When a company advertises, it has the freedom to decide on the exact message it wants to send to its market.

The company chooses the medium to be used, the look and feel of the message and when it will appear.

With public relations on the other hand, a company does not have total control over what message is sent.

This is what makes public relations initiatives exceedingly valuable to a company.

People trust information received from the press while they are usually skeptical about advertisers’ messages.

Reaching the Target

Like advertising, press coverage requires media planning.

A company must find out what media their customers consume.

It should consider: what does the target market watch on TV … do they even watch TV? What websites do they use?

Once this is determined, a company that wants to advertise will create a media schedule which will list the company’s desired placements for its ads.

The company will have to pay for ad placements.

With public relations initiatives such as features and press releases, this is where the perception of ‘free’ comes in.

The company does not pay for press coverage.

It will instead look for writers who frequently cover topics related to the company’s industry.

A spray and pray approach to courting journalists will not work.

A company has to invest in building a relationship with the press as it does with its consumers.

This means the company should become familiar with a journalist’s work and pitches should be tailored to each reporter.

Just as advertising is not about a company’s wants but the market’s needs, press coverage is about the press’ needs.

Working Together

The press need people to read their magazines or view their programmes in order to attract advertisers and make money.

As such, the press need great content.

Journalists are like the consumers who view a company’s ads.

They will only respond to a company’s message if it attracts them.

A company should give a reporter a reason to talk about them.

It should pitch interesting, relevant and informative stories in order to capture a journalist’s attention.

While press coverage enhance a company’s credibility, advertising creates awareness.

Use them both an on-going basis as part of a strategic and holistic marketing campaign.

In marketing, as in business, there is always talk of prospective changes. But what of perspective changes?

All change implementation starts with taking a change of perspective.

As the Native Indians say, “Matter follows vision.” So seeing differently has to happen before anything can be manifested or recreated.

If your old marketing strategy is not working for you, for instance, the only way you can begin to formulate and execute a new plan — that may prove to be more advantageous — is you must first acknowledge that the old plan is not working.

Many companies and businesses are faltering for the simple fact that they keep applying the same unprofitable marketing schemes they’ve always believed in … though they have not worked so far. 

Chicken and egg 

When we believe something it formulates our perspective.

Yet, taking a different perspective can alter our beliefs.

It is like the chicken and egg argument: “Which comes first?” Belief, or perspective?

The fact is they work interchangeably.

For example: if we believe that everybody likes things priced cheap, then our perspective will be that products will sell once we cost them lower than the competition.

However, we might look from a different angle and realise that although the competitor’s products are higher priced, they’re still making far more sales.

This might force us to believe something else,

We might come to believe that success in marketing relies, not just on low low prices, but on customer service, quality product, market demand, branding research and a whole lot more besides. 

Eye, mind, motive 

Think of “vision” as perspective and “matter” as delivery.

What we deliver is often determined worthy by us first, before we put it out there for the market.

But it is the perspective of the market that we should really be concerned with.

You may believe your motives are entirely devoted to delivering fully excellent service to your target market.

If the market does not see it that way, then their minds will never be swayed in your favour.

Try to see your company, service, product from the other side — from the side of the people they are aimed toward.

That shift in perspective may be exactly what is needed to chart a new course into oceans of more effective marketing strategies. 

Have you ever bought a product or service, only to later regret the decision?

Maybe the product was of a low quality or perhaps you received poor customer service post-sale.

What did you do?

You probably just sat back and did nothing or it’s very likely that you complained to all your friends.

If you’re not receiving feedback from your customers, chances are, they react the same way when they are dissatisfied with your products and services.

Facing Criticism

Many of us fear criticism.

And let’s face it you can’t please everyone.

Some people just want to hurt you.

However, strategic managers do not let this fear stop them from progressing.

They know that it is a grave mistake to stay within their comfort-zone.

They continually seek feedback in order to increase the value of their products and the quality of their services.

Listening to the right people

It is imperative that you consider the source of criticism before taking action.

Well-informed criticism comes from people who are experienced in your field or from people who belong to your target market.

However, criticism is not always informed.

Your peers might be prominent and well respected and while they mean well, if they have no experience in your field and do not even belong to your target market, their feedback might actually be harmful to you.

For instance, they may not like that you play hip-hop in your store and they might ask you to replace it with classical music but what if your customer base is largely made up of teenagers?

Don’t waste your time and resources listening to the wrong people.

