The feedback will help the company come up with a name for their non-profit charitable organization which tries to help the less fortunate in America.
Help out here if you can and pass it along:
Every brand needs refreshing every once in a while to stay current and relevant as trends change in the market. Smaller companies and non-profit organizations need to rebrand as well. Here are some of the most common rebranding mistakes to avoid:
1. Believing that you are too small too rebrand
No company is too small to re-brand. If you don’t update your brand with current colors, fonts etc. you will look outdated to customers and you will lose them to your competition. I know I wouldn’t buy from a company using the teal and peach colors popular in the 80′s or a company that had photos of outdated computers on their website. Would you?
2. Not using professionals
A big mistake many companies make is thinking that they can use in-house employees to rebrand. These people may get the job done, but you will risk an outcome that looks less than professional. Leave it to the advertising agency to rebrand your company. It will take them less than half the time and the results will be better than you have envisioned. Let’s face it, what is the point of rebranding if your end result looks like you took some clip art out of a word program and pasted it on your marketing materials.
3. Don’t go all out. A simple face-lift will suffice.
You don’t need to put your entire marketing budget into a rebranding with an entire new look. You will be amazed at what a little tweak to your slogan and logo will do. You will need new business cards, letterhead and marketing materials, but these don’t cost much at all to replenish.
4. Not doing any research
Don’t rebrand on your own. Do research online, see what the trends are, what appeals to the masses. Devoting a few hours of your time for a permanent change to your business will be well worth it. You should also include the opinions of others in the company. Believe it or not, you might not be the expert on what people like to see visually in a brand.
5. Just updating your logo and nothing else
A brand is more than just a logo. This is an extremely common misconception.
It may seem like a no-brainer but the key to having a successful trade show is great marketing. But the marketing strategy is certainly not the same across the board for every company. That is why you should have a strategic event plan. Every booth should have at least two people. One person would be overwhelmed.
Have an Exhibit Marketing Plan
You need to decide what you wish to accomplish at the show. Are you introducing a new product or service? Are you seeking out new customers or trying to sell more to existing customers? Try to focus on one specific strategy so that you don’t get overwhelmed. This isn’t to say that you turn away new customers if you plan to focus on current customers.
You also want to come up with a trade show budget. Your goal is to maximize profits while still getting a booth that will attract customers. You will also want to factor in any kind of giveaways, brochures, business cards and budget on employees that will be manning the booth during the trade show.
Have a Great Exhibit
Your booth can be flashy and colorful but if it doesn’t explain what you do and include your brand, you’ve wasted your money. There are many booths out there that look like they’ve spent a lot of money on them but you want people to remember you for your unique product or service not just that bright purple booth with the flashing lights. People are going to be passing by quickly so you need to make sure you highlight your product or service so that it gets noticed. Your panels should incorporate your brand and logo but you might also consider photos of your products or services. People are very visual and remember photographs.
You also want to consider a budget when considering a booth. What size can you afford? Do you have someone in-house to design it or do you need to hire an outside agency to do the graphic design for you? Make sure that you give yourself enough time before the show to design and order the booth so that it will be ready on the date of your trade show. A designer will need at least two weeks to design the booth and you will need a few more weeks to have made and shipped to you. This also applies to any panels that you plan on having if your budget allows.
G&W has designed some great booths, panels and giveaways. Here are some examples of what we can do for you for your trade show:
Implement Powerful Marketing Tools
These marketing tools have to be implemented before during and after the show. Don’t just limit yourself to these strategies during the show. You will want to advertise your show for a proper time before the show to attract current customers to the show. In addition to advertising you will want to prepare the brochures that you will be handing out to customers and plan on the giveaways and contests that you will be using during the show. You need to decide if you will be designing new brochures or using ones that you may already have at the show to advertise your brand and company. Many times the existing ones will suffice. Using existing materials will also help you stay within budget.
Select cost-efficient giveaways. If you plan on giving away a more expensive item like a bag rather than a cheaper pen, you may want to keep them behind your booth and only give them to the really interested customers who spend a lot of time talking to you about your products and services. Your giveaways should also reflect your company’s image. Here is where you can get creative. Remember the idea of giveaways is to have your brand be noticed well after the show is over. Choose something that will get a lot of use from your customers. We recently ordered tissue boxes as a giveaway. The client gave the tissue boxes to doctor’s offices and the office placed the tissues at the front desk. This provided a ton of exposure for the client because every customer that came up to the desk and got tissues saw the name of the client. Think your giveaway through thoroughly for maximum exposure.
