Marketing Articles Published in 2012

Enjoy this selection of marketing articles published in the past year. Click on the title to read the rest of the article.






Magic Words to Transform Your Business Relationships

Abracadabra!
Imagine that you could wave an enchanted wand while uttering magic words that transform your business coals into diamonds. You don't need the wand and you probably already know the magic words. The sticking point like everything else in life is that it's not what you know that counts, it's what you do with what you know.

Too many business owners are looking for complicated solutions and overlook the simple secrets of business success. Why have so many uneducated entrepreneurs excelled in business? Because they only understood simple things and applied those simple things passionately. Richard Branson is an outstanding example.
One of the purposes of marketing is to build strong relationships with your clients and prospects. You build (or destroy) relationships with what you do and say. Let's explore the language of good relationships. It costs nothing except your attention to the words that you and your team use with clients and prospects - and with each other.





3 Polarizing Branding Secrets from Death Cigarettes

How can you build a stronger brand? Take a position that some people hate so your preferred customers love you.

I heard the best lessons about "How to create your Brand?" on the podcast interview with UK entrepreneur BJ Cunningham.

BJ Cunningham created a company called The Enlightened Tobacco Company in 1991, selling a cigarette called "Death Cigarettes". It was presented in a black package emblazoned with a white skull-and-crossbones logo. Just imagine how that image might appeal to the rebels. That is the start of a strong brand.

His premise was to take a position that none of the other cigarette companies were willing to take. That's good advice for any business building a brand! At the time all the tobacco companies were still denying any ill effects of smoking tobacco. You know the tired story, "It has not been proven that cigarette smoking causes cancer." Somehow the tobacco barons rehearsed well enough to deliver that lie with a straight face. But that is a different issue.


Hand Written Notes - the Original Social Media

More Personal Than Digital Media
It's impossible to ignore the Social Media crusade. Perhaps you received business through Social Media contacts and activity. I admit that I've made interesting new contacts, renewed old friendships and generated business through social media.

However, I've received a lot more business and recognition from sending hand written notes. The two best messages to send via hand written note are thank you and congratulations. Thank you for your business, help, referral, testimonial, patience, gift...

Congratulations on your achievement, recognition, new venture, milestone… The prompting for the note could be personal or business.




Boost Your Personal Brand by Leveraging Your Association Membership

As a member you have many ways to enhance your personal brand without breaking a sweat. What's holding you back?

Your personal brand is not a logo, colour or tagline. It's the combination of all that you do, say and especially what others say about you.

When you are a member of an association - that speaks about you. The credibility of the association, the ethics, the leaders and the positioning of the association speak about your personal values. But, only if you broadcast your membership to the marketplace. Don't be shy. If you have reason to be proud of your association, then brag about that association. List your membership on your Linkedin profile. Put "member of" in your email signature and display the membership plaque on your office wall. Brag about who you associate with.



How to Kick Start Your Writing To Boost Your Personal Brand
 
One of the best ways to become known as the expert is to write. You could write to or for newsletters (association, corporate, community), newspapers (community, business, trade, weekly, daily), or magazines (general, trade, association, business).




George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing  
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

The Branding Fallacy

Your Branding might be killing your business

Beware of the branding zombies. They regurgitate meaningless mantras like “branding is good”, “you need a brand” and “we can help you develop your brand.” These creatures only want your life blood. Unfortunately these zombies don’t look like the ones in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. They look like you and me. They call themselves branding consultants, marketing agencies or graphic designers. And they try to sell you snake oil remedies.

It’s time for a branding wakeup call. This might hurt especially if you have recently succumbed to worship of the brand. Remember, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” in the movie The Wizard of OZ. I’m ripping back the curtain. You might not like what you see. But it might save your business. I’m urging you: Pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

Let’s start by examining some of the world’s best brands.

Read the rest of The Branding Fallacy

 

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Police Chief Sends Christmas Cards to Criminals

Kudos to the Abbottsford police department for their creative marketing campaign.

