Marketing Eye Mellissah Smith Articles

Next, I raced down the shop and bought every possible magazine that might have a story on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Afterall, they had separated right? Wrong!

One newspaper reported that they had separated and had gone through a divorce settlement  of sorts (they are unmarried) that saw their millions divided and the custody of their children shared.

Like millions of people, I was enthralled with the gossip that surrounded this duo and have spent at least $30 in the last couple of days buying every possible editorial that may have just a little bit of information on what actually has gone on.

Well, what has gone on is that this story has sold millions of newspapers and magazines worldwide and is highly likely to be made up. The story derived not from a reputable editorial, but from gossip newspaper who quite frankly cannot be trusted. They may have sold newspapers, but it has further enhanced in the minds of people who little you can trust the tabloids and how much of the stuff we read is made up.

Any story on Jolie-Pitt sells newspapers and everyone knows it! The journalists have no integrity or concern for what they or their families might think. What if their children read this on the newstands and all of a sudden got concerned that the unit they thought they could trust might be torn apart.

There is a message in this medium mayhem.

What do you have that sells newspapers? There is a few journalists out there that would like to know!

News can come in many forms and it might not be worldwide news or news that is going to have gossip magazines begging, but it might be of interest to business journalists or general news journalists who see what you are doing as unique and interesting.

You may have your product or service endorsed by someone famous, or perhaps you have a world first.

Read the newspaper and watch the news… you never know… it may just give you an idea of how your brand can become better known.

Every day small businesses are written up in newspapers and magazines. Next week it could be you!

Whether it’s in life or business, it’s the lessons we learn along the way that make us.

In life, I have kept on learning lessons – some I have learnt from and others I have ignored only to find that I should have learned my lesson the first time.

Ok, I have had enough! It is the fourth time this month that I have had to spend more than 30 minutes on hold because my message bank keeps reverting to an automated message that has nothing to do with my business.

When is enough, enough?

How many times should someone have to ring a company to tell them that they are not providing an adequate service? Why is my phone doing this? It hasn’t happened before and ironically this has only happened since my Blackberry was taken to a service centre for 7 weeks to be repaired when I was told it would be 2.

It gets worse. I only know this, when a client takes the time to tell me that there is no message bank on my phone. How many calls have I missed?

7 weeks for a Blackberry repair that was purely the fault of the phone, with no replacement phone and a number of Optus representatives lying about when I would receive my phone back. I was told that I was in fact getting a new phone from Canada and that is why it would take an additional 2 weeks, only to receive my old phone 3 weeks later. Unbelievable!

Never will I have a contract with Optus again. They should be bending over backwards to fix the situation and yet, they have their Indian Call Centres answering the phones and have no regard for customers whatsoever.

Optus… not a ‘YES’ company, but a ‘I DON’T CARE’ company.