Make Your Brand Mean Something
The Brand is much more than a catchy tag line or slogan. This article from AdAge.com shares that even in tough economic times, it is so very important to keep focused on Brand Equity.
What should SEO Pro’s be Earning?
Participate now in SEMPO’s first ever Search Agency Salary Survey — the agency version of the In-House Salary Survey released in January 2008.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yfTxu61JXbsPxjA2QavzXA_3d_3d
This survey is designed for:
*People who work at an agency that offers search engine marketing in its mix of services
*People who work at an agency with a search engine marketing branch or division
*People who work at an agency devoted solely to search engine marketing.
If you are one of our in-house search engine marketing members, we encourage you to forward this email to your agency friends and colleagues. This survey is not limited to SEMPO members.
Take the survey today - it is less than 30 questions from start to finish, so it should take around 12 minutes to complete.
Remember…this survey is for people working at agencies participating in search engine marketing or agencies totally dedicated to search engine marketing only.
Learn More About Marketing with Web 2.0 in Phoenix AZ
In Case you have been living under a rock for the past several years, you don’t want to miss these two events brought to you by the American Marketing Association Phoenix Chapter.
The first event is an AMA Luncheon with the topic of Marketing with Web 2.0.
The “Holy Grail” of marketing is Word-of-Mouth and now the Internet makes this a plausible marketing and advertising strategy. Yesterday’s dependence on mass marketing has become noise to today’s savvy customers. This discussion will focus on how leading lifestyle brands are leveraging Web 2.0 opportunities to connect with new and existing customers. See details
The second event revolves around online marketing as well. It is on Website Optimization.
This hands-on workshop is designed to help AMA Phoenix members and non-members gain information about how well their websites are performing. The first five attendees will have the opportunity to have a website reviewed to see how it measures up against their competitors in terms of website optimization. See details
Your Basic 8 Slide Strategic Plan
So ya have to write a strategic Plan and you don’t know the first thing to write. Well no worries. Here is a basic strategic plan that will help the members of the team zero in on what needs to be done and have you looking like a hero. It covers the SWOT analysis, where your company is, where your competition is and any changes to the playing field and of course where you want to go. I would love to take all of the credit for this but the truth is I have to give credit to Jack Welch. It is from his book “Winning”. I wrote it down in my own slides and have used it with a few clients with good success. Download here.
Enjoy!
Marketing Advice for the 2008 Presidential Candidates
Marketing a person is not much different from marketing a product or service. For Politicians it is getting more difficult to sell yourself as one thing when you have demonstrated to be another. False Advertising anyone? I point to the Book the Purple Cow, or the Big Moo. Ok, yes I am a Seth Godin fan, but I think these directly apply here. Make a Remarkable Product and the marketing takes care of itself. The Market will sell it for you.
The first thing is we have a product with history to look at. The message can be whatever the campaign spits out, however a more savvy market will not buy it for long if it doesn’t match the record. This goes to the point of making a product worth talking about and the market will do the selling for you. That will do more for you than the last minute marketing campaign you slap on at the end or the slogan, or the mud pie slung at an opponent, or mis characterization of an oppent’s position.
So, as a candidate, the American people want someone who is genuine, sincere, and someone they can trust to deliver “X”. X being whatever your hot button may be. Take Fred Thompson for example. There was much excitement around his candidacy, but he could not sell us on the idea that he really wanted the job. There was a good history for him but no current passion. Mit Romney had a similar challenge. He showed up late to Conservatism so many did not quite trust his message regardless of his business background. Mike Huckabee is similar in that respect, although he can give a great speech. John McCain has the challenge that he has moved away from his party over the lat 12-15 years.
On the Democrat side we have Hillary Clinton who can not escape her past and the perceptions the many people have about her; the history and perception of coniving, scheming and plotting, overshadows any genuine human interactions she may have shown with reporters. Then we have Barack Obama with his cult of personality. The symbolism over substance will only last so long. Eventually, the American people will be bored with the “Change” speech with no detailed plans to explain how a Junior Senator will accomplish those changes.
So, do you see the pattern? There is no trust built with the buyer (us), the message doesn’t quite match the the product, and that is leaving the voters at a loss for who to vote for or if at all.