Marketing is not just about selling a product or service. It is about sending messages. Every organization needs to market. That includes non-profits, public service and the police.

In this case, the Abbotsford police department produced and mailed a custom Christmas card to known criminals and “persons of interest”. It has a picture of the police chief dressed as Santa with a bullet proof vest over the Santa suit. He is holding an assault rifle. The caption is:

Which list will you be on next year?

Inside the card is the note “it’s never too late to change” along with a phone number the recipient is encouraged to call when they want help to change their life.

I assume that the role of the police is to protect the public from harm. That includes investigating crimes and charging law-breakers. But it’s better to prevent problems than try to clean up after. So part of their role means showing up and making their presence known. That helps to keep some offenders in line.

What did the Abbotsford police department do well?

1. The police targeted a specific well-defined audience. They had detailed contact and activity records about this target audience. That information gave them insight into the most likely mindsets and perspectives of the target group. They used their database.
2. The cost is low. The possible return is high. Even one less offender will more than pay back the costs of personal loss and policing costs. The risk of failure is low. Even if nothing changes, the police have demonstrated a clear attempt to reach out to offenders.Low cost and low risk.
3. This creative message is a good public relations move with the community. The public will be reassured that the department is proactive and innovative. It might be reassuring to know that the police are keeping track of the offenders. A message for their other stakeholders.
4. The Christmas card uses a tongue-in-cheek humour while hinting at a threat. Law-breakers probably understand and are motivated by threats more than most. This will certainly grab the attention of the intended audience. Bold and attention grabbing.
5. The Christmas card offers hope. Everyone needs and responds to hope. Some of those recipients might be at the stage where hope will attract them to make a phone call or make changes in their pattern of life. Offer hope.
6. The timing of the Christmas card leverages the good will of Christmas and the resolutions of New Year. Often people simply need a “logical” reason to change. People need a "because".
7. The results of this campaign are easy to measure. First, phone calls from the recipients are one measure. Second, the arrests of the people on this list will be another. Measurable.
8. This Christmas card campaign is bold and provocative and will offend some people. An effective marketing campaign is bold and provocative. Every organization has friends and enemies. You know that your marketing is bold enough when your enemies are offended. Who cares what they think. They are your enemies and will be no matter what you do. Good controversy can help your position and reinforce your message. There’s no question about where the police stand on this issue.
9. For all who receive this card the message is “We’re watching you”. That seems like a good message to send to law-breakers. That alone makes this mailing worthwhile.
10. For the community of Abbottsford, they can see that this police chief had a sense of humour, is bold and he knows his duty. Use the CEO to put a face on your campaign.

  

Merry Christmas to Chief Bob Rich and the team at the Abbottsford police department. And most importantly a Happy and crime-reduced New Year.

Read more about Abbottsford Police Sends Christmas Cards to Gangsters, Drug Dealers at Huffington Post

Read more about Abbotsford police enlist gun-toting Santa for criminals’ Christmas cards at Globe and Mail

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing  
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Gentlemen Get your Nails Done

I was surprised to find this advertisement for manicures and pedicures in the men’s bathroom. I noticed it on the counter while washing my hands. Naturally, my first reaction was, “OMG, I must be in the wrong bathroom.” Two seconds later I realized that I had just used the urinal so this must be the men’s bathroom.

I finished washing my hands while examining the ad. Then I began to wonder, “Why is it here?” “Did someone place it in the wrong bathroom or is there some new trend happening?”

So let’s examine this advertisement.

I don’t know if $59 is a good price for a combination manicure and pedicure but it was the most prominent bit of information on this ad. Look at this ad and notice your eye movement. Most likely the image of the woman’s face in the top left catches your attention, then your eyes dart to the bottom right yellow seal with $59 in the centre.

What is that selling?

Who is this ad for?

Was it intended to attract men to get a manicure and pedicure? And if so, is it targeted at men who want this service or is it trying to convince men that they should check it out?

