by IMC | Jan 31, 2013 | Blog, Branding, Digital Communications, Marketing Mix, Media Relations, Partnership, Tactics
By time SuperBowl Sunday actually happens most of us will have already viewed the commercials. Some of us will catch them on traditional television, some on YouTube, and some on media properties like BUSINESS INSIDER. And, studies as well as expert opinion show that these “teasers,” if well done, can enhance the results advertisers get.
Using “teaser” ads and “teaser” promotions in your organization before actual campaigns can also be effective for you. For example, you may be opening a new upscale dessert shop. Before that, you can arrange partnerships with elite retailers to distribute small samples of a gourmet cookie. With the consumers’ permission you can video that moment of high pleasure when the indulgence meets the taste buds. Those can be shown on YouTube and your on Media Center. In addition, local media might find them fun to cover.
Here are 3 tips from Image Marketing Consultants on how to get the biggest bang from your teasers.
Do Them Right. Every detail about the teaser is even more important than what goes on in the actual roll-out. That’s because, as the conventional wisdom goes, less is more. This small amount of information or mini experience has to deliver. Therefore, invest all the resources needed.
Get Maximum Exposure. The best-made promotion won’t help your organization unless enough people enjoy it. That’s where partnership comes in. You have to identify the most useful venues for the teaser. Those with a huge budget could have the introduction of the 2014 model electric car shown in movie houses before the film. The rest of you probably have to be focused about figuring out what organizations would partner with you because they are also getting something out of this. For example, the gourmet cheese shop might want to be associated with a gourmet dessert startup.
Build. Both the teaser and the relationships you build provide a platform for your future marketing, partnerships, public relations, special events, and social media. From then on, consider what you do as an outgrowth of this early effort.
Kate Sirignano, founder of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultantion on all your communications needs kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com 203-404-4868.
by IMC | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog, Book Publishing, Branding, Celebrations, Celebrity Power, Credibility, Digital Communications, Marketing Mix, Media Relations, Partnership, Tactics
Collaboration or partnership has many benefits, ranging from lower costs to greater reach. The restaurant which structures joint promotions with local playhouses and movie theatres could attract lots of long term customers, with its partners also experiencing sustainable increases in business. However, alliances or joint ventures can also directly or indirectly produce unique problems, as the world is seeing with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. That venture has 50 partners in more than 100 locations around the world and it has encountered serious setbacks such as batteries which catch fire.
In 2010, reports the SUPPLY CHAIN QUARTERLY, McKinsey & Company, Nielsen, and the Grocery Manufactureres Association conducted its annual Customer and Channel Management Survey (CCM). What it found was this: About 80 percent of the companies interviewed used collaboration but only twenty percent indicated that they generated results worth the effort.
In our experience, we at Image Marketing Consultants found that not every professional or organization can successfully partner. Here are 4 questions to ask before deciding to collaborate.
Do you have the necessary expertise? Partnering increases the complexity of any initiative exponentially. No one can enter the situation blind. If you don’t know what you’re doing hire a consultant or an employee who does know the field. Partnerships allow you to enter new territory, but you still need guidance.
Can you identify a partner or partners which can gain as much as you from the venture? You may be interested in increasing sales and your partner in enhancing its brandname. The project must be structured so both can accomplish that without undermining the success potential of the other. When the outcomes aren’t mutually satisfying, trouble starts. That usually takes the form of delays.
Do you and the potential partners have resources for as long as the project might take? Typically, organizations underestimate the time it takes to reach a goal. Therefore, you must have access to more resources than you initially need. Those could range from borrowing power to the ability to keep recruiting volunteers.
How will you measure “success?” You and your partners have to be realistic about, for example, when the venture will be expected to reach “breakeven,” that is, enough revenue coming in to equal or exceed the revenue going out. The metrics have to account for what setbacks can be tolerated. Those might include 20 percent returns on online orders.
Kate Sirignano, founder and head of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultation on partnerships as well as marketing, public relations, special events, and social media kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com 203-404-4868.
by IMC | Jan 24, 2013 | Blog, Book Publishing, Branding, Celebrity Power, Credibility, Digital Communications, Marketing Mix, Media Relations, Partnership, Tactics
Technology has created what’s being called “The Collaboration Economy.” Thought leader Evan Rosen explains in MIT’s TECHNOLOGY REVIEW this game-changing phenomenon.
Instead of operating alone, professionals now are pooling their insight, analysis, and strategies through group emails, wikis, video meetings, conference calls, social networks like Facebook and Google+, commenting on articles, receiving comments on their own blogs, and sharing material with one click. Image Marketing Consultants explains how you as a personal brand and your organization can leverage collaboration to get an edge.
Choose the right partners. The potential obstacle with collaboration is that it tends to consume more time and patience than does working alone. Therefore, you need to ensure there’s a payoff by including in your process only those useful to your objectives. Partners are not created equal.
Be open. Your partners can’t “get” how vital you are to the team unless you disclose your best thinking and hunches about strategy. The risk of collaboration is this openness but the reward can be awesome since research and experience show that joint efforts can generate superior outcomes. That’s why even competitors like BMW and Toyota cooperated in designing the battery for the electric car.
Don’t expect individual recognition. The enemy of superior outcomes from collaborating is the star system. Ego is a throw-back to the 20th century way of doing business. It’s the group effort which counts, not your input. Organizations are overhauling their cultures to recruit, develop, and retain professionals who can be a “we,” instead of a “me.”
