Memorize These 12 Words Then Live By Them
1. COMMITMENT: You should know that a mediocre marketing program with commitment will always prove more profitable than a brilliant marketing program without commitment. Commitment makes it happen.
2. INVESTMENT: Marketing is not an expense, but an investment -- the best investment available in America today -- if you do it right. With guerrilla marketing to guide you, you'll be doing it right.
3. CONSISTENT: It takes a while for prospects to trust you and if you change your marketing, media, and identity, you're hard to trust. Restraint is a great ally of the guerrilla. Repetition is another.
4. CONFIDENT: In a nationwide test to determine why people buy, price came in fifth, selection fourth, service third, quality second, and, in first place -- people said they patronize businesses in which they are confident.
5. PATIENT: Unless the person running your marketing is patient, it will be difficult to practice commitment, view marketing as an investment, be consistent, and make prospects confident. Patience is a guerrilla virtue.
6. ASSORTMENT: Guerrillas know that individual marketing weapons rarely work on their own. But marketing combinations do work. A wide assortment of marketing tools are required to woo and win customers.
7. CONVENIENT: People now know that time is not money, but is far more valuable. Respect this by being easy to do business with and running your company for the convenience of your customers, not yourself.
8. SUBSEQUENT: The real profits come after you've made the sale, in the form of repeat and referral business. Non-guerrillas think marketing ends when they've made the sale. Guerrillas know that's when marketing begins.
9. AMAZEMENT: There are elements of your business that you take for granted, but prospects would be amazed if they knew the details. Be sure all of your marketing always reflects that amazement. It's always there.
10. MEASUREMENT: You can actually double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bulls-eyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won't know which is which.
11. INVOLVEMENT: This describes the relationlship between you and your customers -- and it is a relationship. You prove your involvement by following up; they prove theirs by patronizing and recommending you.
12. DEPENDENT: The guerrilla's job is not to compete but to cooperate with other businesses. Market them in return for them marketing you. Set up tie-ins with others. Become dependent to market more, spend less.
100 Marketing Weapons
These guerrilla marketing weapons should all be considered for promoting your product, service or website offline. Notice how more than half of them are free.
| 1. Marketing plan 2. Marketing calendar 3. Niche/positioning 4. Name of company 5. Identity 6. Logo 7. Theme 8. Stationery 9. Business card 10. Signs inside 11. Signs outside 12. Hours of operation 13. Days of operation 14. Window display 15. Flexibility 16. Word-of-mouth 17. Community involvement 18. Barter 19. Club/Association memberships 20. Partial payment plans 21. Cause-related marketing 22. Telephone demeanor 23. Toll free phone number 24. Free consultations 25. Free seminars and clinics 26. Free demonstrations 27. Free samples 28. Giver vs taker stance 29. Fusion marketing 30. Marketing on telephone hold 31. Success stories 32. Employee attire 33. Service 34. Follow-up 35. Yourself and your employees 36. Gifts and ad specialities 37. Catalog 38. Yellow Pages ads 39. Column in a publication 40. Article in a publication 41. Speaker at any club 42. Newsletter 43. All your audiences 44. Benefits list 45. Computer 46. Selection 47. Contact time with customer 48. How you say hello/goodbye 49. Public relations 50. Media contacts | 51. Neatness 52. Referral program 53. Sharing with peers 54. Guarantee 55. Telemarketing 56. Gift certificates 57. Brochures 58. Electronic brochures 59. Location 60. Advertising 61. Sales training 62. Networking 63. Quality 64. Reprints and blow-ups 65. Flipcharts 66. Opportunities to upgrade 67. Contests/sweepstakes 68. Online marketing 69. Classified advertising 70. Newspaper ads 71. Magazine ads 72. Radio spots 73. TV spots 74. Infomercials 75. Movie ads 76. Direct mail letters 77. Direct mail postcards 78. Postcard decks 79. Posters 80. Fax-on-demand 81. Special events 82.Show display 83. Audio-visual aids 84. Spare time 85. Prospect mailing lists 86. Research studies 87. Competitive advantages 88. Marketing insight 89. Speed 90. Testimonials 91. Reputation 92. Enthusiasm & passion 93. Credibility 94. Spying on yourself and others 95. Being easy to do business with 96. Brand name awareness 97. Designated guerrilla 98. Customer mailing list 99. Competitiveness 100. Satisfied customers |
Tales From the Front Line
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WHAT IS A GUERRILLA ENTREPRENEUR?
Guerrilla Marketing International
© 2009 Guerrilla Marketing International. All Rights रेसेर्वेद
The goals of the 21st century guerrilla entrepreneur: work that is satisfying,
enough money to enjoy freedom from worry, health good enough to take
for granted, a bonding with others where you give and receive love and support,
fun that is not pursued but is in the essence of daily living and longevity to
appreciate with wisdom that which you have achieved.
