Month: March 2010

I Second That Emotion People Make Buying Decisions Emotionally – So Appeal to Those Emotions with Personal Branding

I Second That Emotion
People Make Buying Decisions Emotionally –
So Appeal to Those Emotions with Personal Branding

4
A classic, oft-told story illustrates the power of emotional marketing. Back in the 1970s, Listerine was the #1 selling mouthwash by a wide margin. To be blunt, it was kicking the butt of Scope, the #2 brand. And no matter what Scope’s manufacturers did, they couldn’t make any headway against Listerine’s respected brand identity.

Then, after years of frustration, they hit on a solution. Two simple words. Two words that catapulted Scope to #1, where it remains today with more than 50% of the mouthwash market.

Those two words? “Medicine breath.” Continue reading I Second That Emotion People Make Buying Decisions Emotionally – So Appeal to Those Emotions with Personal Branding

How to Snuff Your Competition: Take a Cue from California’s anti-smoking marketing campaign

How to Snuff Your Competition
Take a cue from California’s anti-smoking marketing campaign –
and plan to snuff your competitors by using your Personal Brand.

In 1988, the State of California approved the controversial Proposition 99, a 25-cents-per-pack tax increase on cigarette sales. Twenty percent of the tax collected was funneled directly into an anti-tobacco advertising campaign.

Use your Personal Brand to differentiate
Essentially the way that cigarette companies feel about anti-smoking campaigns.

If you lived in or visited California in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, you couldn’t pick up a newspaper, turn on your radio or television, or step outside without bumping into the campaign. The ads personally attacked tobacco executives, showing them laughing at tobacco users and baiting children into smoking. The campaign massively impacted public opinion; statewide, the word “smoker” practically became a slur.

Affecting Perception
Even the most militant smokers had to admit the marketing worked. It was a Trojan Horse against Big Tobacco, leading to more legislation and heightening public discourse. Today, other states – and the World Health Organization – use the same kind of quasi-satirical billboards, commercials, and radio spots.

Looking back, several advertising and marketing analysts have commented that the campaign succeeded not just because of the quality of the response cue in each message, but because of widespread, long-term exposure. Continue reading How to Snuff Your Competition: Take a Cue from California’s anti-smoking marketing campaign

Make This Your Most Profitable Year Ever – Profitability Tips

Profitability TipsIf you’re like a lot of small business owners I’ve talked to since we rang in 2010, you probably sympathize with this statement:

‘Enough with the doom and gloom already. I don’t want to know how awful the economy is, I want to know profitability tips!’

A couple of weeks ago, Anita Campbell tackled that issue with an Intuit Community webinar titled, ‘Make 2010 Your Most Profitable Year Ever.’

Anita started the webinar with a couple of poll questions, which elicited the information that a surprisingly high 71% of participants didn’t know what their customer acquisition costs are. From the second question, we learned that most business owners either know who their most profitable customers are (50%) or they have a general sense but aren’t 100% sure (43%).

Birol used the poll results to launch into a discussion of how to analyze your customers in order to maximize profits. Here are the top profitability tips for the coming year: Continue reading Make This Your Most Profitable Year Ever – Profitability Tips

8 Tips for Hiring a Social Media Expert

8 Tips for Hiring a Social Media Expert

Because it is meant to look fun, putting together a social media campaign – or integrating one into a larger online initiative – can be surprisingly difficult. There are many challenges to capturing and engaging user interests online – starting with finding the right person to lead that effort, says Andrew Ballenthin, president of Sol Solutions. That point was driven home last December when Ballenthin put together Blog-Off II, a 12-day, seven-judge contest to test participants’ qualitative and quantitative effectiveness in social media marketing fundamentals and tips for hiring a social media expert.

tips for hiring a social media expert.
We all want it to go faster, but sometimes you need an expert to get your there.

According to Ballenthin, the tips for hiring a social media expert that he recommends are:

1. A significant business and communications background – preferably a minimum of 3 to 5 years in marketing, journalism or media. “This forms a foundation for understanding effective communication strategies and implementation.”

2. A history of success in their communications background. “You wouldn’t let a mechanic work from a text book or just on their own car before they safety your car.” Look for someone who has proven repeatedly he or she can deliver expectations for program results that have real business value.

3. A series of measureable accomplishments in social media that can be independently validated. “Having ten thousand followers on Twitter means you learned once how to create this achievement but an expert is someone who has achieve above average accomplishments several times.” Continue reading 8 Tips for Hiring a Social Media Expert

Building a Practice on Personality and Performance

Building a Practice on Personality and Performance
Personal marketing and custom services—a powerful combination

The common model for building a practice is hardly individualized. Typical is the consultant using template brochures and business cards provided by an online service or company. Marketing efforts are often minimal, since there’s little incentive to build relationships with clients who see the advisor as identical to the rest of the pack. This route provides an income but little more.
search_campaigns
However, a growing group of leaders are cultivating business from other professionals in similar and non-competitive industries.

Consultants who employ this business model do so because it offers unique benefits that go largely untapped by their competition: Continue reading Building a Practice on Personality and Performance

Does Your SMB Do These 8 Things? 8 Things for Small Business Success

I spend a lot of time talking to small business owners and startups. It’s something I enjoy doing because I like hearing their stories, their successes and the struggles that they’re facing. Often it’s nice to know you’re not the only one going through something and to have a chance to commiserate. I work out of my apartment. Through talking with people, I’ve found there are often common factors in the startups and businesses that do well compared to those that struggle. So I decided to post the 8 things small businesses need to do to have small business success.

Here are some things I think small business owners should strive to do or remember when working in their business. Continue reading Does Your SMB Do These 8 Things? 8 Things for Small Business Success

Market, Market, Market – The most visible brand wins

Market, Market, Market
The most visible brand wins – so market all-out

Chocolat was a fine film: a highly lauded comedy-drama with a great cast, the story of a nonconformist in 1960s France who opens a chocolate shop before Lent. After watching Chocolat, I remember being astounded that I hadn’t heard more about it. It has great cinematography, brilliant characters, and a well-crafted, substantive story. It should have been the #1 movie in America – but for lack of marketing clout. Continue reading Market, Market, Market – The most visible brand wins

Co-Branding: It’s Not Always a Bad Idea

Co-Branding
An example of how NOT to brand

If you’ve read any of the works of Al Ries & Jack Trout (Positioning, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing) you know they are vehemently opposed to the idea of “co-branding.” Their philosophy is that “a brand is a brand is a brand,” meaning that any brand can only have one name, one product or company behind it, and occupy only one place in the mind. According to Ries & Trout, co-branding violates this principle by attaching two brand names to one product or service.

My views on co-branding are a bit more practical. Simply said, under the right circumstances, co-branding is necessary, even beneficial. Co-branding occurs when two different entities mutually label a product, service or company.

Some examples: Continue reading Co-Branding: It’s Not Always a Bad Idea