How to Choose Exhibition Gifts

How to Choose Exhibition Gifts

Author: Gareth Parkin

Exhibitions are great places to get in direct contact with prospects. At an exhibition, you need not have to fish out your prospects, as only interested persons will come for querying. The onus is how you put yourself across and how you are able to draw the focus among your competitors. Distributing exhibition gifts is a great way of attracting target customers. Remember, people always have an inclination towards getting free gifts and it all depends on your marketing prowess how you can cater to there inclination using your exhibition gifts. In other words, your exhibition gifts do make a huge difference as to how many people will be drawn to you.
Exhibition gifts can be virtually anything...pens, mugs, coasters, folders, and even T-shirts. Selecting which gift to distribute at an exhibition is often a headache because the last thing you would ever want is spending fortunes of exhibition gifts and getting return on investment that is practically zero.

Some great tips on selecting exhibition gifts

Go for theme-based gifts… these go down exceptionally well in exhibitions and can create a lot of interest in your business. You will also benefit from theme based exhibition gifts because a theme would give you a direction based on which you can choose your exhibition gift. The most important thing that’s worth mention is selection of theme. In other words, your exhibition theme and exhibition gifts should reflect the style of your business or organisation. For being an IT supplier there is no point in distributing beer mugs. A far better option would be distributing promotional mouse mats which are well designed and likely to compliment your business and image far better.

Your exhibition gifts should always be customizable with your personal business details. Promotional pens, promotional table and desk coasters, promotional coffee and beer mugs, promotional t-shirts, whatever you give, get them carefully designed, printed, and colored according to your company colors, logos, and make it complete with a very personalized marketing message. At the same time, remember not to make your exhibition gifts too show-off kind, something no one would love to carry. Remember, you are surrounded by your competitors and everyone who visits the exhibition will have enough of free exhibition gifts to mix up. It is only by selection, quality, and personalization by which you can set yourself well ahead of your competitors.

Many exhibitions are of a casual nature. Therefore, purchasing polo shirts or even T-shirts personalized to promote your business or organisation may be a great idea. Make sure you get the correct sizes, and let your employees have a say about the color and style, but these highly popular items make great exhibition gifts. Sometimes, there are mixers for exhibitors the night before the exhibition, which would also be an appropriate place to wear this kind of an item. Also, if your employees will simply be attending the exhibition, instead of running a booth, having a promotional article of clothing is a great idea. Afterwards, your employees can keep and wear this item other places as well.

Get Coverage Using Promotional Bags at Trade Shows

Get Coverage Using Promotional Bags at Trade Shows

Author: Dan Smith

Companies exhibiting at trade shows invest a significant amount of time and money, so it is essential that they maximise this investment by getting as much coverage as possible. Promotional bags are one of the most effective giveaways at trade shows and serve several purposes.

Anyone who has ever been to any kind of exhibition or trade show cannot fail to have noticed the sea of colourful tote bags – overprinted with a brand name or logo – carried on the shoulders of visitors as they walk around. Promotional tote bags are popular with visitors because they are extremely useful for carrying all the brochures, catalogues, samples and freebies they accumulate during the day. And all the time they act as a walking advertisement.

Low cost, branded tote bags are ideal if the prime marketing objective is to create awareness, because they can be handed out fairly randomly to anyone passing by. If, however, the quality of leads is more important than the quantity, a smaller amount of more expensive promotional bags may be a better solution. These can either be handed out to reward key customers or form part of a prize draw to bring people to the stand. Other exhibitors may also be giving away promotional bags so it is important to choose a style, colour and design that will stand out from the competition.

Offering something a little bit different from the rest will help generate interest and a buzz around the hall.Affordable, highly visual and practical, promotional bags are undoubtedly one of the best products for creating maximum exposure at a trade show.

Choosing the Right Promotional Bags Vendor

Choosing the Right Promotional Bags Vendor

Author: Dan Smith

Promotional bags are a highly effective and popular means of advertising, often used to reward loyal customers or to raise brand awareness amongst prospective customers. There are many different types to choose from, ranging from computer bags and conference bags to duffel bags and sports bags.

Each bag has its own distinct features and benefits, offering numerous branding options including embroidery, screen printing and transfer printing. It is therefore important to choose the right vendor to help identify which promotional bags will be best suited to the campaign.

