Integrated Marketing Communication

What is Integrated Marketing Communication?

Integrated Marketing Communication or IMC is a marketing strategy that aligns and interconnects
the various platforms and communication channels to create a singular branding message. Through
the use of an IMC approach towards marketing, a brand can achieve a variety of competitive
advantages.

The IMC approach is targeted towards achieving maximum brand awareness through marketing
channels such as advertising and content creation. Larger brands use it to retain their business
persona. While smaller businesses use it to create an impact in the market.

Importance of IMC

Let’s discuss the importance of an IMC approach towards marketing and its various tools and
challenges as well.

Larger Audience

It allows for tapping into a larger audience base by creating a singular brand message through
various mediums. And, all marketing platforms can integrate this singular message in their own
content.

Brand Awareness

IMC is the best way to increase brand awareness among target groups. Blending of multiple tools to
create effective messages is an effective way to achieve this. Moreover, there is a huge range of IMC
based campaign tools that a brand can use.

Long-Term Relationships

Integrated marketing messages can provide a long-term relationship between the customer psyche
and the brand. So, this can be immensely helpful for beginner brands in creating a solid and loyal
customer base.

Time Saving

Using this type marketing campaign is the most budget-friendly method of achieving maximum
brand awareness and branding success. Moreover, it is very fast and integrates into any marketing
process.

Integrated Marketing Communication Tools

The following are the integrated marketing communication tools that can be integrated into any
marketing campaign to give it a 360 degree approach.

Advertising

Advertising makes use of multiple platforms and media channels to present the brand message.
Thus, by using the IMC approach in advertising, you can advertise a singular brand message across
different classes and social groups to achieve maximum reach. Since this is one of the most
expensive forms of marketing, an IMC approach can provide the best ROI as well.
Sales Promotion

For any form of sales promotion, such as a giveaway or a contest run through an IMC approach, you
can achieve a greater short term branding success. The sole purpose of sales promotions is to draw
attention towards a particular product or brand. Thus, you can add this with a singular branding
message that provides insight into the brand values.

Personal Selling

With the help of personal selling, you can highly customize customer and salesperson interactions to
provide maximum customer satisfaction. Later stages of marketing make heavy use of personal
selling techniques. So, an IMC campaign can help plan these techniques as well.

Public Relations

A brand often conducts workshops, competitions, and other events to promote their presence. In
such cases, the usage of a singular communication platform that incorporates all the aspects of the
brand is the best means of reaching out to the target markets.

Direct Marketing

An IMC based email marketing campaign can generate brand awareness alongside leads. This holds
true for other forms of direct marketing such as telecalling as well. So, with the help of an IMC based
approach in targeted marketing, you will be able to generate brand awareness regardless of lead
quality.

Social Media Marketing

Social media based communication is one of the primary ways through which a brand should reach
out to its target markets. An IMC strategy will ensure that all social media based content carries the
core branding message.

Mobile Marketing

Smartphones and other smart devices are a perfect way to market a brand to the new generations.
Thus, by creating an integrated approach you can present core brand values through mobile
marketing.

Barriers to Integrated Marketing Communication

There are many barriers you might face when implementing an integrated campaign.

Lack of Resources

The primary reason businesses are unable to pull off an integrated marketing campaign is the lack of
resources. We need marketing experts and managers to pull off such a process, which most
businesses do not possess or are unlikely to train for. Moreover, the entire process needs to be
based on a highly accurate calendar. And, a central communication will need to be managed by
trained executives.

Upper Management

The upper management needs to ensure proper planning of all the resources and support based
services for the marketing campaigns. An IMC based marketing approach is only possible when the
brand has a strong upper management layer.
Corporate Culture

Many firms and businesses need to be in sync in order to run an integrated campaign. However,
since the current corporate culture does not promote such efficient levels of communication, most
campaigns are more than likely to fail.

Restrict Creativity

Sometimes companies need to simplify their message and turn down the creativity levels in order to
launch and integrated marketing campaign.

Examples of IMC

These two successful IMC campaign examples will surely boost up your decision:

Always #LikeAGirl

The hashtag is perhaps one of the strongest modern tools of marketing. The Canadian clothing brand
Leo Brunnet used it to its maximum effectivity through an IMC approach. The hashtag #LikeAGirl
opposes the common sexist slur used towards women and they presented it primarily through a
marketing video the brand made.

However, each piece of product they made henceforth carried the slogan in one way or another and
it was also a part of all their marketing campaigns. And, this provided the brand with an awareness
boost like no other. This integrated campaign not only also received generated 85 million views
across the globe and won the D&D award under several categories.

Domino’s AnyWare

Domino’s took the concept of fast food to another level with this integrated marketing campaign.
This allowed people to order from their closest Domino’s outlet even via a text message or a tweet.
They set up a webpage anyware.dominos.com that provided all details regarding the campaign.
And, this served as their primary communication node. All of their products and campaigns were to
lead people towards this website and it received over 500,000 hits. Various advertisements followed
it, and the brand was able to digitalize almost 50% of its orders.

Environmental Marketing Mix

Introduction

An increased focus on environmental issues, has contributed to a rise in the demand for
environment friendly products and services or green marketing. The spotlight on sustaining the
environment has created terminology such as “carbon footprint” and “offsetting”. Many
organisations have adapted their marketing strategies to capitalise on the consumer appetite for
environment friendly products and services. Environment friendly marketing strategy takes into
account additional factors which are not usually part of the marketing mix. Such a deviation from the
academic acceptance of the “marketing mix” components has led LearnMarketing to develop the
‘environmental marketing mix.’

Environmental Product Strategies

There are a large number of environmental issues impacting on the production of goods and
products, for example:

- What is the impact of production, sourcing of materials and packaging on the environment?

- Can minimum levels of packaging and environment friendly packaging be achieved without
compromising product quality or appeal?

- Supplier practices i.e. are they at least as environmentally friendly as the organisation they are
supplying?

Environmentally friendly products can increase and decrease production costs; environmentally
friendly production may increase costs for organisations and their suppliers but this may be offset by
lower fuel bills through energy efficiency measures or an increase in sales caused by a positive
product image. An organisation may able to pass increases in production costs (caused by
Environment Friendly products) to consumers. However this will depend on the level of increase,
type of consumer, competitor prices and the strength of the economy. For example during times of
recession consumers will place price above many of the other factors making up the marketing mix

Environmental Place Strategies

All organisations need to “carefully” time when their product reaches consumers; exact time of
distribution will depend on the product or service being distributed. Such timing may have an
environmental implication.

Some products will need to reach the consumer shortly after production for example fresh food in
order to retain freshness, taste or nutritional value. The fastest method of distribution may damage
the environment. Conversely a more environmentally friendly method e.g. via canals may impact on
speed of distribution and consequently quality of the product. A method of distribution that
combines speed with “environmentally friendliness” may increase distribution costs as some of
these processes are still under development e.g. electric vehicles.

In addition to the type of transport used for distribution, an organisation will need to review
distribution techniques; For example timing deliveries so that they occur during off peak hours and
do not contribute to congestion. Some organisations attempt to make fewer deliveries, whilst others
promote concentrated products (e.g. fabric conditioner) as they increase the number of products
that can carried in each delivery vehicle.

Even if “environment friendly distribution” is not at the top of an organisation’s list of priorities,
government policies may elevate it to the top. Congestion charging and low emission zones have
been introduced in the London. Apart from the obvious increase in costs involved in following such
policies, a failure to observe environment friendly rules and regulations will lead to fines, sanctions
and negative publicity.

After reviewing internal distribution methods an organisation will need to review supplier and
subcontractor distribution as consumers and the media expect organisations claiming environmental
credentials to work with other environment friendly organisations.. For example do subcontractors
use Bio-fuel? Are subcontractors actively managing their “carbon footprint” and energy use?

Environmental Promotion Strategies

Due to the consumer, celebrity and government appetite for protecting the “environment”
environment friendly practices are used as promotional tools. For example the award of ISO 14001
(which certifies that an organisation has certain environmental standards, as certified by an
independent external auditing organisation) is often quoted in marketing literature.

