08/07/2010

a marketing lesson from the TV series The Apprentice

Advertising and marketing are creative disciplines. This is one reason why I, a part of the marketing industry love. Find creative solutions for clients to sell their products and services is a great way to earn an income. Apart from that, I must also say that too often I see marketers go too far.

In my opinion it is quite possible to be creative for your own good. What do I mean? I've put a very public example.

My example comes from the reality TV show "The Apprentice". Okay, so I'll admit, I love this show. I'm not much of a reality TV fan, but there is just something about these teams on business challenges week after week that the intrigues and amuses me.

They are often given the marketing tasks on the map. Let's face it, marketing is one of the most important tasks you will ever have in the economy. If you do it right, your company will more than likely do well. If you do not properly market your business is in difficulty.

In a recent episode of "The Apprentice" The mission was a TV commercial for Dove Body Wash Making The teams were instructed to work with an "out of the box" 30-second spot to promote a product. The result?

Both teams waste created! I think some may argue they certainly think, "show out of the box, and both teams to try what they did, but ultimately failed miserably in its job number one: the product to sell!

And that's what I think many marketers who are trying so creatively done. They lose sight of the fact that their job is to provide a product or service to sell. This effective your marketing in one word: irrelevant.

You can be as smart or creative as you want, but in the end, if your marketing is not relevant to the product and for those who are most likely to buy, you will be missed.

Look, I realize, we must be creative in getting our attention from the public record. Finally, we try to cut in a sea of marketing clutter. I just want more marketers are trying harder to connect with their audience against them simply to entertain.

Heck, I sometimes wonder if marketers know who their audience. This was certainly the game with two teams in The Apprentice Dove Body Wash men in their commercials. Come on, it should not make much sense to recognize this product for women! But because they are so smart to be concentrated, they lost sight of this very simple fact.

If I can leave with one thought, is this: Determine your audience and know, and then wants to directly connect with them in the conversation with them all in their heads about your product or service.

If you can do this, you will be catching their attention and effectively sell your product or service.

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The idea is to "investment objects" that with "excess intrinsic value endowed" with the recognition of profit where others do not, let us imagine in a position to access and portable invisible stored value into profit, which we pyramid and to connect quickly identify fortune.

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06/07/2010

Business Branding Strategies and Tips

Employing proper business branding strategies could spell the success for your business. Although it might be an intangible aspect of your business, it is basically what convinces people to buy or avail of your products or services. And when you garner enough sales, then only then can your business thrive.

What is a Branding Strategy?

A brand is not just a logo or a name, it represents your business identity. Therefore, it is a crucial part of the startup process for any business. Branding strategies are employed to provide the fundamental steps and recognize the valuable tools that will help create a strong business brand. In general terms, a strong brand is one that people recognize and believe to deliver good quality. Have you ever found yourself at the grocery choosing one product over the other because it is the more recognized or trusted brand?

It is therefore a branding strategy's objective to recognize what could turn your business into a trusted brand name. How can you make people trust your brand and its reputation? What should you do to communicate the objective and mission of your company? What is the message you are trying to send out to produce loyal customers? A sound business branding strategy will aim to find answers to these questions before you can establish a brand for your company that would excel in the market.

Create Name, Logo, or Website

Coming up with a name for your business goes hand in hand with creating a logo that will identify your company. When it comes to logos, always opt for something unique. Logos will be utilized in your advertising and marketing campaigns, so it must be well-recognized.

For beginners, think of a logo that will readily hint consumers about the nature of your business – such as whether you are in the food, automotive, or telecommunications business. Hence, choose images that are associated with the nature of your business and the products they will be used to represent.

Slogan or Tagline

Once you have the logo that you want, you can think of a slogan that will reinforce the message you are trying to communicate to the consumers. As long as you keep this part brief and straightforward, then this can be an effective branding tool for your business. This tagline will serve as an additional touch to the main message you are trying to give, thus giving you an edge over your competitors and highlighting the unique experience or service that consumers will be able to avail of.

One advantage that you can get with including a tagline is that it is not permanent, unlike the logo. Therefore, if your company wishes to employ a new marketing strategy, you can readily change your tagline to highlight this new marketing ploy. A tagline then opens up several opportunities to expand your marketing campaigns, as compared to the static nature of company logos because they are the ones more difficult to establish.

Colors and Images

As with logos, colors and images can be used to establish the identity of your business. Colors depict a corresponding set of emotions as well. Therefore, you need to carefully pick out exactly what type of color you are going to use in your logo in accordance with the image and personality of your business. Try to conduct a little bit of research about the different qualities of color types so you can determine exactly what best to use for your company.

Unique Services

When communicating your company brand into the market, highlight the services that only you can offer. If you can guarantee a service that none of your competition can, then you create an edge on your customers over the same businesses. Then, you can use that as a chief marketing strategy to draw more people into your business. An example of this would be a time guarantee on your delivery services, if you're in the food business.

Learning how to effectively employ these business branding strategies will help boost your company's campaign and be that much closer to your desired business success.

Basic Models Used For Branding Plan

Branding is a product of intense planning and conceptualization. To come up with innovative marketing ideas and an effective way to brand your products, you need to carefully laid out the steps you need to get there. Doing so will also enable you to take note of the vital aspects involved in the creation of a brand. Brand models have been formulated to create the framework needed to build an effective brand that will be able to withstand market trends and competition.

What is a Branding Model?

There are basic models utilized in the process of brand planning. Each of them will cover different scopes and aspects of the process to create a sound branding strategy. Aside from the ability to postulate methods for arriving at a specific brand idea, these models will also help businessmen understand the behavior of consumers in terms of their responses to a brand, which is helpful in adjusting old branding strategies or acquiring new ones.

All of these features are key in managing and reviewing brands, which are necessary steps that must be taken by any company in their branding efforts. These models are not directly linked but one does impact another.

Brand Positioning

This model involves your effort to create an image that will have its distinct position in the market. Firmly establishing your brand will help your target market to easily remember and and opt for your line of products. This is one aspect of your brand planning wherein you must focus on creating superior brands that will eliminate your competition. Here are steps you need to look into:

*This is the step wherein you begin to identify other brands you are competing against. Then, define the parameters of your own brand against your competition. This will enable you to focus your efforts.

*Next, your objective is to introduce attributes to your brand that will enable it to stand out from competition. You must also introduce elements into your brand that will produce in the mind of your consumers or target market the perceived quality of your brand.

*You must establish a slogan for your brand that will aim to reaffirm the position and values of your brand. It aims to articulate the message of the brand and what it promises to deliver to the consumers.

Brand Resonance

Once you're through the stage of creation and distinction placement in the market, your next step is to protect the loyalty of your consumers. To do that, you need to employ an efficient customer relation service and to provide a feedback system. This model follows from the initial steps laid out by the brand positioning methods. Now that have acquired target customers, your next aim is to strengthen the relationship between them and your brand. After all, majority of the business sales stem from repeat customers.

More than anything, this stage is where you must reinforce the messages initially conveyed by your brand. Hence, customers will remain satisfied with the level of performance and quality delivered by your brand. Are your methods consistent to the identity of the brand and its missions? Take into consideration the feedback of customers on your product and how you can build up on that relationship.

Brand Value Chain

This one is more focused on the financial impact of your branding efforts. The basic idea of this model is that the value of the brand consist in the customers, so that is where you should be focusing most of your branding strategies on.

Carefully combining these various models will provide a company a reliable perspective of the different areas involved in the marketing activity. Taking bringing all these branding steps into the formula will enable you to easily track progress or problem areas in the branding system.