Bush Marketing and Branding

Bush Branding & Marketing got an early Christmas present from our Web Developer Cameron Skene: bushmarketing.com now meets W3C CSS and XHTML 1.0 standards. These international standards are becoming "the standard" in web design. What makes it even more special is that Cameron has done this work from New York City, where he will be based for the next year.

Thanks Santa Skene. For more information on this gift visit
the home of W3.

Selling things successfully online is the same game as traditional retail sales. At the end of the day it's about customer service and making people feel good about the product or service they are purchasing. My entrepreneurial experience with e-commerce dates back to the start of this century when we added a custom cart to australianboot.com

Since then I have been involved in setting up dozens of e-commerce sites. Sadly over 90% of them have never sold a thing. Why? Technology glitches certainly played a minor role; however, the one thing that crashed the carts every time was a lack of customer service.

This morning I was greeted with this email from my partner in Presso Canada. If you have the time to read it you can feel the smile of a happy customer. All the credit goes to Tilwood, our fulfillment company, who we found online and have never met.

Dear Mr. Doucette,

Just a short e-mail to tell you of the most excellent assistance I have received from one of your employees, Ms. Mary-Anne Noseworthy.

I tried to order something on-line from Presso Canada on Friday but, not being much of a computer expert or the least bit familiar with PayPal, I was unsuccessful.

I phoned the number listed on the Presso site and spoke with Ms. Noseworthy. I explained to her that I would like to place an order and also asked if she could answer come questions for me about the product. She looked up all information available to her but was not able to answer all my questions so she offered to e-mail the company (in Australia) and ask them to contact me directly . . . which they did.

This morning I received an e-mail from Ms. Noseworthy telling me she had also received a response from Presso and that she would be happy to help me with placing my order. I phoned her, she set me up on PayPal and completed all the work for me . . . all with a ‘smile in her voice’.

I couldn’t ask for better service than that!

My Christmas wish for Tilwood is that all your employees be as friendly and helpful as Ms. Noseworthy!

Thank you!

Usher G. Newstone

As a closing note Santa Claus will be sending Mary Anne and her mates a Presso for their office. We are also going to add a payment gateway to our shopify check out: a customer has spoken.

A few years ago I met David Packman through one of my partners in bayweb, Jason Ferris. David and I have kept in touch via geeky things like facebook. Recently we reacquainted at Bush Marketing's 100 mile Soiree. Now that your menu has been read start eating a feast of links.
del.ici.ous "A social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks"

I dined on delicious for the first time when checking out the sauce, David's Public relations firm.

David and I met today. Hence the subject. Have another link I harvested on delicious; which for the record is how I started this blog. 10 things for an entrepreneur to snack on.

The Financial Times has a profile of French (now Silicon Valley) entrepreneur Loic Le Meur today.

Time for a late night snack.

How does an advertising agency brand and market itself? The answer is, with great difficulty. It's almost like a neurosurgeon operating on herself.

Bush Marketing has experienced slow and steady growth since we opened our doors in Byron Bay in 2001. Like most small businesses word of mouth and contacts have been our bread and butter. We have also taken out the occasional ad in some local publications like Rusty Miller's Holiday Guide and the Echo to attract local business. These small investments in print advertising have yielded reasonable results; however, with our expanded team and new studio location we wanted to try something different and prospect clients further afield.

Direct mail, a tried and true medium, was picked to generate awareness. Here is what we sent out to 7,000 post office boxes in our surrounding major centres including Brisbane.

Our expectations of the response we would get was modest. After all we are in marketing and the last thing we want to do is disappoint, especially ourselves. A month after the DL's were delivered we were beyond disappointment: the only response we got were 3 designers looking for work and a Brisbane Dance Publication wanting us to run our clever ad in their magazine.

Just when we had lost all faith in our profession it happened; in came an email with a detailed creative brief, asking us to quote on a logo redesign and launch for a major not for profit. We quoted, got short listed, did a credentials presentation and landed the job.

The moral of the story. Practice what you preach and above all, be patient.

To whom it may concern,

I am the owner and operator of a developing small business. We design and manufacture an ancient style of flute called an "Overtone Flute".
I wanted to expose my product to a much wider market. Greg Cromwell and his team at "Bush Marketing" came highly recommended as the people to help.
It soon became clear to me in our initial consultations, that "Bush Marketing" were the right people for the job. I had ideas of my own for the website, and together with Greg's knowledge and Nighean's experience, we were able to achieve a wonderful result. Greg's let's get down to business approach helped to get the job done on a moderate budget. The work that "Bush Marketing" has done for "Primal Spirit Overtone Flutes" is a great example what can be done for a business that knows what it wants and has a realistic budget to work with.

Your Sincerely
Isharn Peisley
"Primal Spirit Overtone Flutes"
www.overtoneflutes.com