Product packaging that can be recycled will have a message on the packaging clearly stating the
recycling properties for the packaging. Similarly organic products will be labelled, not only on the
packaging but also around the shelving displaying the organic produce.

Some organisations have sought to reduce costs through the promotion of environmentally friendly
strategies. The use of carrier bags has changed dramatically in the UK over the last five years.
Retailers actively promote the benefit of reusable bags as they have many benefits:

- Lower costs for the retailer

- Consumers “feel good” as they believe that the use of a reusable bag is helping the environment
- Fewer carrier bags go to landfill

Another example is hotels offering guests the opportunity to accept fewer linen and towel changes.
Such strategy is environmentally friendly as it reduces the use of detergents and energy and it also
reduces costs for the hotel and improves corporate image.

Some organisations providing products and services which may harm the environment have added
“off setting” methods to their portfolios and marketing literature. The idea behind “off setting” is
that the consumer is offered the opportunity to indirectly engage in an activity (such as tree
planting) that benefits the environment and therefore balances/evens out the damage they caused
for example through flying. Such schemes attempt to ease the consumer’s conscience and retain a
positive image for the organisation providing the environmentally unfriendly product or service

Environmental Pricing Strategies

Throughout this article we have discussed how environmentally friendly strategies can either
increase or decrease organisational costs. The ideal marketing mix is a reduction in costs or an
increase in costs which exceeded by an increase in profits.

Pricing must reflect the demand for the product, an incorrectly priced product will reduce demand;
this is now further complicated by the impact environmental issues have on pricing. If an
organisation is paying more for raw materials because the supplier is “environmentally friendly” it
may decide to “pass on” this price increase to the consumer, the ideal price will be dictated by
the target market.

On the other hand companies cutting costs and increasing profits at the expense of the environment
are risking negative publicity, fines, sanctions or may simply lose out to organisations actively
promoting their environmentally friendly practices even if such competitors offer more expensive
products and services.

Summary

The environmental marketing mix is important in today’s business world due to consumer demands
and pressure from government organisations. Firms will have to carefully manage the environmental
marketing mix if they are to successfully operate in a world which is becoming increasingly aware of
climatic changes. Below is a diagram illustrating how to adapt the marketing mix to suit
environmentally friendly marketing and green marketing.
The diagram belows summarises the factors that make up product, price, place and promotion
elements for the environmental marketing mix

PROCESS MODELS

1. 7Ps marketing mix

The 7 Ps of Marketing are product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.
The marketing mix is a well-known marketing paradigm that aids in the organization of the stages of
a corporate plan, from conception through assessment.

Using the 7Ps breakdown, you may examine each part of your business to uncover methods to
improve your strategy and achieve your objectives.

2. STP marketing model

STP is an acronym that stands for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. It's a common top-down
technique that focuses on how a firm contacts consumers. To offer relevant, customized messages
to targeted groups, STP employs a four-step methodology.

Top-down marketing approaches, such as the STP marketing strategy, have grown in popularity as
businesses shift to delivering tailored content to their target consumers via social media.

3. Porter's five forces

Competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitution, and threat of new entrants
are Porters's 5 forces
This methodology is unusual in that it measures profitability by concentrating on external forces and
competition rather than the product or audience.

Using this analysis might be a simple yet effective technique to understand your company's
competitiveness.

4. AIDA

The AIDA marketing model is nearly exclusively focused on the client. Awareness, interest, desire,
and action are all represented by the acronym.

These are the four steps that a customer goes through while acquiring a service or product. Some
models contain a retention stage, which addresses a buyer's decision to make repeat purchases and
establish brand loyalty.

5. SWOT and TOWS analysis

SWOT and TOWS are abbreviations for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats,
respectively. While both employ the same fundamental concepts in their analysis, TOWS focuses on
the external environment, whereas SWOT focuses on the internal environment.

These models assist you in visualizing strategic alternatives as well as pivoting your strengths and
minimizing your weaknesses in order to avoid dangers and maximize opportunities.

Also Read | How Jio has used the SWOT Analysis

6. Ansoff matrix

The Ansoff matrix, often known as the product or market growth grid, is a 2x2 grid that describes
four options for growing your firm and analyzing possible hazards. Markets can be seen on the y-axis
of Ansoff grids.
The axis's lower end symbolizes new markets, while the upper end represents current markets. The
x-axis represents products and services. On one side, existing items and services are depicted, while
on the other, new products and services are depicted.

7. SOSTAC

The SOSTAC model is a flexible planning methodology that is used to develop marketing strategy.
SOSTAC is an acronym that stands for situation, goals, strategy, tactics, action, and control. It may be
an appropriate tool for reviewing your process and identifying areas of weakness.

8. McKinsey 7-S Model

The McKinsey 7-S model describes seven essential factors that must work together for a firm to
succeed. The McKinsey 7-S model is most commonly represented as a watershed diagram with
seven rings. The seven circles are as follows: strategy, structure, systems, styles, staff, skills, and
shared values. ‘

The shared values circle in the middle connects the other circles, demonstrating that each of the
parts is critical to an organization's success and adaptability. Consider how your marketing activities
in one area may affect the others while using this methodology.

9. Product life cycle

The product life cycle model may assist you in developing new goods, refining current products, and
determining whether to abandon a product. It consists of four stages that can direct your marketing
activities throughout the product development process:

1. Introduction:- After research and development, a product enters the introduction stage,
where it is initially introduced to customers. Typically, this entails intensive marketing and
promotional activities to raise public knowledge of the new release.

2. Growth:- As the product gains popularity and the company expands to support distribution,
it enters the growth phase. This is when the product gains popularity, develops a dedicated
customer base and increases market share among competitors.
 3. Maturity:- In a crowded market, mature products sometimes face a slew of competitors.
Growth slows during maturity, and you may need to revise your marketing plan to reach
new customers or find new applications for your product.

4. Decline:- Sales fall during a recession, and marketing activities have less of an impact. When
a product is in decline, you may want to focus your efforts on new product development
rather than selling old ones.

What Is Marketing Process?

The marketing process, in simplest words, involves everything from need identification to
customers’ satisfaction. It also includes a different string of actions and reactions, while the ultimate
goal is customer satisfaction. Basically, the seller tries to satisfy the customers by offering value and
capturing value from them as well.

This is how “Principles of Marketing” (2nd edition) defines this process, “The process by which
companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture
value from customers in return.”

So the process starts with need identification and ultimately ends at customer satisfaction. But, what
lies in between? Let’s find out.

5 Steps Of Marketing Process

The marketing process is further divided into 5 steps, and we are going to discuss them one by one.

Understanding the Marketplace and the Customer Needs and Wants

The process starts with the identification of customer needs. However, it can grow to identify their
wants and demands as well. Now, this can be confusing for the readers because we have mentioned
three different terms. That’s why we are going to differentiate all of them.

 Needs. It include all the basic necessities such as shelter, food, clothing, safety, self-
expression, communication, transportation, and individual needs for knowledge. As a
marketer, you cannot create these needs; they are just basic ingredients of human markup.

 Wants. Wants are basically an advanced version of needs, but this time, it is the society or
culture that shapes them. For instance, transportation is a need, but Suzuki Hayabusa or
Mercedes Bens are wants.

 Demands. Demands are basically a reflection of peoples’ high buying power. When a
company meets customers’ demands, it gives them pleasure rather than just satisfaction.

Here are some vital aspects that every marketer must consider at this stage;

 Understanding the local market/area/country/region.

 Identifying the interests of the target audience/potential customers.

 Evaluate how much people can spend on your product. i.e., their buying power.
Identifying the needs is simply not enough. As a marketer, you must know whether you would be
able to produce an “affordable” product for your customers or not.

Design a Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy

At this stage, a business needs to find answers to these two questions;

1. Which group of consumers should we target- identification of target market.

2. How can (or should) we satisfy the needs/wants of that group- selecting a value proposition.

Apart from that, you need to identify the local market trends and the level of intensity of customers’
needs (how badly they want a solution).

Choosing The Target Audience

It is simply impossible to satisfy everyone or all types of audiences. That means you have to divide
the market into small segments and then choose the one you can target. Of course, you can choose
multiple market segments if you have the funds, workforce, and all other resources.

