With the beginning of a new year I thought it timely to suggest my top five marketing New Year resolutions for 2009. 1. ROI, ROI, ROI! There may be some great sounding marketing tools coming out this year, just remember that the only thing that matters with a marketing campaign is that you make more money than you spend! 2. Stay true to your brand’s mission. Do you remember the reason you launched your company? Return to your roots and your clients / customers will thank you for it. 3. Create Raving Fans out of your customers. This can be accomplished by obsessively executing on what advertise. 4. Work ON your business instead of IN your business. It’s easy to get caught up in the fast to day issues of your company. However to truly develop your business into a thriving organization you will have to develop looking term strategies that fuel innovation and growth. 5. Always remember to not sweat the small stuff, and then remind yourself that it’s all small stuff.

A phrase I hear countless companies say in regard to advertising is, “I know I am wasting half of my marketing budget, the problem is that I don’t know which half!” This is a common dilemma that is directly related to where, when and how you are distributing your brand. A research report was just released by Advertising Age that revealed that the automotive industry would be much better served by transitioning away from television towards radio. This case study is key in understanding domain expertise. If automakers migrate away from television to radio they could be able to dramatically cut their collective marketing budgets while still hitting their target audience; thus increasing their advertising ROI. If you feel that your marketing dollars are being wasted on the wrong mediums, don’t get frustrated… GET FOCUSED!

Let me introduce you to your best friend and sometimes worst enemy: social media marketing. You have heard the success stories of companies driving powerful consumer awareness via a viral video on Youtube or attaining expert credentials through relevant blog postings. However I want to talk about what happens when social media marketing gets ugly. If you purchase advertisements through an online ad network, there is a strong possibility that you do not know where your brand its being displayed. This has two negative components: Your business could be placed next to brand harming content, Your banner ads could be simply filling in remnant inventory, which means you are practically guaranteed to lose your return on marketing investment. So what can you do to protect your brand’s reputation in the marketplace? Focus first and foremost on where your ads will be shown. This is where traditional advertising had it right. Companies paid based on placement, not solely on impressions. Secondly, experiment and choose innovative advertising mechanisms. If your marketing strategy has little to no risk, then you will produce little to no results. Good examples of fresh advertising placements are: Sponsored blog posts, Video advertising, Mobile marketing Social media marketing can be your best friend, but only if you have a well thought out plan and clear objectives.

The most common question I’m asked by clients is: where should I be marketing my business to drive results? The funny thing is that the answer is never the same for that particular question. Your tactical advertising plan needs to be in line with your product strong suits. A good rule of thumb is: If your advertisements are annoying to their audience, they are being distributed on the wrong medium. For example, if you are running social networking ads that constantly get complaints, you probably shouldn’t be placing your banner ads on sites like Facebook or Myspace. Every business has its sweet spot, the key is being able to recognize how to become ‘disruptive’ without becoming annoying. Let’s compare two ‘disruptive’ advertising mechanisms: Product Samples vs. Internet Pop Ups. Both of these marketing tools ‘disrupt’ the user experience, the key difference is that giving away product samples help to establish brand loyalty while pop up ads simply annoy viewers and many times drive them to competing companies. Every business sector has a specific medium in which their advertisements should be placed, below are some of the best pairings I’ve witnessed with clients: Car Dealerships - Newspaper and TV Legal Counsel - Yellowpages Consumer Electronics - Search Engine Marketing Movie Studios - Online Video Pre-Roll Commercials Business to Business Enterprises - Blogging So remember to keep on disrupting your audience (it’s the only way to get their attention), however make sure that you are building strong and positive relationships with consumers as opposed to simply throwing an ad in front of their face.

Ahh, the holiday season is here. From the exuberant packed malls of ‘Black Friday’ to the hopefulness of New Years, this is traditionally the best time of year for brands and retailers. However the current market uncertainty has frightened the everyday consumer, and scared shoppers are frugal individuals indeed. Essentially every major research agency is projecting the worst retail season in years, and these reports will most likely come to fruition. So am I saying to pack it in? Of course not. Even though the season may offer several obstacles not seen in previous years, there is still plenty of opportunity for brands to emerge victorious over the next thirty days. Below are my three tips for having a successful holiday marketing campaign: Take a lesson in logic and live by Ocam’s Razor, which states that the simplest answer to a problem is usually the best option. In other words, do not try to take drastic branding action over the Holidays in order to drive consumer awareness. When considering where and how your advertisements will be shown, live by the phrase: keep it simple stupid. If you have an established presence in the marketplace, continue to build deeper relationships with preexisting clients. Strong market research has shown that it is ten times as expensive to capture a new customer as to retain a previous client. So RIGHT NOW is the time to start hitting your email list, you very well may have a goldmine at your disposal of new sales from old clients. Cut all unnecessary spending and reevaluate all existing vendor relationships. You may be paying four services that have cheap of even free alternatives. A good example of this principle in action is CRM software. I have worked with organizations that pay thousands of dollars on services like Salesforce when web applications such as Zoho are completely free for small businesses and extremely cost effective for large enterprises. It may not be easy, but if you stay smart this Holiday season your business can still flourish.

