Branding | ZENECIST

May 20, 2023May 24, 2023

Thomas Marketing Services Corporation Principal, Tom Lanen, Now a Professional Member of The International Association of Professional Writers & Editors (IAPWE)

(March 23, 2023) After a qualifying process requiring writing samples, references and other credentials, Thomas Marketing Services Corporation principal, Tom Lanen, has become a Professional Member of The International Association of Writers & Editors (IAPWE).

This is all in an effort to reposition Tom from a full service advertising and marketing agency brand strategist and creative director, to a role now focused on providing freelance writing services to retail, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment, & technology sectors. He will also continue as a digital and brand marketing tactician, including website creation, social media, and permission email marketing.

From the IAPWE website:

The IAPWE or International Association of Professional Writers & Editors is an organization dedicated to providing helpful resources to writers and editors and disseminating helpful ideas and resources across the greater professional community in the form of outreach, blogging, networking and thought leadership.

In addition to providing free resources for our members, we are always seeking talented writers and editors to help create engaging, locally relevant, educational and inspirational content to help support our outreach efforts. We believe in paying our writers and editors a competitive wage, unlike many of the “content mills” and comparable low-paying clients and/or companies.

The IAPWE is also dedicated to bringing the most updated, legitimate and vetted writing and editing job opportunities to its members.

Currently, there are many different websites containing both legitimate as well as illegitimate writing and editing job opportunities and we make available, in one place, all of the opportunities that have been determined to be legitimate across over 100 different websites.

In addition to this, the IAPWE provides helpful tools, resources and networking opportunities for professional writers and editors, as well as making all members aware of potential writing job scams.

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Please contact Tom at 508 951-0130 if you have writing or marketing project you’d like off your desk; I’ll get it into the done column fast and on budget. T-

March 1, 2023March 10, 2023

The Quest for Simplicity: My Endgame

I’ve always had way more energy than was probably good for me. Too, I’ve aways felt compelled to do what some people characterize as “doing too much.” Part for it was simply to keep me interested. Though a lot of it was I was the first-born son of a successful Finnish business owner, and that’s how I was brought up. Isät & pojat! (Fathers & sons!)

Along with freelance assignments, I’ll be refocusing Deflector™, my Medium publication on The Art of Style & Well-Being for Men of Age™

A dual-brained analytical marketer and creative, I ate strategic brand and lead generation programs for lunch my entire career. And with long-term client relationships ranging upwards of 17 years, I was pretty good at executing to plan. In fact, I recently did a count, and over my career I directly helped ah, more than one client become island living comfortable. I did my job and loved most of it.

Now 33+ years into Thomas Marketing Services Corporation, including nearly a decade we stayed afloat when two health challenges almost took me out, my desire to do too much has remained, nearly unabated.

Until another of my BGOs* whacked me upside the head.

As much as I enjoy a great marketing plan, and working with a fabulous team to create some success for us all, at age 70 it’s more than I need to live my best life. Frankly, I’d just as soon let someone smarter than me call the shots– and incur the inevitable angst.

My mission too, is to help you reap the glory. I’m surprisingly well content.

Today, and with whatever time on this earth the Divine graces me, my simple strategy is to lead with my love with family and friends. They’re all I need. And with writing, it seems I can maintain the income we need to cover the retirement funds raided when I was sick.

With aforethought and a sense of joy, going forward my sole professional focus will be writing services. Plain and simple.

Fact is, I can’t imagine a life on the beach or golf course. To me retirement doesn’t mean not working; it just means working on something you love – though maybe not 60 hours week as was once my norm.

Too, I’ve no designs on rusting out like some of my ‘retired’ pals. Not when I can actively rock my life.

Yes, I’m still here, looking forward to what’s next, positive and grateful to the core.

If you’re ready make a difference, the ball’s in your court. Because when it comes to your brand story, position, and share, the difference is you.™ Do it right, and it’s line item equity.

I encourage you to take an easy first step. Let’s talk a bit on my nickel – 508 951-0130

Peace, T-

* Blinding Glimpse(s) of the Obvious

February 13, 2023March 1, 2023

Clever marketing tactics? Sure — what’s your strategy?

Clever marketing tactics (HOW you’re going to achieve your goals) can only be effective (and measured) if they’re built upon a defined strategic (WHAT you’re going to do to achieve goals) platform. When this is done well, the sum of all tactics is greater than the whole–and can drive the desired return.

[Hiring an accomplished part-time marketing guy is a good start.]

Sit with anybody who watched the Super Bowl, and you can be sure they’ll comment on what is usually some of the most clever advertising on the globe. This year it was TUBI, the free streaming service out to expand its audience, who got us to go for our remote as they ‘changed the channel’ from my YouTube TV to theirs, which I know I have never done. They created action AND showed us its value by giving us samples of their programming we might never have seen. In my mind it was one of the most effective ads in years, and well worthy of the special CLIO™ Award they received as the best of the Super Bowl ads.

