Whether you're a CEO at the top of the food chain or the grunt in public relations, you need to know what's going on with your company, your competition and the trends in your industry. How do you do that? By keeping up with the headlines of most major publications and tracking the actions of your competition to stay two steps ahead (or at least only one step behind) of the rest of your niche.
Because marketing trends are changing constantly in the face of an ever more selective audience, cynical consumerism and what can only be considering an excess of information courtesy of the Internet, companies are working harder than ever to find and take advantage of new marketing opportunities that will allow them more direct access to their niche. The question is, where can industry leaders find this information? Through the industry's online publications, available anywhere in the world 24 hours a day.
To find cutting edge marketing information to use in your own market research, check out these online publications:
DMNews
American Marketing Association
Advertising Age
Marketing Power
AMA Blog
Brandweek
Direct Marketing News
For more information on launching your own marketing campaign, visit us on the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Don't Underestimate the Power of Business Cards
Have you ever gotten really, really annoyed with salespeople who leave their business card everywhere they go? It seems like overkill sometimes when you're handing your name and number out to every Tom, Dick and Harry that come along, with very little discrimination between those people who might actually give you a call and the people who are going to use your business card for a coaster-if you're lucky.
If you're going to be a successful salesman (and, regardless of what type of industry you happen to be in, that's exactly what you are when you're trying to build your customer base) you're going to have to move past that mistaken impression and exploit the true potential of business cards!
What is it that makes business cards such an invaluable tool? Take your pick! Business cards are the perfect resource to grow your customer base. They're reasonably inexpensive to manufacture by the hundreds (Snapfish.com will actually make your first set for you for free!), they're hard for people to say no to and they fit into a pocket or wallet-where they can be forgotten until they're needed again?
How many times has someone casually mentioned something to you in passing only to leave you digging through your wallet looking for the business card of "this guy you talked to last week"? Most people are too polite to decline when you hand them your business card, tucking them away with the intent to either quietly throw them away later, show a friend or (wonder of wonders) actually give you a call for business purposes. Whether they need that information today, tomorrow or twenty years from now, they have it.
And as long as that information's available to them, sooner or later they're going to use it.
Learn more about promoting your business at www.1uptoyou.com.
If you're going to be a successful salesman (and, regardless of what type of industry you happen to be in, that's exactly what you are when you're trying to build your customer base) you're going to have to move past that mistaken impression and exploit the true potential of business cards!
What is it that makes business cards such an invaluable tool? Take your pick! Business cards are the perfect resource to grow your customer base. They're reasonably inexpensive to manufacture by the hundreds (Snapfish.com will actually make your first set for you for free!), they're hard for people to say no to and they fit into a pocket or wallet-where they can be forgotten until they're needed again?
How many times has someone casually mentioned something to you in passing only to leave you digging through your wallet looking for the business card of "this guy you talked to last week"? Most people are too polite to decline when you hand them your business card, tucking them away with the intent to either quietly throw them away later, show a friend or (wonder of wonders) actually give you a call for business purposes. Whether they need that information today, tomorrow or twenty years from now, they have it.
And as long as that information's available to them, sooner or later they're going to use it.
Learn more about promoting your business at www.1uptoyou.com.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Importance of Market Research
When it comes to planning your business, you probably thought it out to the last detail. Tallied your inventory, ran background checks on your employees, staked out the perfect location for your manufacturing and/or retailing needs and posted flyers all over town. But did you remember to do your market research?
Believe it or not, when it comes to promoting your business market research is the most important step you're ever going to take. Why? Because without your market research you're going to be throwing out your advertising dollars like they were candy and you were riding on a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade hoping you get lucky and hit someone who's interested.
The days of mass marketing and universal markets are long gone. Today's consumers have too many choices and too many media outlets to choose from, so without targeting your efforts effectively you're going to be flushing your money down the drain. You need to know:
1) Who you're marketing to.
2) What problem your product is going to solve for them.
3) How much money they have to spend on your product.
4) What age group and/or ethnic group you're marketing to, and what their core values are.
5) Who your competition is.
6) What separates you from your competition.
This is only a small sample of the market information you need to have before you can successfully send your business public, but without it you're not going to be able to reach your target market and your profits are going to suffer. Your market research is vitally important, and whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a marketing team to do it for you it's up to you to make sure that research is done well, and it's done right.
For more information on marketing research, visit us on the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com.