Selecting The Value Proposition

Once you decide your target audience and identify their needs/wants, the next thing on your agenda
is how you can satisfy that specific need of that group of customers. This is a stage where you
can differentiate your brand in the market. Your value proposition includes the benefits and value
you can provide to your customers.

There are different ways to position your brand in the market. For instance, you can go with the
Production Concept and make your products highly affordable and available for your customers. Or,
you can choose the Product Concept and offer unique and unprecedented features/benefits through
your product.

Build an Integrated Marketing Program that Delivers Superior Values

As a marketer, you are now clear about your company’s marketing strategy’s outline. The next step
for you is to build an integrated marketing plan that focuses on providing value to the customers. At
this stage, you need to think about these aspects;

 Product specifications and their feasibility

 Budget

 Mediums of product promotion

 Room for product development/improvement in future

 Price

Basically, we are talking about a company’s marketing mix. A marketing mix is a combination of
different marketing tools that a business uses to practically implement its marketing strategies.

Remember, your marketing mix will have a decisive role in building strong relationships with your
customer, delivering the customer’s expected value, and achieving your overall organizational goals.

Build Profitable Relationships and Create Customer Equity

A marketing process is simply incomplete without building profitable relationships with your
customers. The word “profitable” means that you have to please your customers and make them
buy your products or services again and again.

Yes, you must keep striving to acquire new customers as well, but it is important that you retain
customers for the long term. In simpler words, increasing customer equity should be the primary
objective of any marketing mix.

The question is, how can you build this profitable relationship? Well, this is where customer
relationship management comes in handy. Customer relationship management focuses on;

 Providing value to the customers.

 Helping customers in the pre-purchase stage.

 Offering after-sales services.

 Seeking regular feedback from customers.

 Urging customers to come up with suggestions and recommendations about your product.

Capture Value from Customers to Create Profits

As we have already mentioned, the best way to capture value from customers is by creating
customer equity. A company’s loyal customers are directly proportional to the company’s customer
equity. Most importantly, these loyal customers not only give you business (and ultimately profits),
but they work as your marketing advocates to convert your potential customers into actual
customers.

There is absolutely no doubt that marketers simply cannot build customer relationships or create
customer value on their own. It is only possible when they have a strong collaboration with other
departments in the organizations and make partnerships with external bodies. That means
marketers need to be good at customers relationship management as well as partner relationship
management.

The Bottom Line

From all the discussion above, we can safely say that a marketing process focuses on three core
elements, and they are

 Identifying the needs or wants of your target audience/potential customers.

 Developing an effective and feasible marketing strategy.

 Satisfying or pleasing your customers by offering value and creating profitable relationships
with your customers.

CHANNELS

Marketing Channels – What are Marketing Channels?

A marketing channel consists of individuals and firms involved in the process of making a product or
service available for use or consumption by consumers or industrial users.
Marketing channels are the ways that goods and services are made available for use by the
consumers. All goods go through channels of distribution, and marketing depends on the way goods
are distributed. The route that the product takes on its way from production to the consumer is
important because a marketer must decide which route or channel is best for his particular product.

Stern & El-Ansary define marketing channels as – “sets of independent organisations involved in the
process of making a product or service available for use or consumption.”

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Marketing Channels:

A marketing channel is the series of interdependent marketing institutions that facilitate transfer of
title to a product as it moves from producer to ultimate consumer or industrial user. The title may be
transferred directly, as and when the commodity is bought or sold outright, or indirectly, as and
when the transaction is negotiated through a functional middleman such as an agent or broker who
does not take credit to it.

Characteristics:

Channels create utility, improve exchange efficiency and help match supply and demand. They bring
suppliers and buyers together. Each channel system has a different potential for creating sales and
producing costs. The chosen channel will significantly affect and be affected by the rest of the
marketing mix. A channel’s vertical dimension (length) is determined by the number of types of
participants in the channel. There are no intermediaries in the most direct channel (a zero-level
channel).

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This gives producers greater control over their products distribution. Intermediaries stand between
the producers and final buyers in indirect channels. A channel’s horizontal dimension (width) is
determined by the number of participants of any one type on the same level in the channel. The
situation varies considerably from one line of goods to another. Many manufacturers find it
necessary to use more than one kind of channel for the same market.

For example, Automative tyres. The industry’s output which is sold for OEM is distributed direct
from tyre factories to manufacturers. Tyres for replacement for cars on the road are sold mainly
through retailers. Some manufacturers have different products that require separate distribution
channels. Finally, some manufacturers find it feasible to use different channels in different parts of
the country.

Trade Channels:

The channel objectives are conditioned by the particular characteristics of customers, products,
middlemen, competitors and environment. The firm has to select particular firms to work with or
find business firms willing to work with it. It has to periodically evaluate the performance of
individual channel members against their own past sales and other channel members’ sales.

Marketing Channels – Rationale behind Using Marketing Channels

i. Many organisations lack the resources (financial as well as other resources), to carry out direct
marketing and reach out to their many customers without the help of any intermediary. For this
purpose, marketing channels are used to take the products from the manufacturing organisations to
the final consumers.

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ii. For many smaller products, direct marketing may not be feasible considering that exclusive retail
outlets for small products may not work, and having to stock other products might end up in having
just another grocery or food outlet which would not serve the purpose. Setting up exclusive retail
stores for marketing of small products like chocolates would not be a feasible idea.

iii. Given the lower return on investments in the retail business, organisations would be better off
investing their money in their main business rather than taking up retailing or other channel
functions.

As such, the use of intermediaries is mainly to make the goods available and accessible to target
markets. Intermediaries, because of their specialisation, experience, and scale of operations, are
able to achieve more than what the organisation can in terms of reaching to the target markets.

Marketing Channels – 9 Important Functions (With Channels Level)

A marketing channel mainly performs the task of moving goods from the producers or
manufacturers to the final users. The channel is instrumental in overcoming the gaps between the
producers and consumers in terms of time, place and possession or ownership.

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The functions of the distribution channels are:

a. Information – The marketing channels perform the task of collecting and disseminating of
marketing information about customers, competitors as well as potential customers and other
market forces.

b. Promotion – Persuasive communication is disseminated through the channels to the customers.

The channels also often help in the design of these communication messages.

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c. Negotiation – The channel members are the ones who negotiate with other channel members and
customers to facilitate the transfer of ownership.

d. Financing – The marketing channels work towards the acquisition and allocation of funds required
to finance inventories at different levels of the marketing channels.

e. Risk taking – The channel members assume the risk for carrying out the channel work.

f. Physical possession – The channel members also take the responsibility of storage of goods during
the successive stages to the final consumers.

g. Ordering – This function is with regards to the communication of channel members regarding the
intention to purchase.

h. Payment – The channel members also assume responsibility for the buyers honouring their
payments to the sellers through banks and other financial instruments.
Marketing Channels – Classification: Conventional and Integrated Channels

A channel of distribution is an organized network or system of institutions or agencies, which, in

combination, perform all the activities required to link the producers and final users.

Trade channels are classified as conventional and non-conventional with further divisions.

The classification of channels are described below:

1. Conventional Channel:

i. Direct Channels:

Manufacturers Customers- This is the shortest and simplest choice as goods move directly from the
source of manufacture to the ultimate user. For example, vacuum cleaner, water cooler, etc. The
sales are affected through the company sales force.

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Direct channels of distribution can take the following forms:

a. Direct selling or salesmanship. Example- Eureka Forbes, Zenith computers.

b. Vending machines. Example- Pepsi and Coke

c. Manufacturers retail shop. Example- Bata, Titan, Reebok.

d. Factory outlets – small outlet just outside their factory- export factory outlet.

e. Direct mail order business. Example- teleshopping network, Proactive acne kit, etc.

ii. Indirect Channels of Distribution:

a) Manufacturers – Retailers – Customers:

This option consists of only one intermediary. It is short and simple. This is a popular in case of
consumer durables such as textiles, readymade garments, etc. Example: – Bata, Corona etc.

b) Manufacturers – Wholesalers – Retailers – Consumers:

Here, two intermediaries exist. This is the most popular choice and is used by both small and big
companies alike. This is ideal for consumer non-durables. Example- Biscuits and chocolates, soaps,
shampoos, Parle-g etc.

c) Manufacturers – Agent – Wholesaler – Retailer – Consumer:

This is the longest indirect channel available to a firm. The agent middlemen may be commission
agents, export merchants who manage trade on behalf of the manufacturer. Companies’ with
multiple product portfolio and producing consumer non-durables with national and international
market resort to this channel.

d) Manufacturers – Wholesaler – Consumer:

Here, retailers do not exist. This works well for institutional consumers such as colleges, hospitals,
schools clubs, government agencies, business houses, religious institutions etc. This can be adopted
in case of consumer durables and consumer non-durables.