In addition to personal recommendation, a good starting place is to seek advice from one of the relevant promotional merchandise trade associations. Member companies are obliged to operate to a strict code of conduct, which enables prospective customers to feel confident about their integrity, competence and professionalism.

Whether the requirement is for budget or premium promotional bags, it is imperative to get the product quality right as this will reflect on the company and the brand. However, it is not enough to base the selection purely on relevant experience and expertise, as it is equally important to select a supplier that prides itself on a high quality service. Getting this wrong can have disastrous results for the campaign.

Many promotional bag vendors have their own in-house design department that will offer free visual samples and artwork to factory specification, as well as a customisation service for bespoke orders.

Promotional bags are a great way to market any business, but the choice of vendor is crucial if the campaign is to have the maximum impact.

Effectiveness of Branding Promotional Bags

Effectiveness of Branding Promotional Bags

Author: Dan Smith

Promotional bags are an extremely effective means of advertising for any company, primarily used to reward loyal customers or to make an impression on prospective customers at events. Some of the most popular types of promotional bags are: business bags, laptop bags, promotional backpacks, sports bags, travel bags, tote bags and cooler bags.

Anyone considering the use of promotional bags in their next marketing campaign should look into the added benefits of branding. Personalising promotional bags will make them stand out from the crowd, which is fundamental if the promotion’s objective is to raise brand awareness.

In many ways, the choice of branding is just as important as the choice of bag. All promotional bags provide excellent overprinting opportunities with several low cost branding options available.

Screen printing offers the best value for adding a one- or two-colour logo to promotional bags, whereas transfer print is slightly more expensive but ideal for logos needing a four-colour print process. The low cost option in relation to perceived value is embroidering, which can accommodate six colours in any design.

Branding on leather promotional bags should ideally be subtle in line with the quality and intended use of the product. Options include foil blocking or blind embossing. In addition promotional bags can be further customised by the addition of metal and rubber badges or stitched-in labels.

With their combination of practicality, style, superior quality and cutting edge design, branded promotional bagsare a perfect way for a company to demonstrate its commitment to excellence.

Tips to Choosing the Right Promotional Bags

Tips to Choosing the Right Promotional Bags

Author: Dan Smith

With such a diverse selection of promotional bags available, including business bags, laptop bags, promotional backpacks, sports bags, travel bags, tote bags and cooler bags, it can sometimes be difficult to know how to choose the right bag.

First, work out the campaign’s approximate budget, and then check exactly what is and is not included in any quotations.

Establish the marketing objective. Inexpensive promotional bags are ideal as giveaways to raise awareness at a trade show, whereas branded designer bags are more suited as corporate gifts to reward loyal customers.

Get to know the audience. A good understanding of the target market’s interests and lifestyle will make it easier to identify what kind of promotional bags will have the greatest positive influence on them.

Remember that a quality brand requires quality merchandise, with poor quality products likely to have a detrimental effect on the brand. Promotional bags should therefore be in line with the brand’s current or desired external image.

Be innovative. The most successful promotions are those that stand out from the crowd. A good supplier should be able to come up with an exciting range of original ideas.

Consider the question of branding as this is often as important as the choice of bag. Options include screen printing, transfer print, embroidery, foil blocking or blind embossing.

Finally, choose a supplier that places high value on providing a quality service as this can make or break a campaign.

Promotional bags are a highly effective means of advertising for a company, but it is important to choose the right bag to meet the campaign’s objective.

Creating Awareness for Charities

Creating Awareness for Charities

Author: Dan Smith

There are currently about 170,000 main charities in England and Wales registered with the Charity Commission. Many of these not-for-profit organisations rely largely on fund-raising through events, voluntary committees and the sale of charity merchandise.

Charity promotional merchandise encompasses a whole range of items such as T-shirts, silicon wristbands, keyrings, pens, pencils, mugs, balloons and badges, which are overprinted with the charity’s logo.

Of the various kinds of charity merchandise, one of the most successful and cost effective in promoting awareness and boosting funds are badges. Badges are an enduring classic with a high perceived value. Many business sectors including charities have already realised their potential and benefited from their massive appeal.