Business owners think: “if only we could be so clever with our marketing.” And the repressed creative within them will come up with a clever slogan, most often ending with “for all your (fill-in-the-blank) needs.”

Right.

Here’s the thing. The most clever tactics in the world are as useless as the bar napkin they’re written on unless they are tied to an actionable and measurable strategy. Their effect is as equally short-lived. Money and ROI: poof!

That’s not how P&G does it. Their brands perform to expectations because all marketing tactics are built on a strategic foundation, step-by-step.

First they decide what they are going to do; they formulate a strategy and define possible strategic communications statement/platforms based upon defined goals. And they execute their first tactic, research.

Only then, and armed with a refined strategy/statement tempered by research or other insights, do they create tactics—the how they’re going to fulfill/payoff the strategy/platform—designed to move the needle on their strategic platform.

And, as tactics are executed, their impact adds up to a brand outcome that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Get it? Well, you’re way ahead of the curve for most business owners, assuming you can also act strategically. (But to know and not do, is not to know.)

I can tell you this, it’s only with decades of mentoring and partnering with Dave Manley, P&G’s first Brand Manager on the Pringles Brand, with whom I worked on Chinet Disposables, Boston Whaler, LoJack, Bay State Power, and Keurig/Green Mountain brands (to name a few), that I started getting good at the strategic brand marketing process and discipline. And it works.

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“I worked with Tom Lanen for well over 25 years. You don’t work with someone for that long unless they bring you real value. Whether it was a poster series at Boston Whaler, a brochure at LoJack, or research, sales promotion and dealer support at Keurig, he’s always taken the time to understand my needs, and then made it happen, exceeding expectations.”

Dave Manley, Senior VP, Core Systems Innovation (Retired), Green Mountain, Keurig Premium Coffee Systems

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Now hiring Dave, if you can draw him out of beach-side retirement, might be one option. Or you could make a far more moderate—and affordable—investment and hire me. I’ll listen, and then show you the best options to meet your goals. And the means to measure your outcomes.

So what’s your marketing and sales/revenue strategy for the economic period ahead? Here’s one to start: let’s chat on my nickel for few moments. I may be just the resource you need to kick-start some sustained momentum.

Today is good. Tom- | 508 951-0130

August 29, 2022August 30, 2022

Our Swan Song for New England Hydroponics.

How (Bitter) Sweet it Is!

Results speak for themselves, in this case our last two emails with 43% and 46.3% Open Rates for New England Hydroponics. Category Open Rate Average is 17%. On September 1, the new owner takes marketing in house.

I’ll miss working on the business, specifically the people, several of whom have become lifetime friends. It’s been good fun, and I wish them all the best. And I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the brand we built over the 5 years we worked with its owner, and the many stakeholders. But it’s onto what’s next (see text below graphic).

Permission eMail Open Rate Over 40% on-2 Variations by Tom Lanen Thomas Marketing Services ThomasBoston.com

Are you ready for results like these? Call me, Tom Lanen, at (508) 951-0130 and let’s talk action points on my nickel. Let’s see what kind of end game we can devise; it’s closer than you think! T-

August 2, 2022August 25, 2022

New! Open Bandwidth for Business Owners With An Endgame. Especially Those Who Don’t Love Marketing.

Cha-Cha-Cha Changes! It’s said all good things come to an end, and so it is with our 5-year contract with New England Hydroponics, and its new parent company, Hydrobuilder Holdings, to whom my principal, Ethan Holmes, sold the business and brand in January. I’ve been informed they will take the work in-house and will let our contract expire at the end of August … even as our work continues to over-perform, as evidenced in our email Open Rate report below – the category average is 17% (Springbot ESP).

Frankly, this is exactly how most mergers go, and we’re not terribly surprised. Even if it’s a bit of a jolt to the system. Hey, we’re human. But it happened when 3 Thermo Electron business units with whom we had worked for 15 years merged with Fisher Scientific and the agency of record took over. They rightly compensated us for our copyright & imaging, and were very honorable during the transition. Fact is it’s been a great 5 years (almost), and we’ve accomplished our mission: to create salable brand equity for Ethan for when it became his time to sell the business. When I started with him in 2017, he’d been doing all his own marketing and no longer had any time for it. He’d built the business to 3 stores, one of which we moved into a space 4 times the size within the year. Then we added stores in Seekonk (6000 sf), and recently in Sanford, Maine (13,000 sf) bringing the total to 5, all while building the online business at neHydro.com into what is now 4500+ products. We worked well together, and I’m proud of the good work we did, and of the friendships I’ve enjoyed with store GMs and Supervisors. These are good folks. But it’s time for what’s next. If you have a business and a vision, give me, Tom Lanen, at (508) 951-0130 and let’s chat a bit on my nickel. The Difference Is You.™ I can help you present your business and brand well, and drive near-term sales & revenue …. and fully prepare your brand as a line item in your endgame that could be closer than you think. T-