Ensure that the feedback you receive is informed before acting upon it.

Acting upon it

It is cheaper to retain clients than it is to attract new ones.

By paying attention to your customers, you can achieve both.

When prudent managers find that many of their customers are complaining about the same things, they adapt their products and services accordingly.

Customers who feel valued will continue to be loyal and are likely to spread the word about your impressive quality and service.

 

To do differently we have to see differently.

However, if we only see differently and do not let that motivate us to do differently then we cannot claim to even be seeing differently.

The Buddhists suggest that no man should claim to understand unless his actions reflect that understanding.

In the movie from the book by the same name, The Journey of August King, the protagonist says after an odyssey abounding with adjustment, “We cannot remain only what we were.”

From a strategic marketing outlook, this advice is pure gold.

Physical human adaptation, attitude alterations, migration, merging cultures, technological innovation and a host of other things, have worked in combination to change the world.

Would it make sense to presume that marketing, and all its motley elements would stay the same in such a developing world?

Applying adjustment

Consider how technology has altered the way we function day to day.

Facsimile, texting, Internet, E-mail, cell phones are things that leap instantly into the modern mind.

Well think about technology specifically from a marketing and advertising perspective.

The advent of things like neon lights, colour printing, radio and television altered advertising possibilities and execution.

But can you see how something like instant messaging and Apps could be equally used to effect?

Even as you enjoy the indulgence of Tweeting, you can’t wrap your mind around how this could be made use of to advance their business.

See, think, do

Too many service and product providers have made very little effort to “get with the programme.”

They still, by and large, refuse to savvy up to changing times, technology and thinking.

Strategic marketing requires thorough and involved, not merely abstract, understanding of what is happening in the world.

What is happening to and around the market affects the market.

Change in the world changes people in the world.

That in turn changes what people want, how they want to be spoken to and why they will be convinced to see, think, do anything.

By the same token, if you don’t see the changes in your market, you can never truly think like your market and, thus, you will never be able to get your market to do any of what you want it to do.

Why prioritise the quality customer service experience?

If you need to ask that then your entire marketing strategy is in trouble.

Quality customer service experience (QCSE) attracts customers. What’s more, it retains customers.

QCSE generates word of mouth referrals: pleased customers can’t wait to toast your business to others.

Their “free press” is priceless, and it can be yours by just making sure your business supplies superior products and impressive service.

Sadly, many managers try to use commercials and gimmicks to drum up the kind of increased business profitability that can only be manifested by the key marketing component of keeping customers content.

Understanding Experience

Managers who understand that marketing is much more than advertising are continually working towards increasing the value of their products and service — aiming to be outstanding in fields full of mediocrity.

They step up to challenges and create and maintain competitive edge that boosts prosperity.

They know that all customers crave experience.

For instance, people can watch the latest blockbusters at low rate cinemas, or at home via DVDs or cable.

Yet, they pay premium prices to “have a movie experience” instead.

They are buying into the promise of a quality environment with people like themselves.

Noteworthy service

It’s challenging to stand out when there are a quite a number of other businesses offering the “exact same products” your company does.

That is why you need to define and execute a QCSE that is yours alone. Use it as a signature for your company.

Here’s some of what you can do:

Be guided by your own personal experiences as a customer.

Think about the last time you received service that was so noteworthy you made recommendations to your friends.

Try adopting that exceptional standard into your company

Transcend expectations. Make your product more useful, safer, more portable or more efficient, etc than the rest in your industry.

Train your staff. Treat them well

Elicit and respect their feedback. Staff can provide you with valuable insights, while happy staff are likely to work harder and provide better service.

Also encourage your customers to provide feedback.

Assure them that you welcome constructive criticism and you are willing to improve. 

Take their advice.

 

Managers of successful businesses take a strategic approach to marketing — they espouse a long-term vision where they think ahead and plan in advance.

Meanwhile, managers who only look at short-term solutions take a tactical approach to marketing: they are desirous of overnight success and are fixated on the latest get rich fast scam.

Strategic managers, however, understand that success is the result of making strategic decisions over a period of time. 

Shortsighted managers have a fear of spending. They consider marketing to be an expense, maybe even a burden.

Tactical managers may also claim that they do not have the time for marketing.

This is because they waste their time finding ways to cut back, starving their business, keeping it from growing.

Meanwhile strategic managers recognise marketing as an essential investment and they allocate time and resources to it.

They appreciate professional expertise. 

