Enjoy this video.
George Torok is a marketing expert who speaks to conferences, conventions, corporate meetings and executive retreats.
This is a good message and a sample of his presentation style.
Learn more at www.Torok.com
Call 905-335-1995
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Coke and the Power of Perception
Marketing lesson on the power of perception from a live presentation from George Torok to a group of buisness owners.
Enjoy this video.
Enjoy this video.
Friday, July 23, 2010
3 Myths about the Media
Working with the media is a powerful way to promote your business. Some business owners are missing big opportunities to promote their business because they believe some common myths about the media. Recognize and dispel these three media myths.
Media Myth 1: The job of the media is to report the facts
The former editor in chief of a big city paper and former news director at a national TV station cleared up this myth.
He stated that many people believe that the job of the media is to report the facts. He clarified, “The job of the media is to report the facts – as we see it.”
That is an important distinction. Facts are not relevant or valuable without perspective. The media reports the facts that they chose and with the perspective that they select. Anyone can report facts. The distinguishing factor of a media outlet is the perspective that they offer on those facts. Opinion.
Media Myth 2: The Media hates business
I’ve heard this accusation from many small and medium sized business owners. Perhaps they run into challenges dealing with big banks and government. Then they read about business getting trashed in the newspapers or watch it on “60 Minutes”.
The media doesn’t hate business. The media is business – big, medium and small business. The media needs business – to advertise. Yes, some individuals in the media might rant about a particular business or industry because that attracts readers, listeners and viewers – customers.
Media Myth 3: The Media is in the information business
That is an easy assumption because the media needs information as its raw material. But the media isn’t in the information business – even though they might convey information. Similarly they aren’t in the entertainment business even though they need to be entertaining. Just watch the 6:00 TV news and notice the entertainment.
The media is in the advertising business.
That is how they make money. They sell advertising and when they don’t sell enough advertising, they cut production, jobs and eventually close down. Every media service that died did so because they did not sell enough advertisements.
George Torok
Marketing Speaker
Marketing Articles
Media Myth 1: The job of the media is to report the facts
The former editor in chief of a big city paper and former news director at a national TV station cleared up this myth.
He stated that many people believe that the job of the media is to report the facts. He clarified, “The job of the media is to report the facts – as we see it.”
That is an important distinction. Facts are not relevant or valuable without perspective. The media reports the facts that they chose and with the perspective that they select. Anyone can report facts. The distinguishing factor of a media outlet is the perspective that they offer on those facts. Opinion.
Media Myth 2: The Media hates business
I’ve heard this accusation from many small and medium sized business owners. Perhaps they run into challenges dealing with big banks and government. Then they read about business getting trashed in the newspapers or watch it on “60 Minutes”.
The media doesn’t hate business. The media is business – big, medium and small business. The media needs business – to advertise. Yes, some individuals in the media might rant about a particular business or industry because that attracts readers, listeners and viewers – customers.
Media Myth 3: The Media is in the information business
That is an easy assumption because the media needs information as its raw material. But the media isn’t in the information business – even though they might convey information. Similarly they aren’t in the entertainment business even though they need to be entertaining. Just watch the 6:00 TV news and notice the entertainment.
The media is in the advertising business.
That is how they make money. They sell advertising and when they don’t sell enough advertising, they cut production, jobs and eventually close down. Every media service that died did so because they did not sell enough advertisements.
George Torok
Marketing Speaker
Marketing Articles
Monday, July 19, 2010
Why Talk to the Media?
Three situations to talk to the media:
Why talk to the media?
Three purposes:
In a crisis you want to defend or mitigate.
During change you want to lead or manage the change.
When marketing, you want to promote your value or sell your products.
George Torok
- Crisis
- Change
- Marketing
Why talk to the media?
Three purposes:
In a crisis you want to defend or mitigate.
During change you want to lead or manage the change.
When marketing, you want to promote your value or sell your products.
George Torok
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
What is Strategic Positioning
And how does it impact the rest of the business?
