“Sell It
With Sizzle” Individual/ Group Work PLUS Homework
 
Rhonda K. Kitchens
Sellitwithsizzle.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your USP? (Each Individual )

You’re a librarian or library professional in a room full of similar “products.”
So what?

(In Reality in Advertising, Rosser Reeves (Chairman of the Board at Ted Bates & Company) laments that USP are the three most misused letters in advertising. He goes on to give the precise definition as it was understood at his company. 1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the customer: "buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit."   2. The proposition itself must be unique.   3. The proposition must be strong enough to pull new customers to the product.  Examples: The famous USP of FedEx is "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight". Or Goldfish crackers in colors and Quaker Oats for Women.)

 

The Vision Thing Challenge ( Individual Volunteers )

You have money, staff, time and support. Come up with a some what outlandish, button pushing whimsical way to promote all or a portion of your technology resources using all of the following:
#1) Prop, Spokesperson, Hand-out, Gift or Prize
#2) A Theme, Motto, Tagline or Saying

 

Taste Test: ( Individual Volunteers )
Let’s sizzle with Matthew Lesko and Jay Conrad Levison. How would Lesko or Levison sell RefUSA? Monster.com? Yahoo E-mail?  Opposing Viewpoints? Anywho.com?

 

 

Benefits and features ( Assigned Groups )

Each group should pick one product and list as many benefits as possible from these product features and your familiarity with the product.
* America’s Newspapers: The electronic editions of record for valuable local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers--all in one easy-to-search database. Each paper provides unique coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, and people in the community. Paid ads are excluded.
  • Gale's Ready Reference Shelf contains 355,000 records and comprises three files: Organizations, Publications, and Databases. GRRS is searchable as a whole or as individual files.
    * The ReferenceUSA database contains, in module format, detailed information on more than 12 million     U.S. businesses; 102 million U.S. residents; 683,000 U.S. health care providers; 1 million Canadian businesses; and 11 million Canadian residents.

 

 

Let’s Talk…..( Individual Volunteers )

Why Do Good Programs Fail? What was your worse program? Why Do Bad Programs happen to Good People? Is there such a thing as total program failure? What have you learned from a program disaster?

 

1-2-3 Program Recipe  (Assigned Groups)

In assigned groups, use the 1-2-3 Program Recipe wheel chart to put together a  program that promotes Excel, Reference USA, Foundation Center or Learning Express.

  • Line up 3 of the terms/active verbs/ideas
    * Keep spinning one of the circles until a total program idea “clicks”
    * Record the acronym for your program ( The SAP program for Reference     USA )
  • * Very basically explain the implementation in terms of:

           target audience/audience development plan
           partners/volunteers/speaker
           what’s the “sizzle?”
           how it can be used for another audience?