(Please note: for the purposes of this report... "he" refers equally to male and female
genders).
WHAT IS A GUERRILLA ENTREPRENEUR?
1)The guerrilla entrepreneur knows that the journey is the goal।
He also realizes that he is in control of his enterprise, not the other way around,
and that if he is dissatisfied with his journey, he is missing the point of the journey
itself. Unlike old-fashioned enterprises, which often required gigantic sacrifices
for the sake of the goal, guerrilla enterprises place the goal of a pleasant journey
ahead of the mere notion of sacrifices.
2)The guerrilla entrepreneur achieves balance from the very start.
He builds free time into his work schedule so that balance is part of his
enterprise. He respects his leisure time as much as his work time, never
allowing too much of one to interfere with the other. Traditional entrepreneurs
always placed work ahead of leisure and showed no respect for their own
personal freedom. Guerrillas cherish their freedom as much as their work.
3) The guerrilla entrepreneur is not in a hurry.
A false need for speed frequently undermines even the best-conceived
strategies. Haste makes waste and sacrifices quality. The guerrilla is fully aware
that patience is his ally, and he has planned intelligently to eliminate most
emergencies that call for moving fast. His pace is always steady but never
rushed.
4)The guerrilla entrepreneur uses stress as a benchmark.
If he feels any stress, he knows he must be going about things in the wrong way.
Guerrilla entrepreneurs do not accept stress as part of doing business and
recognize any stress as a warning sign that something's the matter -- in the work
plan of the guerrilla or in the business itself. Adjustments are made to eliminate
the cause of the stress rather than the stress itself.
5) The guerrilla entrepreneur looks forward to work.
He has a love affair with his work and considers himself blessed to be paid for
doing the work he does. He is good at his work, energizing his passion for it in a
quest to learn more about it and improve his understanding of it, thereby
increasing his skills. The guerrilla entrepreneur doesn't think about retirement, for
never would he want to stop doing work the loves.
6) The guerrilla entrepreneur has no weaknesses.
He is effective in every aspect of his enterprise because he has filled in the gaps
between his strengths and talents with people who abound in the prowess he
lacks. He is very much the team player and teams up with guerrillas like himself
who share the team spirit and possess complementary skills. He values his
teammates as much as old-fashioned entrepreneurs valued their independence.
7) The guerrilla entrepreneur is fusion-oriented.
He is always on the alert to fuse his business with other enterprises in town, in
America, in the world. He is willing to combine marketing efforts, production
skills, information, leads, mailing lists and anything else to increase his
effectiveness and marketing reach while reducing the cost of achieving those
goals. His fusion efforts are intentionally short-term and rarely permanent. In his
business relationships, instead of thinking marriage, he thinks fling.
8) The guerrilla entrepreneur does not kid himself.
He knows that if he overestimates his own abilities, he runs the risk of skimping
on the quality he represents to his customers, employees, investors, suppliers
and fusion partners. He forces himself to face reality on a daily basis and realizes
that all of his business practices must always be evaluated in the glaring light of
what is really happening, instead of what should be happening.
9) The guerrilla entrepreneur lives in the present.
He is well-aware of the past, very enticed by the future, but the here and now is
where he resides, embracing the technologies of the present, leaving future
technologies on the horizon right where they belong -- on the horizon until later,
when they are ripe and ready. He is alert to the new, wary of the avant-garde,
and only wooed from the old by improvement, not merely change.
10) The guerrilla entrepreneur understands the precious nature of time.
He doesn't buy into the old lie that time is money and knows in his heart that time
is far more important than money. He knows that instead, time is life. He is
aware that his customers and prospects feel the same way about time, so he
respects theirs and wouldn't dare waste it. As a practicing guerrilla, he is the
epitome of efficiency but never lets it interfere with his effectiveness.
11) The guerrilla entrepreneur always operates according to a plan.
He knows who he is, where he is going, and how he will get there. He is
prepared, knows that anything can and will happen, and can deal with the
barriers to entrepreneurial success because his plan has foreseen them and
shown exactly how to surmount them. The guerrilla reevaluates his plan
regularly and does not hesitate to make changes in it, though commitment to the
plan is part of his very being.
12) The guerrilla entrepreneur is flexible.
He is guided by a strategy for success, and knows the difference between a
guide and a master. When it is necessary for change, the guerrilla changes,
accepting change as part of the status quo, not ignoring or battling it. He is able
to adapt to new situations, realizes that service is whatever his customers want it
to be, and knows that inflexible things become brittle and break.
13) The guerrilla aims for results more than growth.