Several distributors of promotional products support the fundraising sector with a dedicated charity division, offering a full range of merchandise and services for the smallest to the largest charities. This complete tailor made package provides practical solutions at every stage – from design and consultation to warehousing and distribution - helping charities maximise the potential and proceeds of their fundraising campaign.
By working together with the charity to determine the product options and designs that best suit its needs, the distributor is able to supply all kinds of fundraising merchandise, from badges, backing cards and collection boxes to fully integrated campaigns.
With their popular appeal, longevity and low unit cost, badges win on all fronts. Anyone looking to create awareness for their charity through the use of merchandise should therefore look no further than badges.

Power Words That Increase Sales

Power Words That Increase Sales

Author: Jo Mark

Making a purchase is an emotional activity. When browsing among a number of sale items, most people will most often choose the product that makes them feel the best. How you feel about something is an emotional response. Some words or phrases cater to these emotional needs more than others. Sitting on that sofa is so comfortable and cozy. The car you are considering will impress the neighbors. That item for the home looks just perfect with your surroundings. People buy things to satisfy their emotional needs and make them feel good.

By using emotional power words in your titles, ads, emails, and sales pages you will entice more people to buy your product. As proof of this, from which ad below would you prefer to make a purchase?

Ad 1) Sale, sale, sale! Free bonus – today only! Buy 1 tube of XYZ Skin Cream, get 1 FREE! Rub it in and you can feel it releasing all the tension in your body. Makes you feel so relaxed, you’ll think you just had a massage! Fast delivery, Free shipping! Your complete Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money back – no questions asked!

Ad 2) Two tubes XYZ Skin Cream – no charge to ship.

Both of these ads are selling the same thing. But, if you are like most people, you would prefer to buy from ad number 1. In that ad, all of the key words from the list below are used. Try using some of these words in your ads, sales pages, and emails and watch your sales increase!

1. Use the word "fast". People like immediate gratification and want fast results, fast delivery, fast ordering, etc. We value our time more than our money.

2. Use the word "discount/sale " in your ad. People like bargains and are more inclined to buy something on sale. Using a time limit on your sale (today only) makes people more inclined to buy it now.

3. Use the word "you/your" in your ad. Design your ad in a normal conversational tone. People will subconsciously believe that you are talking directly to them. It makes them feel important and more inclined to buy.

Please excuse me now; I have to finish up here. You see, I saw an ad for this new XYZ Skin Cream that I’ve just GOT to order…

Promotional Coasters your Tool to Brand Awareness

Promotional Coasters your Tool to Brand Awareness

Author: Gareth Parkin

Any marketing endeavor is complete only when you are able to make your clients feel that they are important to you. This may sound simple, but can be as difficult. You cannot afford to call up your clients every week to remind them of you. On the contrary, you cannot leave it up to your fate, thinking that you have done enough to keep the client reminded. How do you reconcile between these? Make a strategy so that you don’t need to get into direct contact with your prospects but keep the prospect immaculately reminded of you, your business, and how he would benefit from you. This is where promotional products help.
Distributing promotional items is indeed a cost effective way of reaching out to your clients and prospects. Nowadays, not only small businesses are taking resort to promotional item distribution as their mode of advertising, even the majors are adding this in their marketing budget because of the personalized contact that can be gained through distribution of promotional items.
Promotional coasters are an effective promotional item. Cost effective and large enough to display your marketing message in a readable format, you can distribute printed coasters among your existing clients, design them for office use, home use, and distribute it among your prospects with a hope of staying in their foresight. Whatever may be your objective, printed coasters make great promotional items as these can be completely customized to incorporate your logo, colors, and marketing message.
Some tips!
Categorize your clients - Refrain from distributing the same set of printed coasters to everyone. It will not be so effective. On the contrary, categorize your clients, their office environments, and their outlook and design your printed coasters accordingly. I knew someone who once visited a client’s office to get a look at the desks, tables, etc and accordingly had his coasters printed and designed. Believe me! It worked immensely.
Decide upon the usage - You can distribute printed coasters for office use as well as home use. Remember, a design that is appropriate for office may not be appropriate for home. For example, a printed coaster designed for an office may contain some motivation phrase, some work related quote, etc. This, I am afraid, will not be that much appreciated in a household, where designs are more in use.
Be focused on quality - Quality of promotional coasters you distribute goes a long way in creating your reputation. No client of yours would like to use your printed coasters if they look cheap and have irritating colors, etc. This would in fact, be harmful for your reputation than being neutral. Hence, be careful while deciding upon the quality of your printed promotional coasters. I m not telling you to spend beyond your limits but quality should certainly be a criteria as it would also act as a tool in setting your position above your competitors, who would also be into some sort of marketing activities. A great idea is to try innovative design ideas and marketing message that does not directly tell about your company, but leaves a firm message of the knowledge you have and why it would be beneficial for the client to have you as his supplier.