A great idea to get names and numbers of potential clients is to giveaway something expensive such as an Ipod and have customers fill out an entry form and drop it in the box. This will only cost you a couple of hundred dollars but generate a ton of leads that you can follow up with later. Don’t forget to get phone numbers, addresses and email addresses.
Choose Trade Shows That You Attend Wisely
Don’t be hasty and just choose any trade show haphazardly. You want to make sure that the trade shows that you choose to attend have a history of high attendance and that the customers that attend will utilize your services. You don’t want to attend a gardening show if you sell pet items. This is a very obvious example, but you get the hint. You can contact the show beforehand and ask how many attendees they had in a previous year and how many they expect to attend at the show you will be attending.
Make Sure Your Employees Know Your Plan
You want to make sure that you bring your employees up to speed well ahead of time about your plan at the show so that they have time to familiarize themselves with the strategy, giveaways etc. You don’t want to send them in blind and have them just “wing-it.” You will want to have at least two employees manning your booths. One to talk to customers and the other to help with brochure and promotional giveaways. One person manning the booths will not be enough at all and will likely get very overwhelmed.
If you keep organized and plan well in advance you will have an extremely successful trade show and should get plenty of leads to follow up with. Don’t forget to try to land the sale at the show too! You will be much more successful if you get the customer to buy on the spot. Once they leave without a purchase you will have less of a chance of getting the sale. Contact G&W today to get started on a brand spanking new trade show booth sure to attract tons of customers at your upcoming show.
Do you have a call to action on your website and in your marketing materials?
Go ahead take a look. In your marketing materials do you tell them what to do next? Do you have a call to action on your printed materials and website? It may sound a no-brainer but you’d be surprised how many companies don’t have a strong call to action on their marketing materials (online, and in print). By using a “call to action” you are directly drawing your potential customers in to utilize your product or service. I know those shiny, brightly colored buttons on a website draw my attention!
Let’s consider that your potential customer has picked up a piece of your marketing collateral, perhaps it’s that fantastic brochure you just had designed. They begin to read it and as they flip through the brochure they realize hey might be able to use your services, but they get to the end and they don’t know what to do, because you presented them with no call to action.
You didn’t tell them to call you. You didn’t tell them to visit your website. They contemplate, they ponder and then they toss away your brochure without even contacting you.
Does this sound absurd? It does at first glance, but take a close look at your marketing materials; your website and your print collateral. Do you have any calls to action? Many companies do not and it isn’t even something they have even thought about consciensly.
The best way that I’ve found to create an effective call to action is imagine the questions the consumer has when viewing your marketing information.
Let’s just take a look at a few that come to mind immediately.
How do I contact them? Are they available via telephone, internet, fax, or email? Why should I buy from them? What do they offer me? Will they save me money? Will they make my life easier? Are they better than their competition? Is there any immediacy? Are they running any promotions if I contact them before a deadline date? Will I receive a discount if I act now? Does your marketing material answer all of those questions?
Your call to action must include every way possible that they can contact you and buy from you. Include your telephone number, your address, your website address and of course your email. Share with them how your product will solve a problem they may be encountering. Solution-position your product so it touches the spot of pain your consumer is feeling and flesh out those benefits, now tell them how to get those benefits.
You should also use active current language. Words such as:
- Call
- Buy
- Register
- Subscribe
- Donate
All of these encourage users to take action.
To create a sense of urgency you can use words like this alongside phrases such as:
- Offer expires September 30th
- For a short time only
- Order now and receive a free gift
Our call to action button says “Contact us today for your FREE marketing consultation”
Here are some other examples:
If you do these simple things you can create a strong call to action that will in fact increase the potential customers that contact you just from reading your marketing material. This will give you an edge over your competition and will most likely immediately increase your sales.
There are numerous ways to market using video. Commercials are the traditional method but new technologies have allowed for many more techniques in video that can be more affordable options and in some cases even free. The internet has opened up the world of online video marketing which has many subcategories of its own, companies mail out dvds with dvd commercials you can play on your pc or your dvd player and now you can even open up your favorite magazine and play an embedded video in an ad!
TV Commercials
The average American spends about four and a half hours per day in front of the television making watching the tube one of the most common leisure activities, so it is no surprise that television advertising is still the most powerful form of advertising. Since the advent of cable, it is now feasible for medium and small business to be able to afford television advertising spots. To get the most bang for your buck it is crucial to have a good script and have a strong message. Ads should look professional so that your business looks credible so it is advised that you enlist the services of an advertising agency. You may be great at making widgets, but an advertising agency is great at selling brands so you should trust them to do what they do best. Galvanek and Wahl can evaluate your product or service, the demographics, where and when you should be placing your ad, create your campaign, write the script and shoot the video.