So, my advice to all of these candidates is be yourself. Be the person you really are and do something worth me voting for. Do something, be something remarkable. Imagine what would happen if Senator McCain actually would have voted against the Economic Pork eh, Stimulus package. What would happen if he sponsored a bill on making the tax cuts permanent… There are three senators running for president. Three senators who had time to sponsor bills, write bills, vote on bills that would show us they are worth our vote.
Why tell me now that you will do “X” when you are the president, when you could have been doing something remarkable Then and now. Why wait till you are the President?
This campaign is the way it is because the American people see through the Marketing Campaign and political spin and are looking for a better product that can deliver on the marketing promises. A product we can trust. A product that is genuine.
Give us that and we will buy.
American Marketing Association at Arizona State University West Campus
I recently spoke to a large group of marketing students at the Arizona State University West Campus who were also part of the American Marketing Association Student club. I was encouraged by the attendance, the questions and the insight that these students had. The faculty at the West campus of ASU are doing a great job. The discussion started off on topic of how to market yourself after graduation. This is the one thing I find lacking in many curricula. Sure we are taught the finer points of Economics, the global impact of regional decisions, and the statistical forecasting of a new product launch and the product life cycle and so on, but what they don’t tell you is how to market yourself! 
What do students need to focus their attention on outside of the class? How does building their network now and getting people to see their potential now, along with the importance of joining professional organizations help them to get out of the gate at full speed?
Well I spoke about that, but the discussion turned to the Internet and how the market has changed in their generation. They hold the power of the marketing message and how social media impacts marketing decisions; that Natural Search and Paid Search plays a significant part of the overall marketing strategy. Then the bombshell dropped. A bright student asked the all important question of “with all of this change, and the speed of change increasing, does our Global Marketing degree matter?
Wow! There was a few faculty in the audience and I could tell that they were a little nervous about what I might say next.
My answer was of course a Resounding YES! The real world example I gave was a campaign I managed for a client. I will withhold the name of the client and the product for obvious reasons.
The client wanted to grow market share for their brand by introducing a new complimentary product. The second objective was to increase awareness of this new product. The decision was made to offer a free sample of the product via online registration. There would not even be shipping charges, so the offer was fantastic. As you can tell there are a few issues with this plan.
1. What is the market being served
a. it was only open to US Citizens - could that be an issue since the offer was online? You bet.
If this was an online ad it could be served to only specific regions, however the banner was only on the company’s US website, which also alleviated any interest overseas; but also lost an opportunity to grow the market share in those regions. That was their strategic decision though.
2. The quantity of the offer and the method of distribution . With a free product giveaway worth $6 - $10 dollars depending on where you buy it, there had better be a large amount of product available or the time window will be very small. You had better make sure that the distribution channel can deliver on time as well and if not, then what is the Plan B.
In this case, and many others I am sure, the product was coming from China. The fulfillment company which took the orders and filled them was in Detroit.
So does knowledge of the Global Economic Business issues help in a Marketing Career?
What do you think?
Even the largest and most successful companies don’t always know the all of the right questions to ask, and luckily for the Marketing students enrolled in the Global Business / Marketing Program at Arizona State University, they are being well prepared to ask and answer those questions, because as I said in a previous article Location doesn’t matter, it is a Global Market, even for Marketers!
XOXOXO for the NFL, Glendale, and the New York Giants
What an experience! I took my family to enjoy the day of the NFL Experience, the day before the Superbowl. I could not have been more proud to be an Arizonan. Mayor Scruggs did our State proud. The NL Experience was just that; an awesome experience that we will remember for a very long time. Three days later and I am still feeling it. Yes I participated in every event they had, from the 40 yard dash, the training camp, the blocking dummies, the field goal kick and so on. What made it truly memorable was seeing the smiles of my kids as they played the same games - even my 5 year old daughter. The professional players made the day special as well. participating in the skills clinics for the kids and talking with the fans and freely and happily I may add signing autographs was a fantastic part of the day. Seeing my oldest son getting tips and receiving passes from Brady Quinn (Who my son at 8 didn’t know who he is) was just great. I even got to talk with Neil Rackers, the Kicker for the Arizona Cardinals. Being from St. Lous, I am not a big fan of the team but Neil was also great. It turns out that we grew up in the same area and went to rival high schools. Maybe I should warm up to the team now. All and all the event made me and my family even bigger football fans, and hopefully made all of the visitors for the game bigger Arizona fans and more importantly “West Side” fans.