I have previously discussed how important it is for a brand to strive to be different from its competition, not simply “better”. And I just reviewed a case study this morning that bolstered my belief in this principle. The perspective came from Jim Stengel, the former marketing head of Procter and Gamble, when he spoke at the Association of National Advertisers this past month. In his exhortation Stengel described how P&G’s Old Spice product had been stagnant for years, and had been consistently been losing market share to Axe for years. But Old Spice has recently made a strong surge and has been robbing consumers from Axe like never before. So what h has Old Spice done to trigger the momentum shift? Stengel says the keys to success were two actions: Deep introspection, Switching ad agencies And what did P&G discover when they analyzed their brand? They realized they had no true market image, Old Spice needed a new image. Unless you have been hiding under a rock you have seen the result of Old Spice’s evolution. I have placed an image from one of their latest commercials, Old Spice has successfully become the “older brother”of American males 14-25. This strategy and brand positioning has reborn the Old Spice product, and most importantly translated into market share ownership for Old Spice. So if you are looking to take market share from a competitor, do not look outside for your solution, take a page from the Procter and Gamble playbook, and look inside.

I am sitting at a hipster themed coffee shop at the moment writing this post, and one question is dominating my thoughts: What makes a brand have the “cool” factor? The answer is that there are many ways to make a product or brand “cool”, the secret sauce is maintaining a laser focus on your objectives. Know thyself, know thy audience You can ask any marketing executive, “Cool” is a fickle and many times a cruel master. What I have discovered is that the top prerequisite for a brand establishing a sleek public image is to fully understand its target audience. Let us take the case study of Apple and the iPhone. The iPhone has undoubtedly set the precedent for the “cool” factor as it relates to technology. It has achieved international mass market appeal and revolutionized the mobile industry. From day one Apple marketed the iPhone as the first mobile phone that had the full suite of features previously only available on traditional computers. But the best marketing campaign in the world will not create the “cool” factor by itself, it takes a solid product offering. And the iPhone delivered (and then some). The device gave consumers: - An unbelievable user experience - Innovative hardware performance (touchscreen, Wii- like controls, etc.) - Infinite functionally possibilities (the app store) Also, Apple has successfully created an entire ecosystem that did not exist only a few short years ago with users, developers and advertisers seamlessly interacting together. And it is the combination of all these factors that create the “cool” factor for products. Put simply, the secret sauce of effective brand marketing is to never lose sight of type audience. If you can successfully maintain your focus on the pulse of your target consumer, you will consistently achieve the “cool” factor.

There has been an ongoing debate for the past decade regarding which marketing medium provided advertisers with the best return on investment: traditional vs. Digital. Traditional media buying would include: television, radio, newspaper, et al. Digital marketing includes: search engine marketing, banner ads, rich media and the newcomer streaming media. The truth of the matter is that I’ve seen both mechanism generate great and terrible results, it’s my experience that everything boils down to execution ultimately. However I want to briefly discuss each option. Traditional Media Traditional marketing has been around for ages and is thus a well established marketing machine. It has been attacked lately with the advent of TiVo and Satellite radio, however it remains a bastion of brand safe advertising distribution. There is very little fraud in traditional media, which enables a fairly worry free environment for clients. With the positives in mind it is also important to understand the drawbacks: 1. Archaic analytic reporting; 2. High level of risk; 3. Lack of control. 4. It is cost prohibitive for small businesses. Digital Marketing Digital, or online, advertising has been the fastest growing industry in the past decade and has birthed global corporate giants like Google and Yahoo! It addresses many of the negatives of traditional marketing, such as: 1. Full analytics reporting, you know exactly when and where your ads have been displayed. 2. With performance based campaigns, there is little to no risk at stake. 3. You have full control over the campaign. 4. Companies of any size can advertise online, due to little to no minimum advertising buys. It may sound like I am one sided in this debate, and it is true, I believe very strongly in the power of digital marketing; however it is also paramount to remember that the key to a successful marketing campaign is matching the right message to the right audience. Contact us and we can help create a marketing plan that matches your needs.