Or, was it intended to get men to tell their wife or girl friend about this service?

What was the key benefit offered here?

The photo of the young woman was attention grabbing – especially in a men’s bathroom. You can imagine what images of attractive women are usually used to sell in the men’s room.

The second attention-grabbing piece was the yellow seal surrounding the price of $59.

The third prominent bit on this ad was the word “Express”.

The fourth place that your eyes might jump to is the top right and the words “Black Friars”. And you still wouldn’t know what this ad is about. “Black Friars” sounds like the name of an English pub to me.

If you continued to read under Black Friars, you would discover a detailed address that indicated this service was available at this hotel. That seems a long way to say “Visit the nails spa right here.” My guess is that information was for people who were not in this hotel.

As a marketing specialist I was intrigued, unlike the usual suspects, so I eventually noticed the words about Manicure and Pedicure.

A few marketing lessons from this ad:

Who are you targeting? The men’s bathroom is a different audience than the women’s bathroom. And there is more than one target audience in the men’s bathroom.

Don’t create one ad and then publish it everywhere else. You see this often where the magazine ad gets duplicated on the billboard. It saves on design cost and wastes money on publishing.

Look at the ad and think about what might be going through the mind of the viewer.

By the way, if they wanted to get men to visit the nail spa they might have used the heading, “Gentlemen, Get Your Nails Done – and enjoy the extra attention from the ladies”

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Hand Written Notes – the Original Social Media

More Personal Than Digital Media

It’s impossible to ignore the Social Media crusade. Perhaps you received business through Social Media contacts and activity. I admit that I’ve made interesting new contacts, renewed old friendships and generated business through social media.

However, I’ve received a lot more business and recognition from sending hand written notes. The two best messages to send via hand written note are thank you and congratulations. Thank you for your business, help, referral, testimonial, patience, gift…

Congratulations on your achievement, recognition, new venture, milestone… The prompting for the note could be personal or business.

Here’s why you might consider sending hand written notes.

Your note will stand out which means it will be noticed and remembered. Very few people are sending hand written notes so you will be different from the rest.

The open and read rate is much higher than for email or other avenues of digital messaging. Most people will promptly and eagerly open the envelope to see what the note says.

It’s low tech, which means that it’s simple to do and easy to follow through. You don’t need to register for expensive classes on how to use this tool or hire consultants to do it for you.

It’s your handwriting. What could be more personalized than that? There’s character in your handwriting that can never be captured by Arial or Times Roman. It doesn’t matter if your handwriting is sloppy as long as it is legible. The secret is to slow down when you write that note.

It’s handwritten so people realize that it’s personal and written from you to them – one-to-one. We never really know about your digital messages. They could be mass messaging or cut-and-paste.

Opening the envelope and holding the note, is tactile which means that it stimulates an underused sense.

This marketing device will never be hijacked by Google or Facebook. You could order custom printed stationary or you could buy a package of plain note cards and envelopes.

The next step for you is to make it a daily or at least weekly habit to send notes to clients, prospects, associates, staff and other contacts.

© George Torok is co-author of the bestselling, Secrets of Power Marketing. It’s the guide to personal marketing for the non-marketer and published in seven countries. Get your free copy of “50 Power Marketing Ideas” at www.PowerMarketing.ca

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing  
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

8 Marketing Truths that Will Make You More Profitable

Beware of the dangerous marketing myths that can destroy your business. You’ve probably heard most of them. Many are spread by the marketing mystics who don’t understand or don’t want you to understand the simple realities of marketing. The challenge for you is to sort the truths from the myths and the mystics from the masters.

 

Read this article and study each of these marketing truths to increase your profits and reduce your losses. Think about how you will apply these marketing lessons to improve the profitability of your business. 

 

1. Marketing is about sending messages
Everything you do or don’t do sends a message. Marketing is much more than advertising. Marketing includes your customer service, company policies, telephone manner, community presence and supplier relationships.

Read the rest of Marketing Truths that will Make You More Profitable

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter