Beyond Branding: Advertising and Promotion

We have in the past touched on the essentials of a brand, how brands are stored in the mind by way of impressions and how to build a remarkable brand. 

 

 

The book Tips and Traps for Marketing Your Business is a great way to advance the marketing process that revolves around the brand, and this is done by building awareness.

There are four ways to do this:

The first and most effective way to achieve this is through advertising and promotion. Advertising can best be seen as mediated persuasion. And since persuasion has always been done by salesmen, then advertising is akin to mass production of salesmen.

A second way is use of traditional media. Yes, television, newspapers, radio and television still have a role to play even in a connected, digital world. They are mass media but the trick to effectively use traditional media is by not advertising to everyone. Instead, it is advisable to identify a target audience and focus on it.

The third tool to build your business is publicity. This is the often misunderstood world of public relations. Worth noting, however, is these four misconceptions:

• public relations is not free
• public relations is not just press releases and news stories
• public relations is not always externally focused
• public relations is not one-way communication.
  

The purpose of public relations is to ensure that a company or business has a positive image with the audiences that are important to its success.

Finally, interactive marketing. This is where the Internet plays a pivotal role in real time, boundless interactions between brands, organizations and both prospective and existing customers. The web has the effect of leveling the playground thanks to its ubiquitous reach and easy access to almost every one.

Key tools in Internet marketing comprise web sites, Email, social media networks, over the top platforms such as online chats and bots. It also includes online forums, content creation and video sharing platforms and more online destinations where Internet users congregate based on specific interests.

* * * 

A business that is driven by passion can easily become your life. Overwhelmed by fears, as Mariah Carey sings, the owner can be tempted to hold it under grass... But a business thrives and evolves when that idea which adds value and helps customers solve problems or get to where they aspire to be, is let out to the world. And the real beauty is in watching it rise. Like a butterfly.

* * *

The Market in the Market Gap

 If you go to WIRED magazine's web site, this is how The Long Tail is introduced:

 

It was originally an in-depth article by WIRED Editor Chris Anderson which eventually developed into both the The Long Tail book and The Long Tail blog.

This is important because the long tail is at the heart of niche markets.

* * * 

A niche is defined as a a shallow recess, especially one in a wall to display a statue or other ornament. A niche market is therefore a small, specialized market for a particular product or service.

In essence, a niche market exists in a gap within a large market segment.

 

* * *

 

But there's a key question any person or business coming to market with either a product or a service needs to ask:

Is there a market within that gap in the market?

* * * 

Starting small. That is the very foundation of scaling and organic growth. Niche markets are small, and may at times appear to exist tucked away in market segments that initially show little promise or seem hopeless.

Marketing: Planning and Strategy

In this week's #MarketingMonday, we tell you about a very nice book.
Written by Subhash C. Jain, 'Marketing: Planning and Strategy' is a goldmine of marketing gems for any marketing student, pundit or practitioner.

We ain't gonna say much, but just a casual look at the Contents will give you a sneak peek into what awaits you in this book.
The fourth chapter deals with understanding competition. From a business viewpoint:

"competition refers to rivalry among firms operating in a market to fill the same customer need. The businessperson’s major interest is to keep the market to himself or herself by adopting appropriate strategies."

Chapter five is all about focusing on the customer, which interestingly opens with this famous quote by Adam Smith:

"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the customer."

There is a chapter about measuring strengths and weaknesses, another on developing marketing objectives and goals and about organizational structure.

On strategy, the author has outdone himself with detailed chapters on strategic marketing tools viz: product strategies, pricing strategies, distribution strategies, promotion strategies... even global market strategies.


Chapters 19 through 47 are case studies of actual businesses with respect to their maketing strategies.

We highly recommend this book. But more than that, this is where yu can actually get the book and start reading in just a few minutes. Get your copy of 'Marketing: Planning and Strategy' now!

* * *

According to Albert Emery, we can look at marketing as merely a civilized form of warfare in which most battles are won with words, ideas, and disciplined thinking. The end goal is customer acquisition and retention. And this calls for a new attitude in how mediated persuasion is conducted. And new strategies if need be.

 * * *

Preaching to the Choir

In our view, you're better off preaching to the choir than to the pews.

(this is according to unscientific research conducted by ourselves at Complit Communications). It all comes down to this: gaining new customers is always much harder than fortifying already existing customers.

But here is something more concrete, from someone who has put in a lot of time to come up with this statement:

...it is always easier and better to give your existing customers more, than it is to find new fans (customers).

* * * 

It is always an uphill task gaining new customers. And while successful business owners seem to be living the life with no stress and no strife, it is good to know you can always first avoid red ocean traps before you even create blue oceans.

This done, it's gonna be massive wins from then on.

The Seven Business Questions

In our very first post on Lasting Impressions, we shared something from Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters:

"If you have invented something new but you haven't invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business - no matter how good the product."

Today, we go back to Zero to One and this time around, to something fundamental. It is the one thing (actually, seven things) every entrepreneur needs to ask when starting a business. Any business:

 

The reason is that things often don't go wrong. Things start wrong.

* * *

Sometimes, the intricacies of founding a business seem like twisted logic. There is a lot of decision making, assessment, planning, going forward and backwards...