Redefine Marketing Terminologies With Behavioral Marketing

Redefine Marketing Terminologies With Behavioral Marketing

Author: Rajesh Kumar

Increase in sale is that factor what drives businesses to invent newer effective marketing tactics. This question might have pestered you many times that, if consumer satisfaction is the key to the success of any publicity campaign, then why do not businesses understand the need of their opinion before making any marketing strategy. It is true that consumer’s opinion should also be a part of any company’s marketing strategy and now businesses are also realizing it. That is the reason, which fortified the need of behavioral marketing in business world. Now every marketing expert considers the customer opinion and performance of previous product while making any new marketing strategy. Behavioral marketing is becoming very popular among businesses as it is rising as conventional marketing approach.

Behavioral marketing is redefining the terms of marketing; it keeps consumers in heart of every marketing project. After all consumers are that power that can build or ruin any business. A perfect marketing approach is nothing but a way to read consumer’s mind and to provide them with what they expect. Therefore we can say the behavioral marketing possess the perfect marketing approach as it knows how to read consumer’s mind to satisfy their exact requirements. It targets consumers based on their behavior or reaction for any product or service. Customer feedback is its equation for success as ay product is launched only after knowing what people think about it. It really helps in deciding whether the proposed product or service is worth launching or will it just increase the crowd of products and get vanished very soon. Every step under behavioral marketing is data driven as an effective marketing plan can be made only after analysis of market data.

Such campaigns are planed with the help of data compiled from various mediums such as surveys, feedback forms, hits on site and customer blogs. These all mediums help in getting the exact idea about what enhancement consumers want in new product or service. Today online businesses are growing with rapid pace and they also require something that may be beneficial in strengthening their position in online market therefore online marketing is also becoming consumer oriented. Many behavioral marketers are working to improve the efficiency of online marketing campaigns. They are collecting the data that indicates number of hits, blogs position and position of the website in online world. These marketers serve advertisement to a particular section of society so that the advertisement may grab the attention of authentic and prolific consumers only. These data can be collected through IP information. Many behavioral marketing service providers are offering online and offline business a great opportunity to get the most out of their marketing campaigns.

Behavioral marketing is such a marketing strategy that believes in keeping consumers at the midst of every marketing campaign, so that consumers may realize how you take care of their advice and requirements. That will be really a delighting experience for you and you consumer that you both are contributing in development of a better market environment.

How to Increase Profits by Knowing your Product and Competition

How to Increase Profits by Knowing your Product and Competition

Author: Tan Yian Chuan

During various IT shows, I am often surprised at how sales representatives continuously inundate me with the same one-dimensional marketing proposition.

"There is no point checking out the other offers available at the other booths, because they're all generally the same. In fact, if you purchase this laptop from us, you will get a free memory upgrade to X GB!"

Hopping over to the next booth, their laptops came with that amount of memory.

All this illustrates 2 things:

- You realise how ill-prepared many of these sales reps are. The companies or themselves have not gone through the necessary own product and marketing training;

- Despite claims, they have not done their field research of other competing products and marketing.

Both these could have been avoided easily if the necessary research, planning and education had been applied to their marketing effort. In doing so, both companies and employees would be clear on what their business and product offered, and how they differed from competitors. With this, they would be in a position to create more value, better bonuses and greater incentives for people to buy in.

The following methods can be used to arrive at this position:

1. Compare the benefits of your product with that of your competitors'. Come up with new and better benefits over that of your competitors', that you could provide;

2. Note the unique benefits of your product;

3. Using all the case studies that you have personally encountered, and also that of the most successful businesses and people, determine what the 3 best benefits and selling points their products have;

4. Which of these could be applied to -your- product?

With these methods, you will gain a clearer and thorough understanding of the benefits and advantages your product has to offer over others'. From the resulting marketing to the clients, you would be able to iterate your selling points and assist them in making well-informed buying choices. By building credibility in showing your market and product understanding, clients are more often than not, likely to select your product. And you.