He is focused upon profitability and balance, vitality and improvement, value and
quality more than size and growth. His plan calls for steadily increasing profits
without a sacrifice of personal time, so his actions are oriented to hitting those
targets instead of growing for the sake of growth alone. He is wary of becoming
large and does not equate hugeness with excellence.
14) The guerrilla entrepreneur is dependent upon many people.
He knows that the age of the lone wolf entrepreneur, independent and proud of it,
has passed. The guerrilla is very dependent upon his fusion business partners,
his employees, his customers, his suppliers, and his mentors. He got where he
is with his own wings, his own determination, his own smarts, and, as a guerrilla,
with a little help from a lot of friends.
15) The guerrilla entrepreneur is constantly learning.
A seagull flies in circles in the sky, looking for food in an endless quest. When it
finally finds the food, the seagull lands, then eats its fill. When it has completed
the meal, the seagull returns to the sky, only to fly in circles again, searching for
food although it has eaten. Humans have only one instinct that compares: the
need for constant learning. Guerrilla entrepreneurs have this need in spades.
16) The guerrilla entrepreneur is passionate about work.
He has an enthusiasm for what he does that is apparent to everyone who sees
his work. This enthusiasm spreads to everyone who works with him, even to his
customers. In its purest form, this enthusiasm is best expressed as the word
passion -- an intense feeling that burns within him and is manifested in the
devotion he demonstrates towards his business.
17) The guerrilla entrepreneur is focused on the goal.
He knows that balance does not come easily, and that he must rid himself of the
values and expectations of his ancestors. To do this, he must remain focused
upon his journey, seeing the future clearly, at the same time concentrating upon
the present. He is aware that the minutiae of life and business can distract him,
so does what is necessary to make those distractions only momentary.
18) The guerrilla entrepreneur is disciplined about the tasks at hand.
He is keenly aware that every time he writes a task on his daily calendar, it is a
promise he is making to himself. As a guerrilla who does not kid himself, he
keeps those promises, knowing that the achievement of his goals will be more
than an adequate reward for his discipline. He finds it easy to be disciplined
because of the payback offered by the leisure that follows.
19) The guerrilla entrepreneur is well-organized at home and at work.
He does not waste valuable time looking for items that have been misplaced, so he organizes as he works and as new work comes to him. His sense of organization is fueled by the efficiency that results from it. While he is always organized, the guerrilla never squanders precious time by over organizing.
20) The guerrilla entrepreneur has an upbeat attitude.
Because he knows that life is unfair, problems arise, to err is human, and the
cool shall inherit the Earth, he manages to take obstacles in stride, keeping his
perspective and his sense of humor. His ever-present optimism is grounded in an
ability to perceive the positive side of things, recognizing the negative, but never
dwelling there. His positively is contagious.
Here's to your continued success as a guerrilla...
Jay Conrad Levinson
The Father of Guerrilla Marketing,
Google me! Author, "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books The best known marketing brand in history
Named one of the 100 best business books ever written Over 20 million sold; now in 62 languages www.gmarketing.com www.guerrillamarketingassociation.com
Entrepreneurial Thinking
There has never been a better time to start your own business। Major consolidation continues by large corporations in many industries creating profitable niches for new businesses to fill। The advances being made in technology and the Internet have created entirely new industries for business products and services, which are still relatively untapped. Even companies in the automobile and insurance industries are finding their way to the Web to capitalize on this rapidly growing medium. These developments represent dynamic changes for businesses in every industry and create the perfect chance for you to build a profitable company in your area of interest or expertise.
Entrepreneurial thinking is about recognizing opportunities in the marketplace and understanding how and when to capitalize on them. Becoming an entrepreneur is not necessarily an inherent trait. It takes time to train yourself to use your talents and experience to see opportunities where others do not. Each individual possesses a different perspective on products they would find useful and services they would like to see perform differently. It can often be just as profitable to improve upon an existing business. The advantage here is that you can learn from the mistakes of competing companies while still borrowing the positive aspects of their business for your own. Whether starting a completely new type of business or expanding on current ideas already in the marketplace, the key is learning to use your unique perspective to produce a product or service that provides increased value to potential customers.
No one could ever have imagined the impact the Internet would have on the global economy. New industries have developed in the last few years to support the advanced communications capabilities of this medium. Many of the entrepreneurs that had the foresight and skills to capitalize on these opportunities became millionaires almost overnight. In fact, the Internet is such a dynamic medium that there is still amazing wealth being generated from the creation of new companies, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. The development of dynamic new products and services in any industry naturally creates the need for complimentary types of businesses. By learning to think as an entrepreneur you will position yourself to be ready to capitalize on these opportunities as they develop.
