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Aggressive Small Business Marketing & Advertising
Showing archives from 01/2005.
Creating Controversy in Marketing
Posted by Michael Cage on Monday, January 31, 2005When Susan O'Malley wanted to bump ticket sales for the Washington Mystics (WNBA team) during the Presidential election, she made a connection where most people see none. Capitalizing on an event that was already "top-of-mind" for her market, she chose a night and sat all Republican attendees on one side of the court, all Democrats on the opposite side. Neither party wanted to lose, so both the RNC and the DNC bought up blocks of tickets and filled the bleachers.
Smart. 
COTC @ Ashish’s Niti
Posted by Michael Cage on Monday, January 31, 2005This week's Carnival of the Capitalists is up at Ashish's Niti.
There are 0 comments, add your own!Everything That’s Wrong With Marketing I Saw On The Apprentice
Posted by Michael Cage on Tuesday, January 25, 2005Ok ... maybe not everything, but, perhaps ... the biggest thing.
The task was to sell a Burger King specialty item. When presenting their "marketing idea" to a Burger King exec, the exec asked, "who is your customer?" Danny, who oddly enough owns a marketing company in the real world, responded, "we didn't have time to do market research."
See, here's the thing...
Under no circumstances should the "marketing idea" come BEFORE the target of the marketing. In fact, effective marketing is completely and totally dependent upon a deep and profound understanding of your target market.
Far too many marketers, branders, and marketing companies are too in love with their ideas (witness the self-congratulatory ad award events) ... and not nearly as concerned with their clients results.
It really burns me up, because at least once I month I hear about a small business entrepreneur who didn't know any better ... wasting tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars on utter garbage shined and polished to look like gold. Doesn't have to be that way.
UPDATE: In the interest of touchy-feel fairness, I'll point out that these shows are heavily edited ... and it is possible Danny's quote was taken out of context. Possible. Regardless, this is a very real problem being perpetuated by "marketing experts" on a regular basis. Fortune 500 companies can and do waste money on stuff that doesn't work, most small businesses can not. Demand accountability, my friends.
There are 3 comments, add your own!Quote: William James on Making a Difference
Posted by Michael Cage on Tuesday, January 25, 2005"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." ~ William James
That goes double for small business entrepreneurs ... the engines that make the world hum.
Research on the Internet, Buy in the Local Store
Posted by Michael Cage on Monday, January 24, 2005This news from Internet Retailer about customers (like me) who prefer to research retail products online and buy them offline:
The practice of researching purchases online, then buying at a bricks-and-mortar store continues to gain momentum, according to a study commissioned by shopLocal.com, a provider of local search options for retailers. Among shoppers who hit the Internet before hitting the stores, 70% say they did it more in the fourth quarter of 2004 than during the comparable period the year before, the study says. In a shopLocal.com report, shoppers who go to the web and then to the store are referred to as web-to-store or W2S shoppers. Among those consumers, 48% say they plan to do more web-to-store shopping this year than last. 34% of them expect to increase their online shopping, the report says.
Once or twice a week I find myself parking outside of a Starbucks (or other Wi-Fi hotspot) to check on a purchase before walking in a store to buy it.
My dream?
Borders gives me access to online reviews from Amazon while sitting in their store ... on their own systems. Right now I have to walk out to the car, grab the laptop, head back into the store (which is T-Mobile'ed), check my reviews, and then buy.
Oh, what a world it would be.............
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