What We Can Learn From Pepsi
For over 20 years, Pepsi bought TV commercials during the Super Bowl. This year they are abandoning it and reinvesting the $3 Million or so per commercial they’ll be saving in various online initiatives. This is important for several reasons. For one thing, Pepsi is a huge company. It’s not like they have to choose between the TV ads and the online projects – they can easily afford to do both. By choosing to drop a strategy that’s... [Read More...]
What’s the Difference Between an Advertising Agency and a Marketing Consultant?
The simplest way to explain it is this: Advertising Agencies create ads. Marketing consultants help you determine what and how to advertise in the first place. They also help you with other marketing issues such as pricing strategy, sales training, customer retention, referral programs, joint ventures, product development, database strategy and everything else involved in selling products to customers. Many people instinctively believe that advertising... [Read More...]
Social Media ROI
Yesterday I wrote a post on taking action. The point was that it is very easy to get caught up in endless discussions about how and why to execute a new marketing strategy instead of just doing it. Of course you want to make informed decisions but in many cases deliberation is the enemy of progress. Social media tools are new but the concept is as old as marketing itself. It’s nothing more than good old-fashioned networking amplified by Internet... [Read More...]
Taking Action
Over and over I’ve heard the old adage that knowledge is power. It’s a philosophy that has served me well. I am that guy that is constantly listening to educational CD’s and news programming in the car. And if I’m not meeting a client for lunch you can bet that I will be sitting alone somewhere reading a book or magazine on business, marketing or technology. One of my biggest pet peeves is being stranded somewhere i.e. an airport, restaurant,... [Read More...]
Competition
Lots of other companies provide the same product or service that your company does. Many of them have been doing it longer than you. Many of them have more extensive resources than you: More people. More money. More customers. More clout. This keeps a lot of businesses (and people) from stretching. It’s intimidating to survey the landscape and see a wall of giants. You have a hard time imagining how your business could possibly compete. Marketing... [Read More...]
Everybody’s a Marketing Consultant
Sometimes job titles become so commonplace and broad that they lose their effectiveness for identifying the exact nature of the position. The term “marketing consultant” has definitely reached this level of ubiquity. Anyone can call themselves a marketing consultant. There are no educational requirements, governing boards, professional designations, or other bonafide prerequisites that must be met to hang out a shingle and start advising... [Read More...]
Become a Part of the Process
Some products are designed to be bought on impulse – chewing gum, magazines, and keychain flashlights for instance. But unless your product or service is an inexpensive commodity available at the checkout counter of your local convenience store, your customer’s buying process is probably a little more complex. Most people do some research before they buy. They look on the internet, read product reviews, scan catalogs or brochures,... [Read More...]
Change
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Marketing a business is not about tactics. If you simply look around at what your competitors are doing and then try to do the same things, only better, you’re going to keep struggling. Chances are, most of your competitors are doing the same thing you are – looking around the marketplace trying to find the right combination of... [Read More...]
Capture and Conversion
The difference between successful marketing campaigns and those that fail often comes down to how comprehensive the strategy is. If you tend to think solely in terms of tactics, it’s easy to fall short on execution. Marketing is a process that builds and reinforces relationships over time. Much of the disappointment business owners endure trying to generate a return on marketing investments comes from an over-emphasis on finding that one magic... [Read More...]
Digital Insight
Razorfish recently released their 2009 Digital Outlook Report. It’s 180 pages long but well worth the read as it provides some great insight into current trends in digital marketing. You can view/download the whole thing here. If you have a short attention span there’s a nice summary here. Enjoy! Read More →