Marketing BEEP

10 Super Cool Outdoor Ads

Using common objects as a basis for your advertising is pure genius when done right. Here are some of the best ads we’ve seen that have done it right.

KitKat – are you hungry? I know I am! This wouldn’t have worked quite as well if the bench didn’t look so chocolatey!

Ski lift – I’m not sure where this ad is located, but the beautiful mountains make me want to go skiing!
 

Ballet classes – The tutu look and stereotypical pink make me want to take my kids to ballet. Actually, I don’t have any kids, so maybe I’ll just take myself!

Canon ad – Anyone who’s worked in an office environment can appreciate this one! 

Milwaukee River Keeper – nice visual. Definitely makes me think about what’s in the water to keep me and my kids healthy the next time we go to the water park or lake. 

Dulcolax – Is this just wrong, or is it so wrong that it’s right? Some people might be disgusted, others might think it’s funny. Either way, people will be intrigued, which will lead to word-of-mouth marketing. 

Formula toothpaste – An inventive way to use the entire billboard. 

Schweppes Indian Tonic – This is the most creative use of a fountain I’ve ever seen! I think it would have been better with a champagne brand, though. 

TimetoThaw.com – Nice concept, although I’m not sure why we’d be stepping on suitcases. I guess if a staircase can lead to Heaven, a staircase of suitcases can lead to vacation paradise. 

Denver Water Conservation – These ads definitely make their point! But I wonder if it made people who wanted a seat on the bench mad? Either way, the message is pretty powerful.

Is Your Brand Ready To Go International?

Branding plays a crucial role in a company’s international expansion. A strong brand structure is a key component to leverage a brand into other markets or to incorporate acquired brands. With more and more talk of a global market and the growth of competition on a worldwide scale, companies are having to expand their operations, either by acquiring companies in other countries or taking their brand international. As a result, companies need to pay more attention to integrating and coordinating their marketing strategy across a variety of markets.

Branding Policy
A big part of a marketing plan is its branding policy. Strong brands help establish the company’s identity in a market place and develop a solid customer base. Strong brands provide the basis for brand extensions, which strengthen the company’s market position and enhances the company’s value. When considering expanding into an international market, a critical issue is whether the brand name should be the same in different countries to leverage brand strength across borders or whether local brand names would work better to draw in local customers.

This mostly depends on how a company’s international operations are organized as well as the number of levels (corporate, house/product business and product) of brands. You need to decide who will have custody of international brands and be responsible for positioning them in national or regional markets. Some companies, such Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola expanded by leveraging their domestic “power” brands in international markets. Because of this, if they decide to expand even further, they have to decide whether to develop brands geared to regional or national preferences. Other brands, such as Nestle, have used country-centered strategies by creating or buying a mix of national and regional brands.

Packaging and Logos
Many companies, however, keep their logo and packaging the same in international markets as they do in their native market. Take a look at these packages and logos. Can you tell what brands they represent?

 

The first one might not be obvious, but I hope you knew the other two: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The first package is for Colgate toothpaste. If you look on the shelves here, you’d see the same packaging, just in a different language.

The designers for these posters and packaging had to design something that would work in all different languages. You need to be sensitive to languages and cultures when you brand yourself internationally. Insulting a culture is no way to get a piece of the market place! Be sure you research the country’s culture you are trying to break into.

It’s also a good idea to research what other similar products are successful in the country you’d like to expand to. If no other U.S.-based candle maker has had a successful transition to a country, you might want to think again about expanding there.

New Entrepreneurs: 3 Ways to Lower Your Startup Costs

It’s so exciting when you start a business and get your first important paperwork saying you’re an official business. So, congratulations are first in order! But then, you have lists and lists of things to buy, do and create. Rent, remodeling, supplies, furniture, marketing, advertising, employees, licenses and permits…whew! It’s tiring just to think about all that needs to be done.

Some items, like licenses and permits, you can’t really do much about to lower the costs. They are what they are. But with marketing and advertising materials, supplies and furniture you can definitely lower your startup costs, oftentimes by a significant amount.

Here are some ideas on how to stretch your dollars when buying all your startup materials:

1. Join a warehouse club, like Sam’s Club or Costco. Both of these warehouses have business accounts, which let you add up to 6 employees (or whoever you authorize) to use the account. Sam’s Club has special business-only hours so that only those with business cards can shop before those with personal cards are allowed in. This option can also save you time as well since you won’t be shopping with large crowds and checkout lines will be shorter. After a few purchases of industrial cleaners and toilet paper, you’ll break even on your membership price. Memberships cost anywhere from $35 to $100 depending on which level you buy.