2. Integrated Channels:
i. Vertical Channels:

These are professionally managed and centrally programmed networks that are established to
achieve operating economies and maximum market impact. Hence, they are bound to be capital
intensive; they are designed to achieve technical, managerial and promotional economies through
integration, coordination and synchronization of marketing flows from the point of production to
the point of final consumption.

a) Administered Channel:

This is developed in such a manner that the co-ordination of marketing activities is achieved by using
the programs of one or few firms. An example of this type of system could include a large retailer
such as Wal-Mart dictating conditions to smaller product makers, such as producers of a generic
type of laundry detergent.

b) Contractual Channel:

Here, independent channel components integrate on contractual lines to attain economies of scale
and maximize the market impact. For Example Javed Habib give franchise of his flagship brand HABIB
on contractual basis.

c) Corporate Channel:

Here, channel components are owned and operated by the same organisation. Although it provides
full control, this comes with a huge investment. An example of a corporate vertical marketing system
would be a company such as Apple, which has its own retail stores as well as designing and creating
the products to be sold in those retail stores.

ii. Horizontal Channels:

Here, two or more companies join hands to exploit a marketing opportunity. This may be achieved
by themselves or by creating an independent unit, for example, Sugar Syndicate of India, Associated
Cement Company, etc. The factors motivating horizontal integration are rapidly changing markets,
racing competition, swift pace of technology, excess capacity, seasonal and cyclical changes in
consumer demand and the risks involved in accepting financial risks single-handedly.

Marketing Channels – Importance

A marketing channel system decisions affects the other marketing decisions also, and therefore are
among the most critical decisions. Channel choices themselves depend on the company’s marketing
strategy with respect to segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Marketing channels must not just
see markets but they must also make markets as one of the chief roles of marketing channels is to
convert potential buyers into profitable customers.

In addition channel decisions include relatively long-term commitments with other firms as well as a
set of policies and procedures. Marketers in the present dynamic market should adopt the holistic
perspective and ensure that marketing decisions in all these different areas are made to collectively
maximize value.

In managing the intermediaries, the firm must also decide on the emphasis given to the ‘push’
versus ‘pull’ marketing strategy. A ‘push’ strategy uses the manufacturer’s sales force, trade
promotional money, or other means to induce intermediaries to carry, promote, and sell the product
to end-users.

This strategy is appropriate where there is low brand loyalty in a category, brand choice is made in
the store, the product is an impulse item, and product benefits are well understood. While, in the
‘pull’ strategy the manufacturer uses advertising, promotion, and other forms of communication to
persuade consumers to demand the product from intermediaries, thereby, induce the
intermediaries to order it.

‘Pull’ strategy is appropriate when there is high brand loyalty and high involvement in the category,
when consumers are able to perceive differences between brands, and when they choose the brand
before they go to the store.

Marketing activities directed towards the channel as part of ‘push’ strategy are more effective when
accompanied by a well-designed and well-executed ‘pull’ strategy that activates consumer demand.
On the other hand, without at least some consumer interest, it can be very difficult to gain much
channel acceptance and support.

Marketing Channels – Design

The channel system of an organisation evolves in response to local opportunities and conditions. In
managing its intermediaries, the firm must decide how much effort to devote to push versus pull
marketing. In a push strategy, the manufacturer uses its sales force and trade promotion strategy to
induce intermediaries to promote and sell the product to end-users, whereas, in a pull strategy the
manufacturer uses advertising and promotion to induce consumers to ask intermediaries for the
product, thus creating a pull from the intermediaries to the manufacturer for the product.

In designing the marketing channel, the marketer must analyse customers’ desired service output
levels (lot size, waiting time, convenience, product variety, service backup).

They should also establish channel objectives and constraints based on:

a. Product characteristics

b. Strength and weakness of intermediaries

c. Influences of competitors’ channel

d. Broader environmental changes

Definition

An advertising strategy can be defined as a step by step plan to reach your customers and to
convince them to buy your products. A well-planned advertising strategy not only conveys the
benefits of your product but will also persuade your customers to choose your product over the
outcomes of your competitors.

What is Advertising strategy?

Advertising is a method of promoting your product or service. The purpose of advertising is to reach
people who are willing to pay to buy your product and service. And a strategy is a step by step plan
to persuade your customers to choose your product and service over the product or services of your
competitors.

An effective advertising strategy gives you maximum return on investment. Therefore, it is necessary
to choose the right advertising strategy to promote your products and services. The advertising
strategy that worked for you in the past doesn’t have to also work for you at present because people
change their perception changes that cause the change in requirement.

6 Steps to Create Advertising Strategies

Creating an advertising strategy is a creative process. You are required to understand your business
and your target audience to create an effective advertising strategy that maximises the sales of your
product. In this section, you will learn about the steps that you should follow to create an effective
advertising strategy for your business.

1. Determine the purpose of advertising

The first step is to determine the purpose of advertising. There can be different purposes for which
you want to advertise. For example, to boost the sales, to promote your newly launched product, to
attract foot traffic in the store, to increase traffic on the website, to make people aware of the
benefits of the product.

Having the clarity of the purpose of advertising is a step forward in the direction of creating an
effective advertising strategy. You can select media platforms on which you want to advertise your
product and services and can also decide how much you want to spend on your advertising
campaign.

2. Determine your target audience

The second and even a crucial step in creating an effective advertising strategy is to determine
the audience that you want to target using your advertising strategy. Knowing the audience that you
want to focus on makes your advertising strategy more effective. You will create content that will
grab the attention of your target audience.

Determining your target audience is not as easy as it seems. It is a complex process to identify your
target audience. Your target customer is a person who will ultimately buy your product. You can
determine your target audience by creating a profile of the customer who will buy your product.
Next, you should evaluate the influence of the people around your target customer, such as family
members, colleagues, friends, etc.

who will influence the decision of your target customer. For Instance, if you are into the business of
selling cars, then your target audience will be the people with regular income. The people who have
a stable job or who run a successful business. The decision of these people will be influenced by the
people they are working with, their friends, their children, and their spouse. Therefore, make sure
that when you are creating an advertising strategy, then don’t forget to target this group of people.

3. Decide your advertising budget size

The next important step is to determine the budget for your advertising campaign. It is essential to
decide your advertising budget before you decide on your advertising strategy. Your strategies will
be ineffective if it does not match your budget.
Sometimes a low budget advertising can do wonders for your business if you choose the right
strategy that fits your budget.

4. Selecting media for advertising and deciding the schedule

Once you have determined your product and target audience, the next step that you are required to
take is to choose the type of media that you want to use to reach your audience. There are many
advertising media such as

1. Print media – Newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, posters, banners, etc.

2. Digital media – website advertising, social media advertising, world wide web, email advertising,
youtube ads, Television ads.

3. Direct mails

4. Word of mouth

5. Outdoor advertising – billboards, advertising on public transportation like public buses and cabs.

6. Trade shows.

7. Radio advertising

All of these advertising mediums have their advantages and disadvantages. You can choose one or a
group of advertising mediums to implement your strategy. For example, if your target audience is
older people than advertisement medium like television ads and newspaper ads will be the right
choice of medium to advertise your product.

On the other hand, if you are targeting youngsters, then to reach them, you should opt for social
media advertising, youtube ads, and the world wide web. Because nowadays, most youngsters
spend their time on these platforms and spend less time watching television or reading newspapers.

Therefore, the right advertising medium can help increase the return on investment on your
advertising strategy.

