What’s the best communication tool to promote your small business?

A website?  Rich banners?  A blog?  How about chalk…

It’s not very often that you come across a business bursting with personality.

Every day on my way to work I walk past The Scandinavian Kitchen, a café specialising in awesomeness (awesomeness is Swedish for meatball)…. Not really, but every day they make me smile with their cheeky / witty chalk board messages.

“Herring a good day”

“We don’t sell Swedes, but some of us are”

“Take 3 topless Scandanavians to the park”

“Smorgasbording is not a sport”

Established by partners Jonas (a Swede) and Bronte (a Dane) two and a half year ago (one day before their first child was born!) this is a café to pay attention to.

Matt [@HirsuteGent] and I paid Jonas a visit today to chat about the business, chalk boards, and hugs…

On the chalk board

Lots of small cafés in the area keep a chalk board outside to attract customers – Reynolds, Bagel Mania, to name a few.  But none of them talk about topless sandwiches.

Jonas sees the board as setting the tone for business: friendly, warm, cheeky and fun.  Indeed, the culture is more like a pub, but friendlier and with coffee, breakfast and lunch instead of beer, vodka, nuts and drunk, loud men…

Essentially the chalk board breaks down any barriers to entry.  The first time I saw it, it me want to go inside and hang out.  It didn’t even matter what they were selling, I just liked the tone of voice.

On food

That said, “We can’t just be friendly and feed you shit,” says Jonas.

True that.

Yes, they have a quirky personality, but the quality needs to be there, too.  In addition to selling the famously delicious  Monmouth coffee, they offer a range of soups, sandwiches, cakes and pastries.  They’ve also got loads of grocery products from Scandinavia (for anyone jonesing for some brunost).  Most of the products are Swedish (because there are more Swedes living in London than Danes or Norwegians) but they’ve also got food from Denmark and Norway.  My go-to is a little chocolate called Plop, for obvious reasons…

On hugs

Scandi Kitchen’s loyalty program is also friendlier than the competition.  After 5 coffee stamps you’re rewarded with a hug.  After 10 you get a free coffee.  I lucked out today and was treated to a Scandi sandwich…

Being in Britain, though, some customers do take a pass, but they’re missing out.  To date, Jonas claims they’ve given out 5.5 million hugs.  That’s a lot of love!

Online

Finally, Scandi Kitchen’s online presence spans a website, blog and Facebook Page (with 995 members).

The site extends the same cheeky “chalk board humour”:

“We let the Finns in on this one, even if most of them technically don’t consider themselves Scandinavians; we figured they might want to pop in at some stage to discuss ice hockey, Eurovision Song Contest and skiing”.

Jonas sees the blog as an extension of the chalk board, where people can visit and get a taste of Scandi’s fun personality and what they’ve got going on.

Remaining on brand, posts often focus on Scandinavian happenings, such as the way new is reported in Denmark:

As well as non-Scandi related content, like ads that feature people who look like they’re …

The Scandinavian Kitchen is located at 61 Great Titchfield Street in London.  If you’re in the area, do  yourself a stop by for a coffee and a hug.

To paraphrase a Mr Adam Ant, c. 1981 (digital) ridicule is nothing to be scared of.  I meet more and more marketing people who seem overwhelmed by the level of change caused by the digital marketing revolution and paranoid about their lack of knowledge.   This is understandable as digital is becoming increasingly complex, hence why there are specialist sectors in all areas from ECRM to search and now social media.

Even as an MD of a digital agency for nearly 10 years, I feel  I am working harder and harder just to keep  abreast of the ongoing change.  This is probably a natural human reaction to our 24/7 society as we all try to get to grips with the real time web.  It is ironic, however, that we all receive more information than at any time in history, but many people still feel that they don’t know enough.

If you are one of those marketing people intimidated by the digital marketing industry, here are my top 10 tips to improve your knowledge and remove that fear…….

1) Try and learn something new every day…..

How do you eat an elephant, as the self-help cliché goes?  One bite at a time.  Pick one subject a week and try to learn something every day.  Make a commitment to spend 10-15 mins per day, learning something new.

2) Use all your senses…

Experiment with the way you receive information.    Of course you can read blogs, trade mags and books but also try podcasts and watch youtube videos and slideshows.

3) Try the real world….

A great way to improve your knowledge of the virtual world is by getting out more in the real world.  Resolve to attend more digital events in 2010 and see expert speakers and attend networking events.

4) Get a digital buddy..

If you work with someone who also feels they need to learn more, buddy up with them, and share what you have both learnt over lunch or coffee once a week.  The best way to ensure you have learnt something is to try to teach someone else.  Recently I heard that Time Warner pairs its most senior executives with young graduates.  It recognises that even the most experienced media professionals struggle to keep up digital innovations, so what better than to learn from the new digital natives within the organisation.

5) Set up or join a group

Set up a digg or tumblr account so that your department or company can start sharing interesting digital news and work.    Join a linkedin or facebook group and connect with people with experts in the areas you want to learn about.

6) Develop your personal Twitter newsfeed

I found Twitter fantastic for listening and learning from some of the brightest and best people in the world (and Jermaine Defoe).

7) Use digital to pursue your passions

If your passion is photography, sport, art, films or train spotting become more active within the relevant digital communities.   Find more groups, participate more in discussions, write a blog post, record a youtube video.  Get involved!

8 ) Ask for training

Ask your company if they will pay for training in any form of digital training.  If they refuse, offer to co-fund it.  Invest in your own future.    Ask if your company could invite specialist guest speakers.  At Skive, clients pay us to train their marketing staff, but very often for prospective clients we initially offer free training sessions.

9) Don’t be afraid to ask silly questions….

If you are with digital people who are using terms that you don’t understand, ask them to explain.  If you don’t know, there is probably someone else in the room who is also baffled.

10) Be excited, be very excited…..

Try and change your feelings from digital dread to a real excitement about learning something new and different.    No one knows it all and we are all learning as we go……

Every couple of weeks, workload permitting, we have a bit of show-and-tell in the Creative Department called Crunch (creative+lunch), which is a chance for the team to share their inspiration as well as thoughts on work across all media, good or bad.

It was interesting to see that amongst the clever experiential campaigns, striking illustration portfolios, inspiring digital interaction and the latest from CP+B, WK or Goodby was some good old fashioned print.

I’ve been an admirer of the recent Dixons print campaign by M&C Saatchi since it launched in September. Few brands attempt long copy ads (I can only remember VW and Ford in the last six months) but I think these are great – a perfect mix of placement, message and media (the London Underground is where I’ve encountered them).

At the heart of the campaign is good planning insight: people increasingly shop for goods online but quite like to see the products in the flesh first (it was predicted that 93% of consumers planned to shop for their Christmas gifts online in 2009 according to eDigital Research). The strapline makes you think twice because it’s seemingly negative: “Dixons.co.uk. The last place you want to go.” Then there’s the creative itself, playfully sending up John Lewis, Selfridges and Harrods, which has naturally incensed the high street giants and generated a bit of healthy PR in the process. And it also shows Dixons know their place – not in our hearts but perhaps in our wallets.

But it’s the Christmas iteration I really like, which was also voiced by David Mitchell for radio. The fonts in the other ads nod to the brands they’re riffing, but this last is more generic and the resulting page is straight from Dickens, replete with odious caricature in Cedric Prattletwerp. Lovely.

I still wouldn’t shop at Dixons.co.uk if you nailed my balls to a chair…