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Top 5 Reasons of Proof That Brand Marketing Works

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I hear these three words every month, DOES MARKETING WORK? I can give you five reasons that support the answer of “absolutely”. Brand Marketing is as powerful as being number one or number three.

Reason 1) If you are a woman, what lipstick do you wear? What Shampoo do you use? What brand Jeans do you own? Women spend an average of $15,000 on makeup in their lifetimes. Beauty manufacturers spent $2.2 billion on advertising last year. Marketers allocated most of their ad spend to TV (42%) and print (54%). So what makes you buy the brand you purchased? Whatever your answer, it stems from marketing. The formula to penetrate into your mind is a complex one. But you have been brainwashed whether you accept it or not.

Reason 2) Typically, if you are of age, you are driving your car. Why are you a BMW or Volkswagen driver? Does not every brand have some sort of emotional and intellectual connection with you? What are your thoughts on a Mercedes Benz driver? The reason you have these thoughts are because of this fact:

  • General Motors spent 3.5 billion on advertising last year
  • Ford Motors spent 2.7 billion on advertising last year
  • Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spent 2.2 billion on advertising last year

Automakers sold almost 18 million vehicles. Do you think they would do all this advertising if it didn’t work? Marketing is the driving force to give you a lasting impression when it comes time to purchase your next car. You probably already know what vehicle represents who you are. Brand loyalty is also a big piece of the advertising puzzle and they spend millions to keep you coming back.

Reason 3) You’re hooked on some television shows? Why is that? How did you find out about them? The advertising to capture an audience of a certain demographics has become easier with all the analytical data thats accessible. You may of picked a show just because you liked that actor or actress. They too are a brand. I want to focus on one show and one show only, NFL Programming. NFL are branding machines. They encourage Fantasy Football, they can charge up to $600,000 for a .30 spot on Sunday Night Football, they have begun to market to women and they have the best branded show in the history of shows, the Super Bowl. Why then are they losing shares at the end of 2016?

Factors for decline:

  • The Chicago Cubs win
  • Donald Trumps Election (this took shares away from everyone)
  • Deflate-gate debacle
  • Stand on Domestic Violence
  • The respect of the American Flag

Americans are standing up for what they believe in. Colin Kaepernicks kneeling at the American Flag has still left Colin a free agent who is not signed. He is not liked and this is linked to the NFL. The NFL needed to take a stance and speak out on the issues pertaining to this behavior. They remained quiet and seeing how that impacted them must be painful. How smart proof is your company? New factors always pop up and how you address them might mean your brand lives on, or dies over time. Don’t get me wrong, the NFL will bounce back since they have a great cash surplus. They just signed a deal with Amazon for the rights to Thursday Night Football. Now that is re-inventing yourself while keeping your brand.

They do have the strictest guidelines when it comes to using their brand. I respect them for protecting their assets, for making counterfeiters go to jail, and great product placement with partnerships. Who else could have every football team on a BudLight can? But always remember your demographics. NFL might just have lost that reality when they don’t take a stand on players actions. Never take your eye off the ball.

Learn more on Defining Your True Brand Story and Bringing it to Life Online.

Reason 4)  The grocery store is a subject of brands. I want to focus on just beer. How is it that Bud Light leads the beer division. If you drink beer, you have a favorite. The reason might be image or taste. But you tried other beers because of marketing. If you say no to this idea, how did you hear about the other beers in the first place? If your answer is friends, that is also marketing. Word of mouth marketing is still the most powerful marketing this century. And your friends received the marketing somehow. Alcohol ads have increased 400% over the last 40 years. The industry spends around 89% of its advertising dollars on television, according to research done by Citigroup. Bud Light spent 85 million dollars on TV ad placements in 2014. Today Anheuser-Busch spends 1.68 billion in all advertising spends. They have averaged 1.4 billion over the last decade. It’s the reason they have 48% of the beer market. How else would a company stay above the rest in the highly competitive beer category?

Reason 5)  Fast Food. McDonalds has a value of 88 billion and next on the list is Starbucks with 43 billion. To understand this slightly better, Burger King has a value of 3.6 billion. A huge wide difference. So why the separation you may ask? McDonalds spent 5.9 billion on advertising in the United States alone. Burger King spent 255 million on advertising, which has contributed to the separation of these two brands. Marketing obviously works or McDonalds would not continue this spending trend for over a decade. I do wonder, if Burger King had good marketing and spent what McDonalds spends, if they would jump over Starbucks? Product is still king. There is a connection of why Coca-Cola and Bud Light are both the most valuable soft drink and beer brands in the World. Marketing, and marketing dollars allocated.