Entrepreneurial thinking is relatively easy to learn. It involves training your mind to look at products and services in a different way and understanding how to improve upon them. How would you change the way a company you are familiar with is currently conducting business? Are there complimentary products or services that you feel would be of value to the same target market? Train yourself to be continuously learning about and evaluating other types of businesses. This is how to create ideas of your own and gain valuable insight into an industry. Project your understanding of a given industry into the future to get an idea for what types of products and services will be desired down the road. The marketplace of every industry is continuously changing, and those that have the foresight, ingenuity, and desire have the potential to capitalize on the opportunities that develop.
Although starting a business is never a sure thing in terms of success and prosperity, entrepreneurial thinking teaches you to capitalize on opportunities in your current job and other areas of your life as well. All of this does not mean that you should quit your job today. However, you should begin trying to lay the seeds for a type of business that interests you. What is it that you enjoy doing or have experience with? What demands are currently not being met in the marketplace? Why are companies not already doing this? The marketplace is full of opportunities and those that choose to take on the challenge give themselves the chance to create a type of wealth, happiness, and security that can be achieved by starting your own business.
Companies such as Yahoo, Amazon.com, and eBay were founded only a few short years ago and have enjoyed enormous success in their industry by generating significant value for their customers. These companies and many others often start in someone’s basement, garage, or dormitory. Being an entrepreneur has nothing to do with age, gender, race or education. Everyone must start somewhere, and those that have the drive and ambition to build their idea into a reality give themselves the chance for unparalleled success.
Starting a business is not something that happens overnight. However, it is probably not as difficult as you might imagine. The Internet has brought a wealth of information to your fingertips, if you know where to look for it. You can access information on almost every topic of interest to an entrepreneur by simply performing a search on any of the search engines. Speak with other individuals who have started their own business. They will provide you with a wealth of insight and possibly some useful contacts.
It is never too soon to begin contemplating starting your own business. This will only encourage your development as an entrepreneur and help open your eyes to opportunities in the marketplace that you never knew existed. The key is to believe in yourself, the idea, and have the desire to make it into a reality.
The Process of Marketing
Marketing is not an event, but a process। How long does the process last?
An insight for you to embrace is that a guerrilla marketing attack is neverending. It has a beginning, a middle but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause in it. But you never stop it completely.
Of all the steps in succeeding with a guerrilla marketing attack, maintaining it takes the most time. You spend a relatively brief time developing the attack and inaugurating it, but you spend the life of your business maintaining, monitoring and improving your attack. At no point should you ever take anything for granted. At no point should you fall into the pit of self-satisfaction because your attack is working. Never forget that others, very smart and motivated competitors, are studying you and doing their utmost to surpass you in the marketing arena.
Guerrillas thrive and prosper because they understand the deeper meanings of the phrases "customer base" and "long term commitment." This enables them to reinvent their marketing -- just as long as they are firm in their commitment to their existing customers and prospects. An attack without flexibility is in danger of failing. But that flexibility does not allow you to take your eyes off the needs of your customers.
Keep alert for new niches at which you can aim your attack. Large companies don’t have the luxury of profiting from a narrow niche. No matter how successful your attack, never lose contact with your customers. If you do, you lose your competitive advantage over huge companies that have too many layers of bureaucracy for personal contact. Guerrilla marketing is always authentic marketing and never acts or feels to be impersonal, by-the-number marketing. It never feels like selling.
"Marketing Management" author Philip Kotler, says "Authentic marketing
is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make. It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers and benefits for the stakeholders. Market innovation is gained by creating customer satisfaction through product innovation, product quality and customer service. It these are absent, no amount of advertising, sales promotion or salesmanship can compensate."
Your attack must be characterized by a very strong tie with your own target audience. You know them. You serve them. They know it. Guerrilla attacks do not suffer from your lack of resources, but instead prosper because lack of capital makes them more willing to try new and innovative ideas, concepts ripe for guerrillas but not for huge companies.
Your attack will succeed in direct relationship to how narrow-minded you can be. Guerrillas have the insight that precision strengthens an attack. They know the enormous difference between their prospects and their prime prospects. They are aware of the gigantic chasm separating their customers from their best customers. This perspective enables them to narrow their aim only to the best prospects that marketing money can buy and the finest customers ever to grace their customer list.
They are fully cognizant that it doesn’t take much more work to sell a subscription to a magazine than to sell a single issue. That’s why their marketing attack is devoted to motivating people to subscribe to their businesses mentally.
Once they have a customer, they do all they can to intensify the relationship, and they do not treat all customers and prospects equally. Consider the menswear chain with a database of 47,000 names. Mailings are never more than 3,000 at a time. Who receives the mail? Says the owner, "Only the people appropriate to mail to." When he received trousers of a specific style, he mailed only to those customers to whom he was certain they’d appeal -- and enjoyed a 30% response rate.
