When we officially launched M2 last year, we had no idea we would soon find ourselves in this surreal life/work pause brought on by Covid-19 but, here we are and our clients and social media communities now frequently ask the question: How do we cope? How do we work from home? How can we use this time efficiently? And now that chatter about the potential of “reopening” continues to increase in volume and frequency, the biggest question is: What will we do, how will things work #WhenThisIsAllOver ?
Like everyone else, we Zoomed, Skyped, Whatsapped and surveyed our private Facebook group for Kitchen and Bath Industry Pros only to discover that the required shifts in how we live, work and socialize are almost identical to the ones we founded M2 for in the first place – minus the masks and vodka based hand-sanitizers:
The Mantra: Cut the Crap and Loose the Fat
What does that mean? Exactly what it says and it’s the core of what we plan to share with you in the coming weeks and months:
LEAN MEAN POST-COVID MACHINE
If you work in any field outside of jobs currently deemed as essential (and a huge shout-out to those folks that are out there working on front lines in medicine but also everyone else making sure our safety and life sustaining businesses keep running) you will have just made some changes: Less driving, less flying, less conferences and less in-person meetings. You’re likely at home and you’re likely using Zoom as a verb by now. Good – we’ll be exploring changes we just had thrust at us that are OK and, in fact, long overdue because they save money, time and frustration.
BRAND COMMUNICATIONS
How should brands communicate with design professionals and other buyers? When and where does the relationship start? If you said “When they bought my product” please crawl back under your rock. We will be talking about and with brands that are doing it right and with design pros that know what to ask for.
PROJECT COLLABORATIONS
How should design professionals leverage their talent and use of a specific product in project? How can they connect with brands, before – during and after projects? How can they become brand partners? (Note: It’s 2020, if you can’t stop using the word brand ambassador, you’re beyond help)
INFLUENCER MARKETING
Working with, dare we say it, INFLUENCERS! Aaaaack! Yes it’s true, we actually own a very successful network of influencers called #designhounds but oh we do hate the word. Why? Read on, dear friend….suffice to say if Influencing were easy, everyone would be doing it RIGHT and, they are NOT DOING IT RIGHT. Oh by the way, it’s not about impressions. It’s about confidence, credibility and conversion.
LEVERAGING DIGITAL AND SOCIAL
Using digital and social instead of letting them use us!!! Oh Emmmm Geeee, we said it. The high and mighty socials Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google and Pinterest, productivity tools like (insert your top 10 productivity tools here – guess what, you’re using about 9 too many) ….are TOOLS. Not in the insulting way but maybe it hits the nail on the head? We are supposed to have been USING them to free up time, not spend all of our time on them. #duh Let’s discuss how we can actually do that.
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