Internet Video Advertising Methods
The Internet has opened up a whole new variety of advertising methods that can be utilized online. Social media has been the backbone of most of my articles lately because it come on so fast and it is so viral that if your company is not utilizing these free tools then you will be left behind by your competition who is using them.
1. YouTube Videos
YouTube is a website that was started in 2005 that allows users to share, upload, and view videos. Videos are limited to ten minutes in length. There have been many YouTube “celebrities” and videos that have gotten so many views you have to have been living under a rock to not have seen them. The greatest thing to come from YouTube is the ability to share these short video clips on other websites most times by just clicking a button somewhere on the website. These websites include Content Managed Websites like WordPress which have a plugin that is prominent on the page to share a link immediately, Twitter, and Facebook. The most impressive and important website that has video views is Facebook. According to Data from comScore’s Video Metrix service Facebook is now the 5th largest provider of videos. You can share your newest products, services, and do a sales pitch all on your Facebook Fan Page. The idea is to make the videos captivating and engrossing so that you bring the customer to your website. Offer a discount right off the bat or unveil a great new product that captures the eye and makes the consumer want to buy what you are selling!
2. Flash Video for Websites
A beautiful flash piece on a website can give your company a lot of credibility. It can make you look sophisticated and that you are well versed in your field of whatever goods or services you are selling. Here are some examples of Flash that Galvanek and Wahl have incorporated into WordPress Websites:
http://www.yorkstreetcapital.com
http://www.valentinemanagementgroup.com/
http://www.ghostsoftheheartland.com/
3. Interactive Videos
Short videos can be shot and integrated onto a website for a customer who is interested in only seeing one or two areas of a campus, facility, warehouse, cruise ships, hotels, which is adaptable to many different industries including:
Schools, Colleges, Hospitals, Hotels, Corporate Headquarters, Shopping Malls, Cruise Ships, Ski Resorts, Country Clubs, Golf Courses, Reception Halls, Historic Sites, Parks, Gyms, Museums and more.
Galvanek and Wahl Advertising Agency (G&W) has developed a cutting-edge online video tour application that not only engages and interacts with your online visitors, but also effectively presents your business’s core messaging and values. G&W has created InterACT, the Interactive Application.
The Peddie School has utilized this application for their website and it has been a huge success to show prospective students what it is like at the school.
To take the Peddie School Tour go to:
http://www.peddie.org/InteractiveTour/index.html
Another client that has utilized the InterAct application is KineticPT, a physical therapy firm with two locations in Northern New Jersey. To Take their interactive tour go to:
http://www.kineticpt.com/interact/
4. Enclosures in Mailings
Sending out dvds to hundreds or thousands of potential clients can get quite costly. It can be an effective way advertise to your current and prior clients though. Your current client list is financially the most powerfully tool that you have at your fingertips. You can choose a sampling of the most trusted and closest clients that you have worked with and send out a dvd highlighting your newest or most innovative product or service. You can also offer a free workshop on the dvd and offer a discount for bringing it back in and signing up for a class, program or purchase something. Interactive methods often work best. People like to feel like they are getting something for nothing and in return they often purchase something from you that they may not have even thought they needed.
5. Videos Embedded in Magazines
Things that used to be science fiction are happening in today’s technological world. Now you can grab your favorite magazine and see a video advertisement right on the pages of the magazine! Check out the article about it here:
Video marketing can be very beneficial and many who have used it have gotten high returns on investments. This is especially true with Television commercials. It isn’t a coincidence that the Superbowl commercials cost millions of dollars and that they are a main topic of discussion before and after the game! There are options available at every budget. Galvanek and Wahl can help you hone in on what would be the best option for your company and get you going with a video marketing plan and package.
Galvanek and Wahl had the wonderful opportunity to be invited by Craig M. Aronow from RAM law to speak at the First Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference May 19th at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ. Galvanek and Wahl gave three sessions on marketing and advertising:
Session 1: Social Networking
Session 2: The Power of the Press
Session 3: Websites
Galvanek and Wahl designed RAM law’s new website which was launched in February, 2010. To see RAM law’s new WordPress website:
To learn more about the event:
Corporate sponsorship and lending a name to a good cause is a great way to market your business. This is especially true if it touches your company personally with an employee who has an illness or is affected by family members with illnesses. There are other good causes out there as well such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and providing homes for abandoned pets. If you primarily do business within the United States, it is probably best to keep your efforts near home. If you are a global brand, than global causes will suit you well.
