Task 3 - Research on the Marketing Communication Mix

The Marketing Communications Mix is the specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing a company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.
Definitions:

Advertising - Any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
Personal selling - Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.
Sales promotion - Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.
Public relations - Building good relationships with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image", and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
Direct marketing - Direct communications with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.

Setting the Promotion Mix

When deciding how to properly utilize the marketing communications mix to meet your marketing objectives, it is important to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of each component of the mix. Further, you must always define your total budget first (generally defined in the Marketing and/or Business Plan) and then decide upon the best way to leverage the different elements of the mix to maximize the return on your investment. You will balance the various parts of the mix to not only create an integrated approach to your marketing communications but you must also devote enough resources for each component to be successful.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

 Reaches large, geographically dispersed audiences, often with high frequency; Low cost per exposure, though overall costs are high; Consumers perceive advertised goods as more legitimate; Dramatizes company/brand; Builds brand image; may stimulate short-term sales; Impersonal, one-way communication; Expensive
 Most effective tool for building buyers’ preferences, convictions, and actions; Personal interaction allows for feedback and adjustments; Relationship-oriented; Buyers are more attentive; Sales force represents a long-term commitment; Most expensive of the promotional tools
 May be targeted at the trade or ultimate consumer; Makes use of a variety of formats: premiums, coupons, contests, etc.; Attracts attention, offers strong purchase incentives, dramatizes offers, boosts sagging sales; Stimulates quick response; Short-lived; Not effective at building long-term brand preferences
 Highly credible; Very believable; Many forms: news stories, news features, events and sponsorships, etc.; Reaches many prospects missed via other forms of promotion; Dramatizes company or product; Often the most under used element in the promotional mix; Relatively inexpensive (certainly not 'free' as many people think--there are costs involved)
 Many forms: Telephone marketing, direct mail, online marketing, etc.; Four distinctive characteristics: Nonpublic, Immediate, Customized, Interactive; Well-suited to highly-targeted marketing efforts
When deciding upon your unique marketing communications mix, you should also consider the Product Life Cycle. Here are some general guideline as to how and when to emphasize different parts of the mix according to the stages of a typical product life cycle:


Product Life Cycle


Pre-Introduction: Light advertising, pre-introduction publicity
Introduction: Heavy use of advertising, public relations for awareness, sales promotion for trial
Growth: Advertising, public relations, branding and brand marketing, personal selling for distribution

Maturity: Advertising decreases, sales promotion, personal selling, reminder & persuasion
Decline: Advertising and public relations decrease, limited sales promotion, personal selling for distribution
Next let's briefly walk through each of the various parts of the marketing communications mix.



Advertising
Advertising - Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
There are three goals of advertising. These goals are to: Inform, Persuade, and Remind.
The major media types for advertising are:
Newspapers, Television, Direct mail, Radio, Magazines, Internet, Outdoor (billboards, blimps, etc.), Yellow pages, Newsletters, Brochures, and Telephone
The traditional conceptual model for creating any advertising or marketing communications message is the AIDA Model: get Attention, hold Interest, arouse Desire, and then obtain Action.

The AIDA ModelJohn Caples, one of the greatest copywriters of all time, provides us the following principles (although he was talking about direct response marketing--more about that later--the wisdom is directly relevant to all forms advertising) when it comes to communicating an advertising message:

Caples' Principles:
• Get attention
• Hold attention
• Create desire
• Make it believable
• Prove it’s a bargain
• Make it easy to buy
• Give a reason to buy now
An even newer paradigm, according to some, is Interrupt, Engage, Educate and then Offer. In any of these models, the first step is to somehow get a person's attention.
It should be noted, however, that there is a growing trend of consumers being more resistent to advertising messages and less open to marketers communicating with them without their expressed permission. As such, advertising models are continuously evolving due to an explosion in media outlets and shifting public opinion. As new communications channels expand at a fast rate, advertisers are exploring the new media options at a rapid pace and exploring new ways to reach an often fickle target audience.
How do we do that?
In my opinion, there is one overriding rule that should guide all advertising: Tell somebody something helpful to them and make sure they are receptive to your message in the first place. Also, do notunderestimate the importance of strong copy or content and do not overestimate the importance of graphic design/creative. Whether writing copy for print ads, a website, a Youtube video or writing a script for television, radio, or multi-media presentations, a strong headline is the most important element of the advertisement. This is the element of the message that needs to quickly connect with people and pre-communicate some benefit that is coming soon in the remainder of the ad.

