Tag Archives: marketing

• Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

  Marketing Examples for the Taking

  Marketing can be a lonely enterprise. Sure, at first it’s fun to know you have a hand, or maybe an entire arm, in fashioning a message for your product or client, but soon enough the marketer is confronted with the “down in the weeds” decisions over medium (print, TV, Web?), message, cost, and reach (who do we want to see this?). One advantage marketers have is that good and poor examples of marketing abound. You’re throwing them away with the junk mail. You’re flipping around them on TV. You’re buzzing by them on the radio. You’re failing to take notice of them on the Internet. Why? Do they lack impact? Are they merely annoying (see: Geico lizard) or are they downright insulting (beer ads)? What …

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• Saturday, January 5th, 2013

  B2B, B2C, or Both?

  Every marketer may dream of writing or producing or executing an ad that takes consumers and your market by storm, but one can argue that marketing to other industry professionals–what one would call business to business marketing–can be just as lucrative, and infinitely more sensible. For one thing, businesses–unlike consumers– are always buying expensive things and some corporations have personnel dedicated to buying products. For another, you should be able to identify with some certainty potential customers. It might be as easy as pulling out an industry directory, or attending a major trade show, such as the Consumer Electronics Show. Your B2B customers will be much more knowledgable about the product area than we could expect from consumers: they will want to know about the …

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• Tuesday, December 25th, 2012

  Marketing With a KISS

  If you’re a marketer, most likely you’re using a Website to promote and market your products. You want to have all the latest bells and whistles on your site, but you don’t want to drive people away, because let‘s face it, when it comes to the Web you already forgotten more than some people will ever know. All Websites are different, some serve different purposes than others, and the subject matter may dictate how much–or how little–”style” a Website needs. All that aside, KISS. Which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Of course, we’re not referring to anyone reading this as stupid, it’s just a colloquialism, if you will. It’s understandable that one would want as much “stuff” on the Website page as possible. After …

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• Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

  It’s So Old, It’s New

  One of the best songs ever written about marketing–and really how many are there?–is “Step Right Up,” by the gravelly voiced singer Tom Waits. In about five minutes, Waits hits every sales cliche known to mankind, including the need for change, “Change your shorts, change your life, change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy, get rid of your wife….” But it’s a truism that a reliable way to get consumers interested in your product is to claim it’s new. If it’s new, there’s nothing wrong with it (so far). In our fast-paced age, there are the instances of the new pharmaceutical product that cures the common headache, and then a few months later, there are the lawsuit commercials asking, “Did you take Vioxx?” But, by and …

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• Friday, December 14th, 2012

  California Pens Will Make You Happy

  Nothing Too Small The world is full of promotional products but some of them are really a waste of time and money.  They are either too tiny or they have no use and if a giveaway is not useful to someone then it will not be useful to your company for marketing. When it’s Free All people love to get gifts and goodies, and most people view promotional products as gifts; they don’t even realize that it is a marketing plan.  One of the classiest and comfortable promotional products is the California pen. These pens are the easiest, simplest product to giveaway for promotion of your business name and services. Every person on earth can use another pen; we all have a little place in …

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• Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

  4 Ways to Join the In Crowd with Lanyards

  Marketers looking for the next big thing in promotional Item might want to consider the humble lanyard. Journalists, event attenders, and trade show presenters are among the core lanyard-wearing population. Veteran attendees have been known to collect their lanyards, and turn them into a mosaic. Sporting a lanyard makes one a member of the “in crowd,” however briefly, so marketers would be advised to wonder what else the can do with not-so-humble lanyard. Give the lanyard value. The lanyard should be viewed as an advertising opportunity. If the lanyard is for a resort, perhaps having a restaurant offer a free appetizer when presenting the lanyard will give it value past the event. Make the lanyard unique. Alternatively, the lanyard could be stamped with one of …

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• Friday, November 23rd, 2012

  All in for Cause Marketing

  According to a recent survey, 83 percent of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about. The Cone Cause Evolution Study also indicates 88 percent of Americans say it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing, 85 percent of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about, and 90 percent of consumers want companies to tell them the ways they are supporting causes. The survey also found that consumers will even switch products based on cause marketing. Eighty percent of Americans are likely to switch brands, about equal in price and quality, to one that supports a …

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• Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

  PR, Advertising, or Both?

  A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work as a communications director for a political campaign. If you’ve ever worked on a political campaign, it will be apparent right away that your campaign co-workers believe that “communications director” is the glamour job. It’s certainly more glamorous than fundraising, organizing neighborhood canvassing teams, or combing through thousands registration forms to find out where the campaign should be canvassing. In fact, the people who have these other jobs are so taken with the communications post that it will not be surprising to find they too are marketing experts. Communications directors stand to get the blame for low turnout at press conferences, poor fundraising (“If only we had better press.”), and a bad candidate. The kicker? …

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• Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

  Warm Up With a Promotional Jacket

  Check Out Marketing with Promotional Products When you are looking for the next great thing to promote your business, don’t hesitate to use some promotional items.  They are tried and true out there in the business world and they will be of great use to you and your company.  You need to take a look around and find the best items to suit your marketing plan. Luxury or Reasonable Items Many of the promotional items you will find are small and reasonably priced, very useful in all types of settings and with all types of businesses.  Products such as pens, mouse pads and magnets are proven to help spread the word about your business, so you should take a careful look at them.  However, there …

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• Saturday, October 13th, 2012

  Hold On To Promotional Water Bottles!

  What’s Your Marketing Plan? In your quest for strong marketing techniques there should always be an open option for promotional products.  They all have their pros and cons but in general, they are all good depending on the client or situation you are working on.  You just have to take a look at what you need the most or what your clients might need. Discover the Quality When you narrow down your pool of contenders then you definitely want to order some samples of each product.  This will go a long way to help you make good decisions about which promotional item to order.  These will be free gifts for your clients so they need to be high quality or they will be tossed.   …

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