Risk & Business Magazine McFarlan Rowlands Fall 2016 | Page 19

tell the customer what to do.
•

•

People tend to read the following:
•

Headlines

•

Subtitles and subheadings

•

Photo captions

•

Short bolded or highlighted text

•

Small insert-boxes

•

Handwritten notes

Of course, this does not mean you can
overwhelm your audience with too
many “things that get read first” or none
of them will get read. And each of these
has different uses in different contexts.
For example, a handwritten note in
an ad on the internet does nothing,
whereas a handwritten post-it note on a
mailing gets attention.
So we have to ask ourselves, “What sorts
of things grab attention?” Here are some
answers:

•

- Headlines
- Subtitles and Subheadings
- Photo Captions
- Short Bolded or Highlighted Text
- Small Insert-Boxes
- Handwritten Notes

Deliver quickly once you get the
order: This is an instant world.
People expect it immediately. The
service standards you compete with
are expected to be high. Perfect
service is now the expected norm.

ARE THERE SPECIFIC STRATEGIES
THAT YOU HAVE USED IN THE PAST
AND KNOW WORK THAT HELP TO
GRAB CONSUMER ATTENTION?
People have limited time and even
smaller attention spans. The key in
marketing is to capture some of this
limited attention span and to get people
to read more. So it pays to understand
what things people read first, because
this is where you need to grab attention.

•

PEOPLE TEND TO READ
THE FOLLOWING

Keep it simple and intuitive:
Customers will not stay long
enough to figure out how to do
things or where to find things.
Avoid redundancy. Redundancy is
the main cause of excess verbiage.

Curiosity—If you can arouse
curiosity, people will read more.
How many people reading this
interview have looked up the
Danby Appliances “Flip Your
Fridge” video? Your curiosity was
piqued!
Humour—If people feel they will

be entertained, they will read more.
•

Emotions—Shock and awe can grab
attention. People buy first with their
emotions, which is why most large
agency ads play to emotions. Without
attention, you do not get read. So it is
worth spending time on what people
first pay attention to—emotions.

MARKETING HAS SEEN A DRAMATIC
SHIFT IN RECENT YEARS FROM PRINT
TO DIGITAL. HOW DOES SOCIAL
MEDIA IMPACT HOW YOU REACH
CUSTOMERS?
Media has changed drastically over the
last several years. It was formerly a shout
box from brands to consumers. Television,
radio, and print: that was about it. Then
technology and the internet came along
with a major curveball. The world went
online and sources of information
increased dramatically. Blogs, Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media
became easily accessible.
Social media is one of the best ways to use
curiosity, humour, and emotions. Using
social media to promote a business or
product is easy; however, using it properly
is sometimes difficult. It is important to
make sure you post interesting content and

post often. But you also don’t want to post
too often and bombard your customers.
I decided to start sending out daily
quotations from famous people. I know
that email is an “interrupting medium,”
so I chose to send them only by Twitter,
LinkedIn, Facebook, a post to a Tumblr
page, and to a section on my blog. That
way, people only see them if they choose
to look. At the same time, I’m keeping my
network engaged, because when people see
these quotes, they think of me, and when
they think of me, they think of Danby
Appliances.
Running a business can be a great thing,
and you can have a lot of fun while learning
and implementing guerilla marketing
tactics and using social media to market
yourself and your company. Business
and marketing practices are constantly
changing, and although it can be daunting,
it is important to adapt and change with
them. Following some of these tactics can
help you grow your good business into a
great business. As I said earlier, I started my
business in the 1970’s from the trunk of my
car and grew it into a $2 billion corporation
just by following good marketing
principles. If I can achieve that kind of
business success, so can you. It just takes a
lot of hard work and a lot of imagination. +

Jim Estill started a computer distribution company (EMJ Data Systems Ltd.) from the trunk of his
car in 1979. With a great team, he built the company up to $350,000,000 in sales and sold it to
SYNNEX in September, 2004. He then became CEO of SYNNEX Canada until May 2009, growing
sales from $800,000,000 to $2 billion. Jim has been the CEO at Danby Appliances since June, 2015.
Jim has always had an interest in early-stage technology businesses and was on the Board of
BlackBerry (previously Research in Motion) for 13 years, including before it went public. He has also
written two management books, Time Leadership–Lessons from a CEO and Zero to $2 Billion: The
Marketing and Branding Story behind the Growth.

FALL 2016

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