Blog Archives

One of your Best Friends for Image Building: The Media

3/18/2017

Whether you are a profit or non-profit, the media is an important element in shaping your image. So it is in your best interest to be proactive in forging a solid relationship. Here are some tips for developing an effective relationship with the media:

*Return calls from reporters as soon as you can, and give your home phone number or cell so that you can be reached after business hours.

*Do not bluff the answer; find out and call back. Always be truthful.

*Do not go off the record with a reporter unless you know and trust him or her.

*Do not tell a reporter how to write the story.

*Avoid industry-specific jargon or acronyms that only limit what audiences can understand.

*Give documentation or information packets to supplement what the reporter is covering.

*Never cover up. It will be seen as dishonest and will permanently affect future credibility.

*Correct any inaccuracies in a story, but do not object to the tone. That is the writer’s prerogative.

*Do not assume you can review articles. If needed, try to check facts over the phone. Reporters do not have the time to have a reviewer outside of their own offices.

*Give compliments when they are due by writing to a reporter’s supervisor.

*Be aware that any report or survey developed with public tax dollars is public information.

*Help reporters to do their job better. Post your news releases into a “media room” on your website. Include a media archive to help reporters to do their research. Make sure that the reporters get your RSS feeds.

A little “schmoozing” does not hurt either. Why not invite reporters to a continental breakfast when you don’t need to have a story told, and then when you do, they might be more willing to give you an ear.

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Target Segmentation: How to Capture Customers

3/13/2017

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Fishing season will be upon us soon. There is a lesson to be learned from that sport. A good day of fishing means you have dropped your line in waters where there are fish. One of the keys to successful marketing of any product or service is based on the same principle called target segmentation.

With target segmentation you first have to acknowledge that not everyone is your potential customer. (This is hard on our egos.) You must therefore break your total market into smaller segments that share the same characteristics. From those, select the segments that appear to be your best bets for a "catch." This will make optimal use of your marketing dollars. Target markets can be shaped and refined by demographics (age, income, education, geographic location, gender, marital status), by industry (pharmaceutical, energy, financial services, technology, industrial) or by psychographics (lifestyle, attitudes, values, perceptions).
For example, a local retailer may position itself as "discount" to attract the frugal customer while one up the street offers "premium" goods hoping the affluent customer will drop in. This way you are aligning your product or services with the target market segment. You get more " hits" than "misses" if you practice this type of thinking - before developing advertising and promotional campaigns.
Smart market-driven companies (and non-profits) practice target segmentation for one reason: it works. So the next time your company or organization initiates marketing plans, remember the lesson from fishing. The kind of bait you use, the length of time you sit by your pole, and even your ability to cast will not matter if you drop your line in waters where there are few fish.

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Making Sense of the Alphabet Soup: Gen X, Gen Y and Boomers

3/9/2017

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In the 1980's, an outstanding trade magazine called American Demographics was published to help businesses and organizations target their customers or clients. Editors Peter Francese and Cheryl Russell, identified key market segments and named them. Some included Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. Members in these cohorts represented opportunities to sell products and services, capture donors or volunteers, or accomplish whatever strategic goal your company or organization set for itself.

In the 1960's Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) were eager customers for VW bugs and VW wagons. Now, you might try to sell them a Subaru, Volvo or Lexus as they enter retirement years. Gen X (born between 1965 and 1976) was a smaller cohort than the Boomers. These kids were the reasons towns and cities closed neighborhood schools. Now, they are a market for deals on family vacations and college savings accounts.

Gen Y (born from 1977 to1994) is largely the group that makes up the Millennials. These are the babies of the Baby Boomers and so very large. When the schools were closed due to Gen X, they were overcrowded with Gen Y - and hence portable classrooms. This cohort is optimal for first time home purchases and baby strollers.

If you think like a marketer, demographics becomes an essential element. Counting the customers in the key market segments that American Demographics highlighted has provided and continues to provide the crystal ball. You can predict needs and wants as cohorts pass through life stages. It all comes down to when you born.

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March 08th, 2017

3/8/2017

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Why Most Companies and Organizations Waste Time on "Branding"

3/6/2017

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Typical branding campaigns focus on the fluff and not the substance. Graphic identity - logos, taglines, fonts, colors and other design aspects - is the focus of many branding campaigns as well as the effort to "refresh" the brand. Ask yourself. Do you ever make a customer or client choice based on a logo or because your hospital, insurance company or non-profit changed their logo? Not likely. Unfortunately, much time and money is spent on applying the makeup and avoiding the grunt work. Brands are built and sustained by how you treat your customers, their interactions with you, the products and services you offer, and the points of contact with your employees. Relationship building shapes and fortifies your brand. This is challenging and never-ending work. And why the easier road to 'brand" building through graphic identity is travelled more often and with disappointing results.

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Marketing: It is All About Strategy

3/6/2017

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The discipline of marketing is often oversimplified and misunderstood. Many leaders in corporations and organizations have limited experience with marketing as a discipline. They may define marketing by its most visible components advertising and publicity. When someone equates marketing with a logo or tagline, a website or blog, collateral materials, print or online ads, the strength of marketing as a workhorse for market share and retention is lost. Marketing is about thinking - strategic thinking and then execution. Marketing can be compared to management, which involves planning, budgeting, decision making and evaluation. You need all components, working together, to achieve good management. Likewise, the key components of marketing—research, development, promotion, pricing, placement and assessment—must be integrated for optimal effectiveness. If you undertake all components of marketing, you will be putting the odds in your favor for a successful outcome - whether you are launching a new product or service, attracting and retaining customers or clients or spurring donors to give. Marketing is a sum of the parts and no one part can wield as much power as the process does together.

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One of your Best Friends for Image Building: The Media

Target Segmentation: How to Capture Customers

Making Sense of the Alphabet Soup: Gen X, Gen Y and Boomers

March 08th, 2017

Why Most Companies and Organizations Waste Time on "Branding"

Marketing: It is All About Strategy

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