2. Buy all of your print marketing/advertising materials from one place. By becoming a repeat customer, your artwork and logo will already be in the system at most printers. Using an online printing company like PrintPlace.com ensures a consistent feel across your business cards, letterhead, envelopes, calendars, brochures and catalogs, menus, flyers, and the list goes on. You can also sign up to receive notices of sales and specials not available to the general public.

3. Buy your furniture, retail shelves and displays at going-out-of-business sales. Many stores that are going out of business want to sell everything in their store, and I do mean everything. From generic signage (“Sale!) to shelves to display units, you can get a great deal on just about anything at a retail store that’s going out of business. Even if the store isn’t advertising that its furniture and display units are for sale, just ask. Many are willing to give a deep discount for you taking it off their hands.

Store Fixtures, USA and Store Fixture Supercenter can save you a lot of money if you’re willing to buy used fixtures and shelves. You can get gondola shelves (supermarket shelves) and clothing fixtures as well as wall mounts at a discount at these Web sites.

Goodwill and online stores like Wholesale Warehouse Supply can net you some great office furniture for cheap as well. 

3 Tips for Branding Success

Branding isn’t only about your product package, logo development and advertising. Branding encompasses everything a consumer sees that is associated with your company. Your Web site, your print business cards, your letterhead, TV commercial, store sign, even your employees – everything the customer sees is a reflection of your brand.

I’d like to share some of my top branding tips that will help your business thrive, which is so important in this tough economy.

1. Create and/or maintain a company blog. This is one of the best pieces of advice I can give. Having a Web site is great – it’s a place for consumers to check you out. But a blog lets you have a conversation with your customers. All you need is a Wordpress or Blogger account and a domain name. Actually, you don’t even have to buy a domain name (which runs about $10 per year), you can append your name to the blogger.com or wordpress.com extensions. But, some people believe it looks more professional if you don’t have those extensions, so it’s up to you. Nevertheless, get a blog, and be sure to update it either daily or every other day.  Any less than that and you won’t attract readers. You can include posts on what your business has been up to or just about industry events and happenings. Whatever you do, be sure to include topics that readers can weigh in on.

2. Realize that you can’t wholly control your brand. A brand is what people perceive your business to be. It’s your customers’ thoughts and feelings about your company. Now, that’s not to say you can’t influence what people think, but ultimately, you need to know that it’s in consumer’s hands (or minds, really). If you have a nice logo that you use on all your marketing materials (don’t forget letterhead, business cards, envelopes and so on) that will give off the impression that your company is professional, not amateurish or new. That breeds confidence in consumers’ minds about your brand. Hosting charity events, producing eye-catching ads and having great customer service can all contribute to your brand image as well. Just be sure you’re always working on your brand because one person’s opinion can be enough to influence others’ opinions about your brand.

3. You and your people represent your brand just as much, if not more than, your marketing materials. The best brand interactions come from one-on-ones between your customers and your employees. Employees that are helpful and efficient make your brand helpful and efficient.

Proper branding is important to the well-being of your company’s long term success. Branding is basically managing your customers’ thoughts and feelings about your company. Remember, the customer is always right, so anything you can do to help the customer understand the brand you want them to know.

Personal Branding Benefits Not Only You, But Your Company

When you think of branding, I’m sure business marketing is what pops into your mind. But there’s another type of branding – personal branding – that I’d like to touch on today. I ran across an interview with Liz Goodgold, a branding expert, speaker and author who has over 25 years in marketing and has worked for Quaker Oats and Arco Oil. She believes in personal branding as well, and the interview provided good ideas for how small business owners can market themselves, which in turn, markets their companies.

Personal branding is about the same as corporate branding, except you’re marketing yourself to others. Goodgold says that personal branding, like corporate branding, is “always based upon the perception of others. It is the sum total of all of your marketing messages including unintended ones.” Unintended marketing messages are blogs, visual branding cues, email messages and even voice mail greetings. The way you answer your phone gives a message as well. A helpful “How may I help you” shows that the company is there for the customer, rather than a company that just says “Hello” or “XX Company.”

Personal branding doesn’t only work for entrepreneurs, but for all employees of any company. Whenever a customer comes into contact with a great employee, the thoughts about the employee are transferred onto the company as well. If you think an employee is helpful, doesn’t that make you think the company she works for is helpful? Goodgold mentions short-sighted companies that don’t want employees to do any personal branding because they don’t want to share the lime light. Great personal branders, though, allow both themselves and the company to shine.

When the economy is in a recession, personal branding can be just as important as corporate branding. Especially with dwindling  marketing budgets. Anytime you can turn a first customer into a regular with customer service or word-of-mouth marketing, that’s great for business, but is even more important when money is tight.

For marketers and others who want to move up within a company, personal branding techniques could include:

Taking over meetings: Take on the responsibility of chairing a meeting or completing a follow up.

Volunteer for social events: Corporate parties, birthday celebrations, anniversary gifts – anything that calls for a social gathering usually needs volunteers to pick up or make food, or just to coordinate the invites. You’ll get noticed and your leadership skills will have a chance to shine by you volunteering.

Write articles for the company Intranet, newsletter or quarterly report: You can suggest topics and even write some articles if allowed.

All of these suggestions get you noticed and your name in front of people’s faces – notably the higher ups.

For entrepreneurs or small business owners, you can enhance your personal brand by:

Writing articles for free for local publications: Many newsletters, newspapers and magazines would love to have someone in business write about business. Even if you don’t get paid, getting a byline locally gives you credibility, which enhances your personal brand as well as your business’s.

Collaborate with charities: If you can afford to sponsor a charity event, or even just one portion of the charity event, you can do good for the charity as well as your business. You can get your name out there with a good cause. People do repeat business with companies that they feel good about and most people feel good about anything connected with charity.

Speak at local Chamber of Commerce events: Oftentimes, local COCs are hurting for speakers. Volunteer your time and give the audience some valuable knowledge. You’ll look like an expert and give your business free publicity even if you never mention it, just by association.

Overbidding Effect Study Provides Marketing Insight

Neuroscientists and economists from New York University conducted a study using brain imaging techniques and behavioral economic research to find out why people overbid at auctions. They found that the potential of losing a social competition while bidding may, in part, cause people to pay too much. In other words, people are afraid of what they’ll lose by not overbidding.

So how did researchers conclude that it was the social competition that urged the overbidding?

They used fMRI (functioning magnetic resonance imaging) to observe brain patterns as participants either played an auction game with a partner or a lottery game. The subjects could win money in either game, but winning the auction game depended on outbidding the partner. The fMRI showed the striatum, which is part of the brain’s reward circuitry, had the biggest response when winning or losing in the auction versus lottery game. Because of this “exaggerated loss response” only occurring during the auction game, the researchers think that the loss of “social competition inherent in an auction may lead people to bid ‘too high.’”

This is referred to as “The Winner’s Curse” – overpaying for an item due to overestimating the item’s actual market value. In auctions, the other bidders are what drive up the perceived value of an item.

This study helps marketers in the fact that it backs up the theory of telling people what they’ll lose by not buying your product or service instead of highlighting what people will gain from buying your product or service.

People know the marketplace enough to know that there are a limited number of items on a shelf. And there are generally more buyers than there are products, which puts the supply and demand favor into the company’s hands. So, people are more apt to buy something knowing that they’ll have it before their friends or family. They also buy items so that they aren’t the last ones or aren’t left out.

When we were kids, didn’t we have to get the newest toys before anyone else? It helped our social status at the time – the cool kids always had the newest toys. That same kind of thinking still applies to adults – we still want the newest, hottest item first. The potential loss of social status drives us.

This is also known as loss aversion. In marketing, instead of always focusing on positives (“look what you’ll gain with this product”), you need to throw in some negatives (“look what you’ll lose if you don’t buy this product”). Consumers think that it just makes sense for marketers to use positive talk to persuade them to buy – that’s selfish. But a marketer that warns people of impending doom for not buying a product isn’t seen as selfish – she’s seen as selfless. She’s trying to help people by helping them avoid some loss. And because loss is so much more important than gain, people respond more to marketing messages that focus on loss.

The key is to making this work is to focus on a real loss, not a fake loss. Don’t try to scare people into buying your product. That just makes you look like a bully. Be sure you can back up the potential for loss with studies or with some kind of proof (preferably photos showing a real loss) so that your company won’t be accused of scare tactics.