An effective headline is important for many reasons. The headline:

• Attracts attention 
• Communicates a strong benefit
• Appeals to the self-interest of the reader. It answers the question, "What's in it for me?"
• Sets the tone for the offer
• A headline acts like a marquee does for a movie theater and selects the right audience.
Advice to copywriters:


"When you are assigned to write an ad, write a lot of headlines first. Spend hours writing headlines or days if necessary. If you happen to think of a headline while walking down the street or while riding the bus, take out pencil and paper and write it down." - John Caples

"On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money." - David Oglivy

Once the headline has done its job, then prospects are so engaged in what we have to say that we can educate and inform them about the benefits of what we offer so that they can't wait for us to tell them what next step they should take to learn more or get the product or service. Most advertising today falls short. Too much energy is spent on glitzy art or cool graphic design and the resulting ads absolutely fail in the first step of interrupting and capturing attention.


Various Advertisement Examples

Print advertisements:


Does this print ad meet the effective ad criteria?



 
These print ads do a much better job.

Website advertising
Websites can be wonderful ways to advertise a product, event, idea or brand. Not only can you run your advertisements on websites with highly target traffic and likely buyers (as the ad above), but you may also create entire websites dedicated to advertising your product. Modern websites can also contain content-rich features such as multi-media presentations, seminars and virtual demonstrations.



---


Television advertising
Television commercials usually come immediately to mind when one mentions "advertisement". While proven to be very effective at selling products and helping to create high brand awareness, television advertising is facing new challenges from digital technologies that enable the skipping or "zapping" of commercials during playback/viewing. Yesterday's model of "mass advertising" on television is changing due to both market and media fragmentation. No longer can companies reach most people by advertising on "the three major networks". Mass marketing is over because there are exponentially more channels out there with cable and satellite television and consumers have fragmented into niche groups with very unique needs, desires, and wants. Television advertising these days must be highly targeted toward the specific demographic desired. Not only that, but we are all becoming "advertisement intolerant" and are more and more likely to "zone out" during commercial messages.


Sales and Personal Selling


Personal selling - Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships. Personal selling is paid personal communication that attempts to inform customers and persuade them to purchase products or services.
Undoubtedly by now you've figured out that marketing enables both individuals and organizations to sell products and services to other people to help them satisfy their needs and wants. At some point in the selling process, personal selling usually becomes involved.
It is the personal selling process that allows marketers the greatest freedom to adjust a message to satisfy customers' information needs. Personal selling allows the marketer or seller to communicate directly with the prospect or customer and listen to his or her concerns, answer specific questions, provide additional information, inform, persuade, and possibly even recommend other products or services.
The personal selling process consists of the following steps:

1) Prospecting
Prospecting refers to identifying and developing a list of potential clients. Sales people can seek the names of prospects from a variety of sources including trade shows, commercially-available databases or mail lists, company sales records and in-house databases, website registrations, public records, referrals, directories and a wide variety of other sources. Prospecting activities should be structured so that they identify only potential clients who fit the profile and are able, willing and authorized to buy the product or service.
This activity is greatly enhanced today using websites with specially-coded pages optimized with key words so that prospects may easily find you when they search the web for certain key words related to your offering. Once prospecting is underway, it then is up to the sales professional to qualify those prospects to further identify likely customers and screen out poor leads. Modern websites can go along way in not only identifying potential prospects but also starting this qualification process.
2) Pre-approach
Before engaging in the actual personal selling process, sales professionals first analyze all the information they have available to them about a prospect to understand as much about the prospect as possible. During the Pre-approach phase of the personal selling process, sales professionals try to understand the prospect's current needs, current use of brands and feelings about all available brands, as well as identify key decision makers, review account histories (if any), assess product needs, plan/create a sales presentation to address the identified and likely concerns of the prospect, and set call objectives. The sales professional also develops a preliminary overall strategy for the sales process during this phase, keeping in mind that the strategy may have to be refined as he or she learns more about the prospect.
3) Approach
The approach is the actual contact the sales professional has with the prospect. This is the point of the selling process where the sales professional meets and greets the prospect, provides an introduction, establishes rapport that sets the foundation of the relationship, and asks open-ended questions to learn more about the prospect and his or her needs.
4) Making the Presentation
During the presentation portion of the selling process, the sales professional tells that product "story" in a way that speaks directly to the identified needs and wants of the prospect. A highly customized presentation is the key component of this step. At this point in the process, prospects are often allowed to hold and/or inspect the product and the sales professional may also actually demonstrate the product. Audio visual presentations and/or slide presentations may be incorporated at this stage and this is usually when sales brochures or booklets are presented to the prospect. Sales professionals should strive to let the prospect do most of the talking during the presentation and address the needs of the prospect as fully as possible by showing that he or she truly understands and cares about the needs of the prospect.
5) Overcoming Objections
Professional sales people seek out prospects' objections in order to try to address and overcome them. When prospects offer objections, it often signals that they need and want to hear more in order to make a fully-informed decision. If objections are not uncovered and identified, then sales professionals cannot effectively manage them. Uncovering objections, asking clarifying questions, and overcoming objections is a critical part of training for professional sellers and is a skill area that must be continually developed because there will always be objections. Trust me when I tell you that as soon as a sales professional finds a way to successfully handle "all" his or her prospects' objections, some prospect will find a new, unanticipated objection-- if for no other reason than to test the mettle of the sales person.
6) Closing the Sale
Although technically "closing" a sale happens when products or services are delivered to the customer's satisfaction and payment is received, for the purposes of our discussion I will define closing as asking for the order and adequately addressing any final objections or obstacles. There are many closing techniques as well as many ways to ask trial closing questions. A trail question might take the form of, "Now that I've addressed your concerns, what other questions do you have that might impact your decision to purchase?" Closing does not always mean that the sales professional literally asks for the order, it could be asking the prospect how many they would like, what color they would prefer, when they would like to take delivery, etc. Too many sales professions are either weak or too aggressive when it comes to closing. If you are closing a sale, be sure to ask for the order. If the prospect gives an answer other than "yes", it may be a good opportunity to identify new objections and continue selling.
7) Follow-up
Follow-up is an often overlooked but important part of the selling process. After an order is received, it is in the best interest of everyone involved for the sales person to follow-up with the prospect to make sure the product was received in the proper condition, at the right time, installed properly, proper training delivered, and that the entire process was acceptable to the customer. This is a critical step in creating customer satisfaction and building long-term relationships with customers. If the customer experienced any problems whatsoever, the sales professional can intervene and become a customer advocate to ensure 100% satisfaction. Diligent follow-up can also lead to uncovering new needs, additional purchases, and also referrals and testimonials which can be used as sales tools.
Sales Management:
Managing the sales process is typically the job of the Sales Manager. Good sales managers usually exhibit the characteristics of: organization, a good personal sales record, enthusiasm, ambition, product knowledge, trustworthiness, mentoring skills, and somebody who is respected by others.
While an in-depth discussion of sales management is beyond the scope of this crash-course, I'll mention one tool often used by sales managers to manage the sales process. This is called the Sales Funnel orSales Pipeline Report.
The Sales Funnel (or Sales Pipeline)
A sales funnel report presents a "snapshot" of your sales function at any given point in time. For conceptual purposes, the sales process is often compared to a funnel where new leads coming into the system (i.e. prospects) are initially placed into the top of the funnel (the widest part) and then worked through the system by informing, persuading, overcoming objections, providing information, demonstrating, providing free samples, etc., etc. until at the narrow part of the funnel, an order is placed and a sales is closed when payment from the customer is received.
The funnel framework works fairly well because for all new leads that are generated by marketing, there is a closing rate that represents the sales that ultimately result. The number of resulting sales is usually significantly less than the number of total leads generated hence it is useful to think that as leads work their way further down the funnel there will be less and less of them until they come out the narrow end of the funnel as sales.
One important thing to note is that organizations define each phase in the sales process (or, part of the funnel) differently. Each step working through the funnel should have clearly defined criteria that go along with it so at each part of the funnel, there is specific knowledge about all the leads at that stage. In other words, leads become more and more qualified as they work their way through the funnel and at each step, you will know exactly what that specific level of qualification is. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the funnel is a great way to track and forecast sales, as well as, gauge marketing activities.
By running a Sales Funnel Report, the sales manager can visually see how many leads are at each step, if there are any "bottlenecks", or if there are an insufficient number of leads at any stage. Armed with that knowledge, then the sales manager may instruct his or her sales force where they should focus more attention to keep sales at the desired level. He or she can then also work closely with the marketing manager to ensure they are generating enough leads to hit sales goals, whether the leads are of high enough quality, or what further needs to be done to hit sales goals.
In short, the funnel can clearly point out what adjustments need to be made within the sales function to hit sales goals. That might mean that marketing activities need to be adjusted, that addition sales training is needed, or that sales personnel need to focus their efforts and activities on certain parts of the sales pipeline to keep the entire process on balance and running smoothly. The sales funnel also helps sales and marketing work closely together to meet organizational sales objectives. It is a wonderful management tool.
Sales tips:
I think success in sales depends upon some basics. I can humbly share a few pointers that I think have allowed me to enjoy success in sales:

1) Be sincere with people. Too many sales people act in a manner that seems artificial or they only feign interest in their prospects' problems and concerns. People are smart and see right through such insincerity. If you are not sincere and honest with everyone you meet then you should not be in sales.
2) Sell products or services that you believe in and that have customers you gravitate toward naturally or that you inherently like and want to be around and learn more about. If you do not have a passion for the product and the customers then you will not be happy--or very successful.
3) It is vitally important to constantly hone your sales and communications skills. Continuous growth and training in formal professional selling techniques is also very important. Take training classes, listen to professional development audio podcasts and seminars, read all the professional development material you can get your hands on, and start a program of self-study and development in salestoday if you haven't already.
4) First listen to your customer, understand his or her wants and needs, and only then try to determine whether or not you can deliver the product or services to meet those wants and needs. If you approach a prospect with a solution before understanding the problem you are likely to be wrong about the solution.
5) The best sales people ask a lot of questions and genuinely listen to the answers before speaking again.
6) Your prospects and customers are all different so you should treat them differently.
7) The best sales people listen much more than they talk.
8) Find out what your prospects want and then give it to them.
9) If you cannot give your prospects what they want tell them so and help them find what they are looking for elsewhere...or at least point them in the right direction. You'll help them and learn more about your own market in the process.
10) If you think that you cannot make it in sales as a profession then you probably should not even try.


Sales Promotion
Sales promotion - Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.
Sales promotion includes several communications activities that attempt to provide added value or incentives to consumers, wholesalers, retailers, or other organizational customers to stimulate immediate sales. These efforts can attempt to stimulate product interest, trial, or purchase. Examples of devices used in sales promotion include coupons, samples, premiums, point-of-purchase (POP) displays, contests, rebates, and sweepstakes.

 
 
Examples of coupons, free trials, and rebates.
Sales Promotion StrategiesThere are three types of sales promotion strategies: Push, Pull, or a combination of the two.
A push strategy involves convincing trade intermediary channel members to "push" the product through the distribution channels to the ultimate consumer via promotions and personal selling efforts. The company promotes the product through a reseller who in turn promotes it to yet another reseller or the final consumer. Trade-promotion objectives are to persuade retailers or wholesalers to carry a brand, give a brand shelf space, promote a brand in advertising, and/or push a brand to final consumers. Typical tactics employed in push strategy are: allowances, buy-back guarantees, free trials, contests, specialty advertising items, discounts, displays, and premiums.
A pull strategy attempts to get consumers to "pull" the product from the manufacturer through the marketing channel. The company focuses its marketing communications efforts on consumers in the hope that it stimulates interest and demand for the product at the end-user level. This strategy is often employed if distributors are reluctant to carry a product because it gets as many consumers as possible to go to retail outlets and request the product, thus pulling it through the channel. Consumer-promotion objectives are to entice consumers to try a new product, lure customers away from competitors’ products, get consumers to "load up" on a mature product, hold & reward loyal customers, and build consumer relationships. Typical tactics employed in pull strategy are: samples, coupons, cash refunds and rebates, premiums, advertising specialties, loyalty programs/patronage rewards, contests, sweepstakes, games, and point-of-purchase (POP) displays.
Car dealers often provide a good example of a combination strategy. If you pay attention to car dealers' advertising, you will often hear them speak of cash-back offers and dealer incentives.