Promote your Website With Unique Article Submissions

Promote your Website With Unique Article Submissions

Author: Keith Driscoll

Unique articles are imperative as they improve a website's visibility on the WWW. Unique articles are distinct as articles that wouldn’t be found in the majority of web sites on the WWW. An article submission is usually done to get the top quality backlink with the most fitting anchor link. Every time an article submission is published, the author gets another link to their website. If your company is giving web marketing the attention it deserves, then article submission is a marketing practice which should be a solid part of your approach to marketing your products, services and brand online. The only problem I found to SEO article submission is the time and effort it takes to submit your article to the article directories. In a nutshell article submission is a way to add link popularity.

You can pickup articles from many sites but most of those free articles are used on 1000’s of other sites too therefore it means you just have duplicate content on your website, and since search engines can easily identify the duplicate content on the internet therefore your content will not have any importance to search engines. Having quality targeted and unique content is more useful to a Webmaster than having the same mass-produced poor articles that are so frequent on the web today. I would apply the free articles as a starter but its best to write your own.

It is pretty noticeable that the articles you submit will be featured in front of 1000’s of website owners, ezine publishers, creative writers, professional bloggers who are always in the pursuit of fresh, original content. There are hundreds of general and niche article directories which are ready to publish your quality articles with back links to your website(s). Any site will accept articles for publication as long as they give readers valuable information. It is vital to submit as many articles as possible to give you the exposure you need to be sought after by publishers.

Also don't use articles to promote your company within the content. Try not to use unique information within every single article that you write though, mix and match them.

Straighforward, easy to read articles are quite effective in achieving your goals of higher website traffic and profits. If you think one article will help you with building a link marketing campaign you are incorrect, you need to constantly write and submit articles to do this.

Like all great advertising methods, everyone and their grandmother is jumping on the bandwagon to submit articles, however not all of them are decent. And now some of the big article directories are sorting out the wheat from the chaff; discarding obvious spam and low quality articles that are submitted to them. However, the key for your article submission promotion to be successful is not just creating quality, informative and creative articles, but you must also submit them to the correct sites in the right manner so that your desired audiences can find them. If you are not submitting articles to promote your website today, then you are seriously missing out a huge piece of targeted traffic eager to purchase your products, or register for your affiliate programs or list.

Aligning Brands and Channels

Aligning Brands and Channels

Author: Bob Segal

People look like their dogs. I say this based on my non-scientific sample of fellow pet owners I have met while walking through Oz Park in Chicago with my own (handsome) dog, Kelsey. My informal assessment is supported by researchers at the University of California at San Diego. Dog owners, the researchers theorize, pick pooches that reflect the owner's disposition--happy, moody, tough, etc.

What does this have to do with marketing? Well, marketers should foster the same type of match between their brands and channels as pet owners do between themselves and their dogs. If your company's brand stands for "productivity," that's what your channel should deliver. If you promote your "inventiveness," your channels should be similarly creative. If your company is known for its "high style," your customers expect to see that cutting edge image when they meet your resellers.

While this might seem intuitive, I am amazed by how few companies take proactive steps to ensure that their channels reflect the brand image the manufacturer is trying to present. In our brand implementation work with clients, Frank Lynn & Associates uses a detailed checklist to review all of the potential "touch points" between customers and the brand. While advertising, Web sites, product literature, and other media clearly play a role, the channel is frequently the most influential brand communicator on the list.

One of our industrial clients is working hard to promote a brand image that stresses cost-cutting and efficiency (by promoting the use of its products in six-sigma manufacturing processes). The client has educated its salespeople, enlisted industry consultants, created an online knowledge base, etc. Unfortunately, most of the client's distributors are primarily "order-takers." The distributors' salespeople do not know how, and are not motivated, to make a consultative, engineering sale. Having visited our client's Web site, or hearing our client's CEO speak, a customer would be significantly confused when they visit one of the distributors.

The situation reminds me of the (possibly apocryphal) meeting between Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. Monroe gushed, "Gosh what do you say, professor, shouldn't we marry and have a little baby together? What a baby it would be--my looks and your intelligence!" Einstein then quipped, "Yes, but dear lady, it might be the other way around."

Fearing such a result, our industrial client is taking steps to rectify the situation.