5. Implementation of the advertising program

The next step is to implement your advertising strategy as planned. The implementation of
advertising strategies is referred to as an advertising campaign. An advertising campaign is a
different concept from an advertising strategy, but an advertising strategy is used as guidelines to
create an advertising campaign. As it is crucial to achieving across the board consistency. Everything
that is part of your advertising campaign such as music, artwork, images should be as it is decided in
the advertising strategy. It is essential to achieve consistency when you are advertising your product
through several advertising mediums. Make sure to use one slogan, image, or a music track that
creates the coherency of your advertisement on different advertising platforms.

6. Measure the effectiveness of advertising

The last step is to measure the effectiveness of your advertising strategy. Whether your advertising
strategy was successful or not will depend on the return on investment that you get by the
implementation of an advertising strategy.

Check whether your objective is met or not. For example, if you aimed to boost sales, then check
how much your advertising strategy was successful in achieving the desired number.
Types of advertising strategies

The following are the different types of advertising strategies.

1. Seasonal advertising

This type of advertising strategy is used for the advertising of seasonal products or advertising of
your business or products during a particular season. Several huge companies swear by this
advertising strategy and advertise their products right before the beginning of the season and
through the season. This advertising strategy proves to be beneficial as it provides a high return on
investment. Because companies spend their money on advertisements when there is a need for
their products in the market rather than wasting money on ads throughout the year.

For example, during important festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, Christmas, companies like Amazon and
Flipkart run-heavy advertising, which results in the revenue generation of millions to these
companies. Seasonal advertising is not only adopted by giant companies, but it is also popularly used
by small businesses to attract customers.

2. Social media advertising

Social media advertising is one of the most popular advertising strategies used by companies to
advertise their products and services and to stay in touch with their customers. Companies create
their social media handles on different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. and
share information about their business on these platforms. People can not only learn about the
products and services offered by companies but can also interact with the markets through these
platforms.

Companies run their advertising campaigns on these platforms and also take the help of social media
personalities to promote their products. For example, Olay company advertise their face cream with
the help of social media influencers and mobile companies like Redmi and Oppo also support the
latest models of their mobile phones on their social media handles and even with the help of social
media influencers.

Social media has become the first choice of advertising of both small as well as large businesses.
Businesses are not required to spend millions on advertising using social media advertising strategies
like they are required to pay when promoting their business on other advertising platforms.

Moreover, using social media advertising, they can learn about the response of people towards their
advertising campaign and can make changes as per their reaction.

3. Ownership advertising

In an ownership advertising strategy, you make your customers participate in your ad campaign. For
example, coke asked their customers to share their selfies with a coke bottle on their social media
platforms and tag them in their posts.

In this way, they indirectly made people buy their product, and by sharing on their social media
platform, they make their customers advocate their product to their friends and family.

4. Modeling the advertising strategy

The modeling advertising strategy is when companies make the use of celebrities or renowned
personalities to advertise their products. It is an effective advertising strategy as the followers of the
superstar will be influenced to buy your product.
5. Utility advertising strategy

The utility advertising strategy is a unique advertising strategy where you advertise your product by
helping people achieve their goals.

6. Evocation advertising strategy

This type of advertising strategy to attract the attention of people by evoking strong emotions in
them. You create a positive image of your brand and product by connecting with people at an
emotional level.

Therefore, many companies are making use of advertisements that reminds them of their parents or
children or pets. In this way, they leave a mark in the minds of people. This strategy is useful if you
want to make your brand accessible.

SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotion is a set of marketing technologies aimed to stimulate the demand in particular
products and increase brand awareness. Limited in time, it creates a feeling of time-sensitiveness,
generates new leads, and keeps existing customers engaged.

Contents

1. Benefits of Sales Promotion

2. Sales Promotion Objectives

3. Types of Sales Promotion

4. Sales Promotion Techniques

5. Sales Promotion Examples

6. Sales Promotion Ideas

7. References

Sales promotion is one of the core elements of the promotion mix. To build long-lasting relationships
with users, you need to find out the types of sales that work with your target audience. At the same
time, you should provide customers with value that’s relative to your field of expertise.

Benefits of Sales Promotion

 It helps to generate new leads

 Allows re-engaging with your existing audience

 Skyrockets revenue

 Increases brand awareness

 It helps to generate new leads. Sales promotion can boost your product image since it
encourages sharing information about it within social groups related to your business. If you
sell training football shoes, people keen on playing football will share the message.
  Allows re-engaging with your existing audience. Once a person subscribed to a
brand’s email newsletters, they will receive regular sales promotions. It is a way to keep the
audience engaged and maintain a close connection with the company, which is crucial for
building loyalty.

 Skyrockets revenue. Sales promotions help companies to increase the number of sold
goods, even though they need to lower the price to achieve that goal. Of course, merely
reducing the price is not enough, people should need your product, while the discount is
only another reason to make a purchase.

 Increases brand awareness. Sales promotion is a way to make a name for your brand
because people are more likely to talk about a сompany that proposes benefits and saves
their money. That’s what sales promotion does.

Sales Promotion Objectives

 Launch a new product

 Attract new clients

 Stay competitive

 Make existing customers buy more

 Sell during off-season

 Run clearance campaigns

Although the main goal of sales promotion is to increase demand in a particular product, you can
reach several important goals. Understanding them will help you create an effective promotion
strategy.

1. Launch a new product. If you're going to expand and turn your small coffee shop into a
bakery, you need to reach new market segments. You can attract new customers by offering
a free cookie with each cup of coffee or suggest visitors set their own price once in a while.

2. Attract new clients. This objective should be your long-term goal since it allows your
business to grow. Your potential clients are likely your competitors' customers, so analyzing
their product and benefits, you can offer something more valuable.

3. Stay competitive. Researching and analyzing your competitors will not only help you attract
new clients but constantly improve your product and customer service.

4. Make existing customers buy more. It's always easier to make an existing customer buy
more than attract new clients. Provide each client with a personalized approach — it will
help you build customer loyalty. As a result, clients will promote your brand organically.

5. Sell during the off-season. Goods like swimwear, boats, tents, air conditioners, refrigerators
are definitely more popular in summer but you should consider special strategies to sell
them throughout the year. Offer time-limited discounts, "1+1=3" campaigns, and other
marketing tricks.

6. Run clearance campaigns. They're especially popular before summer and winter. As dealers
need to make room for a new collection, they often run total clearance campaigns when
users can buy goods from old collections at extremely reduced prices.
There are several types of sales promotions that will help you reach your objectives.

Types of Sales Promotion

 Price deal

 Loyalty reward program

 Bonus-pack deal

 Giveaways

 Coupons

 Mobile couponing

 Sampling

There is a variety of ways to run a successful sales promotion, but let’s focus on some most
frequently used ones, using a cup of coffee as an example.

 Price deal. It is a temporary cost reduction, for instance, 20% off for a coffee for a week.

 Loyalty reward program. This means that customers collect points or credits when they buy
coffee. If they get 10 points, for example, they will have one coffee for free.

 Bonus-pack deal. It means that a customer can get more products paying the original price.
For instance, they pay a dollar for one cup of coffee and get free candy, which gives some
positive emotions and makes them come back in the future.

 Giveaways. These tactics aim to increase brand awareness. It means giving some items for
free in exchange for personal information to use in further marketing. For example, offer a
free cup of coffee in exchange for a phone number, which you can use for many purposes:
promoting new sales, sharing updates and news with short text messages, etc.

 Coupons. You can sell coffee for the original price and give a coupon, which will make the
next purchase 5% cheaper.

 Mobile couponing. It stands for coupons received on mobile phones via SMS. To get a
discount, a customer needs to show the coupon on their smartphone.

 Sampling. Choosing this promotion type, companies give a sample of the product; for
instance, the first cup of coffee to promote a new taste.

Sales Promotion Techniques

 Discounts

 Time-limited offers

 Seasonal promotions

 “1+1=3"

 Holiday promotions

 Gifts
  Contests

 Reward points

 Special prices

 First-purchase coupons

 Free shipping

In this section, you'll see some popular techniques as well as less used methods that will help you
increase sales without much effort.

