BLOG

The art of rebranding is very much like storytelling, where you’re your own protagonist. The story will need to be tailored for a newer audience every once in a while but the message contained within it remains the same.   Perhaps you’re in the need of a snazzier logo. Perhaps you’re trying to change your image. Perhaps it’s just time to start over with a clean slate. Either ways, you’ll need to be prepared and you’ll need a few of the following.    1. A clear mission Why are you rebranding? Do you need a partial tweaking of your brand (more…)

Is there a magic number that brings in customers after your message has been repeated a certain number of times? In an ideal world, yes. Sometimes, marketing experts claim that 3 exposures can do the trick; i.e., your ad begins to get noticed once an individual has been exposed to it three times or more.    That sounds almost too good to be true, and perhaps it is. A closer look might reveal that the “3+” formula may not work for all media. Really, what platform would have the maximum impact with 3 exposures? Billboards? Newspaper ads? Online placements?    (more…)

Last week, we wrote about the first steps involved with developing a media plan. To recap quickly, the basics – after identifying your audience - involve determining the reach, frequency and a vision of the impact you’d like to make with your campaign. Understanding the purpose behind a campaign is very important because your goals provide you with direction.   The underlying essence behind media planning is the connection created between people and companies. It’s no secret that in a highly competitive market where multiple suppliers are constantly trying to build a loyal customer base for similar products and service, (more…)

Planning a media campaign can be tricky business, mainly because of all the steps that need to be integrated into the process before releasing it into the midst of an environment with seemingly uncontrolled factors. For all the focus groups and pre-launch testing, sometimes investing money in media campaigns can be a very risky venture.   However, well-planned efforts can mitigate some of this risk. A media plan requires setting objectives, developing an implementation strategy, identifying channels for implementation, and finally, evaluation of these strategies.       Each of these four steps can develop into a separate discussion, but (more…)

Perhaps one of the more elusive concepts related to metrics in the Web 2.0 world is gauging engagement. How do we determine whether people “Like” us enough or not? How do we try and understand whether the buzz being created about our brands is directly leading to higher sales? Of course a profit margin is the bottom-line; however, since customers drive them, are intangible factors like emotions important?   The answer to the last question is an unequivocal “yes”.  While they’re difficult to measure and we can’t gain an absolute understanding of all human behavior, we can certainly establish infrastructures (more…)

Remember the 3 L’s of marketing? The most important tenet of them all? “Location, location, location!” There was a time we heard that phrase being chanted from the rooftops of all the skyscrapers in New York City. Then came the advent of the digital age and Web 2.0, and suddenly we were swept over by banner ads, click-throughs, digital ROI’s, SEO and Google rankings.                Just when we were getting used to the new lingo, we began dancing with business in the Social Media arena (read: Foursquare check-ins). Now, a business isn’t complete if (more…)

Too often businesses think of marketing as an additional expense that eats away at their budget limits. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Marketing isn’t an unnecessary evil – it’s an investment into the future of your company. It’s the portal that allows you to understand your consumer base BEFORE you begin to target them with your product.   However, we will agree that marketing budgets can skyrocket in the blink of an eye. And we all need to watch how we spend our money in these trying times. Yet, with every other aspect of the successful entrepreneurial venture, (more…)

Are you looking for happier customers? We all are. And in this hyper-connected world with people seeking instant-gratification, happy customers are five times more likely to “spread the love” if they’ve had a positive interaction with you. Which means that word-of-mouth advertising has turned the tables on dispersion of negative feedback. This is the good news.   Getting there, however, requires a little bit of work. 1. Speed! Waiting two weeks to answer a question is officially a thing of the long lost past. Research has show that most people interacting with social media expect a response between 10 minutes (more…)

Sure, ROI’s matter. And in the business world, the larger the number, the better we all look on paper. But what about the intangible metrics that matter? Factors like word of mouth “advertising” or measuring the reasons behind higher customerengagement or even humanizing the interaction between a brand and its clientele?                                                          When social media opened its doors to include business pages and accounts, companies fell into a race to attain the highest (more…)

You saw our last Facebook post. QR Codes are mushrooming out of the woodwork and it seems like every marketer in the interactive media field has jumped on the bandwagon.   QR Codes are still relatively new on the American marketing landscape however, which means that we’re still seeing organizations make costly mistakes in the way they implement their strategies.   Read on to find out what parts of your strategy to tweak to see the results you want.   Test your Code! Perhaps the biggest mistake that marketers can make is not taking the time to test their QR (more…)