While researching the topic of Strategic Positioning I surveyed people in my Linkedin Network. I found it helpful to learn how other experts perceived this topic. My thanks to all of them for their thoughtful replies. Here are a few of those replies.
--------------------
Robert "Alan" Black
NSA, CSP Prof Member, speaker/consultant/trainer/author
Athens, Georgia Area
When I taught Fundamentals of Marketing courses for the American Management Association around the US at various AMA centers from 1984 to 1986 the book POSITIONING by Al Ries and Jack Trout had already been a best seller and Strategic Planning was also a popular selling topic; first to business and industry and then to governments and agencies.
You are asking about STRATEGIC POSITIONING in the era of BRANDING.
hmmmm?!
Strategic thinking....chosen thinking, deliberately chosen planning
Positioning....getting the mindset you want into the minds of your customers/clients/patients that you want them to have.
One of the problems of becoming too STRATEGIC and too specific about a POSITION is what do you do when the situation changes such as the past couple years with the international global financial disasters.
Do you change your strategy(ies)?
Do you change your position?
One of the lessons, I believe, I got from Ries & Trout is often POSITIONS or POSITIONING happens in the mind/s of customers/clients/patients even when you are trying to establish or create other Positions.
Then the question becomes HOW TO UN-POSITION OR RE-POSITION you, your products, your company or FINDING NEW CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS/PATIENTS OR NEW MARKETS.
hmmm?!
--------------------
Paul Weber
CEO Entrepreneur Advertising Group
Kansas City, Missouri Area
There is no better case study than Southwest Airlines. Both in strategic positioning and in brand positioning, they have been the only airline in 25 years that created a recognizable differentiation based on consumer preferences. Fast, friendly, fun, low fares....
These are always the words that describe consumers' experience with the airline. No other airline has ever had a recognizable position that was identifiable to the general public.
I am speaking from more of a marketing and brand perspective but I'm sure that their operational strategies ran similar. Southwest, without a doubt, one of the better examples of positive positioning against the competition.
------------------
Arun Prakash Maruthavanan
Principal Consultant at GETCXO
Chennai Area, India
Strategic positioning is the way you position your company, business model and offerings by analyzing your marketplace, rapidly changing environment, futuristic trends, competition, consumers and leveraging it to your advantage.
The strategic position of a business is its perceptual location relative to others. Awesome benefits like competitive edge,overall efficiency, early entry advantage, huge sales,brand loyalty and positioning; shall be reaped resulting in excellent growth of the business.
Unfortunately the majority of business are not making this conscious decision due to the lack of leadership, vision, market intelligence, professional support and their inability to accept, implement "Change".
The cost is directly proportional to the size of the business and the domain/marketplace in which it operates. A loss shall happen if this type of positioning is implemented in a wrong way resulting in a disaster.
I believe that the decision making capabilities of the business leadership plays a crucial role in the outcome of Strategic positioning.
-------------------
George Torok
Marketing Expert & Speaker
Executive Briefing for your Management Team
- Do you see business making this conscious decision?
- What benefits come from this?
- What is the cost or loss?
- Examples welcomed.
While researching the topic of Strategic Positioning I surveyed people in my Linkedin Network. I found it helpful to learn how other experts perceived this topic. My thanks to all of them for their thoughtful replies. Here are a few of those replies.
--------------------
Robert "Alan" Black
NSA, CSP Prof Member, speaker/consultant/trainer/author
Athens, Georgia Area
When I taught Fundamentals of Marketing courses for the American Management Association around the US at various AMA centers from 1984 to 1986 the book POSITIONING by Al Ries and Jack Trout had already been a best seller and Strategic Planning was also a popular selling topic; first to business and industry and then to governments and agencies.
You are asking about STRATEGIC POSITIONING in the era of BRANDING.
hmmmm?!
Strategic thinking....chosen thinking, deliberately chosen planning
Positioning....getting the mindset you want into the minds of your customers/clients/patients that you want them to have.
