Economic theory has some fundamental assumptions underpinning it. One of the most important is that people behave rationally. In other words, that the decisions we make are designed to fulfill our best interests.
But we know this is not always the case. (more…)
We’ve previously discussed the challenges many companies face when trying to calculate an ROI on their marketing efforts. For small and medium-sized businesses, this can make it difficult to justify increasing spend on marketing efforts.
But, just because you feel like you can’t spend more money on marketing doesn’t mean you can’t invest in your brand. (more…)
One of the challenges for — and criticisms of — the marketing function is that it’s often difficult to calculate an ROI on a company’s marketing efforts. For example, how does a soft drink or beer company determine whether or not their multi-million-dollar Super Bowl ad was worth the investment? How can they tell whether a customer made a purchase based on that ad as opposed to a purchase they were going to make anyway? Not an easy task.
And yet both employers and clients want (and deserve) to know if their marketing investments are paying off for them. Fortunately the measurement game these days is often much more straightforward than in the past. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
On February 14 – Valentine’s Day – Amazon announced a break up with New York City. The company faced intense backlash from community members after it was announced that the much-anticipated HQ2 would be split between New York and Arlington Virginia.
Here are some takeaways from a marketing perspective on the tech giant’s big decision. (more…)
(excerpted from 21st Century Secrets to Effective PR: Tips and Best Practices for Gaining Media Exposure)
In the “old days,” there was advertising and there was PR. Advertising was paid communication that we created about ourselves. PR was communication that we earned through creating relationships and clever pitches to the media gatekeepers who would then share information about us on our behalf. Social media represents a new communication option that has had, and will continue to have, a marked impact on both advertising and PR. (more…)
There’s a raging — and quite interesting — debate that I continue to see taking place in various online forums about the relationship between PR and marketing. I’ve found it especially interesting because I recently was engaged in the same debate while teaching PR courses at a local university. Surprisingly to me, there is a group that believes quite strongly that PR is not part of marketing: that it is a separate and distinctly different function within an organization.
Frankly, that’s just “crazy talk” to me. (more…)
Most of us in the marketing business are familiar with the concept of – if not necessarily the term – pull marketing. Pull marketing refers to using your business development strategies to attract customers actively seeking out a product or service to your particular offering. For example, a pizza company might work on increasing its page ranking through search engine optimization (SEO) so that it shows up prominently when a hungry potential customer searches for “pizza near me” in their search engine.
But there’s another type of marketing that takes a more aggressive approach. “On the other side of the coin is a push campaign,” writes Rocco Baldassarre – Founder & CEO of Zebra Advertisement 1DollarAd.com – In an article for Entrepreneur. “A push campaign presents products and services to an audience without serving an initial demand.”
Baldassarre writes about push marketing in the context of online marketing and offers four tips for maximizing the outcome of your efforts. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
At first glance, it might seem like a ridiculous strategy to price a product below its cost. Wouldn’t you just be losing money? While this is true, many companies do just that, and they do lose money. On that specific offering. This is part of a strategy known as loss leader pricing. As defined by Inc., “loss leader pricing is an aggressive pricing strategy in which a store sells selected goods below cost in order to attract customers who will, according to the loss leader philosophy, make up for the losses on highlighted products with additional purchases of profitable goods.”
A great example of a loss leader is razors. (more…)
Marketing is key to not only getting the word out about your products and services but also for convincing potential consumers that your offerings provide the best quality, best value, are the trendiest, etc. Influencers can be a huge benefit in this respect. Influencers are individuals or organizations that have the ability to influence the beliefs, attitudes and actions of others. An influencer might be a popular professional athlete who touts the efficacy of a particular shoe, supplement or clothing brand. Or it could be a celebrity who shows up on the red carpet wearing a particular fashion brand—one that carries your label.
These are examples of large-scale influencers. Small businesses typically don’t have access to such individuals unless by pure good fortune. But in an article for Forbes, Dinah Wisenberg Brin writes that some businesses have found success using “micro-influencers” to achieve similar effects, albeit on a smaller scale. (more…)
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
One of the more tedious activities that falls under the broad umbrella of marketing is responding to requests for proposals, or RFPs. RFPs are typically issued by large organizations — like large corporations or government entities — that are looking for a vendor for a large expenditure or project. It’s basically a way of telling the public or a specific group of pre-screened vendors, “Hey, I want to buy something! Send me a pitch!” The sheer number of interested vendors they often receive responses from and the need to objectively compare them means they are also telling these vendors, “But…send me a pitch in this precise format.”
The process can be time-consuming and convoluted, but a winning bid can be extremely lucrative. Fortunately, there are some basic tips and strategies that can make the process more efficient. (more…)
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