Find a connection within your company for a cause that you can believe in and support and it will benefit your company and the people in the cause. There are many causes that have a lot of bureaucracy and red tape to filter through. There are also many that are private research companies that give 100% of the donations to the research to help find a cure for a disease.
One of these is the Alliance for Lupus Research which Galvanek and Wahl’s own Erika Wahl is walking for on October 23rd, 2010. Her goal is to raise $2000.00 by that day in an effort to cure lupus which she suffers complications to her kidneys and other parts of her body due to the illness. To support Erika’s Effort visit Erika’s personal page:
http://walk.lupusresearch.org/site/TR/286484168?pg=personal&fr_id=2540&px=1961235
The Alliance for Lupus Research is looking for corporate sponsorship and you can find more information about that by emailing Sheri Kirkpatrick at skirkpatrick@lupusresearch.org.
Here are some statistics on Cause marketing:
Cause marketing will be the fastest growing category of sponsorship spending in 2010, predicts the IEG Sponsorship Report.
Corporate cause sponsorship will rise 6.1% to hit $1.61 billion in 2010, according to their forecast.
In 2009, corporate cause sponsorship was virtually flat — down 0.3% to $1.51 billion — whereas the overall sponsorship category was down 0.6%. Sports, which accounts for nearly 70% of sponsorship spending, was down 1%. CM’s share of the overall sponsorship market remained at 9%.
Projected spending, growth and category share in 2010 are:
- Sports: $11.6 billion, up 2.8% 68%
- Entertainment Tours/Attractions: $1.74 billion, up 5.7% 10% share
- Causes: $1.61 billion, up 6.1%, 9% share
- Arts: $841 million, up 2.6%, 5% share
- Festivals, fairs, annual events: $781 million, up 3.3%, 5% share
- Associations, membership orgs: $503 million, up 3.4%, 3% share
Over the last few years, cause sponsorship has grown as follows:
2009 — $1.51 billion, 0.3% decline
2008 — $1.52 billion, 5.5% growth
2007 — $1.44 billion, 10.4% growth
2006 — $1.34 billion, 20.2% growth
2005 — $1.17 billion, 18.4% growth
2004 — $988 million, 7.2% growth
2003 — $922 million, 6.3% growth
2002 — $816 million, 13% growth
Back in 1990, cause sponsorship spending was only $120 million.
Big brands and small brands seem to be investing more money into supporting good causes.
- Create a cause linked to your brand purpose. E.g. Pepsi Refresh Project. Beware of greenwashing, pinkwashing and jumping on irrelevant bandwagons.
- Make sure it’s meaningful. E.g. the MAC Viva Glam initiative, which gives 100% of all purchases on an annual basis.
- Invest in it for the long haul. E.g. Yoplait’s Save Lids to Save Lives, which is 11 years strong.
- Create something employees can get engaged with. E.g. Innocent Brand’s The Big Knitproject, which got employees learning knitting from elders and making hats to benefit Help for the Aged.
- Act quickly. E.g. Tide’s Loads of Hope. Trucks filled with washers were sent to help Hurricane Katrina victims clean up.
- Something that’s brand-relevant. E.g. Haagen-Dazs Help the Honeybees initiative, which sent lobbyists to Capitol Hill to participate in the honeybee shortage.
If your company doesn’t have a Facebook fan page then the question to ask is why not? It is free and if that isn’t enough to convince you, consider these staggering statistics:
- There are more than 400 million active users.
- 50% of those active users log on every day
- The average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook
- An average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events
- More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month
- Average user creates 70 pieces of content each month
These statistics alone should be enough on their own to motivate you to start and maintain a Facebook fan page. But if you still aren’t convinced consider these points:
1. Facebook fan pages are public. While profiles require a login, most fan pages do not. Search engines can index the page giving you even more presence on the web to get people to be directed back to your website.
2. Facebook fan pages include links so you can link directly to your website.
3. You can send updates to all of your fans whenever you like. This includes links, news, photos, videos and simple status updates about your business. Don’t overload your fans with constant updates because this can get annoying but make the content interesting and engaging. Here is a chance to get creative by getting your fans to interact with your company’s page. You can offer contests, create polls (which are great for useful feedback), or just share some witty, applicable content which makes a fan interested enough to share your page with their friends.
4. You are able to control the page. You can add as many administrators as you’d like who can all make changes or updates to the page whenever they like.