Before we get into the steps that any manufacturer can take to align brand and channel messages, we first need a sidebar on the issue of channel power. When I bring up the issue of brand/channel alignment, many clients complain they do not have the power to compel their channel partners to behave in a certain way. Sure, if you are John Deere, Lexus, Coca-Cola, or IBM you carry some clout in the channel relationship. But, even these companies cannot command adherence to a brand strategy. And, at the other extreme, manufacturers of tertiary products, those who might represent less than 1-2 percent of their partners' business, sometimes feel powerless.

I do not believe the situation is as problematic as some companies might believe. We have developed a significant list of tactics that can help. While each tactic might not apply to your company, or a tertiary-product company, I am convinced there is something for everyone in our list.

Before pursuing any of these tactics, companies need to make sure they have a powerful brand message. Without going into much detail here, we tell clients to think about brands using an approach we call UCC--unique, compelling, and credible.

With such a brand position in place, companies can create a strong brand/channel alignment by adopting some combination of the following tactics:

1. Channel Selection. Perhaps the most powerful tactic to deploy is making brand alignment one of the criteria you use to select channel partners in the first place. If, however, you are already stuck with channel partners that do not exactly fit the brand message, then add even a few new partners that do fit, and promote them as a model. Competitiveness and guilt are wonderful motivators to the existing partners.

2. Company-Owned Channels. While we do not generally advocate that manufacturers open up their own dealerships or distributors (especially in competition with existing channel partners), this tactic is sometimes necessary. When IBM launched the first PC, they opened up IBM Product Centers, in no small part to demonstrate to new, independent dealers what a retail facility should look like. Sony, Nike, Viacom, and other companies have opened up their own dealerships for similar reasons. Some of our clients have even opened up company-owned channels, on a temporary basis, to get across their brand message--then turned around and sold the business to an independent dealer who understood the value of the brand.

3. Activity-Based Compensation. You may already know that Frank Lynn & Associates strongly advocates activity- or functional-based compensation, in general. You can tie some portion of the channel's discount/rebate to performing activities that relate to brand alignment, e.g., training salespeople, using your promotional materials, or any of the other tactics in this list.

4. Store-within-a-Store. If you sell through a retail channel, consider the store-within-a-store concept to bring a bit of your brand directly into the retailer. Perfume companies pay their own reps to work behind the counters at department stores. HP and Microsoft teamed up to create unique display areas within retailers, where customers could gain hands-on experience with products in a variety of applications. Industrial products manufacturer, Parker Hannifin, has established several hundred ParkerStores at its distributors. Kodak has placed thousands of its photo kiosks in retail locations.

5. Point-of-Sale. If a store-within-store or even a kiosk seems a bit overwhelming, do not underestimate the power of basic point-of-sale materials. These may be small displays that surround your product, stand-alone racks, or simply hand-out materials. Regardless, they bring your message directly to the customer. They can also serve as training (see below) for channel salespeople. Make sure to coordinate with channel partners since each has its own perspective of what fits (and what does not).

6. Channel Training. Partners may not reflect your brand message due to a lack of employee skills. Or, perhaps your message never filtered down to the individual sales or technical people that "touch" the customer. You can roll out a separate course just on branding and marketing your product, or you can combine it with product training. If you are on a budget, try webinars or CD/DVDs.

7. Champions. If training does not get you far enough, consider building channel champions. These are channel employees that, for whatever reason, are, or could be, boosters of your brand. Maybe, they have had a good experience using or selling your brand. Maybe they are just really into your technology or style. Maybe they have a good relationship with your channel account manager. Whatever the reason, find these people and treat them right. Their enthusiasm for your brand can be infectious. This strategy works particularly well for manufacturers of tertiary brands. Maybe you cannot get the attention of your partner's CEO, but the category manager or individual sales rep might care.

8. Marketing and Sales Tools. Aligning manufacturers and channel brands requires repetition. You need to communicate your brand position to and through the channel on a frequent basis. One means of accomplishing this is by providing channel partners with tools that they can use over and over. (Proposal boilerplate, partner portal with product, ordering, technical information, sales checklist, product configurator, planogram, or FAQs on your website) While these tools are not conventional brand media, each of these tools can slowly, but surely, shape the way your channel partners act and communicate with customers.