Public Relations (PR) 
Public relations - Building good relationships with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image," and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
Let's talk a little bit about the Public Relations (PR) function and how it should be a critical element in your marketing plan. We will also take a look at a few examples.
What is Public Relations?
Public Relations, or PR, is the overall term for marketing activities that raise the public's consciousness about a product, service, individual or issue. In short, PR is the management of a company's public image that helps the public understand the company and its products.
Public relations is most effective when it is viewed as a strategic management function supporting the business goals of the organization. PR can use all the same communications tools as in other areas of marketing.
A healthy public relations strategy must permeate all aspects of the business. The PR mechanism itself exists in all organizations--whether formally managed or not. Every communication to the outside world (and even the world inside your organization!) creates an impression, causes an emotional reaction, or makes a statement about who you are and what values you hold dear. Managing those impressions, reactions, and statements should be taken seriously by operating within a carefully planned, executed, and measured PR strategy.
As the Marketing Plan comes from the Business Plan, so must a Public Relations Plan come from a strong Marketing Plan. Your Public Relations program should be planned, executed carefully, and measured to ensure success.
Publicity: An important part of PR
Publicity also aims to create interest in a person, product, idea, organization, or business establishment generally through the generation and placement of favorable stories in the news media such as newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio.
Unlike advertising which relies on purchasing power to get a message across, publicity relies solely on the quality of content to persuade others to get the message out. Good publicity helps journalists find and report legitimate news that is important to their audience. Anyone can buy advertising space but not just anyone can earn the respect of media in order to establish an effective PR campaign.

The primary tool of publicity is the press release, or news release.
How to write press releases and manage effective PR campaigns
A very important part of any PR plan is gaining press coverage. The first step in getting media attention is to establish and build a database of press contacts and editors of industry journals, magazines, and trade publications. Maintaining relationships with these press contacts is very important. Often these press contacts will let you know about upcoming features within their publications and ask you to submit materials such as press releases and articles. This type of working relationship is important because it can often lead to press coverage that money can't buy. For the cost of a piece of letterhead, photo, envelope, and stamp you may be able to get exposure greater than what you could get from thousands of dollars worth of advertising.
It is equally important to write effective press releases and send them out to media contacts on a regular basis. As with advertising or any other type of marketing communication, creating an attention-grabbing headline that crystallizes the information in one sentence usually makes the difference between a press release that gets read and one that gets tossed into the waste paper basket. Once you've captured attention with an effective headline, you need to get to the main point immediately (describe the "who", "what", "when", "where", "why", and "how") and then provide more detail deeper down in the press release. Once you've established the fact that the information is relevant to the reader (usually an editor or producer), then they will read the details to learn more and determine whether or not your release is worthy of them covering.
Although editors will usually edit the information to fit their needs, writing effective news releases is a very important step in gaining publicity. These days, video news releases are also becoming popular, but there is no substitute yet for tried-and-true written news releases.
  
Some examples of publicity through the issuing of press releasesWriting feature articles
You should also consider writing your own articles and submitting them to editors so they may publish the article(s) in their publications. This is a highly effective PR tactic that not only helps others identify you as an expert in your field, but such articles also serve to educate your market, increase the visibility of your company, and may be an excellent way to find new customers for your business. 
Feature articles with brief bio at the end establish the credibility of the author as a professional and promote the business.When you write a feature article, make sure the content matches the editorial slant of the publication and custom-tailor the article to the publication's readership. Also, never submit an article to more than one industry publication at a time. Most publications require exclusive material and if the article manages to get published by more than one competitive publication, you have probably just burned bridges with the editors of those publications. Sometimes, however, publications will allow you to retain the copyrights to the article and will print the article on a "one time reprint rights" basis which would then allow you to submit it to other publications on the same terms. Make sure you know the rules of the publication first and ask for the Author's Guidelines before you begin.