1. Discounts. This technique is as old as the hills. Small companies and big corporations use this
method to sell more. One of the reasons it's so popular, even today, is that discounts are
great for both consumers and retailers. Sellers can clear room in their warehouse for new
arrivals and customers can buy more at reduced prices. Keep in mind that a normal discount
should be between 5-20% since clients won't even notice less than 5% discount, but more
than 20% off will make them feel suspicious about your brand.

2. Time-limited offers. This technique works even better than a big discount. With this trick,
marketers manage to create a sense of urgency and fear of missing out on their products.
You can give clients 24 hours to grab this special offer. To make this technique perform
better, you need to advertise your promotion on each channel you use. This will bring more
sales and increase your site traffic.

3. Seasonal promotions. People often buy ski suits in summer and air conditioners in winter to
save money. Selling products during off-seasons can be a real challenge, so we strongly
recommend you to run seasonal promotions. Sell items from old collections at reduced
prices and don't forget to advertise your campaign via email and social media.

4. “1+1=3". "Buy one and get one for free" and "Buy 2 items and get the third one for free" are
very familiar marketing tricks. Such campaigns help you sell products at a low price or save
money shopping together with a friend. Retailers can significantly boost sales with this
technique reinforcing clearance sales.

5. Holiday promotions. Christmas, New Year's Eve, Halloween, International Women's Day,
and Valentine's Day are great chances to skyrocket sales. People are extremely generous
when buying presents for their friends and family. Launch your holiday campaigns in
advance, and invest in advertising via email, PPC, social media, and other channels. This will
help you increase brand awareness and site traffic.

6. Gifts. Who doesn't like freebies? If you are a startup or about to launch a new product, go
for this technique. It will help you reach big audiences fast, build brand recognition, and
collect user-generated content which is especially valuable for every type of business. Let
users try your service for free for 7 days, launch a campaign that will let each client who
spends $100+ receive a gift, or give away free samples with each order.

7. Contests. Competitions are a great opportunity to boost user engagement and increase
brand awareness and sales. You can let your audience to create a slogan for your brand, a
new advertising message, design, or share creative ideas on how to use your product in an
unusual way. Make sure that the prize correlates with the effort spent on participating in
your contest.
 8. Reward points. You definitely should reward clients who buy from you regularly - people
love brands that appreciate their choice. So, with this technique, you can start building
customer loyalty. Give points to each client who makes a second purchase or spends a
certain amount of money. Then, let them exchange those points for a product they like.

9. Special prices. Marketers usually run a 1-day campaign when users can buy everything at a
fixed price. These prices usually look tempting for users and they can’t overcome the feeling
of missing out. The goal may be an annual clearance of goods. You can set a fixed price for
each product category of your store. For example, sweaters for $5.99, jeans for $9.99, coats
for $15.99. This technique works.

10. First-purchase coupons. It always takes time for people to give money to a new store
especially when buying expensive products. To make them think over the purchase faster,
offer a special incentive. You can send a welcome email to a new visitor with a coupon to get
a 10 or 15% discount off their first purchase. For better performance, limit this appealing
offer to a couple of days.

11. Free shipping. Very often users leave your site without buying just because of expensive
delivery options. To win back these potential clients, you can run a time-limited
campaign that allows them to receive their orders for free if they spend a certain amount of
money. If you sell medium-priced goods, do not make this fixed sum too high. Otherwise,
people won’t fall for this trick.

Now that you know a bunch of effective sales promotion techniques, choose the most profitable
methods for your business, and try SendPulse to run an effective campaign via email, SMS, or
Facebook.

Sales Promotion Examples

 Email marketing

 Facebook marketing

 SMS marketing

Email marketing

It is one of the most efficient digital marketing channels, with the ROI up to 4000%. Marketers
use sales promotion for lead nurturing, reactivation, promotion, etc. To succeed, marketers combine
sales with educating materials. In this sales email, Grammarly offers users a chance to upgrade to a
premium plan and shows the multiple benefits and suggests taking advantage of the 40% discount
limited it time.

Email is also an effective platform for holding giveaways. You can create a giveaway campaign on
specialized resources like Rafflecopter, and keep users engaged with giveaway emails along the way.
The example below shows how the Apple Music Festival encourages people to participate, using the
names of famous artists who are going to perform there.

Facebook marketing
Facebook is one of the most powerful advertising platforms due to its global coverage and
detailed targeting options. Facebook marketing allows using various types of ads to fit any demand
and budget. Here’s an example of a carousel ad with a 10% discount by iHerb.

SMS marketing

This channel is excellent for instant updates and flash sales. It works out well for local businesses.
The example below shows how sales promotion in SMS marketing can create a sense of urgency,
stimulating people to visit a restaurant for lunch.

Sales Promotion Ideas

1. Give an adequate range of discounts

2. Target sales promotion to the right people

3. Take advantage of the shopping holidays

4. Create a sense of urgency

5. Develop a loyalty program

6. Use sales promotion to generate leads

7. Offer free shipping

 Give an adequate range of discounts. Avoid more than 50% discounts, because they make
you look desperate. Don’t give discounts, like 2% either, as they won’t thrill your customers.

 Target sales promotion to the right people. Find out which people are likely to buy a
particular product you want to promote. For instance, if you run a sports shop and you want
to increase the demand for skateboards, target your promotions to teenagers and young
people.

 Take advantage of the shopping holidays. Marketers have developed a system of

consumerism based on traditions. As a result, people spend more money on shopping in
particular days called shopping holidays. These are Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas,
New Year, Halloween, to name a few. Any holiday meaningful for a specific group, like
Mother’s day for women, can be a reason for companies to promote sales.

 Create a sense of urgency. Create time-limited offers to make your audience feel they are
going to miss something important. Time-sensitiveness is an excellent incentive for people
to purchase since it appeals to their emotions.

 Develop a loyalty program. This technique will help you keep your customers engaged for
an extended period. Offer to collect points from every dollar spent, so in the future, your
customers could use them to pay for new purchases in your shop.

 Use sales promotion to generate leads. Use a discount as an incentive to subscribe to

your email newsletters. Lead magnets help to cover this process during the subscription.
  Offer free shipping. It is the right motivation for people from distant regions to decide to
buy from you.

EVENT AND EXPERIENCE

Event Marketing: Meaning, Features and Importance of Event Marketing!

Meaning:

The increasing competitive pressures brought on by globalization are forcing business professionals
to find new ways to engage customers. There are many definitions of event marketing. It is defined
as the marketing discipline focused on face-to-face interaction via live events, trade shows and
corporate meetings among other event types. Others define it as designing or developing a ‘live’
themed activity, occasion, display, or exhibit (such as a sporting event, music festival, fair, or
concert) to promote a product, cause or organization.

An event is a live multimedia package with a preconceived concept, customized or modified to

achieve the clients’ objective of reaching out and suitably influencing the sharply defined, specially
gathered target audience by providing a complete sensual experience and an avenue for two-way
interaction.

Features of Event Marketing:

1. Wide range of events:

Event marketing encompasses a wide range of event types:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

a. Mega events and local events,

b. Exhibitions,

c. Trade shows,

ADVERTISEMENTS:

d. Publicity stunts,

e. Themed and created events,

f. Corporate entertainment,

g. Award ceremonies.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

In fact, there are very few events that cannot be used for a marketing purpose, as all communicate
something to the target audience. Events can be used to perform a number of marketing functions;
for example, communications, relationship and loyalty building, database compilation, targeting,
brand enhancement, and personal selling.

2. Goal oriented:
If the event and advertising objectives are not achieved through the event, then no matter how
much people enjoyed the event or how much popularity the event got, it is a complete failure on a
commercial level.

3. Effective promotion and communication:

It is important to get the message across to the target audience, and therefore enough research
about the profile of the attendees is important to be able to communicate effectively about the
product.

4. Proper evaluation:

Event evaluation is necessary to make the team more efficient and effective, the next time it
organizes an event. It helps in finding mistakes and learning from them. Event evaluation should be
done immediately after the event is over or the next day. A meeting should be conducted with the
team members to evaluate the event.

5. Feedback from clients:

One good way of getting feedback is through a feedback form. To get feedback from the target
audience/guests, make the feedback form a part of the gift voucher. A guest can redeem the gift
voucher only when he/she fills the feedback form and give it back to an attendant. These tactics are
required to get feedback, as people are generally reluctant to give any feedback in writing.