Those are five samples of how creative marketing builds brands to lead a nation. Marketing + Strategy + Creative + Execution = A powerful formula for elevating your product or brand. I will agree that all samples above have unlimited budgets. My point to this blog was to simply support the concept that you are a victim of marketing and strong marketers seem to rise above the competition. What is your company doing to rise above?

Learn The StoryBranding Process

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5 Examples To Improve Brand Marketing Strategy Using Amazon Alexa

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Amazon’s Echo is a voice-controlled home device that uses Alexa technology. Such devices are providing marketers new and exciting platforms to improve brand marketing strategy by better connecting with their customers and fans. Companies are using the voice-enabled platform to offer more creative and frequently updated content to their users. Learn from these brands that have timely adopted the new concepts of digital marketing and integrated artificial intelligence into their brand marketing strategy to listen to your customers’ needs and generate audio content that develops and fosters effective relationships.

1.    Digiday

You must be familiar with Digiday, a renowned portal for information on digital marketing industry. In just ninety seconds you can know the top marketing news while drinking your morning coffee, and through a human voice not a robotic one. Moreover, users can request Alexa to stream music through Spotify or order a ride through Uber.

2.    Giant Spoon

As a leading communications and market strategy agency, Giant Spoon distributes its personal content in innovative ways. It is fun and lighthearted and tends to capture the overall feel of this company.For instance, if you ask the company for brainstorming help, you may get a snarky response like: We are currently low on ideas, hire an influencer. This could be a good ice breaker before you start a meeting.

As voice has become the new frontier for many interactive experiences, a platform like Alexa provides brands a big opportunity to play differently in a new and exciting environment on a revolutionary canvas to enhance their brand marketing strategy.brand marketing strategy

3.    Web Analytics

If you want to evaluate your brand marketing strategy, analytics is must. If you want to know how your new marketing campaign is going,rather than accessing and going through Google Analytics reports, simply ask Alexa and it will pull the numbers and details for you. You can use both granular and broad queries to stay updated on real-time traffic data.

Are you a marketer? Here is an article with some helpful tips for Google Analytics

4.    The American Heart Association

Using Alexa you can ask AHA how you can perform CPR to get a step-by-stepwalkthrough, or know the important warning signs of a heart attack or stroke. This is another example of how you can provide value or benefits to your audience through a voice-enabled platform.

5.    GoodNes

Nestlé has introduced Amazon Alexa customers to a unique and convenient visual and voice browsing experience with the launch of its GoodNes skill for Alexa. With an Alexa device, consumers can now improve their cooking experience using voice instructions as well as a visual guide that lets users see and hear recipe steps in the paired web browser. It also provides them access to valuable nutritional information, fun facts, ingredients, and useful how-to videos especially designed to help them learn new cooking recipes and techniques.

You can find the GoodNes voice-assisted skill in the Alexa store. Once you enable the skill, you can link your account with your email to get a link to the unique visual guide. This visual guide is fully compatible with Safari and Chrome web browsers on laptops, tablets, and desktop computers.

17 SEO MYTHS YOU SHOULD LEAVE BEHIND
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Developing A Brand Marketing Strategy By Determining Your Company’s Make Or Break

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In today’s improving business environment, company leaders need to focus on their big picture “make or break” to grow topline revenue. Marketing once again has emerged as an essential tool to distinguish a brand—staying top of mind with consumers is critical to success. And leaders who recognize the benefits of marketing are poised to grow their companies.

As a CEO or CMO, one of the most valuable things you, along with your leadership team, can do is determine your company’s marketing make or break. A make or break is the one thing that must be done extraordinarily well to achieve your company’s vision.

The marketing makes or break for a senior living or retirement community, for example, could be to communicate to the adult children of the elderly to ensure high engagement with the decision makers and bolster referrals. For a resort, it might be to market to corporate and event planners to drive meetings and weekday bookings to decrease vacancy. A manufacturer may want to target its messaging to appeal to C-level finance personnel, while a hospital’s marketing make or break could be to attract top doctors.

Step 1: Quantify Your Objectives

The first step in determining your company’s marketing make or break is to understand your marketing vision and objectives. It essential they be believable, measurable and obtainable. Look at what you want, what your product is, and what category you fall under. Then set quantifiable goals, describe exactly what you want, and put value to it.

