Nov 25, 2012 from Patrick

Nov 26, 2012 from Lynne

Thanks Serena and Christina for your efforts on the student brochure.The photo is lovely and I think will appeal strongly to a female market. The home page text is a good length as people are not likely to scroll through masses of explanation.

I came back to the IITTI website after a few weeks and pretended that I was a student or an employer as I read through.

Here are a few elements that in my opinion are missing throughout our marketing up until now. I hope we can all help here as my exposure to students and employers is somewhat limited.

1. Quotes from employers and HR professionals stating the critical need for etiquette knowledge and image in the young people that they interview/promote. It would be great if someone could say that they see a huge need in this area.

2. Quotes from students saying that they see the need for certification. We can probably get this first hand from Christina's students as I'm sure she has conveyed the importance of image. Not only that she has great before and after results.

3. If we had more hard core evidence, I believe our marketing would sound more urgent, and confident. Right now it sounds like our opinion, and a "nice to have" but that there is no compelling reason for me, the student/interview candidate to get this certification.

4. Reading through the material I was not convinced as a student that I would go though the bother of finding and paying for an image and etiquette training. It sounded expensive and in any case, how would I even go about looking for such a training close to where I live?

5. The photo on the first brochure shows people shaking hands seated. I'm not sure that people would realize that it illustrates bad etiquette. If we used the photo as an example of "needs improvement" we would need to show a corrected version.

Do we think that it would be a good strategy to plant a few before and after pictures of people in normal clothing but incorrectly dressed for the situation, or demonstrating the incorrect etiquette? Such as a "Did you spot the mistake?" kind of approach.

I'm going to do a bit of research and tap into my resources to get quotes etc. Can we all find at least one student or employer/recruiter/outplacement counsellor to help us with some quotes? I think it would lend our marketing the boost it needs.

Lynne

Nov 26, 2012 from Deborah

The new home page is stronger, and as you stated, Lynne, correct in the light of etiquette. Since we do not have any actual quotes to date, would general quotes be strong enough? Those who attend Christina's program should be able to provide us with good feedback and, hopefully, good quotes. I like the idea of before and after photos, videos, or even a sample 'test' as a self evaluation.