One of the problems of becoming too STRATEGIC and too specific about a POSITION is what do you do when the situation changes such as the past couple years with the international global financial disasters.
Do you change your strategy(ies)?
Do you change your position?
One of the lessons, I believe, I got from Ries & Trout is often POSITIONS or POSITIONING happens in the mind/s of customers/clients/patients even when you are trying to establish or create other Positions.
Then the question becomes HOW TO UN-POSITION OR RE-POSITION you, your products, your company or FINDING NEW CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS/PATIENTS OR NEW MARKETS.
hmmm?!
--------------------
Paul Weber
CEO Entrepreneur Advertising Group
Kansas City, Missouri Area
There is no better case study than Southwest Airlines. Both in strategic positioning and in brand positioning, they have been the only airline in 25 years that created a recognizable differentiation based on consumer preferences. Fast, friendly, fun, low fares....
These are always the words that describe consumers' experience with the airline. No other airline has ever had a recognizable position that was identifiable to the general public.
I am speaking from more of a marketing and brand perspective but I'm sure that their operational strategies ran similar. Southwest, without a doubt, one of the better examples of positive positioning against the competition.
------------------
Arun Prakash Maruthavanan
Principal Consultant at GETCXO
Chennai Area, India
Strategic positioning is the way you position your company, business model and offerings by analyzing your marketplace, rapidly changing environment, futuristic trends, competition, consumers and leveraging it to your advantage.
The strategic position of a business is its perceptual location relative to others. Awesome benefits like competitive edge,overall efficiency, early entry advantage, huge sales,brand loyalty and positioning; shall be reaped resulting in excellent growth of the business.
Unfortunately the majority of business are not making this conscious decision due to the lack of leadership, vision, market intelligence, professional support and their inability to accept, implement "Change".
The cost is directly proportional to the size of the business and the domain/marketplace in which it operates. A loss shall happen if this type of positioning is implemented in a wrong way resulting in a disaster.
I believe that the decision making capabilities of the business leadership plays a crucial role in the outcome of Strategic positioning.
-------------------
George Torok
Marketing Expert & Speaker
Executive Briefing for your Management Team
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Strategic Positioning: What is it?
My new presentation on Strategic Positioning went very well. It was a workshop format for about 20 owners of medium sized businesses.
This was less about me speaking and teaching then it was about asking probing and disturbing questions. That type of presentation is always a little scary for me because I don't have the answers - only the questions.
The business owners realized that they must find the answers. That was an "ah-ha" moment.
This was less about me speaking and teaching then it was about asking probing and disturbing questions. That type of presentation is always a little scary for me because I don't have the answers - only the questions.
The business owners realized that they must find the answers. That was an "ah-ha" moment.
Some of the issues and questions that we explored:
How to recognize the difference between acute and chronic problems and the connection to changing strategy or tactics.
Where are you now in terms of current strategy whether on purpose or by circumstance?
Five competitive forces that play with your strategy.
Identify your resources and how to leverage them.
How can you quickly generate a lot of creative ideas on demand?
What can you do in each of the four quadrants to develop new markets and products?
Some marketing strategies and tactics to consider.
This was a serious group of business owners yet we still had some laughs. I was impressed at the depth of discussion and exploration that we accomplished in this session. Of course no one-day workshop fixes anything, especially on the topic of Strategic Positioning - so everyone left with plenty of take-aways and homework for their business.
-----------------------------------
Comments from the business owners about this program on Strategic Positioning
"George takes complex business challenges and provides simple actionable tips to tackle them."
Kevin Hiebert, President, Cell-A-Net Printer Services
----------
"Invaluable perspective on leveraging business through effective marketing."
Bob Alsip, President, Convenience Group Inc.
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"Clear route map to establish a realistic strategy."
Paul Herman, President, Firwin
----------
"I enjoyed the presentation because it forced me to think of my business from a 10,000 foot view. I will use this opportunity to build a stronger company."
Chris Giles, President, Dyamic Connections
----------------------------
Executive Briefing for Business Owners
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