Step 2: Commit To The Process

The most successful leaders drive their marketing make or break at the detail level. As a CEO or CMO, you must commit to leading and coaching; however, the best ROI comes with cooperation from all staff members, so empower them. Hold the team accountable and set clear expectations. Move forward daily, not quarterly, so that everyone can react and adjust as needed.

Your entire team must believe in the benefits of marketing and commit to the process, as well. One of the most important assignments you can give your staff is to establish future indicators—trackable results that indicate efforts are moving forward toward a goal. P&Ls look back. Actions create results. Measure activities that lead to revenue and growth. Activities, future indicators and results all funnel down to achieve your goals.

[Read About How The Right Lead Nurturing Strategy Can Help You Stay Top Of Mind]

Step 3: Get Engaged

Lead your sales and marketing efforts by strengthening your knowledge in these areas—attend sales meetings and actively coach through storytelling. Outline the benefits of marketing specifically for your organization. Do not delegate leadership in this area to a direct report, even at the highest level.

At the same time, you must be able to make decisions and have control with little time invested. Others must be inspired to take ownership of the various strategies. Streamline the process and provide incentives to keep your team engaged and on track.

Step 4: Update Your Competitive Advantages

Marketing messages have evolved as more and more companies invest in understanding their brand’s position in the marketplace today. Challenge yourself and examine your competitive advantages. If they are out of date, address it, develop new language and test them on loyal customers.

One way to uncover powerful insights about your unique selling propositions is through a Competitive Advantages Discovery. This agency-led collaborative workshop engages a core group within an organization for a deep dive into each participant’s view of the company—both strengths and weaknesses. As a team, agency and client gain perspective on what sets the company and its products apart from the competition.

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4 Solid Tips For Marketing To Millennials

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Millennials make up about 25% of the US population and spend around $600 billion cumulatively each year. With this tremendous spending power, this generation is worth your time and attention. It’s important to present content that is relevant, innovative, interesting, and sharable—and that is in the right environment to reach them—tailored to the location, device and time of day. Here are a few key points to consider when targeting these consumers: Read more

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Marketing Strategy Using Old Mediums

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Billboards

Advertisers pay between 1.1 million and 4 million annually for a Times Square Billboard. The average Times Square visit lasts 81 minutes and of that time, eight minutes will be spent looking at advertising billboards. 300,000 people walk through Times Square every day. On busy days, the number jumps to 480,000. So you can expect some 1.5 million impressions daily. Of those daily visitors, 243,358 will post something about their visit to a social media channel. Facebook leads the charge with 135,000 and Instagram is slightly behind with 102,000. Snapchat and Twitter follow with just under 100,000 for a combined effort. Yes this is digital but its using the principle of different marketing strategies from old mediums.

Coke has been advertising in Times Square for 97 years. Its new billboard is the worlds first 3-D robotic sign. It is structured with more than 1,500 LED screens, its content is programmed by time of day. The sign is 42’ in width and 68’ in height. It weighs in at 240,000 lbs. Took four years to design and test the sign and took 35 engineers to make it happen.

With all this said, do you think that having a sign that 300,000 people see each day, is worth it? Are you ready to spend 4 million? Coke believes its a core strategy to its marketing efforts. What could you be doing to get just a 1/3 of eyeballs looking at your brand or product?

5 Reasons of Proof that Brand Marketing Works 

Television

Moving away from Billboards and into television, GEICO spends over a billion dollars each year. Second to GEICO is State Farm which spends HALF of GEICOs budget. Why in the world would GEICO spend that much each year? Believe it or not GEICO has been losing money for the last four years, but Warren Buffet’s thought was “don’t let up”. In 2016 indicated that GEICO grew written premium revenue 12.5 percent to $26.3 billion, and earned premium rose 12.2 percent. So is really spending 1 billion to make 25 billion plus, a stretch? Anyone would do it, right? No way. It’s a gamble and if you look at how you are holding back your marketing budget, you are not willing to take the same gamble. You are doing it right now!

Radio

So lets say you are a frugal spender but a trade show here and there is not pulling in the numbers you need it to. Let me introduce you to radio. Radio is the leading reach platform: 93% of us listen to AM/FM radio over the airwaves, which is higher than TV viewership (89%), PC use (50%), smartphone use (83%), and tablet use (37%)

  • 271 million Americans 6+ listen to the radio each week;
  • 67 million Millennials use radio each week;
  • Audiences are becoming more diverse with 42 million Hispanic listeners and 32 million Black listeners in March 2017; and
  • Digital radio listenership has increased dramatically from 12% of Americans 12+ listening weekly in 2007 to 53% in 2017.