5. When you post your updates, they show up in the fan’s News feed. This makes it somewhat viral.
6. It’s just about as easy to set up as it gets. If you have a personal Facebook page that you visit regularly, you should have no problem setting up your company’s fan page. After you set up your company’s Facebook Fan page, the next step is to invite all of your friends to be fans. Just be sure to post regular, interesting and engaging updates to your fan’s news feed and your fan base should grow on it’s own.
Do you think you are doing all that you can do to attract and retain customers? Have you even put any thought into whether or not you are doing this? If you own a business this should be a top priority for you. Your customers are the bread and butter of your company and without them you would never be able to make a profit. Lets take a look a five different methods to attract and retain your customers for good.
First, listen and act on the feedback that you are getting from your customers
This should be a no-brainer but you’d be amazed at how many companies ignore the feedback that they are getting from their customers because they feel like they know best about their company’s strategy and plan.
People know what they like and don’t like. And if you are lucky enough to have customers vocal enough to share information about what they like and don’t like about your company then you should be listening. Make changes immediately and let your customers know that you changed because they asked you too! They will feel like they had a voice and it was heard. This will make them feel important and at the same time they will remain your customer because they got a product or service that they wanted and you were compassionate enough to listen and deliver it.
Prospective customers need to be given an extra bit of attention and support. If you are making them feel better than how your competition is making them feel, chances are they will be choosing you in the end.
Next, be confident about your brand and your business and stand behind them
If you show indifference and lazy attitudes about your business and brand it will show. When you don’t love your brand, and what it stands for, surprise…others will begin to feel the same about it. Negativity rubs off easily and in a big way. Don’t ever mention to your customers your lack of enthusiasm about your current brand or identity. If you are that unhappy with it, change it! Your brand should be consistent across all mediums: print, web, commercials and even trade show booths. If you are noticing inconsistencies in your branding so are your customers.
Be optimistic!
Managing your company is an ongoing series of tasks. Sometimes these tasks can be unpleasant and feel repetitive but they are essential to the flow of your company on a daily basis. You will have to deal with constant emails, phone calls and problems. This is the inherent nature of a business. It will never be perfect so you need to get used to the idea. If you are always pessimistic about the daily issues that come up it will reflect on your clients and customers. Handle every issue and problem with a positive attitude. You’ll get back what you put out there and trust me you will be amazed at the results you get with a simple change in attitude. Lower your expectations in every aspect of your business and you can’t be disappointed.
Don’t expect instant results
Here is a news flash! Building a successful brand takes time. Be patient. Coca-cola wasn’t a recognizable name in a week. It took a lot of hard work, marketing and advertising to make it a household name. But also make sure your brand evolves throughout time to match consumer desires and trends.
Lastly, think outside the box
Don’t always conform and copy what your competition is doing. There are times when you shouldn’t mess with what works but there is nothing wrong with coming up with a new and creative way to market your brand or advertise. The most successful marketing campaigns are different and memorable. Geico is a great example of a company thinking outside the box and taking a chance at some creative advertising. Their commercials may be goofy and ridiculous but you remember them don’t you? I challenge you to find someone who doesn’t know about the “caveman” ads.
Many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. They are both very important to your business but are very different indeed. Knowing the difference is essential to putting your company on the road to growth and profits. Marketing is a series of systematic planning and activities and research and development which ultimately leads to the consumer purchasing a product or service. Advertising is act of calling public attention to a good or service by paid promotions or (advertisements). The best way to describe this would be that marketing uses advertising to achieve its goal of selling products or services to consumers.
After finally exploring the definitions of the two it is easy to understand why the difference can be a bit confusing to the point that some people think of them as the same thing, so lets take a closer look at the two.
Advertising
Advertising is only one single component of the marketing process or plan. It’s the part that attempts to get the word out about your business as a whole, brand, product, or services that you offer. Advertising includes placement of ads including but not limited to newspapers, billboards, magazines, television, radio and the internet. Advertising is usually the largest portion of a budget in a marketing plan with public relations not far behind in the budget.
Marketing
The American Marketing Association defines Marketing as a series of business processes taken by a company to develop, communicate with and manage its customers. Marketing includes components, such as market research, product development, product pricing, sales strategy, Advertising, customer support and public relations. The purpose of Marketing is to unite sellers who have something to offer in terms of goods and services and buyers who are in need of a certain good or service.
The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer and advertising as one part of the marketing strategy which purpose is to spread the word about a good, service, company or brand.