An article written and submitted to a trade journal which subsequently published it. Most times you will be able to have a short biography or contact information section at the end of the article. This is a useful tool that can act as a "miniature advertisement".
Be known as an information resource within your industry
Once you start to become known as a subject expert and a source for industry information, authors may choose to interview you for story background or even feature your company or your products by writing their own editorial about you. In such cases, authors or editors will contact you and ask you to provide information or background for the article. Getting mentioned or being quoted in a major industry article can be a great boost for you and your business. It is highly desirable for editors and authors to contact you to get information for articles they are writing and when they do, it is a sure sign that your PR campaign is effective. In these cases it is important to work with the editor to provide as much accurate information as possible.


Direct Marketing 
Direct marketing - Direct communications with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting or enduring customer relationships.
Direct marketing usually is carried out through telephone (telemarketing and telesales), direct mail (brochures, catalogs, flyers), direct-response broadcast advertising (television & radio), online computer shopping, and cable television infomercials and home shopping networks.
There are many benefits of direct marketing--both to buyers and sellers.
Customers enjoy the convenience of direct marketing as they do not have to battle traffic, find a parking space, or shop through stores. Often they can simply order from a catalog using the telephone or while shopping online and never even have to leave their home as good are shipped directly to their doors. Buying through direct marketing channels is also private and easy and does not have to involve a face-to-face interaction with a salesperson (being a sales and marketing professional myself, I find it hard to believe...but many people do not place a high value on dealing with sales people). Direct marketing can also offer a wider selection of products while making comparison shopping easier with greater access to alternative or competing products. Finally, direct marketing is immediate and good can be purchased immediately in the exact desired configuration. In short, direct marketing can be fun, save time, offer a broader selection, allow comparison shopping, and allow the individual to direct-order customized products.
Sellers also enjoy many benefits of direct marketing. It is a great tool in customer relationship building as it provides direct communication with customers. Direct marketers can also gather a great deal of information about their customers that not only enables them to provide addition value through new products and services, but it also allows them to more precisely target who likely customers are. Direct marketing also can reduce costs (minimize overhead of retail space, utilities, etc.) while increasing the speed and efficiency of the operation. In short, direct marketing allows sellers to customize offerings, create ongoing relationships directly with customers, preserve privacy, and constantly adjusted to improve response rates.


---

Some examples of direct marketing

Television Infomercial
Direct Response Television Advertising: 
Those "dreaded" infomercials on television have proven to be effective and consumers have been receptive to them. Infomercials are a 125 billion dollar industry in which nearly two thirds of Americans 16 and older will have seen a direct response television ad (2002 data), translating to 136.2 million viewers. One in four American viewers says they have purchased an infomercial product, most often by calling a 1-800 number to order. Sales have more than doubled in the last five years. A successful infomercial product can generate more than 40 million dollars in sales in just three months. Retail sales generally come soon after, and on the average, are 4 to 8 times greater than television sales.


---



Catalog Marketing:Catalogs save time, appeal to those who are fearful of shopping due to crime rates, offer convenience, allow leisurely decisions, offer privacy, often offer toll-free telephone numbers to place orders, and allow comparison of quality and price.


Brands and Branding
Definition of Brand: A brand is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value.