Prudent managers hire legitimate agencies, which have qualified teams that work with them — going through intense process to produce promotional campaigns of the highest standards. 

Compound Leverage

Tactical managers may execute a single marketing activity sporadically. They often wait until business has identifiably slowed down before they decide to initiate marketing thrust.

Such myopic managers might try placing a single advertisement in the newspapers when their business is going through a tough time.

Would this really lead to increased sales?  

Strategic managers blend a range of marketing activities together on an on-going basis to create a compound leverage effect: where marketing activities build upon each other to leverage the best results.   

Our Working Ideas principle involves working with high quality clients (HQC) to implement holistic advertising campaigns via press, radio, television; as well as web advertisements, which all come together, leveraging the highest returns.

Success that lasts

A tactical approach to marketing can inevitably lead to a business’ demise.

For your business’ long-term life and future success, you need to stop thinking short-term and start investing your time and resources into your company.

By switching from a tactical to a strategic approach, your time and resources will be used more efficiently, and your marketing will become more effective … which will of course result in more sales and greater success.

What approach will you take to marketing?

A tagline is to your brand identity what a smile is to your face.

You can touch someone with a sincere smile; fool him with a fake one; turn her away with a mean one, and make someone want to smile along with you if you do it just right.

Which of the above are you trying to achieve with the tagline you’re inventing?

If you want a tagline that touches customers and makes them want to “smile along with you” then the first thing you must be is honest … with yourself.

Truthfully define what you can deliver, otherwise your tagline risks making claims you cannot meet.

Next, put on paper what the customer needs to understand, then research how that aligns with what the target market actually wants.

After that, begin brainstorming. Remember, good marketing develops out of many concepts being refined down to one or two exceptional ideas; as opposed to coming up with one idea — that may be good, bad or ugly — and trying to force it to be brilliant.

Energy factor

So when you have whittled down your tagline options to a few that seem to have salt, explore how it can move. See if it can work in multi-faceted ways.

Is it believable? Can it shift through varying themes, campaigns? Match it with the logo. Sound it out. Is it public relations and marketing-friendly? Will it stand the test of time?

Consider RAMCO gas: “Under Every Good Pot.” It’s been around for decades. That’s a working tagline.

Some taglines try to convey what kind of experience will be had. Other taglines focus more on whipping up customer emotion.

Then there is the major underlining factor of “ENERGY.”

With a few words you can convey something is going to happen (“Don’t leave home without it”), or something is happening right now (“Finger-lickin’ good!”).

Defining relationship

A great tagline combines elements of experience, emotion and energy, to varying degrees that match its product, service or company.

A tagline can be direct, roundabout, grand, simple, strong, soft and more besides.

So when you set out to create, or change, your tagline, by all means use guidelines like the ones above.

However, don’t be confined to hard and fast rules that say things like: an effective tagline can’t be one word; a catchy tagline can’t be longer that five words; a tagline has to be able to stand alone.

A tagline is a thing of relationship.  It cannot exist alone. It cannot exist without its brand.

 “Just do it” does not make sense, have meaning, or resonates power to someone who does not know what Nike does.

Taglines do not always have to “read-and-spell,” because they gain definition from the brand even as they help to define the brand.

If you saw a smile without a face, would it make sense to you? Hmmm?

Working Ideas next week: Think big!

Do you think the same thing when you hear the words: “image” and “identity”?

In advertising and marketing their differences demand absolute understanding and appreciation to properly promote anything.

“Image: the general impression that a person, organisation or product presents to the public.”

“Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is; the characteristics determining this.”

The bottomline: “image” is what the marketplace thinks of you; “identity” is what you actually are.

If you were writing a proposal that patterns itself similar to our Working Ideas process, the OVERVIEW would describe exactly what the company is and does. That would be its identity.

The OBJECTIVE, in which you describe what you are aiming to achieve, is connected to “image.”

You might aim to get housewives to see Flix dishwashing liquid as the premier brand for their kitchen needs.

Whether Flix is or isn’t actually the best goes back to the issue of identity.

Solid identity

Often, companies expect advertising and/or marketing agencies to help them change their image without sparing a thought for the fact they might have to change their identity to help things along.

If a company wants the target market to believe it has the best tyres, then it should spend much of its effort in designing and manufacturing really good tyres.

Agencies might promote its tyres as the best, and the market might buy into it initially. However, if those tyres are not up to scratch, eventually the market will know.

Then the market develops a negative image of the tyres.

