Dale Hefer, founder of the Chillibush Group of Companies, opened this year’s Rhodes Investec Business School (RIBS) Think!Fest contribution at the National Arts Festival by presenting her ideas on “Sustainable Marketing” under the banner of ‘Leadership for Sustainability’.
It soon, through her simple yet insightful marketing advice, became clear to the audience why she was a finalist for businesswoman of the year in 2002, a finalist of the Ernst & Young Global Emerging Entrepreneur Award in 2007, the Gauteng Businesswoman of the Year in 2008 and a finalist in the Top Women in Business and Government Awards in 2009.
Hefer kept her audience engaged and entertained, and even asking for more, right until she left the room. She started by defining ‘sustainable’ as being “capable of being maintained on a steady level”. She then continued to go through the contributing factors to achieve sustainable marketing.
Her first pointer was to set goals. She believes that business cannot go on blindly – the business owner needs to know where the business is headed and what you are trying to achieve. These goals also have to tie into the company’s bigger picture and of course, be realistic.
Hefer firmly believes in measuring results. You need to know where your business is now and how your monthly marketing results measure up from now and each month thereafter. She went on to explain that once you have set your goals, you need to benchmark your marketing results against your goals and then adapt your goals accordingly.
Although she does say you need to make sure you have fun at work you must always be wise – especially when it comes to budgets. “Don’t spend for the sake of spending” said Hefer before telling the audience about a company that blew their entire budget on printing a well-known newspaper in bright pink simply because that was their corporate colour. They didn’t get much return from it and were left with no more advertising money for the rest of the year.
She then went on to say that one of the most important things every company must do is correctly identify their target market. You can’t communicate to your clients effectively if you don’t know who they really are. Hefer said, “You need to look at your existing clients, category users and even your competitors. You need to understand who you are talking to.”
As she came to the end of her presentation Hefer emphasised that, “Public relations and social media are important components of a marketing strategy – they should not be forgotten.” And her last bit of advice was to, “Always keep advertising honest and make sure your adverting always has one key insight”.
Dale Hefer started her company in 1998 as a one woman show. Operating from a rented garage and using her boyfriend’s computer and money given to her by her sister as start up capital. Hefer soon grew the business to the R1m mark. Today she employs a team of more than 40 with projected earnings of R70-R80m. As founder of the Chillibush Group of Companies, she has grown the company to comprise under the Chillibush name, Advertising and Design, Investor Relations, Public Relations and Events. Her company was voted a top-three small agency by the Financial Mail in 2004 and by Finweek in 2006. Hefer, and is the author of the bestselling “From Witblits to Vuvuzelas: Marketing in the New South Africa”.