6. Location:

The location chosen for the event is perhaps the most important aspect. The most ideal locations in
any exhibition areas are found at the entryway to the event and near the pathway to the food
stations and restrooms.

Importance of Event Marketing:

1. It helps in brand building, that is, creating awareness about the launch of new products/brands.

2. To highlight the added features of the product/services.

3. It helps in rejuvenating brands during different stages of product life cycle.

4. Helping in communicating the repositioning of brands/products.

5. Associating the brand personality of clients with the personality of target market.

6. Creating and maintaining brand identity.

Experiential marketing is a strategy that implies face-to-face communication with a target

audience and involves people’s experience with a brand or its products. It aims to shape
memorable emotional connections with customers, increasing brand awareness and customer
loyalty.

Contents

1. Why do brands use experiential marketing?

2. 4 Types of Experiential Marketing Campaigns

 3. How to Develop an Experiential Marketing Strategy

4. Examples of Experiential Marketing

In this article, we’ll explore why companies implement experiential marketing and explore its types
and examples. Next, we’ll uncover how to create an experiential marketing strategy.

Why do brands use experiential marketing?

This marketing strategy easily attracts and engages people by using interactive methods and ensures
an unforgettable experience. Businesses utilize the technique and communicate with their
consumers face-to-face to establish emotional connections, lasting memories, positive impressions,
etc. Eventually, it improves clients’ relationships with a brand and customer lifetime value.

The method requires organizing various offline events such as samplings, in-store activities, shows,
events, and product showcases that help a brand interact with customers, better understand their
needs and problems, obtain valuable customer insights, and establish strong relationships with their
audience.

Experiential marketing brings several benefits to businesses:

 involving leads and customers in different types of activities;

 introducing a brand and its product to prospects and customers to let them try it;

 improving customer loyalty;

 increasing awareness about a certain company;

Now that you know the advantages of experiential marketing, it’s time to jump into its types.

4 Types of Experiential Marketing Campaigns

We can differentiate four main types of campaigns:

 guerrilla marketing (relies heavily on unconventional methods and often includes the effect
of surprise, interactive emotions, risk, and provocativeness);

 brand activation (involves an event or any other type of interaction that encourages
customers to act);

 event marketing (entails a display, presentation, or themed exhibit to provide the audience
with an unforgettable experience);

 retail installations (POP marketing is about a smart placement of products in retail

stores that aims at their promotion).

Let’s proceed to the next section to explore our guide to creating an experiential marketing strategy.

How to Develop an Experiential Marketing Strategy

 Understand your target audience

 Create and communicate a clear message

 Develop a campaign that provides value

 Leverage augmented reality

  Create an engaging campaign

 Endorse your campaign across multiple channels

 Encourage customers to disseminate information

You should have a proper strategy to entice customers to visit your offline event. We’ll provide you
with the necessary steps to develop one for your company.

1. Understand your target audience

Some companies direct all their efforts to create something unique, unforgettable, and fun and
forget about the most important element — their target audience. That’s why your company’s
marketing and sales team should have enough time to research your ideal buyers and the type of
advertising they prefer the most at the planning stage. As a result, you’ll know your audience’s
interests, preferences, and needs and will be able to comply with them when communicating face-
to-face.

2. Create and communicate a clear message

When thinking about an appropriate message, make sure that it aligns with your brand’s
communication style and enables customers to build strong associations. Red Bull’s “Stratos”
campaign is an outstanding example. Since the famous energy drinks brand associates itself with
boldness, risk, and excitement, a skydiving event manages to highlight Red Bull’s brand personality.

3. Develop a campaign that provides value

When developing an experiential campaign, keep in mind that you need to provide some value. A
campaign is successful if it manages to educate its target audience and bring something beneficial.
Krylon’s “The First Ever Pinterest Yard Sale” is an example that demonstrates its value for the planet
and society.

In its commercial, Krylon shows how its spray paint products can transform old objects. The
company’s team sold the renovated furniture to donate money to charity. This way, the brand
strives to show that we can protect our planet by reusing old items.

4. Leverage augmented reality

People always want to try something on before purchasing it: clothes, sunglasses, shoes, or furniture
to be sure that the item meets their requirements perfectly. Augmented reality apps enable
customers to virtually try out everything they need and find out whether a product fits.

For example, Bollé invited customers to try on its Phantom sunglasses on Instagram through an
augmented reality experience. The app allows customers to try the product and see how their actual
surroundings will look when wearing this sunglasses model.

5. Create an engaging campaign

To reach the public, you should develop a unique campaign that brings a lot of fun and encourages
people to participate. Let’s take Volkswagen’s campaign, for example. The brand’s team created a
massive piano on the subway staircase. The piano produced different sounds when people climbed
up and down the stairs and aimed to cheer up the masses who are always in a hurry.

6. Endorse your campaign across multiple channels

To get more brand exposure and increase engagement, you need to distribute the information about
your campaign across different marketing channels. Focus on the ones your target audience prefers
the most. You can reach the masses by promoting your event on social media or using ambient
marketing.

7. Encourage customers to disseminate information

Once you launch your new campaign, inspire people to share their photos and videos from your
event on social media and forums to become word-of-mouth promoters of your company. It will
help you reach even more people and attain the goal of your campaign.

Now that you know how to develop a great strategy, let’s explore some examples.

Examples of Experiential Marketing

Everything in business and marketing is built on connections and experiences. They establish brand
loyalty and make campaigns successful. Let’s now find out how established brands build
relationships with the public.

Red Bull

For many years people have associated Red Bull with extreme sports. However, in 2012, the brand
reached a new level of success when it launched the “Stratos” campaign. Its main goal was to break
a new skydiving record with Felix Baumgartner. By streaming the event online on YouTube, the
company obtained more than eight million viewers.

Vans

The brand found another way to surprise its fans. It decided to create several pop-up locations in big
cities like Chicago and New York. The famous manufacturer of shoes provided skateboarders with
great spots to meet up, communicate, and listen to music. Skatepark-based pop-ups also served as a
place where Vans presented its new shoe line.

Public Relations (PR) is a profession aimed at effectively managing the flow of information between
an individual or an organization and the public. This plays a significant role in marketing.

PR is used in marketing mostly to maintain good media relations and public image, build brand
awareness, and engage with potential brand promoters – from sponsors to influencers.

Today, we talk about all-things-PR – what it is and how it boosts your marketing strategies.

What is public relations?

Public relations is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an
organization and the public.
Public relations professionals are responsible for building and maintaining relationships with the
public, as well as managing communications between various parties.

The goal of public relations is to shape how people think about a company, product, service, or
person. It’s about telling a story that resonates with your target audience and engages them in a
professional dialogue that is consistent with the company’s culture and values.

Are public relations and marketing the same thing?

The simple answer is: no. But, sometimes the difference is not that obvious, so let’s explain it.

Marketing

Marketing is the process of promoting a product/service/company/person in order to reach various

goals, such as:

 generate qualified leads

 raise brand awareness

 increase revenue

 boost brand engagement

to name just a few examples.

There are two main marketing methods, inbound (focused on reaching out to potential leads
through content) and outbound (focused on reaching out to potential leads directly).

Depending on which method they use, there are various marketing fields, such as product
marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, email marketing, advertising, etc., which vary
in their activities and main goals.

Although there is a similarity between PR and marketing processes, they differ in their end goal.
While marketing is primarily focused on promoting your products and services to generate leads, PR
is primarily focused on maintaining your company’s public image by nurturing your relationship with
the media and current clients.

PR and marketing can sometimes overlap in these processes. This is where the difference between
them gets misunderstood.

Public relations

While PR activities do contribute to results similar to those of marketing, it’s actually a more
narrowed-down niche.

PR is a subset of marketing that focuses on building relationships with the public in order to create a
positive public image for a company or organization. It also has different disciplines, such as
corporate communications, internal communications, marketing communications, crisis
communications, etc.

PR specialists focus on improving the image of their clients through communication and media
channels such as TV, print, social media, and radio. Thus, one of their main goals is also preventing
and handling PR crises.
Since the job of a PR person can be somewhat exhausting and time-consuming, there are
various tools to automate it.