BrandingNo discussion of marketing is complete without at least some discussion of branding.
Today's modern concept of branding grew out of the consumer packaged goods industry and the process of branding has come to include much more than just creating a way to identify a product or company. Branding is used to create emotional attachment to products and companies. Branding efforts create a feeling of involvement, a sense of higher quality, and an aura of intangible qualities that surround the brand name, mark, or symbol.
Successful branding efforts build strategic awareness where people not only recognize your brand, but they also understand the distinctive qualities that make it better than the competition. Branding is more important today than ever due to ever-increasing advertising clutter, media fragmentation, the commoditization of products, and the seemingly limitless choices we are offered in just about every product category. As marketers, we need to work hard to ensure that we are offering our customers strong brands that are clearly differentiated and that offer clear, real value and unique benefits. The need for branding has never been greater.
Here are just a few benefits you will enjoy when you create a strong brand:

• A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.
• Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion-- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.
• A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium.
• Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.
• Branding will help you "fence off" your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category.
• A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.
• A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. A brand impresses your firm's identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products.
• Branding builds name recognition for your company or product.
• A brand will help you articulate your company's values and explain why you are competing in your market.


Personal Branding & Career DevelopmentPersonal Branding/Career DevelopmentSo you have a pretty good understanding of how you are going to market your products and services by now, right?
Let me ask you a question.
What are you doing to market yourself?
I have a deep interest in personal & professional development. I venture to guess you could get more satisfaction from your career and your personal life than you are getting right now. I also believe that many organizations could benefit more from their people by simply taking more of an interest in employee professional development.
Your most important customers are your employees
Businesses should invest in employee skill development, job satisfaction, and morale while investing resources into customer satisfaction. A study by Industry Week that defined the 100 Best Managed Companies shows those companies invest more than their competitors in employee training and benefit plans.
Involve your employees in your business. Provide them with clear goals and an understanding of their roles. Empower them by giving them the training and autonomy to perform their tasks. Reward them with recognition other than just cash. Treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers. Loyal, involved, long-term employees discover and learn new ways to cut costs and improve quality which in turn enriches the customer value proposition.
Marketing, branding and...career management. Huh?
Continuing to develop both personally and professionally should be approached in a similar fashion to any sales and marketing campaign. If you are a professional marketer and you are unhappy with the current state of your career, shame on you! Create a plan starting today that will enable you to successfully market yourself and advance your career. This can be done both inside and outside your organization.
There are many similarities between marketing and career management. Good career strategy also involves a personal branding effort.
Much as marketing professionals study their markets, evaluate the products or services they offer and then design marketing campaigns, so too should all professionals examine the product and market of their careers.
Personal marketing campaign
Career management begins by designing a "personal marketing campaign". A personal marketing campaign is a career strategy whereby strengths and weaknesses are identified and then tactics are devised to communicate those strengths to effectively sell the product--the person, are steps are taken to overcome weaknesses-professional development.
In a traditional marketing campaign, a marketing plan is thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented. Benchmarks are defined, measurements are taken along the way and results measured before, during and after the campaign. Only then can one evaluate whether or not their plan is working.
Personal branding and personal marketing involve the processes of bringing clarity to your core purpose, your unique attributes, expertise or perspective and then communicating those consistently to a clearly defined market who will benefit from the unique value you offer. Career benchmarks are defined and measurements taken at pre-defined intervals. Only then can the professional track if their career is progressing according to plan.
Career management is nothing more and nothing less than marketing yourself by fully understanding your unique value and fully understanding who can benefit from that value and then delivering it to them.
Identify your strengths, design a career plan, understand the market for your skills and abilities, and endeavor to continuously develop both personally and professionally. Find ways to help others achieve their dreams and goals by applying your knowledge, skills, and abilities and you'll see your own dreams start to come true.
Never stop expanding your professional horizons.



Free stuff & other Marketing Resources

"How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)" ebook

Brands and Branding Basics

e-Book on Branding
This e-book details the steps and principles involved in brand building, brand management, and internal branding that aligns your organization with the promises made by your brand. Building strong brands using these powerhouse branding techniques will cause your brand to resonate with your target market so people emotionally connect with your brand while you ensure you meet and exceed their expectations-- and increase your profits. If you are launching a new product or trying to increase sales of an existing product or service, then this e-book is for you.