Maybe this vehicle is the right one for your product or branding efforts, or maybe its in the mix. It’s reasonably priced and given the demographics, could launch your business into greatness.

I am sorry to say that there is no clear formula for money spent vs consumer awareness and every business is different. Its like saying you want hardwood floors put into your home. I could ask 20 questions after that idea such as 1) what type of wood, 2) what stain 3) how many coats of stain 4) what width 5) what kind of varnish 6) do you want your trim replaced at the same time and so on…The choices are endless and it can be the same for your marketing efforts.

However, there are so many ways to promote your brand, but you must be willing to invest in yourself. Hire an agency that understands all the platforms because just “going digital” isn’t alway the right choice.

Learn To Use Social Media To Find New Leads

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Free Marketing Tools To Start Using Today

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There are so many marketing tools available, that you can easily get overwhelmed trying to sort through them all and find the one that’s right for your business. But finding the right tool doesn’t have to be difficult and in some cases, it doesn’t even have to cost you anything. Here are nine of our favorite free marketing tools that you can start using to improve your marketing results today. Read more

5 Marketing Tactics You Should Be Using in 2021

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Over the course of the year, businesses will implement various marketing tactics, some of which are hot, new marketing trends, others that have already been proven to be effective. However, Some marketing tactics that began in 2020 will still work in 2021. Here are new marketing trends that will a good idea for 2021. 

1. Keep Producing Video Contentvideo marketing trends

At this point in time, video content should be a major component of your content marketing strategy. According to recent studies, half of all American Internet users watch video content online every day, whether it’s on their computers or on their phones. Invest in pre-recorded videos as well as live videos that are mobile-friendly to continue reaching a larger audience.

2. Add Chatbots To Your Website

Getting your visitors to engage and interact with your website is vital to maintaining their interest (and keeping that bounce rate low). Chatbots have become an incredibly helpful feature for visitors over the past few years. The presence of a chatbot allows a visitor to ask questions or for assistance in real time instead of having to email a company and wait for who knows how long to hear back. Implementing a chatbot will make your website experience much more convenient for your visitors and will prevent them from getting frustrated.

Why Your Website Redesign Would Benefit From An Inbound Marketing Strategy

3. Curate User-Generated Contentvideo marketing strategy

One of the most important elements of brand perception is authenticity. If your brand doesn’t feel authentic, it will hurt your reputation. One way to build your authenticity is to leverage user-generated content. There’s nobody that consumers trusts more than other consumers, after all. Produce video testimonials and set up contests to promote the creation of user-generated content (such as Instagram photo contests) that you can use to build your authenticity.

4. Focus On Personalization

Personalization has been important to customers for years now, and this won’t change in 2019. Personalizing your marketing will help you stand out and will make it easier for your audience to engage with you on a more personal level. It’s also become much easier to personalize your marketing than it’s ever been due to the ability to collect and analyze purchase history data, consumer behavior data, and more. At this point, there’s simply no excuse not to leverage personalization.

5. Employ Best Data Privacy Practices

The GDPR passed in Europe in 2018, which put into place numerous regulations regarding the collection of private user data. While such regulations aren’t yet in place in the U.S., it’s only a matter of time before they will be. As a result, you should begin taking steps to ensure that the data you’re collecting is secure and that you’ll be able to follow any new data privacy regulations that may pass.

Not all established marketing tactics or current marketing trends will be useful next year. However, some certainly will be. These are some of the marketing tactics that you should implement into your 2019 marketing strategy.

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5 Creative Marketing Solutions That Will Work In 2021

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Solutions come in every flavor. Every client has different pain, and it’s an agency’s job to seek out and offer solutions. Once the pain has been established, the solution is what will solve or compound the problem. Great agencies can put creative thoughts into a campaign and make it memorable. Here are 5 creative marketing solutions that will resonate with the consumer in 2021.

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Using Marketing Technology to Build a More Visible Brand

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The success of some of the newest brands on the market is due to marketing technology. Brands like Uber, Air BnB, Lyft, Grub Hub and Seamless have managed to leverage marketing technology to paint the perfect picture of their ideal customer. All these brands are itching to reach the same costumer base. The companies mentioned above are looking at city-dwelling millennials who love to travel and value convenience. Through MarTech, the above brands have been able to use the data they’ve collected to tailor the user experience specifically to their customers.

