doing a hula dance on Wall Street after the company met a challenge he had issued. 

Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher arm-wrestled the chairman of another aviation company in March 1992 for the rights to an advertising slogan. Kelleher smoked a cigarette while they arm-wrestled. He lost, but his competitor allowed Southwest to keep using the “Just Plane Smart” slogan and their stunt generated lots of publicity.

One of the most famous stunts in recent years was the April Fools 1996 full-page ad Taco Bell ran in major newspapers claiming they had purchased the Liberty Bell to help pay for its upkeep.

The public outcry led to widespread exposure and a White House spokesman jokingly announcing another fundraising change: a new name for the Lincoln Memorial—the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury Memorial. Taco Bell won tons of publicity from this stunt.

These promotional tools lists are not exhaustive, but they give you a good list from which to start. Be creative, and don’t give up on your business without a fight.

We’d love to hear from you if you have other effective tools you would add to our lists.