A strong brand will allow you to:

• Influence buying decisions and shape perceptions held by your customers and prospects


• Command a premium price


• Build customer loyalty through emotional involvement


• Make purchasing decisions easier for your prospects


• Maximize your profits


• and much, much more
Starting with basic branding concepts and terminology, this e-book explains the concept of modern branding and then describes in detail how to go about building your own powerhouse brand. Newly expanded in 2007, new sections include, How to uncover the warning signs of an unhealthy brand, 13 warning signs of an unhealthy brand and When and how to kill or retire a brand. Whether you are an entrepreneur, marketing manager, brand manager, CEO, CMO, business owner, or budding brand guru, this ebook is for you.




"Thanks for this e-book. It has been a fantastic, simple, step-by-step
source of information... it's been the best [money] we ever spent!!" -- Neil, Australia

In this work, Dave discusses image, identity, awareness, brand preference, brand equity and more critical-to-understand branding concepts while also describing the brand management process. He includes a thorough discussion of "The 10 Steps in Building a Powerhouse Brand", outlines the Brand Audit process, and reveals why you must educate people about your brand with both emotional and logical appeals.



"I wanted to extend my gratitude and thanks to you for your insight on Branding through this [e-book]. I have read several opinions on the subject and find your work to be the most informative and easy to understand. I look forward to reading more of your work." -- Miles B., Florida


2 Bonus Sections: Positioning and Integrated Marketing CommunicationsThis newly revised and expanded booklet includes two special bonus sections which you are sure to find helpful. The first is a Brand Positioning Workshop that describes how to go about choosing the best position for your brand. This bonus section walks you through the 8 Steps in Defining A Strong Position that will drive your competitors crazy while the second bonus section on Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) will help you leverage your marketing budget while all your efforts remain in true alignment with your brand's core values.
Order now!

How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health) 
26 pages, Copyright 2007.

With Special Bonus Sections:

• Brand Positioning Workshop


• Integrated Marketing Communications


• Includes free audio book bonus: Branding Through Top End Alignment described below.

Price: $7.75 (U.S.D.)
You will receive an email with download instructions (from sales [at] davedolak-com) once your payment is processed by PayPal. This typically takes less than 24 hours. Please make sure you are looking for this incoming email if you use spam filtering software.



---

How to Brand and Market a Commodity2005 edition
"How to Brand and Market a Commodity" is now available. This e-book describes how to brand and market commodity products.
What is a commodity?
Commodity products are largely undifferentiated products that offer little or no perceived differences between competitive offerings. These are lowly differentiated products or services with high levels of substitutability and straight forward price discovery.
Instead of taking a price, make your price by differentiating your commodity product so that it can command a price premium. This e-book shows you how.
Included in this e-book are discussions of:

• The benefits enjoyed when commodities are branded successfully
• The 5 warning signs of the beginning of commoditization
• Case studies and examples of how other companies have successfully branded their commodities
• The 7 Steps to Commodity Branding
• 11 ways to differentiate your commodity on attributes other than price
Order this e-book now a get a free bonus, "27 Questions to Ask Before Positioning Your Brand".
How to Brand and Market a Commodity e-book.
18 pages, 2005 edition.
With Special Bonus Section:

• "27 Questions to Ask Before Positioning Your Brand"

 Price: $ 4.77 per copy (U.S.D.)


You will be emailed instructions (from sales [at] davedolak-com) on how to download this file once your payment is processed by PayPal and received. This typically takes less than 24 hours.
SAVE and get a free bonus when you buy the e-books above together
 
Perfect companion e-books, "How to Brand and Market a Commodity" and "How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health)".
Both branding e-books described above, How to Build and Manage Your Brand (in sickness and in health), How to Brand and Market a Commodity and Top End Alignment audio seminar as a freebonus.

Price: $ 9.75 (U.S.D.) 
Please ensure that you provide a valid email address when you place your order. Download instructions will be emailed to you (from sales [at] davedolak-com) once your payment is processed by PayPal and received. This typically takes less than 24 hours.


---

Free marketing tool
Direct Mail Cost Effectiveness Worksheet
Right-click on the icon above to download a simple yet useful Excel^®spreadsheet that will help you determine the ROI of your direct mail campaigns. Calculates print cost per piece, total costs, total cost per piece, response rate and cost per response.