9. Account Plans. Partners often do not fully appreciate the strategic thinking behind your brand message. If so, I can guarantee that they do not appreciate the benefit of the various tactics I have described above. To help partners grasp your brand strategy, the importance of your tactical plans, and the financial impact on their business, you need to instigate an annual planning process with your partners. The plan, preferably developed by the channel's principal or senior executive, should squarely address the issue of brand alignment. Channel principals/executives, especially in smaller firms, do not have anyone with whom they can discuss strategy. Your account manager becomes their business consultant. The plan should outline how you and the partner will achieve joint sales and profit targets. As such, it should cover all the activities that relate to brand alignment - training, promotion, advertising, customer targets, employee training, etc.

In a world of increasing commoditization, manufacturers must create and reinforce brand messages that trumpet their differentiation. Channels are arguably the most important media for communicating with customers. However, customers simply do not want to buy from manufacturers and channels that are not in agreement about fundamental premises and promises. The good news is that you have a wide variety of tools and tactics to bring channels into alignment with your brand message.

Oh, and don't forget to take the dog out for a walk.

A Case for Market Research: Do you Really Know What your Customers Think?

A Case for Market Research: Do you Really Know What your Customers Think?

Author: Jeanne Fec

Every quarter, Frank Lynn & Associates conducts a channel-marketing workshop for sales and marketing managers from many different types of companies. Many--even large Fortune 1000 companies--do not use formal customer research as a strategic marketing tool.

Some of their main excuses include:
> "Sales people talk to customers all the time. They bring a lot of customer insight."
> "Customer research is done for product development, and that isn't a constant need."
> "Internally, the discretionary annual marketing budget leans toward marketing communications, like new literature campaigns, mailings, etc. to drive growth."

Smart Business interviewed Jeanne Fec, Senior Principal of Frank Lynn & Associates Inc., to learn more about using formal customer research to optimize investments in new products and drive growth in sales and market share.

What about using the sales force for research? Aren't they the critical interface between a company and their customers?

The sales force is one of the biggest investments a company makes, and it can be used as a "conduit" to understanding customer sentiment. This is important. But there are two problematic issues in gathering customer insight from the company sales force.

How do typical sales people spend their time? If they are good account managers, it is with existing, high-value customers. Here is the gap. How do we learn from those outside the sales force's circle of presence? Companies that consistently maintain double-digit growth make it a point to learn and act upon perceptions, purchasing behaviors and expectations of prospective and low-profile customers.

Then there is focus and motivation. Sales people are trained and paid to sell. It is a challenge to get reliable and effective market research from salespeople. A formal customer research effort more effectively delivers unbiased data. Customers will also note the extra effort taken to understand their perspective.

Are there additional reasons to use consistent customer or non-customer research?

Research and development is another big investment that market research can optimize. Numerous companies fail to include external customer research in the product development process.

Engineering-driven organizations are especially vulnerable here. Great ideas are put into motion because they seem to solve problems or outstrip the competition on design and capabilities.

Successful marketing strategies must also take into account the size, sensitivity and buying behavior of target end-user segments. This is a step best filled with regular collection of insight from those customers. But we still have clients come to us regularly with great products, seeking a market to buy them.

End-user research can effectively and efficiently answer critical acceptance questions before a more significant investment is made. These basic questions can be incorporated into a research methodology that can be conducted in person, over the phone or via questionnaire.

Give us some examples of key research questions.

Certainly. Let's continue with our example of a new technology product being prepared for a launch.

Technology: Does the technology meet the customer's needs or solve the problem? Is it perceived to be robust enough? Or overkill for the existing situation?

Economics: Are the benefits greater than the cost? Developing an actual selling price is a challenge in any research methodology, but good research can define a value-based price range in the mind of the customer.

Timing: Are prospective customers capable and willing to make a purchase in the short term? Asking questions about purchase cycles, budgets, approval processes, centralized versus decentralized buying behaviors, and other timing questions will help gauge opportunity forecasts.

Environment: Research questions can assist in understanding behaviors that have a high impact on success. For example, you can test the customer's internal environment, which means the customer's level of sophistication and readiness to adopt the new technology. It is also critical to understand the customer's external environment, such as alliances with competitors or previous negative experiences. In the overall scheme of things, this type of research investment is small relative to the cost of R&D and product development.

We've talked about customer satisfaction research, new customer access and new product research. Are there other ways that research helps companies grow?