Believe it or not, when it comes to promoting your business market research is the most important step you're ever going to take. Why? Because without your market research you're going to be throwing out your advertising dollars like they were candy and you were riding on a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade hoping you get lucky and hit someone who's interested.
The days of mass marketing and universal markets are long gone. Today's consumers have too many choices and too many media outlets to choose from, so without targeting your efforts effectively you're going to be flushing your money down the drain. You need to know:
1) Who you're marketing to.
2) What problem your product is going to solve for them.
3) How much money they have to spend on your product.
4) What age group and/or ethnic group you're marketing to, and what their core values are.
5) Who your competition is.
6) What separates you from your competition.
This is only a small sample of the market information you need to have before you can successfully send your business public, but without it you're not going to be able to reach your target market and your profits are going to suffer. Your market research is vitally important, and whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a marketing team to do it for you it's up to you to make sure that research is done well, and it's done right.
For more information on marketing research, visit us on the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com.
What is IMC?
If you've been in the marketing world for more than a day you know you're not marketing to your grandmother's generation. Today's consumers are smarter, savvier and more demanding than they've ever been before, and it's up to you as a marketer to make sure you're giving them what they want. More importantly, it's up to you to make sure they know your company can give them what they want, and in today's highly segmented market mass media marketing isn't going to do it. That's why so many firms are shifting their attention from random, individualized advertising to integrated marketing communications.
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) involves drawing together every part of your advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns and tying them up with a bow. It's about branding. It's about presenting a unified front and image of your company to your consumers for them to carry in their minds rather than handing them so many diverse messages that they don't have a clue what you are, much less who you are or what you stand for.
IMC makes sense, but you'd be surprised how long it took many companies to hop on the bandwagon. The problem most businesses run into is that they have different teams controlling different aspects of their campaigns. So their advertising team might have very little to do with their public relations department, who might in turn have almost no communication with market research.
You can see why this is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
Before you do anything, sit down with all of your department heads and draw together the image of the company you want your consumers to have and the image you want to portray, and make sure everyone understands. You're all going to have to work together to promote your company and build the brand, image and loyal consumer base that will keep your profit margins climbing.
To help establish your integrated marketing communications campaign, visit us on the web at www.1uptoyou.com.
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) involves drawing together every part of your advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns and tying them up with a bow. It's about branding. It's about presenting a unified front and image of your company to your consumers for them to carry in their minds rather than handing them so many diverse messages that they don't have a clue what you are, much less who you are or what you stand for.
IMC makes sense, but you'd be surprised how long it took many companies to hop on the bandwagon. The problem most businesses run into is that they have different teams controlling different aspects of their campaigns. So their advertising team might have very little to do with their public relations department, who might in turn have almost no communication with market research.
You can see why this is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.
Before you do anything, sit down with all of your department heads and draw together the image of the company you want your consumers to have and the image you want to portray, and make sure everyone understands. You're all going to have to work together to promote your company and build the brand, image and loyal consumer base that will keep your profit margins climbing.
To help establish your integrated marketing communications campaign, visit us on the web at www.1uptoyou.com.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
AMA Publishes "10 Minutes with Gunilla Broadbent"
Piet Levy of the American Marketing Association recently published an interview with Gunilla Broadbent, president of the ESOMAR Council and GB Global Positioning. See what she has to say about marketing, research, the recession and the future of today's marketers.
Q: How is the international marketing
research world faring in the recession?
A: Every time we’ve had a recession, the
research industry has basically weathered
that pretty well. If you look at research as
a portion of marketers’ budgets, compared
to advertising and other things they do,
it’s very, very minor. But it is extremely
important for the success of their future….
This is the onetime when [clients] really need to make
sure they are on top of things, and that they
have the consumer intelligence they need
to continue to nurture their brands.
Q: What is it about international market
research, specifically, that makes it an
important component of a marketer’s
strategy, even during these tough times?
A: I think the growth opportunities for
both marketers and for research is really
the emerging markets, where we have
continued to see an increase in consumption
and a continued growth in the middle
class populations who have increasing
amounts of money they can spend. Our
[U.S.] market is going to be more stagnant,
and Western Europe as well. There’s going
to be an increased desire and an increased
need to do research in China, India,
Brazil [and] Russia, but also in other
emerging markets.
Q: Your argument is not just for more
marketing research, but also perhaps
different research. In what way?
A: We need to be more sensitive and listen
more to the consumer. We need to not
just ask questions of them or ask questions
to them. We need to engage them in a
conversation, listen to them and understand
what they’re saying. We have to step out
a little bit from that old, very traditional,
rather strict scientific role that we used to
play and just be a little bit more creative and open-minded. You can do qualitative as
well as quantitative to get the two perspectives,
and I think that’s important to
understanding a particular market that
you’re not so familiar with.
Q: Even though you argue that your
industry is traditionally recession-proof,
economic problems are certainly taking
a toll on your clients. How has that
impacted the way you do business?
A: We have to become more creative and
smarter as to how we spend money because
budgets, no doubt about it, are going to be
scrutinized, and in some instances cut. So
we have to figure out a way [to] provide real
insights and real intelligence, perhaps with
a lower price tag. Already, online research is
cheaper than doing face to face or telephone,
so that will continue to increase in
importance. We also, perhaps, have to look
at smaller sample sizes and at spending less
money for each type of research that we
need. It’s up to the researcher to be creative
and innovative in coming up with the best
possible methodologies for the best possible
price. I think there’s going to be a lot of
pressure on us to do that.
Q: Aside from the economy, what are some
other challenges affecting international
marketing research?
A: Less developed markets have in some
instances no self-regulation, no real established
professional standards, and that is
very important for us to continue to
encourage the more developed countries to
actually impose that and help developing
countries to establish that. We, as a market
research industry, frequently have been
criticized that we just deliver numbers and
then we walk away from it, and there’s no
real sense of what the implications are and
what [clients] need to do next. I think it’s
very important for us to listen to our clients
and to make sure we meet their needs. And
therefore, the training of researchers today
is very important. We need to emphasize
more of a role of management consultant
than of a researcher, and that would help to
elevate the whole research profession and to
bring us closer to the boardrooms.
Read the full interview at http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Publications/MarketingNews/2009/43/6/Knowledgebase_10_Minutes_Broadbent.pdf.
For more marketing information and news, visit us at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.
Q: How is the international marketing
research world faring in the recession?
A: Every time we’ve had a recession, the
research industry has basically weathered
that pretty well. If you look at research as
a portion of marketers’ budgets, compared
to advertising and other things they do,
it’s very, very minor. But it is extremely
important for the success of their future….
This is the onetime when [clients] really need to make
sure they are on top of things, and that they
have the consumer intelligence they need
to continue to nurture their brands.
Q: What is it about international market
research, specifically, that makes it an
important component of a marketer’s
strategy, even during these tough times?
A: I think the growth opportunities for
both marketers and for research is really
the emerging markets, where we have
continued to see an increase in consumption
and a continued growth in the middle
class populations who have increasing
amounts of money they can spend. Our
[U.S.] market is going to be more stagnant,
and Western Europe as well. There’s going
to be an increased desire and an increased
need to do research in China, India,
Brazil [and] Russia, but also in other
emerging markets.
Q: Your argument is not just for more
marketing research, but also perhaps
different research. In what way?
A: We need to be more sensitive and listen
more to the consumer. We need to not
just ask questions of them or ask questions
to them. We need to engage them in a
conversation, listen to them and understand
what they’re saying. We have to step out
a little bit from that old, very traditional,
rather strict scientific role that we used to
play and just be a little bit more creative and open-minded. You can do qualitative as
well as quantitative to get the two perspectives,
and I think that’s important to
understanding a particular market that
you’re not so familiar with.
Q: Even though you argue that your
industry is traditionally recession-proof,
economic problems are certainly taking
a toll on your clients. How has that
impacted the way you do business?
A: We have to become more creative and
smarter as to how we spend money because
budgets, no doubt about it, are going to be
scrutinized, and in some instances cut. So
we have to figure out a way [to] provide real
insights and real intelligence, perhaps with
a lower price tag. Already, online research is
cheaper than doing face to face or telephone,
so that will continue to increase in
importance. We also, perhaps, have to look
at smaller sample sizes and at spending less
money for each type of research that we
need. It’s up to the researcher to be creative
and innovative in coming up with the best
possible methodologies for the best possible
price. I think there’s going to be a lot of
pressure on us to do that.
Q: Aside from the economy, what are some
other challenges affecting international
marketing research?
A: Less developed markets have in some
instances no self-regulation, no real established
professional standards, and that is
very important for us to continue to
encourage the more developed countries to
actually impose that and help developing
countries to establish that. We, as a market
research industry, frequently have been
criticized that we just deliver numbers and
then we walk away from it, and there’s no
real sense of what the implications are and
what [clients] need to do next. I think it’s
very important for us to listen to our clients
and to make sure we meet their needs. And
therefore, the training of researchers today
is very important. We need to emphasize
more of a role of management consultant
than of a researcher, and that would help to
elevate the whole research profession and to
bring us closer to the boardrooms.
Read the full interview at http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Publications/MarketingNews/2009/43/6/Knowledgebase_10_Minutes_Broadbent.pdf.
For more marketing information and news, visit us at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.
Designing Your Colored Ads
When they talk about marketing these days it seems like 90% of it is wrapped around the need to launch a strong Internet marketing campaign. But what they don't tell you is that the Internet isn't the end all-be all of the marketing world-or that the same principles you'll use when learning how to make colored ads for newspapers and magazines are going to be the ones that help you shape your Internet marketing efforts.
Why is it important to know the basic principles of designing colored ads? Because you want people to look at them. You want them to pause and, in that split second that makes up the time it takes them to make a decision, decide your ad is worth their time. It's worth it for them to stop and look to see what you have to say.
If you can't catch their attention, you're wasting your time anyway!
Learning the ins and outs of successful colored ads can take years (which is why most advertising agencies have a creative team that don't do anything but!) but here are a few pointers to get you started:
1) Photos work better. It's tempting when we're designing colored ads, especially online, to give in to temptation and use cartoons, drawings or clip-art to make our point; however, studies show that photos invariably snag people's attention faster and leave a more lasting impression than the average cartoon.
2) Leave some blank space. One of the greatest changes ever made in the advertising world took place when advertisers discovered the power of blank space to give their ads impact. Don't overwhelm your readers. If they wanted to be barraged with images they'd be watching television right now!
3) Keep it simple. They don't have to have all the fine print in the first ad. Your ad is designed to make them come looking for information, not overwhelm them with it!
Find out more about boosting your business at www.1uptoyou.com!
Why is it important to know the basic principles of designing colored ads? Because you want people to look at them. You want them to pause and, in that split second that makes up the time it takes them to make a decision, decide your ad is worth their time. It's worth it for them to stop and look to see what you have to say.
If you can't catch their attention, you're wasting your time anyway!
Learning the ins and outs of successful colored ads can take years (which is why most advertising agencies have a creative team that don't do anything but!) but here are a few pointers to get you started:
1) Photos work better. It's tempting when we're designing colored ads, especially online, to give in to temptation and use cartoons, drawings or clip-art to make our point; however, studies show that photos invariably snag people's attention faster and leave a more lasting impression than the average cartoon.
2) Leave some blank space. One of the greatest changes ever made in the advertising world took place when advertisers discovered the power of blank space to give their ads impact. Don't overwhelm your readers. If they wanted to be barraged with images they'd be watching television right now!
3) Keep it simple. They don't have to have all the fine print in the first ad. Your ad is designed to make them come looking for information, not overwhelm them with it!
Find out more about boosting your business at www.1uptoyou.com!
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Benefits of Running a Brick and Mortar Store
With all of the clamor and commotion that's been going on with e-biz and e-tailing consumerism is slowly but surely drawing away from the brick and mortar store. Watch out, all you netrepreneurs out there! As much fun as it may sound to jump on the "dot com" bandwagon and launch a strictly web based e-tail business, there are a number of disadvantages to it that could spell death to your business. Sometimes, a brick and mortar store is by far the better option.
A brick and mortar store is generally a better choice than an e-biz if:
1) You're marketing to a specialized niche in your location.
2) You're marketing consumables. (Bait and groceries don't ship as well as you'd think they would.)
3) You're offering a product that your customers want to touch, taste or scan before they buy. There's a reason why Amazon hasn't completely annihilated the book business and Barnes & Noble is still going strong. People want to flip through their books before they buy them!
4) You're offering a hands-on service. It might be as simple as running an office out of your home, but if you're offering plumbing, HVAC work or anything else that's going to require you to meet with people face to face you're going to want a spot where you can make that happen. Your customers want to know who they're dealing with before they sign that check!
5) You're selling clothing. It doesn't matter how many online clothing retailers there are, nothing beats actually getting to try an outfit on before you buy. After all, it almost never looks the same once you get it off the rack!
You see? Brick and mortar stores aren't completely obsolete in today's digital age. Now it's up to you to choose the option that's right for you.
Discover more info and resources to launch your business at http://www1uptoyou.com.
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