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.

Making Money with Articles: Banner Advertisements

When you are trying to make money off of the articles on your website, it is important to effectively promote your site so that you will attract customers and they can see just what a good, quality site you have. There are several ways so market and promote your website, one of them being though banner advertisements.

What Banner Ads Can Do For You

Banner ads can help bring visitors from others sites to your own. Although monthly fees can be expensive to advertise on high traffic sites, in the end it may be cheaper and/or a faster way to start seeing significant revenue from your website efforts, rather than waiting for SEO techniques to bring your own site to the top of search engine results. Aside from paying to advertise on someone else’s site, there are also free banner exchanges to choose from. We will look at the pros and cons of each banner advertising method below.

Free Banner Exchanges

Free banner exchanges are when you and other sites exchange each others banners. Their banner will go on your site and your banner will go one their site. Although this option is free, there are two main problems with it. First, if you want your banner on a significant number of sites, it will mean cluttering your own site up with these banners. This could even shot you in the foot if you run an affiliate website because, instead of clicking on your affiliate links, your visitors may be clicking on your banner exchange links. Secondly, you have to be really careful about the types of sites that you exchange banners with. Some sites like to gather a lot of banners so that they can be a directory or portal site and not have to have any real content. These “banner farms” or “link farms” will do nothing positive for your site and, in the meantime, you will be bringing them potential traffic.

Paid Banner Ads

As we saw above, paid banner ads cost money, but they will eventually pay off if you choose the right ones. You need to ensure that the site produces the amount of traffic that they say and that they have your ad placed in a way that invites visitors to click without being too pushy. You also want to choose a site that does not house too many other banners on the same page as yours or that there are no competitor links on the same page.

All in all, banner ads can end up being profitable for you site if you go about it the right way. If you do decide to check out banner advertisement as a marketing avenue, be sure to keep the above tips in mind.

Citi Asia Pasific News

New Organizational Structure for Citi Asia Pacific

August 18, 2008



Citi Asia Pacific today announced a reorganization of its regional structure to achieve greater client focus, product excellence, and greater efficiencies.



Led by Mr. Ajay Banga, Chief Executive Officer of Citi Asia Pacific, the new structure divides Citi's Asia Pacific region into four geographic clusters – Japan, North Asia, South Asia and South East Asia Pacific. The geographic clusters will be supported by seven product and coverage groups that are custom-tailored for the Asia Pacific region – Consumer Banking and Global Cards; Corporate and Commercial Bank; Global Transaction Services; Investment Banking; Markets; Wealth Management and Alternative Investments.
Read more
Citibank Korea Donates 150 Million Won to Habitat for Humanity Korea

July 15 2008



Seoul – Citibank Korea (CKI) announced yesterday, a donation of 150 million won to Habitat for Humanity Korea (HFH Korea). This donation, funded by a grant from the Citi Foundation, continues a long partnership between CKI and HFH Korea that began in 1998.
Read more
Citibank Singapore Named Best Retail Bank in Singapore by The Asian Banker

May 20, 2008



Singapore – Citibank Singapore Ltd's commitment towards growing its distribution footprint in Singapore and continued emphasis on innovation has won it the "Best Retail Bank in Singapore" Award from The Asian Banker for the first time.

In awarding the accolade to Citibank Singapore for its performance in 2007, The Asian Banker pointed to its sustained distribution push, its market-leading Citigold franchise and its innovative products and services – all of which have made it stand out among the competition.

How Can Direct Mail be Used With Other Marketing Tools?

Author: Steven Sellwood

Direct mail is sent to businesses and consumers every day and is used by a very wide range of organisations and industries.


A mailing, often accompanied by a letter, in the post has become a proven and accepted way of targeting your audience, with consistent conversion rates of about 1-5%.


However many direct mail users don't realise just how much of a friend it can be to many other marketing methods and tools. And combining more than one marketing tool together in the same campaign can also reap bigger benefits and increased response rates.


The experts might call it ‘Integration' but to everyone else its just common sense - marketing activities work best when they are used to support and complement each other. Carried out in isolation, marketing activities just don't have the same impact or resonance with the target audience.


Here are just a few examples of how you could use direct mail alongside, before or after other marketing communication activities:


Before you exhibit at an event or exhibition, send out targeted invites to your stand to your own list of contacts, prospects and existing customer. Or rent and mail a mailing list of previous visitors from the event organisers to attract plenty of new business, especially if the mailing is combined with an offer or incentive.


After you return from exhibiting at an event or exhibition, use a direct mailshot to follow up on your new list of stand visitors, leads and prospects about a week or so later. Thank them for visiting your stand and ask if there's anything else you can help them with


Push new traffic to your website by mailing a list of prospects. One big advantage of this technique is that you can increase direct traffic to your site without having to worry about losing potential visitors to natural or paid search activity by your competitors. This strategy works equally well for gaining b2b leads online as it does for gaining b2c ecommerce sales.


Use direct mail to follow up on telephone or coupon enquiries you may have received as a result of above the line promotional activities such as press advertising, radio advertising, competitions or public relations. You may need to mail these lists several times over a period of time before getting a response.


When you are running a sales promotion or incentive campaign, perhaps in your own outlets or in retailers, make sure you also promote it with a mailing to potential or previous contacts and customers as well. This will help drive traffic to stores and ensure the success of your merchandising campaign.


Before you start a field sales or telemarketing campaign, do a mailing first to soften up your prospects and open doors. Depending on your market, you may also want to give recipients a chance to decline receiving a sales call in advance.


Likewise, after your telemarketing or direct selling campaign is over, follow up on your lukewarm prospects with another mailing - often it can take several contacts using different forms of media before a lead turns into a customer.

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
Steve Sellwood is from selectabase.co.uk , leading UK suppliers of quality direct marketing lists for all uses, and for both business-to-business, and business-to-consumer campaigns. Selectabase also provide a range of affordable list cleaning services to keep your in house lists up to date and ready to use.