These days it is more important than ever to get the most bang for your buck. Well, lucky for you there’s GetYourBudgetBack.com. Welcome to your personal wealth of information and resources that will help you make the most of your marketing dollars and teach you how to cut costs…not corners.
At least one Silicon Valley company is poised to ride out a stormy economic forecast virtually unscathed. In fact, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu goes so far as to call Apple “recession-proof.”
After doing his customary supply-chain checks, Wu says he sees no cause for alarm for the Cupertino, California, company, even in the face of a sputtering U.S. economy and ongoing concerns about falling iPod sales.
While a static economy is already taking its toll on the tech sector, Wu is predicting that Apple will ship 11 million iPhones by the end of 2008, 1 million more than the company’s goal. He’s also tweaking the 38 percent year-over-year growth he predicted in Mac unit sales in January, and now believes growth may be as high as 42 percent. That’s at least partially based on an uptick in Macbook Air sales, he says. The only slight bump in the road is iPod sales, which Wu believes will fall somewhere in the 9.5-10 million unit range. That’s about a million units below the Street’s 10.8 consensus. (more…)
The best strategy for ad agencies in the recession is to anticipate and support their client’s likely desire to shift from brand-building to hard-sell advertising for the duration of the downturn. That’s according to Nick Brien speaking at Ad Age’s Media Mavens Awards event. He’s the CEO of Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Mediabrands, a unit designed to coordinate that holding company’s media assets.
Get the C.U.R.E.: a zero-cost way to make your ad dollars go farther.
These days, we all want to find the Holy Grail of low-cost marketing tools. Here’s one that doesn’t cost anything more than just a little added effort.
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of nearly 100 non-profit professionals who wanted to know how to make their messages more impactful and memorable.
In essence, I told them to package their messages in the form of stories, which are easy to relate and plentiful in the day-to-day of most non-profit groups.
Here’s the C.U.R.E. I gave them for solving boredom, ineffectiveness and interference.
C is for credibility.
Any story that names names and has celebrity endorsement of some sort is going to make a bigger impact and give listeners and viewers permission to believe.
U is for unique.
Try and put a novel spin on your story by approaching it from a different point of view.
R is for relevant.
Your story should follow a “this is how it was, this is what happened, this is how it’s better” format. It should also demonstrate how the listener or viewer will benefit from whatever you’re asking them to do.
E is for easily repeatable.
The reason stories survive for generations and jokes get told over and over is because they’re easy to remember and easy to repeat. Make sure your story is rich, but simple.
Most of the time, it’s sex that sells. But in a down economy, soup ain’t doing so bad either. It’s one of the few things, besides hamburgers, that you can eat when you’re broke. And most people will tell you it’s healthy. Campbell reported that its soup sales were up 12% in the most recent quarter. Not surprisingly, the key message in the company’s stepped-up marketing efforts is value. Campbell touts five of its condensed soups as “the original dollar menu.”
2. MOUTHGUARDS
More layoffs and fewer bonuses lead to greater stress. And more stress leads to … mouthguard sales? Indeed, according to anecdotal reports. Pink-slipped Wall Streeters have been flocking to the dentist to seek reprieve from their nightly stress-induced teeth grinding, which can damage teeth and lead to jaw trouble. Of course, custom-fitted mouthguards are hardly recession-priced — they run between $300 and $700.
3. SPAM
Spam — the canned meat, not the unwanted e-mail — was invented during the Great Depression. Sales are up by double digits, and it has been getting support from BBDO, Minneapolis. A Hormel exec told Ad Age he wouldn’t peg Spam’s success to the economy, but The New York Times noted that Hormel’s Austin, Minn., plant has two shifts working seven days a week to meet demand.
Small companies can’t afford to waste their marketing budget, especially during a recession. To keep marketing on track, start with a creative strategy.
Don’t good creative ideas just sort of “happen?” The answer is no. We all benefit from thoughtful preparation. Even during the creative process.
Certainly, marketing involves lots of creativity. But imagine, what if there were no boundaries on that creative thinking? Any and all ideas would be considered and pursued, regardless of whether they are relevant to the audience, the product or the brand.
At best, you’d waste lots of time and money until you found the right idea. At worst, you’d create a campaign that fails to motivate - and may even alienate - your target audience.
Before you embark on building any piece of marketing - advertising, print collateral, Web design, e-communications, etc. - you need a blueprint, called a creative strategy. Good marketing firms use this simple document to help define the audience, message and more.
A creative strategy asks and answers a set of basic questions to help everyone agree on a direction before time and money is spent on creative development. It helps you be both efficient and effective. (more…)
It seems like the world is crashing in around you. The economy is squeaking loudly. Wall Street is selling doom every day. Budgets are being cut at corporations and bodies are strewn all over the halls of ad agencies and marketing firms nationwide. Should you head for the hall closet and roll up in a fetal position?
Not if you want to be here when the next economy emerges.
When it all shakes out, what will emerge is a CUSTOMER-DRIVEN economy, not the CORPORATE-DRIVEN economy we’ve come to know.
Customers have unlimited options and so many outlets from which to choose. Gone will be the days when one mega-brand will be able to sell 14 different models of cars or manufacture all the best appliances for a kitchen or a clothing retailer carry the most desirable scarves AND shoes. In the customer-driven economy, you’ll buy your truck from Ford but your city car from Scion, you’ll like the Bosch dishwasher and the GE Monogram refrigerator and you’ll find that perfect scarf at Target and your shoes at Nine West. You’ll be loyal only to Brand You!
Here’s an easy exercise. And it will cost you nothing. Answer these four questions and remember CUSTOMERS decide what you do best and what trends they are following.
1. How are you different?
Customers expect products that are clearly different from your competitors’. How can you increase your difference? How can you make these differences more meaningful? How can you make them more compelling? What would it take to make your difference really stand out in the market? Remember: if it’s not different, it’s not strategic either. (more…)
The National Bureau of Economic Research has declared that the U.S. economy entered a recession in December of last year. Of course, the news is hardly groundbreaking news these days.
In a recession, customers don’t stop buying; they just stop “over-buying”. In other words, they start second guessing that $4 Starbucks latte and start talking about how great $.99 Dunkin Donuts coffee really is after all. Spending more conservatively on small items helps the American consumer rationalize larger purchases like cars, vacations, and clothes.
So what to do when your local market economics wither? You need to make sure that your television ad campaign generates an even higher Return on Investment to compensate for a smaller market opportunity.
How do you do it? Simple. You “Recession-Proof” your television campaign. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
Present a Superior Value:
The consumer wants to see a commercial from you that can help her stretch her dollar. Auto dealers are moving toward advertising and selling more preowned cars instead of new cars. These used cars are a great value and the dealer makes money on these used car sales at a rate of five to one versus new. Department stores start gift with purchase events. Furniture stores are offering full room discount deals. Grocery stores start accepting competitor’s coupons. You get the picture. Think about what value statement you can create that makes your product or service a more attractive value than those of your competition. (more…)
A viral marketing success without any outbound effort.
I sat at a Super Bowl party with a bunch of non-ad-industry friends and watched what is supposed to be the ne plus ultra of our craft. And what ad was the most talked about?
It does seem that tough economic times are a perfect breeding ground for low-budget advertising. I’m concerned that clients might find it an easy out in the short-term. Agencies, especially those dealing with clients with modest budgets, need to be ready when that thought comes up. (more…)
