April 10th, 2012 → 11:45 pm @ beckymccray
Small Town Rule 7 is to build ties to your local communities. Dominoes Pizza is doing that with their commercial playing up the contribution of a local franchisee providing healthy eating options to all locals. A healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition. It protects you against many chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars and saturated and industrially-produced trans-fats, are essential for healthy diet. For more on keeping healthy, see here this post about the best weed gummies which is a new snack that can boost your overall health.
The commercial says that product ideas don’t usually come from the store level, but their new Parmesan Bread Bites came from Brian Edler, Domino’s franchise holder on Main Street in Downtown Findlay.
The commercial does a good job of featuring Edler, local car dealer Bob LaRichie, and even the water tower from Findlay, Ohio (pop 41,000).
This kind of local feature is just one way that national brands can effectively build local ties and better appeal to today’s local-conscious consumers.
Domino’s is following up by adding a Think Oven, an online suggestion box, on its Facebook Page, to build more individual interaction. Let’s hope they also follow up with more focus on the local, as well.
Read more in Domino’s press room and at the Toledo Blade.
(c) photo provided by Domino’s Pizza Media Relations.
April 1st, 2012 → 9:40 pm @ beckymccray
Thank you! After we introduced Small Town Rules on the 30th, you ran Amazon completely out of stock on hardbacks in less than 24 hours! In fact, you ordered 50% more copies than they had.
Amazon should have more hardbacks in stock at the end of the week. Barnes & Noble and Que Publishing both still have hardbacks for sale, and eBook versions are always in stock. You can find all the options on the Buy Page.
Anytime this week, if you could blog, or share a link on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, it would be a big help. There’s a list of suggestions here: Spread the Word.
If you’ve already read it (aren’t eBooks wonderful?), a review on Amazon or on your website would be very welcome.
Thank you all for this amazing support!
March 30th, 2012 → 5:51 pm @ beckymccray
Barry and I are excited to introduce Small Town Rules to you. The book is rolling out for sale now, and we’ll be celebrating the launch all week.
Barry introduces Small Town Rules, from an undisclosed location:
I introduce Small Town Rules, from my office in Hopeton, Oklahoma:
Watch for special offers to launch this week, guest posts from us, announcements, and generally much excitement at reaching this point in a project that has lasted three years (so far).
March 20th, 2012 → 12:08 am @ beckymccray
Seth Godin took on the role of technology in changing the role of geography, in Sovereignty and the new world–the end of nations?
Technology has allowed us to move both information and goods in ways that completely changed long established business patterns. In addition to the changes in communication, look at the changes in containerized intermodals and consumer shipping, for example. Both have changed the meaning of geography.
Godin says governments are losing the battle for control, and that multi-national corporations will have the upper hand. He points to the spread of ideas and the importance of long-term horizons (another small town rule), and even better lawyers.
Taking that one step further, “local” matters more than ever before. That puts an advantage into the hands of local organizations (business, personal, nonprofit).
The savvy multinationals that grasp the importance of local connections will quite possibly have the biggest advantage of all.
Photo: National currencies. Photo by Becky McCray.
March 3rd, 2012 → 5:23 pm @ beckymccray
The tech startups in Central Europe are following the Small Town Rules to achieve successes in a different way than Silicon Valley.
Oliver Holle at The Next Web Europe explains how in Hail the hidden champions: Why fringe markets may beat Silicon Valley (at least for investors).
While Silicon Valley startups are always shooting to be The Billion Dollar Entrepreneur and to be the next Facebook, Holle says European entrepreneurs are The Hidden Champions. They “show a remarkable amount of persistence that is critical for success.”
The characteristics that Holle is talking about are some of the Small Town Rules: Think Long Term. Be Frugal. These apply not just to European tech startups, but also to a broad range of businesses today that would rather be The Hidden Champion than one of the many failures.
It’s also a great illustration of the location-independent nature of today’s business. Anywhere, anywhen technology means these startups don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to create something meaningful.
Photo: Tech startup awards at LeWeb 2011 in Paris. (CC) Official LeWeb Photo, Flickr.
January 9th, 2012 → 9:05 pm @ beckymccray
Business is now forced to play be a different set of rules.
Every consumer of every company now behaves like they live in a small town. As a result, companies now need to play be a new set of rules: Small town rules.
These new rules apply to small businesses and big brands alike, no matter how big or how urban.
Not surprisingly, few people know about these small town rules. For the first time, this book connects the secrets of three major shifts that create a small town environment. It is now possible to look at what has made rural entrepreneurs successful for 200 years and apply them to every company.
