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As you have probably learned by now, marketing is an on-going process of both self- and competitive- analysis. You need to understand who your company is, who your customers are, and who you are competing with – information that can stay fairly constant over time, or suddenly change overnight without warning. Analysis must start from…
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The first thing any entrepreneur looking to enter the market must do is survey the landscape. While standing atop a hill and peering down at the city might sound like a fun activity, this has nothing to do with the landscape I’m talking about. There are three questions you have to answer in detail before…
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PR can be a powerful weapon, but it is also a two-edged sword. Good PR can build your reputation in the community and better your chances at scoring new customers. Bad PR can damage your existing customer base and cost you much needed sales throughout the year. You can’t really predict what kind of PR…
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Advertising can be broken up into two categories: product advertising and brand advertising. Both types of advertising have their uses and inherent strengths and weaknesses. Brand advertising can pave way for a new product release, and product advertising can enhance existing brand marketing strategies. Brand advertising is a powerful tool in marketing. Like product advertising,…
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When I tell people I am in marketing, they assume I am in either sales or advertising. In fact, most websites that ask you to enter your profession lump advertising, sales, and marketing into the same category. In a world where few understand the differences between these three disciplines, what is the point of trying…
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I read an interesting article in November’s issue of Marketing News. “Learn to Use Communication’s Negative Space,” by Prophet’s Kevin O’Donnell is a great piece on how to pull your marketing message out of the clutter of every day life. O’Donnell encourages the use of “negative space” in advertising. His most illustrative example was Charmin…
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The last two days featured a case study on targeted marketing and rebranding. A fictional bait & tackle shop tried to target its “perfect customer.” The first attempt was a miss and actually hurt business for the shop. However, it also yielded a great deal of information about the market and helped determine who the…
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Yesterday, I gave you a hypothetical marketing situation. We run a bait & tackle shop. Having defined our perfect customer, we changed our store layout and image to fit them and waited to see how this changed our business. Today, three months later in the thought-experiment, we see business has declined in two of our…
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Once again, you need to evaluate who your story tellers are. We did just do this a few days ago, but keep in mind that this must be an on-going process for your brand. Here’s an example… We run a bait & tackle shop near a popular fishing shop. Obviously, our customers will be somewhat…
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Arguably, one of the most important elements of a brand is its avatar or logo. This image is the most recognizable part of the brand; it appears on the product, its packaging, media advertisements, and possibly your storefront. Building an avatar is a task and a half, and the process involves many steps. Step 1)…