The cost of his mailing was a tiny fraction of the size of his profits. There’s not a chance of reveling in a healthy response like that unless you’re targeting your mailing with absolute precision. It’s something you’re going to have to do in a world where postal charges and paper prices are both slated to increase. Unless you’re hitting the bullseye, you’re wasting your marketing investment. And unless you’re treating your marketing as a continuing process, you’re wasting everybody’s time, including your own.
Where And When To Begin Marketing
Guerrillas are never stopped by analysis paralysis। Don’t let it stop you।
Many business owners realize the simplicity of marketing, but just don’t know where they should begin. Analysis paralysis stops them in their tracks. So many tasks. Where to start? So they don’t start. They know what they must do, but don’t really have a plan, so they make disconnected efforts to achieve a hazy goal. When they don’t see encouraging results right off the bat, they lose confidence, if any existed in the first place.
If there’s any correct time to start, it’s right now. If there’s any proper place, it’s right where you are. You’ll never feel you are completely ready, so you may as well begin immediately.
If there’s any secret to be learned, it’s the secret of taking action and never stopping. You’ve heard Diana Ross sing when she was a member of The Supremes. Hear now what she says about taking action: "You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream; you’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself."
Guerrillas have learned that the best time to market is when they don’t need any more business. They know that the best source of new clients is old clients and that the best marketing is characterized by quality and not quantity. They realize that their best marketing vehicle, and least expensive, is a satisfied customer. And they know that the two best ways to measure their marketing are by customer retention and by profits, both a part of each other.
It’s wise to think of your marketing the same as you think about your rent. You pay it and never think twice. It’s also wise to think of your marketing as breathing. You couldn’t exist with only one breath, or even two or three. Don’t think you’re going to attract a new customer with only one effort, or even two or three. You keep breathing and stay alive. You keep marketing and stay profitable.
Every part of your success is dependent upon one individual. You are that individual. You’re in charge. You say when to begin. You’ve got the insight to make the right decisions now. To succeed, you’re going to need that insight, along with courage and conscientiousness. If you’re frightened of making mistakes, you’re sunk. Accept that you’ll make mistakes. Each one has a lesson to be learned.
Michael Eisner, chairman and CEO of Disney, and the man who propelled it to undreamt of success, says, "At a certain level, what we do at Disney is very simple. We set our goals, aim for perfection, inevitably fall short, try to learn from our mistakes, and hope that our successes will continue to outnumber our failures." There’s nothing Mickey Mouse about that kind of philosophy -- because it embraces mistakes as part of the process.
There is no need to hit a home run the first time you’re at bat. A single will do, then another single, then another, one following each other, none grandiose, but all bringing you closer to your goal.
As small business grows, so does the need for mastering guerrilla marketing. And small business is growing faster than ever. As entrepreneurs arise all over the globe, so does the need for mastering guerrilla marketing. Just a new kid on the block as the 20th century headed towards its completion, guerrilla marketing is now a powerful and proven force worldwide. It must be reckoned with and best yet, utilized. Some would say it's mandatory for small business survival.
Ask any small business owner: It's far easier to employ guerrilla marketing than hope to defend yourself against it.
A whale of a lot has changed since I wrote the first guerrilla marketing book in l984. And almost all of it favors small business. Marketing itself has changed dramatically and interactively, not to mention electronically. So has the array of weapons available to guerrillas -- more powerful than ever, yet half of them completely free. That's why so many guerrillas are smiling so broadly. They also know that many things have not changed and that those things are as important as the things that have.
I'm referring to the soul and essence of guerrilla marketing which remain as always -- achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money. I'm also referring to humanity which is relatively unchanged since the first book, indeed, since the first human.
It's not possible to ignore the fact that we're in a new century, even though if you look out the window, you can't see much that has changed. If you look into the hearts and minds of your prospects, you'll see that very little has changed there, too. Certainly, there's a growing awareness of the precious and elusive nature of time, perhaps even a bit more humanity, made possible by, of all things, technology.
The marketing world has changed because it has shrunk rather than expanded. Again, credit technology for the shrink job, accomplished not as much by the jet as the net. Marketing has also become a lot more technical. But that doesn't mean you have to be technical -- because technology has met you more than halfway by becoming much easier to use and even easier to pay for.
Guerrillas welcome the changes as much as they welcome the status quos. They are fully alert to what has changed and what must never change. They know well the difference between change and improvement. Analysis paralysis is a condition that has been eliminated in their world.
What Guerrillas Know About Email
Mark Twain said he never let his schooling interfere with his education. Regardless of your schooling, there’s little chance it covered what technology makes possible today. If you took a course in how computers can aid your marketing, the first insight you would have gained would be into the profitability for you if you become savvy about email.
