Las Vegas

How to stand out in a crowd: Without dressing like Lady Gaga

lady gaga How to stand out in a crowd: Without dressing like Lady Gaga

Networking situations have interesting dynamics. What makes people gravitate toward others? Why do certain individuals stand out and others become invisible?

Last night, Singer/SongWriter/Performance Artist, Lady Gaga, appeared at the Pearl Showroom, in the Palms, Las Vegas. There was a positive review in the paper, this morning. No review of Lady Gaga would be written without a thorough discussion of her wardrobe (costuming). Her ever-changing glam fashion facade recalls breakthrough presences of performers such as Madonna and David Bowie.

Eyes can be on you, without having to be ostentatious. Here are two examples.

DJ Marcello Pedalino is the first. I first met Marcello six years ago at DJ Conference. What stood out about him was that he was impeccably dressed. Suit and tie; neat as pin.

Marcello How to stand out in a crowd: Without dressing like Lady Gaga

DJ Marcello Pedalino

In a gather of mobile DJ’s, who all to often sported T-shirts and jeans, accessorized by expanding waistlines, Marcello always stands out. If you didn’t know him, you would think, “I wonder who HE is. he must be somebody important.”

Over the long term, this has created what I’ve termed The Marcello Effect. Year by year, I see more and more mobile DJ’s decked out in suit and tie, even when it might not be absolutely necessary. Hopefully, they are continuing that fashion statement in their local networking opportunities, not just at national DJ conference, because it looks good.

Darcy Anderson, Fashion Director, JC Penney’s: Darcy was a client of mine about 30 years ago when my company, Music Man, was providing music for many fashion shows in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Darcy was a stylish dresser, but what stood out was her singular fashion accessory, a bumble bee pin. Actually what stood was not the pin, itself, but where she wore it. Darcy always wore it on her right shoulder, on the back of her jacket.

Invariably, people would see the pin from a distance, and come up to her to let her know she had ‘something on her shoulder.’ only to see that this was not a mistake, but a fashion accessory.

This simple staple of Darcy’s wardrobe made her distinctly memorable. Here I am, blogging about it thirty years later.

What are you doing to make yourself distinct and memorable? In this case, not your company, YOU. When you walk into a room of 125 people, many of whom you haven’t met, is there anything you’re doing by your presence or actions that makes you memorable?

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

Speaking ill of the dead: All About You Bridal Galleria closes its doors

On November 1st, a Las Vegas business, All About You Bridal Galleria sent a personal, 4-page letter to all its customers and contacts, announcing the closing of their business, at the end of the month.

The good news is the asuring message to their existing customers, who are still waiting on dresses. Instructions were given on how those orders were going to be fulfilled. They made it abundantly clear that they were not simply ‘closing their doors’ and stranding brides. They would follow through on all orders. Unfortunately, reports of these sort of closures crop up, in good times and bad. Usually, they are not handled in such a professional way.

AAYBG was a bridal salon selling dresses, accessories, and providing wedding planning services.

The letter outlined a number of reasons for closing, including:

the economy
‘appalling’ online competition
long time employees ‘running off and getting married, and having babies’
compatibility of the business with the ownership’s personal lives

Through all this sentimentality, there is a major omission. From a website standpoint, this small business couldn’t market its way out of paper bag.

Harsh? You’re damn right!!

I see and critique a lot of websites. I use both my experience and technical tools to analyze sites. It’s hard to do worse than this.

One excellent free tools to evaluate Search Engine Optimization is called Website Grader. The provider of this tool offers many paid services, but this one is free. Just put in your company domain name (and those of a couple of competitors, if you’d like), and its evaluation system rockets into action. In about 30 seconds, you have been given a grade, on a 1 to 100 scale, with specific explanations of what you are doing well, and what needs correction, as it relates to Search Engine Optimization.

I’ve concluded, after running these evaluations via Website Grader on many sites, including my own, that if you make the recommended changes, you see immediate improvement in your score.

For the sake of comparison, I think a score of 70-79 is good. 80-84 is very good. 85-89 is excellent. 90 or more is outstanding.

After running the All About You Bridal Galleria website address through Website Grader system, it came up with a score of 2. That’s not a typo. It’s two, 2 TWO!!!

It would be hard to score that low, if one was trying. Just visit the final score, and see what the report says.

Besides what the report outlines, there are other major league flaws.

Here’s just one: Not only does the site play music, automatically. It plays LOUD music. Even if you mute it, when you navigate to another screen, the music BLASTS you again. You can’t hide from the music unless you entirely mute your computer. It is common knowledge that brides often do some of their wedding research from work (under the radar). And, therefore, the idea of putting auto-loading music, particularly loud music, is NEVER recommended for a wedding site. You will lose many prospective customers, immediately, because you have busted them to everyone within earshot of their computer.

I’m sure the AAYBG owners are wonderful people. It’s clear that their ethics and heart are in the right place. I wish them the best in serving their customers, and making their closing their doors in the smooth and orderly way they’ve planned.

There are many lessons one can learn here. Pick a couple.

Here’s mine: “We’re all ignorant, just in different things.” If you’re a 4-star chef, that doesn’t mean you’re qualified to run a restaurant. You must complement your weaknesses with a partner who has the appropriate strengths and/or seek outside professional advice.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog