January 27, 2010 How Best to Impact the Success of your Brand? Is it advertising? Spending thousands, tens, even hundreds of thousands on radio, television, billboards, and magazines? All that money for art directors, media buyers, and lots of time spent on decisions about commercials, photography, and graphics. Lots and lots of lead time from concept to completion. And then, you are paying for thousands of eyeballs that probably don’t even buy what you are selling! Maybe it is social media? Learning all kinds of new terminology and software applications, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, My Space, Google Adwords, etc. Trying to figure out how to get your message out, how to measure…
June 17, 2009 PERCEPTION IS THE NEW REALITY Did you know that almost half of U.S. adults believe that reduced or no advertising from retail stores, banks or auto dealerships during a recession is an indication that the business must be struggling? Let’s digest that for a moment…if you cut back on your advertising now, the impression you are giving to your clients and potential customers is that your business is hurting. Is THAT what you want to project? You might be inadvertently scaring your customers away! People don’t want to give work to companies that might not be around…what if there is a problem with the product…
April 3, 2009 Marketing Budgets: Cut and Regret…or Increase and Rejoice! Have you been ordered to cut your budget? Duh! Who hasn’t? Examining line item costs is always a good practice in any economy. But, when you get to your Marketing budget, BEWARE! Before you go slashing through that, remember the difference between trimming FAT and cutting into MUSCLE. In a soft economy, your competitors are cutting back on their marketing, so NOW IS THE TIME TO BEEF UP YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS, NOT DECREASE THEM! According to Forbes Magazine, “research shows that companies that consistently advertise even during recessions perform better in the long run.” In fact, “companies that…