When you think of email, don’t compare it with snail mail because it’s considerably different. In fact, it is such an improvement on old-fashioned mail delivery that the U.S. Postal service now uses it, and today there is a lot more email being sent daily than snail mail. Soon, half of all bills and payments will be sent electronically. Two-thirds of Social Security checks, tax refunds and other federal payments sent in l999 went electronically.
In fact, the U.S. Postal Service is now in serious trouble because of the vast amount of information transmitted via the Internet. For much of this, guerrillas owe a tip of their propeller beanie to Ray Tomlinson who invented email in l971.
You can use email in your marketing in ways that will make your customers delighted to be doing business with you. Guerrillas love email but hate junk email, known as spamming. Their affinity to email is because they can deliver their messages instantly and to anywhere in the world if the recipients are online, as more and more of them are with each word I type. That means email saves you time in communicating and money that you used to spend on postage. It can also help save trees on the planet because it is so delightfully paperless.
Each recipient can read your email on screen or print and save it just as with a standard letter, which does use paper. But you don’t have to print and save your email, saving you the cost of paper and the convenience of space. Save it in your computer. Make copies as you need them. All your files and memos can be kept in one convenient location. Each one is dated and timed. Many experts feel that for all the great things about being online, email is the most valuable of all computer applications.
Email also helps you save on the cost of courier service and faxing. You can use it to send brief messages or long documents, to send black and white communications or colorful, beautifully-designed materials. It’s easy for you and easy for the person who receives your email.
Who should that be? People who want to receive it, that’s who. Find their names on your customer list, in the newsgroups to which you belong, in chatrooms where they’re talking about your industry, possibly even your company. Although email isn’t free, because you need a computer and internet connection, it’s far less expensive than telephoning, mailing or faxing. When using it, keep your message as brief as possible because people read computer screens differently than letters. They know being online saves time, so they don’t want to waste time reading long things. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Never use two words when one word will do."
You’re aware, as all guerrillas are, of how technology such as email can strengthen your marketing. You’ve also got to be aware of its limitations and of the new advancements that are taking place at breakneck speed. Don’t let those advancements overwhelm you. Very little becomes obsolete, but nearly everything becomes improved.
Technology, for all the wondrous things about it, can also be a major distraction and a drain on your time if you focus on the technology itself rather than on the benefits it can bring to your business.
As "Net Benefits" author Kim Elton reminds us, "Business is life and life is messy. Like a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes, you know that when you’ve finally cleaned them up, someone will burn a tuna casserole and you’ll be back in sudsy water up to your elbows with a Brillo pad in no time. But if the kids are growing up healthy and strong -- and helping out with the dishes now and then -- it’s all worth the effort. Soon you’ll get a dishwasher and you can shift the mess from the sink to the dishwasher. The dishes still have to be cleaned. The technology eases the labor and takes away some of the pain, but it doesn’t relieve the duty."
That’s the insight that I want you to take from this column. Technology helps with the job but doesn’t do the job. That’s your task. In order for you to understand how technology can help you, it’s not necessary for you to learn the technical jargon, the nerdy part of technology. But you must comprehend the impact of technology and the ways it can transform a squirt gun into a cannon.
To cash in on the transformation, you must be in close touch with your needs. Technology will help you meet them. You must know how best to utilize the technology in which you’ve invested to get the maximum benefit for the money you’ve put forth. You’ve got to recognize hype for just what it is and solid science for just what it is.
You wouldn’t dream of running a business without using a telephone. The computer will be just as endemic as phones. Using technology will be as easy as making a phone call. It’s already well in its way. Investment research company Robertson Stephens stated it this way:
"Communicating is becoming the primary role of computers after four decades of number crunching. We stand at a technology crossroads and are witnessing a technological metamorphosis....In our opinion, computers, originally designed for number crunching and applied to computing tasks for nearly 50 years, will be used in the future primarily for communicating." The future is now the present.
Daring to do more than expected
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| Marketing |
| Written by AdMix / Marjorie Teresa R. Perez / joyetteperez@yahoo.com |
| Monday, 07 September 2009 20:04 |
 Immense downsizing (actually the right term is “right-sizing”), saw corporate companies conserve their resources—except for those huge and wealthy corporations that paid millions for celebrity endorsements, especially for those who could slam dunk—and small businesses began to employ marketing techniques to combat the high cost of advertising. This means an integrated marketing approach where advertising is an important part, but not the only part, of a multiweapon marketing program.
