Thoughts on Advertising III
This is a continuation of the "on advertising notes" that I created, it is an accumulation of my own and influenced thoughts regarding advertising; part 3. Part 2 can be found here. • • • No advertising campaign should be launched to change consumer habits. It is usually costly and unprofitable. Advertising should be used to promote already established habits of society. - A thousand dollars of effective advertising can do more than ten thousand dollars of ineffective advertising. - The essence of testing in ads is to find out what is wanted and what is not wanted by [...]
What You Should Know About Marketing?
Do you need marketing? "The spider looks for a merchant who doesn't advertise so he can spin a web across his door and lead a life of undisturbed peace!" - Mark Twain Can a business run without marketing activities? What are the marketing activities? Marketing activities help a business sell their products through: branding, social media, advertising, public relations, SEO, email etc. I am just covering the most commonly used mediums. Anything that helps a company sell more (now or in the future) can be considered "marketing". Knocking on 100 doors a day to sell your brand new educational [...]
The Power
Multi-purpose vs one purpose What is the difference between a hammer and a swiss-army knife? Let’s say that you want to fix up something in your house, or maybe you want to DIY a cabinet. What do you use? You will probably find a hammer. A hammer doesn’t do much. It’s not supposed to do much. But it’s one powerful tool if you wish to drive nails into a hard surface. It is built for one function, and its the best at doing that. Now let’s compare it with a swiss-army knife. A swiss-army knife is a lot of [...]
Advertising Cause and Effect
An old fable, in ancient Greece A traveler once met an old man on the road and asked him how to get to Mount Olympus. The old man, studied the traveler carefully and replied by saying, "If you really want to get to Mount Olympus, just make sure that every step you take is in that direction." This old man happened to be Socrates. In the moral of this story we know that to reach a destination, you must sacrifice all other possibilities. I happen to learn that most successful businesses are sacrificers in their market. Every advertising campaign [...]
The Differentiator
Differentiation to succeed The ultimatum of a brand strategy lies in its ability to differentiate itself in the market. Being better is not enough, you need to be different. The leader must always keep this in mind; not to chase the market by constantly one-upping your competitors but to run from them. Cultivating an air of uniqueness and new leadership. Whatever a business sells and makes its money on, it must be made known that all goods and services can be differentiated from your competition. And it is up to the imagination of the business leader or, marketing person. [...]
How To Write Clearly
If it is for everybody, it is for nobody Most businesses today are trying to say too much. They are busy telling customers everything good about their product, hoping to gain a favorable response. And what happens? The customer responds “Yeah yeah everyone says that.” Let’s take an example of a staple goods producer, let’s say Brand X makes breakfast cereals. So what does Brand X do to get as many customers they can? They market everything good about their cereals. The list usually goes like this: “It’s gluten-free.” “It’s rich in fiber.” “It is a good source of [...]
Marketing Smoke and Dust
Jargon words doesn't sell Businesses should stop blowing smoke into our faces. The sole purpose of advertising is to sell. Not to amuse, entertain or flatter ourselves. How many marketing people have you seen producing ads like “Feel the joy of living.” “Taste of the heavens.” “Things go better with X.” “Thirst stops here” “For pure pleasure! It’s perfection!” All this ad copy doesn’t change how users perceive your product. It’s purely product puffery and doesn’t reflect at all how the market sees it as. It is out of touch with reality. It is waste of marketing dollars. And [...]
How To Beat Your Competitors With Marketing Imagination
Energy cannot be created or destroyed The universe is made out of atoms and energy. For there to be life there must be energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Only transferred from one form to another. This is the fundamental law of physics. All life in this universe must adhere to it. Nobody can be exempted. Everything is a constant transformation and nothing is being “created”. For you to survive, you will need to consume food (energy) from beasts. Then with energy, you convert it to do useful things. For any businesses to survive and thrive, the same [...]
A Note on Brand Reputation Management
Why are SEO specialists talking about Online Reputation Management (ORM in short) and what does it mean when they provide this “service”. In this post I shall help explain and dispel some common misconceptions. As a client, what are you getting when engaging ORM with a SEO agency? Could it be nothing but a bigger bill at the end of your month? Let me break it down. Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a practice to protect a company’s reputation in the event of negative press and publicity your company receives online. In Wikipedia, it’s defined as “the influencing and [...]
How To Develop a Brand For Your Business
A strong brand has leverage A powerful brand is something that people commonly substitute it as a noun. Its name stands for something for millions of people. It is no longer just a generic product, it has been hyper-augmented and can stand on its own. It is the most powerful thing that can happen to a brand. It is indeed the final level of marketing. “I’m heading to the 7/11 to buy some bread.” “Let me Google this” “This is a black iPhone.” “Pass me the Kleenex.” A powerful brand is a word that is widely remembered and likely [...]