Good research has proven to help companies maintain current share, grow within their customer base, and strategically grow outside of it. There is one additional benefit research can deliver. Customer research can tell us how to raise the bar. It informs us about unmet needs, or identifies unique benefits that competitors do not deliver.

Develop a Powerful Nonprofit Marketing & Communications Budget

Develop a Powerful Nonprofit Marketing & Communications Budget

Author: Harris Eisenberg

Today we will try to answer the age old question: What portion of a nonprofit’s budget should be spent on marketing and communications? Let’s be straight from the start - you need to have a comprehensive and realistic budget. This is the most critical component of your plan, consider this a map to reach your goals.

In the for-profit world the standard for a marketing budget is 10-20% of projected gross revenue. However, things aren’t so clear in the nonprofit world where there is a dual bottom line of people and dollars. In this case you should take a percentage approach OR a flat dollar approach.

What’s most important is that you establish a budget prior to the start of each fiscal year, and track costs and outcomes, quantifiable outcomes especially, through the year. This enables you to analyze cost vs. benefit.

The Percentage Approach
This approach is tracks expenditures directly to an organizations growth or decline in budget and membership throughout the year. The main advantage of a budget based on your organizational finances is that it is organic - spending grows with your organization. Please note, organizations must oftem make exceptions for special needs (launch of a new program, introducing new leadership, etc.).

The average allocation is from 9% to 12% of your annual organizational budget (start with 10% as a rule of thumb). And note: advocacy organizations need to allocate more of their budgets to communications, since much of their advocacy work is communications or outreach based.

Here’s a simple example of a budget shaped by the percentage approach:

2% advertising and promotion media (be sure to include postage)
4% production and printing (newsletters, brochures)
2% special events
3% salaries, consultants and freelancers.

The Dollar Approach
Many organizations prefer a flat dollar approach and find it to be easier (and safer) than the percentage approach since your total budget has to cover utilities, rent, taxes, health insurance, etc.

To define the dollar amount for the year, start out with calculations based on last year’s costs and then revise it to reflect new programs or other events on the horizon. Contact colleagues in the field and prospective vendors to accurately gauge costs and get your projections as accurate as possible. Either way, this will help you produce a baseline budget.

What Budgeting Does for You
You will find that a formal budget is a great tool. Your budget (and plan) will help you distinguish between needs and wants. You’ll see how much you have to spend to reach your goals and, via tracking results, understand what programs are working to reach those goals. For example, based on your budget, you may decide to promote your advocacy campaigns via direct mail and email, media relations, and paid advertising in order to match fundraising and actionable timeframes or, you may decide to hold off on enhancing your already strong membership campaign with the launch of a members-only
web site.

In the end, results matter, plan and track to make sure you succeed.

Learn the Secrets of Launching a Successful Enterprise - Marketer Mark

Learn the Secrets of Launching a Successful Enterprise - Marketer Mark

Author: Paul Sterling & Kristin Denton

This morning Mark Joyner's assistant, Anne Reilly, emailed me to let me in on something new...

A hush-hush, super secret project Mark is about to launch.

Her email stopped me in my tracks and had me totally shift my focus from what I was doing to promoting this new product for Mark - he's that amazing.

How would you like to have the power to capture people's attention at the mention of your name? To have an army of people actively promoting your products to their lists?

Got your interest... yet? I hope so because he does this again and again and again.

How do Mark and the other masters of internet marketing do it?

1) He over-delivers - consistently, product after product.

2) He builds a presence on the internet (viral marketing is key - delivering free content that is shared and shared.)

3) He has websites, many of them - and it's true, no matter what BS people say - you need a website or many (I have about 50).

4) He gets his content out on the net (he writes shorts, quality articles and gets them out on the net - see my blog on how to get them out to many sites quickly and easily).

5) He builds his team. And now you can add Mark Joyner to your team. HE has spent years and years working on the net to become an 'overnight' success.

6) He creates a launch plan.

7) He Builds Buzz and Curiosity - track his and others to see how it works - save their emails - write a step by step flow chart.

8) And I'm sure he continues to learn. Become an affiliate of the Big Guys and Big Gals and learn how it done from the inside out.

9) He builds relationships so when you are ready - people know who you are and will drop what they are doing and help you succeed.

These steps are followed by internet successes including people like Tellman Knudson, Ben Mack and Matt Bacak and others.
Get started toady and watch Mark Joyner's launch and learn.