Identity must support image, not the other way around.

That’s why, if anything needs changing in a marketing strategy, it should always be the image not the identity … because the identity should have been stable from the start.

That’s why a company like Apple can make 1.5 billion dollars in one weekend by selling 3 million new iPads.

Solid image supported by solid identity.

Forward and backward

Here are some other notable differences:

• Identity develops from the company; while image is perceived by the consumer

• Identity is strategic and driven by substance; while image is tactical and driven by appearance

• Identity is active and enduring; while image is passive and superficial

• Identity looks forward to “where we want to be”; while image is a looking backward at “what we had”

Finally, identity is the company’s promise; image is a consumer’s perception.

Deal with that.

Working Ideas next week: Advertising Agencies: the Value Added

Gandhi felt humans work best lying down. Richard Branson likes to go for a 3-mile swim around the island he lives on. Gertrude Stein would sit in her parked car and write her famous poetry on scraps of paper.

Talent is not determined by sleek offices so many people feel it’s mandatory to have.

It’s what is in our minds that separates the success stories from the failures.

Marketing today is an arena full of many misses and rare hits. If all it took was fancy equipment to guarantee a hit then the misses would be in the minority.

The equipment outside could never make up for what’s lacking on the inside.

High definition monitors will make an ineffective marketing idea look good, but that won’t get it miraculously functioning well.

Yes, just about everything relies on technology these days.

However, there is nothing smart or savvy about investing time and money on things we can do without while we fail to invest even an iota of focus on gaining knowledge to advance us in our field.

Elements to progress

It has never been this easy to get capably informed about anything we choose. So why not choose to learn your craft?

Thanks to social media and via Internet connection, companies and individuals have a voice that we can let the world hear if we work at it. How’s that for marketing opportunity?

Now ask yourself if you’ve taken advantage of this.

You cannot claim to have taken the advantage if you allow yourself to remain ignorant about the elements needed to progress in your arena.

Any yahoo (pun acknowledged) can use technology and go on the Internet to spout whatever he wants. But only the wise use these things to effect for the advancement of their service and/or product.

Nobody wants to put faith in someone who sounds like they don’t know what they are talking about.

Act of faith 

The beautiful thing about being in the know is that you attract people who also want to be in the know.

This means you attract people who are sensible, intuitive and want to learn. These kinds of people make good customers.

In fact, they tend to make high quality clients who are reasonable, dependable and respectful of you and your work. They value your worth.

When you opt to remain ignorant, you attract the self-same kind of people: who eventually become the low quality clients that are your bane.

They won’t respect you and, thus, will never trust your work or appreciate your worth.

Bottomline, you have to be bright to get high quality clients to put their faith in you.

When you look at it this way, isn’t it amazing what a bit of knowledge can do?

No wonder the saying goes, “Knowledge is power.”

Did your homework?

So what are your company’s strengths? Weaknesses? And what are your closest competitor’s strengths and weaknesses?

Once you possess that information you are ready to do a comparison study (you will realise that you have to repeat some information).

WRITE DOWN:

1. What you are very strong in/What your competition is very strong in
2. What your competition is very strong in/What you are weak in
3. What you are very strong in/What they are weak in
4. What you are weak in/What they are weak in

The art of advantage 

It takes finesse to understand the right way to seize the advantage via this data, but let us look at it.

1) Where both you and your opponent are strong you can decide to accept or to re-engineer your side. It might be better to accept, however, since any drive for gains in this case will most likely be expensive and, thus, prove pyrrhic in the long run.

2) What they are strong in, but you are weak in, calls for corrective action on your part. Remember, quick fix in this case will mean nothing. Commit to long-term investment.

3) When you find your strengths and their weaknesses … attack!

4) Where you are both weak there is an opportunity. If you improve but your opponent does not — voilà! — you will “win the day.”

Imitation to effect

There’s a saying that goes, “Imitation is the surest form of flattery.”

You do not have to imitate your opponents per say, but learning from their strengths and applying that learning to improve your company is something like a form of copying.

There is nothing wrong with that.

As surely as we choose our competitors the instant we choose our products or service, similarly we can choose to give strength to our opponents or leech from their strengths.

If we choose not to acknowledge their plusses and identify our negatives, we can never upset the balance and give ourselves the upper hand.

You might not want to see the competition, but do not let that stop you from looking at them.

How else can you find out what they are up to? 

Working Ideas next week: Image or identity