Advertising and public relations complement each other. Advertising comes out with all these creative work that catches people’s attention and it builds interest. “PR, on the other hand, completes the picture as it can delve into other information that the consumer would need to know to really push him to buy. Advertising and PR can be likened to a brochure. Advertising is the attractive cover with its title, and artwork and the kickers, PR would be the detailed description of the product,” Pinca added. The ads will not have done the work all by themselves. The PR gets the credit here for directing the public’s attention to the campaign concept, making it a newsworthy item, something worth remembering. Long after the PR has taken place, the echo of its bangs will continue to reverberate through the advertising. Established in April 2003, Europa’s senior officers have more than 30 years’ experience in corporate and government public relations. “Our areas of expertise are corporate communications, corporate citizenship and CSR projects, promoting awareness of clients’ products and services, enhancing clients’ public image and nurturing their corporate entity and issues management,” she added. When asked why marketers are now adding CSR as an attribute of the brand, Pinca furthered that CSR is now on top of the agenda. Doing good is a way of telling consumers that a company is not only interested in profit but also in the welfare and well-being of people. “Big corporations are now into sustainability efforts—they try to help in such matters as maintaining the environment, preserving water and energy and lessening their carbon footprints. They also go the extra mile to take care of persons with disabilities, breastfeeding, taking care of children and the elderly and even overseas Filipinos when these people are in their business turf. Consumers generally appreciate these things and patronize companies who lend a hand to giving people a better quality of life.” Europa’s fame has gotten client acceptance of the practice. Examples are AIDEA, UCC Café, Sakae Sushi, Crepes & Cream, Suntrak Corporation, Whirlpool Philippines, Sydenham Laboratories Inc., Philippine Association of Feed Millers and Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines.
Marketing gurus to speak in 21st PAC breakout session The 21st PAC shall examine distinctive perspectives coming from different sectors of advertising: marketing, creative and media/digital. Breakout sessions on November 19 and 20 for each of the three areas of expertise feature seminars by the advertising industry’s international experts. Four marketing gurus are set to speak in the breakout session for marketing: Jeremy Carr, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia Inc. vice president; Andrew Kingham, The Marketing Store managing director; Linda Kovarik, Coca-Cola Asia-Pacific regional creative director; and Mike Schalit, Network BBDO-South Africa chief creative officer. Carr runs the TV and interactive advertising sales of 14 channels belonging to the Turner group. His particular focus in regional entertainment advertising sales is Cartoon Network and HBO channels in Asian and Australian/New Zealand territories. Based in Hong Kong and with 16 years’ experience in broadcast and digital media sales, Carr will share Cartoon Network’s insights on marketing to kids with “Stay Cool: Cartoon Network’s Creative Solutions to Connect to Kids.” Kovarik was named among the “Women to Watch” in 2004 by Advertising Age, the leading industry magazine for advertising, marketing and media published in North America, Europe and Asia. Kovarik’s colorful career has made the Asia-Pacific region her home for the last 20 years. Drawing from her experiences as documentary producer, strategic planner and creative director, Kovarik will talk about the “Art of Storytelling.” Schalit, one of the founding partners of Network BBDO, is a highly respected leader in international advertising. Having been voted top creative mind by peers for 10 consecutive years, Schalit believes spirit and passion are key elements in successful leadership. His drive to make a difference, however, commands the most respect in his work—especially his CSR efforts in South Africa. In the 21st PAC, Schalit will discuss “The Argument for CSR in a Down Economy.” Managing director of The Marketing Store, Hong Kong, Kingham leads the development of McDonald’s family marketing program across 37 countries. Among the focus of his marketing work is the children’s beloved Happy Meal from McDonald’s. With his wide-ranging knowledge on marketing trends in children, Kingham presents “Marketing to Kids.” |
The best publicity is the kind that ties in with advertising and is part of the marketing strategy. When this is the case, the business opens its doors, addresses any unforeseen operational problems and trains its staff thoroughly. “You have to have a mindset that differs from the corporate frame of mind and with the commonsense attitude. Advertising may be used for force and precision, but realize it’s only part of the marketing process and can’t do the whole job by itself. This perception enables your advertising to contribute to the success of your other marketing vehicles,” Europa Public Relations Inc. president Sylvia Europa-Pinca told this columnist in an interview.Change is the winner
| Marketing |
| Written by AdMix / Marjorie Teresa R. Perez / joyetteperez@yahoo.com |
| Monday, 21 September 2009 18:22 |
| THE PRSP, led by its president Butch Raquel, APR (left), recently conferred on (from left) Rosan Cruz, AVP, group PR, Benpres Holdings Corp.; John Jojo, VP, corporate brand and communication, Bayan Telecommunications; and Carla Paras-Sison, senior manager, corporate communications, Benpress Holdings Corp., the status of accredited public-relations professionals during the recent 16th National Public Relations Congress at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel. In spite of the overwhelming acceptance by the advertising community, it’s possible that positioning will come to play an even greater role in public relations. The reason is obvious. Positioning is essentially an “against” strategy. That is, you normally position your company or brand against another. In this mass-communication society, if you don’t exist in media, for all practical purposes you don’t exist. Publicity is like eating. Nothing kills the appetite quite as much as a hearty meal. And nothing kills the PR potential of a product quite as much as a premature feature story. Or a misdirected television placement.
“All social change needs good communication,” Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, pointed out in his keynote address. Culling insights from the Ateneo experience, Father Nebres said meaningful social reforms may be achieved by educating potential leaders who will be able to eventually institutionalize structures that will initiate concrete changes while encouraging and engaging people who will benefit most from such reforms. “And public relations—with its expertise in communication and relationship management—plays a key role in effecting social change.” “PR people are change champions,” stressed Dante M. Velasco, chairman and CEO of Creative Point International Inc. In addition to expediting communications, PR, in essence, is not under the marketing or the advertising department but an entirely different and prestigious position that reports directly to the CEO. With the prospect of even greater expansion of public relations, it is important for management to understand its potential and limitations. “PR people deserve to be up there,” he stressed. In many cases, when you ask the chief officer of a company, “What is it that your PR department is trying to do?” you get a vague answer such as “We want people to think well of us” or “We would like to have a good image.” These are nice words. But unfortunately, they don’t translate easily into a meaningful objective. The result is that the public-relations man’s efforts are all almost dissipated; the end result is not much of anything and certainly cannot be measured. Vic F. Garcia, president and CEO of Unleash International Corp., tackled on how change starts and ends with oneself. CEOs Nandu Nandkishore of Nestlé Philippines Inc., Tunde Fafunwa of Bayan Telecommunications Inc. and Lorenzo Chan of Pioneer Life Insurance Phils. Inc. talked about unconventional strategies such as blending profit with social responsibility and how they challenged the corporate status quo. All told, the amount of real-world involvement is a far cry from the passive communication with consumers usually found in “make-believe” brand advertising. All this fits in very well with those branded-product companies strategy—from the first conception of how they wanted to present the product, they have taken into account the consumer’s wishes and interests. “If the strategy is correct and you’re following [your] mission and vision, then it’s worth taking the risk,” said Fafunwa. Nandkishore furthered: “PR has a fundamental strategic role in creating shared values.” Chan noted that a good PR effort is to educate the public, and performance must be good in any area of corporate endeavor if the company is to win and retain public regard in that area. A panel-sharing and reflection on the need for change from the perspectives of students and young professionals included Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila professor Rosario Taylo, Miriam College student Joanne Balangat and University of Santo Tomas student leader Leandro Santos II. In the past, however, many PR programs haven’t been effective from a marketing point of view. And it’s easy to understand why. In PR, your inherent lack of control over what is being printed or said about you often leads to a lack of direction. As one grizzled PR veteran defines things: “Advertising is what you pay for. PR is what you pray for.” The discipline that positioning can bring to a publicity program can make an enormous difference in terms of results. To make positioning in PR, however, the emphasis has to shift from “getting your name in the paper” to achieving marketing objectives. While PR is essential to creating awareness, the story doesn’t stop there. Participatory media have changed how people relate to each other, to marketers and to the traditional media. PR people must look beyond awareness to consider how the public dialogue in digital channels influences people. News today zips around the world, spreading though countless social networks at light speed. Therefore, it’s impossible to manage the digital discussion in the same way PR used to manage through traditional channels. Speakers for the new IT tools for PR and the new media included Yehey! CEO Donald Lim and Havoc Digital general manager Mike Palacios. The second-day session had Unilever RFM Ice Cream Inc. CEO John Concepcion, who shared highlights of the Bayan Anihan Food Sustainability Project of Gawad Kalinga. Media personalities Jessica Soho of GMA Network and Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN presented their respective views on the needed change in PR as media sees it. Controversial artist/model BB Gandanghari also shared her personal journey as she mustered the courage to change. Sens. Francis Escudero, Loren Legarda and Richard Gordon talked on how tomorrow’s leaders see change. PR consultants Milen Sison-de Quiros of Full Circle Communications, Joel Lacsamana of TruNorth PR Consultants and Ramon CM Bermeo of Reach Communications imparted valuable insights on shifting careers from corporate PR to consultancy PR. The congress ended with a sharing of The Real Bank (A Thrift Bank) Inc. chairman Jose G. Araullo on building and managing trust. The Real Bank was a major Anvil winner, an annual recognition of PRSP, which cites exemplary PR programs and tools. The congress covered the need for PR practitioners to bring a new mentality and flexibility to the profession. In particular, they noted the need to be willing to take risks, to try something new. “For it is truly foolish to expect results other than what we have always had in the past, if we do things simply the way we always have,” concluded Barbie Atienza, congress chairman. |