While new brands seem to have marketing technology down to a science, older brands are lagging behind. Unable to invest in a marketing agency to collect and decipher data, small and mid-size businesses are lagging even further behind.

What is marketing technology?

Back in the golden age of marketing, there were four things that most companies focused on; price, product, placement, and promotion. Placing a product in the direct line of sight for consumers, and promoting that product through TV, magazine, sales, and adverts was the core foundation of marketing. Today, things are different. New School marketers focus on The 6 Cs; Making contact, connecting with the userbase, monitoring consumption, considering consumer needs, starting a conversation, and building a community and monitoring consumption.

New school marketing presents its challenges. It isn’t enough to collect the data from consumers; a company must be ready to utilize that data. In most cases, the job is easier said than done. This is where marketing technology comes in. High-end marketing software makes it easier to collect data, follow trends, and, perhaps most importantly, pinpoint patterns within the consumer lifecycle. These patterns allow a marketing professional to make educated guesses about product performance. It also allows professionals to tweak campaigns to fit current trends based on the date they’ve collected.

[Read about Effective Marketing Strategies for a Changing Economy]

The new school of marketing

Martech has changed the landscape. Besides data, it has changed how companies are reaching their preferred clientele. Influencer marketing is a relatively new concept, mostly born out of the Martech space. Influencer marketing entails identifying influential individuals in a space. For example, a makeup company may send over free samples to a YouTube beauty guru. Another may offer their fitness tea to an Instagram model. These paid influencers have built a wide fanbase through social media. Influencer marketing allows marketers to leverage an influencer’s following to reach a particular demographic. It can be considered word of mouth marketing for the new age.

The push of outbound marketing and the pull of inbound marketing is another difference between the old school and the new school. The pull of inbound, however, needs to be measured uniquely through the use of marketing software and technology. Through the creation of more data, we must move into a space that best utilizes that data to create a harmonious user experience. All the data in the world won’t matter if it isn’t being used to harness a complete and clear picture of the target demographic.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

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Video Marketing Ideas: Using Storytelling In Social Media

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Storytelling is one of the most important aspects when it comes of successfully conveying your message to your audience and giving them an idea of who your brand is and what you stand for. While storytelling is something that can be done via all types of content across all platforms, it’s particularly effective in video content on social media. However, coming up with different video marketing ideas that help strengthen your brand’s storytelling can be challenging. The following are a few video marketing ideas that you may want to implement on your social media channels to aid your storytelling efforts:

1. Film Your Customers’ Stories

Telling the stories of your customers is an easy way to get viewers to relate on a more personal level to your brand. When you film the story of your customer, they become the main character, which allows you to demonstrate through their story how you were able to provide a solution to their problems or needs.

2. Tell Personal Stories

Tell your brand’s story by showcasing how your company came to be. For example, you can focus on your owner as the main character and show how they started the business. This is a great way to put a face behind your brand and to make your company more relatable to your audience.

3. Create Fictional Stories

In addition to using the stories of your customers, make up some of your stories. Fictional stories often give you the opportunity to add humor and excitement that real stories don’t always have. For example, you could make the main character a superhero but keep the problem or need the same. If you’re selling a carpet stain removal product, it might be humorous to show a superhero having trouble removing a carpet stain even though you just showed them having no issue at all taking down a bad guy. Just make sure the message is clear and that you end with a strong call-to-action.

4. Film Documentary-Style Videos

Documentary videos give audiences a look into the process behind your company, whether it’s showing the process of working with a client or showing what a typical day at the office is like. It’s a good way to showcase how hard your company is working to help your customers.

5. Provide Behind-The-Scenes Videos

Behind-the-scenes videos give audiences a glimpse into what it’s like to work for your company and into what you and your company are trying to achieve. These types of videos make your brand feel more human as opposed to just being a faceless corporate entity.

The Power of First-Person Experience Videos

6. Perform Product Walkthroughs

Showing how a product works will be a lot more engaging if you film it in the form of a story. You can do this by establishing a character, showing what their problem is, demonstrating how to use your product or service, and, finally, revealing the result.

Storytelling is an essential part of marketing your brand effectively, and there are few better ways to do it than through video marketing. Use some of these video marketing ideas to enhance your storytelling abilities on social media.

Learn The StoryBranding Process