Kate Sirignano, founder of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultation on how you can partner in this changing economy kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com, 203-404-4868.
by IMC | Jan 13, 2013 | Blog, Branding, Credibility, Digital Communications, Marketing Mix, Tactics
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL covers how The Share Economy, thanks to the Internet, is creating fresh opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The “share” concept is based on the reality that people thrive on sharing themselves, their talents, and their passions with others. The business owners and the middlemen who facilitate that process are earning revenue and building brandnames by bringing everyone together. Those brought together might be a woman who loves to make mac & cheese in a variety of flavors and those willing to pony up about $20 to enjoy a meal with other mac & cheese fans.
Image Marketing Consultants has these three tips on how your organization can piggyback on the sharing movement to achieve your objectives, whether they be to increase sales or raise more funds for a worthy cause.
Special Events. Your prospects and customers/clients love to meet in person. You might be sponsoring a complimentary seminar on retirement plans. Invite those attending to share on your Facebook fan page their retirement dreams, through photos, videos, and/or text. Let ’em know that materials will be on display at the seminar. Start out the tutorial with sharing from the attendees.
Being a Connector. Societies have always had special people able to bring together those who need to find each other. One may be searching for a traveling companion for his aging mother and the other for a way to tour Europe for free. Such special people were known as “connectors” or in some ethnic neighborhoods as “yentas.” A perk you provide your customers/clients is that ability to share your contacts throughout the community beyond the focus of your business per se. You will be in demand.
Ecommerce. Both web and brick and mortar enterprises can be extended into new kinds of businesses based on sharing. For example, your current focus is a mobile grooming service for dogs and cats. In addition you can establish an exchange for certified sitters for houses, pets, children, and the elderly, with revenues derived from both facilitating the transaction and from selling advertising.
Kate Sirignano, founder of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultation for your marketing, public relations, partnership, special events, and social media needs kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com, 203-404-4868.
by IMC | Jan 9, 2013 | Blog, Branding, Celebrity Power, Credibility, Digital Communications, Marketing Mix, Partnership, Tactics
Putting together a Board of Advisors is becoming a standard part of the marketing mix.
That’s because this tool helps both your business and the professional objectives of the advisors. With some economists predicting GPD growth of 3 percent in 2013, this might be the time for you to consider this tactic.
Unlike a Board of Directors, the Board of Advisors is an unofficial, informal group. The members come together to provide guidance, access to their own networks, and the power of their own individual branding to your business. In return, you give them exposure on your website and in your other communications, introduce them to others useful to their own enterprises, and make it possibible for them to become insiders in a field they might want to be associated with. Although they usually don’t receive monetary compensation, they tend to enjoy perks from your operations such as entertainment and discounts, an enhanced network, and the branding side effects of your success.
How to put together a Board of Advisors? Here are some guidelines:
Clarify Purpose. Potential members are busy people. So you have to be clear why they are there and what their roles/duties will be.
Clarify Incentives. Those should be detailed. For example, you would state that the industry is growing 21 percent and your particular enterprise is growing 42 percent. Explain what’s in it for them to be part of that high profile niche. Also indicate the networking opportunities since the membership will include other proven professionals, maybe even celebrities. Then spell out the concrete perks such as exposure in your promotions, tickets to sports events, discounts, and possible referrals.
Be Attentive. Figure out what the members want before they even ask. That will keep them happy participants in your business.
Kate Sirignano, founder of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultation for your marketing, public relations, partnership, special events, and social media needs kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com, 203-404-4868.
by IMC | Jan 4, 2013 | Blog, Credibility, Marketing Mix, Tactics
New customer/client acquisition is expensive. A more cost-efficient route to get your business growing in 2013 is to win back former customers and clients. Actually, that’s not all that difficult or stressful. Here are 3 tips from Image Marketing Consultants.
Get in touch. Often customers and clients simply drift away for no reason. Finding a reason to contact them, preferably with an incentive, will remind them that you are still around and care about their business. Anecdotal evidence shows that most people buy from the last person who has contacted them with an attractive offer.
Remember, you might be thinking about your business night and day. Customers and clients don’t. That’s why the burden is on you to be innovative in coming up with reasons to be in touch.
Ask what it will take for them to return. Successful salespeople frequently close a deal by asking, “What will it take for me to get this sale?” That forces the prospects to either move toward buying or to signal that they really aren’t serious. Either way, the salespeople are better off. That’s because they will get the information they need or they will view the situation as dead-end and move on to the next opportunity.
Likewise, you can “force” the issue and either have win backs or accept those accounts as gone. When you discern that your former customers or clients are doing business with your competition, let them know you will go the distance to have them return. One effective approach is to ask, “What will it take for you and us to do business again?” Be ready to listen. Be ready to compromise. Be ready to demonstrate that you can learn from the past.
Show what’s new. Since the beginning of marketing as a discipline in business, companies have been advertising what’s “new and improved” as a sure-fire way to get attention. Hope is a primitive instinct and it’s driven by what promises to provide fresh experiences or solutions. So, use it.
The challenge is to figure out what you can put out there that will both appear new and will attract interest. For a retailer it could be the technology to check out purchases right in the dressing room. For a restuarant, it could be a special menu that aligns with the most recent weight-loss approach. For a public relations agency, it could be the e-book that’s researched, ghostwritten, produced, copyrighted, and distributed for X dollars.
Kate Sirignano, founder of Image Marketing Consultants, invites you to a complimentary consultation about your marketing, public relations, partnerships, special events, and social media kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com, 203-404-4868.
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By time SuperBowl Sunday actually happens most of us will have already viewed the commercials. Some of us will catch them on traditional television, some on YouTube, and some on media properties like BUSINESS INSIDER. And, studies as well as expert opinion show that these “teasers,” if well done, can enhance the results advertisers get.