For example, a controversial social media post concerning your brand goes viral and attracts lots of
negative attention. With media monitoring and social listening tools like Mediatoolkit, you could
have an overview of all online mentions of your brand and the sentiment surrounding it to predict
and prevent any PR crises.

We’ve covered this topic in our previous blog Social Media Crisis Management Guide – What to Do
When a Disaster Strikes if you wish to read more about crisis management.

Marketing vs PR in an example

The consequence of all your activities should be the same – an increase in a number of people who
use your services or products. But, every team, including PR and marketing, gets there via different
routes.

Let’s use a simplified example. Let’s say you’re launching a new product. The overall goal of your
whole company is to get people to use the new product. While both marketing and PR have the
same goal of promoting that product launch through various platforms, their promotional activities
will differ.

Your PR team will focus on getting media coverage for the launch by sending out press releases and,
say, arranging interviews for your managers. The PR team will primarily send out a message about
you as an amazing company that is launching a new product. On the other hand, your marketing
team will focus on social media promotion and paid advertisement on various platforms. They will
primarily send out a message about your amazing product.

With a clearer understanding of the difference between marketing and PR, let’s focus on the
importance of the latter.

When to use public relations?

Public relations is a powerful tool. It is one of the most effective ways to engage with the public to
get it to talk (positively) about your brand.

Public relations is a vital part of any company, no matter its size and niche. PR helps establish and
maintain a good public image and reputation of companies. It also helps to manage any negative
publicity that companies may face.

PR can be used for various purposes, such as:

 improving, building, and protecting brand reputation

 communicating with the public via various platforms

 portraying company values and strategies to stakeholders

Where does PR fit in marketing?

But how to actually put PR into practice to use it in sync with your marketing efforts? There are
various practices that companies use.

Here are the most popular ones:

#1 Events are great for networking, raising brand awareness, finding influencers and leads

Public events are a great way to boost your marketing efforts and maintain a good relationship
between your company and the media. They are very effective for companies looking to create
awareness about their products or services among new people, too.

While organizing or attending events, you get to promote your brand, connect with your audience
and broaden the pool of people who know about your brand. Remember – the first step to
becoming a customer is hearing about the brand.

source: undraw.co

Sponsorships and media coverage that usually come with events are another great way to raise
awareness about your brand or strengthen your public image. Not only that, public events help you
build your PR network as you meet new people and broaden your network of contacts which varies
from CEOs of other companies to influencers or journalists – all of whom you can link with again in
the future.

Your network may be the most important asset to you as a PR professional. It’s important to
constantly nurture it and expand it.

#2 Press releases are your go-to activity for promotional purposes

A press release is an official announcement about a company, organization, or person. It is usually

sent to journalists in a form similar to a newspaper article. It is a great, “classical” way of sharing
your news with the public with the help of journalists.

Press releases are often used by companies as a boost to marketing efforts in announcing and
promoting new products, services, projects, etc. They can also be used to announce important
events, new hires, changes in management, etc. Press releases must not be forgotten in your
employer branding efforts.

#3 Blogging is a meeting point of PR and content marketing

Blogging is where PR and content marketing meet.

Blogs are a sort of a usually longer, digital-only equivalent of press releases. Although, most press
releases nowadays also come in the digital form.

They are a form of content marketing that is used by companies to promote their products and
services online. Blogging has become one of the most popular ways for companies to reach their
target audiences and interact with them through blog comments or social media comments, as blogs
can (and should) be promoted on social media and various other channels, depending on where your
target audience is.

Companies use blogs for various purposes, such as to educate customers about their products or
services, to provide tips and advice on how to use them, to share information about the company, to
create a general knowledge base of best practices, and more.

source: undraw.co

#4 Social media enhances both your PR and marketing activities

Besides sharing your blogs on social media, there are various other ways to use social media to
enhance your marketing activities, and it is often the field where PR and marketing overlap.

Social media networks can be used as platforms on which to promote your products, services,
company culture, etc. via organic and/or paid posts.

It has become essential in the last decade because of the rise in the popularity of sites like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Social media marketing is a relatively cheap and easy form of digital marketing. It does not require
major investments, and gives you an opportunity to connect directly with your community. If you’re
interested in reading more about the advantages of social media, find out How to Strengthen Your
Digital Marketing Strategy with Social Media Monitoring.

#5 Newsletters are a great way of generating leads

Last but not least, let’s not forget about the power of newsletters. A newsletter is a publication that
is typically sent out via e-mail to a group of people who have subscribed to receive it. It can be sent
out on a regular basis, such as weekly or monthly, or just occasionally.

A company might send out newsletters as part of their PR and marketing activities – to enhance
brand awareness, introduce product launches, announce special discounts or inform the subscribers
about a company’s public activities. It is a great way of keeping clients and, especially, gaining new
ones.

There are numerous ways in which PR can be a great addition to marketing – the key is to know how
to execute it properly.

Advantages of PR

You may be surprised to learn that PR is actually a better-performing field than many marketing
tactics. For example, Forbes reports it to be 90% more effective than advertising alone. The reason is
simple – people are more likely to believe a third party’s opinion of a certain product, brand, etc.

Here are some general advantages of PR.

Increasing brand credibility

Your business will gain more credibility through public relations as the content is more authentic and
informative. There is evidence that PR provides greater visibility and credibility among consumers
than advertising, which is perceived as “only” promotional.

Building your brand image

Public relations is often misunderstood as all about promoting items or special offers. In reality, PR
drives your business to greater success and constant growth.

A properly executed PR campaign can create a more positive brand image in your consumers’ minds.
Investing in your PR activities will provide value to your brand and your customers, helping to shape
all aspects of your business.

Reaching more people

Lastly, PR activities enable you to reach a pool of various people. A single press release can be sent
to multiple newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, blogs, and networks. Once the
story is published, media outlets may pick it up, increasing how frequently it’s read or heard.

Besides that, this is where the aforementioned PR contact list comes in handy. Think about it. PR
professionals build their network for years. People in their network can, at one point or another, be
willing to collaborate on promoting your brand.

What Is Online Marketing?

Online marketing is the art and science of selling products and services over the internet. The art
involves finding marketing strategies that appeal to your target market and translate into sales,
while the science is the research and analysis necessary to measure the success of those strategies.

 Alternate name: Digital marketing, internet marketing

How Does Online Marketing Work?

Online marketing uses a variety of digital, online, and electronic means to push a message to current
and potential customers. The message might be crafted as an image, a piece of text, or a video, and
distributed in any number of places. It could be as simple as a social media feed or it could be as
complex as a wide-ranging and comprehensive strategy that encompasses multiple modes including
social media, email newsletters, websites, and other channels.

The type of online marketing that will be right for your business will depend on the nature of your
business, the habits and demographics of your target market, and your budget, among other things.
Market research will lead you to the right strategy or mix of strategies for your offerings, and
detailed performance measurements will indicate which are most successful for you.

For example, a hair salon that wishes to incorporate online marketing might add an Instagram feed
featuring photos of hairstyles completed by its stylists to show off their talent. A Facebook page
could highlight rave reviews from happy customers and display a link to the salon's website, where
prospects could find information on reservations, available services, and photos of the salon's
interior.

Do I Need Online Marketing?

Online marketing is increasingly important to small businesses of all types.

In the past, internet marketing was something that local brick-and-mortar businesses could ignore in
favor of traditional methods. However, as consumer habits change, shoppers are much more likely
to research their purchases online before buying. In fact, they're likely to research a product online
even while they're standing in the store.1 Generally, all businesses should include some online
marketing in their marketing mix or they risk missing out on business.

Types of Online Marketing

There are nearly as many types of online marketing as there are ways of finding information online.
However, there are several methods which tend to see success.

Search Engine

Online marketing includes search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). SEO
is the process of fine-tuning the text on your business website so that the site ranks higher in search
engine result listings when your potential customers enter search terms that match your product
offerings. It doesn't cost anything to optimize your website to perform better in search results, and a
high-ranking website could bring in tons of organic traffic (website traffic that happens naturally).

SEM, on the other hand, is a paid search marketing strategy. Search engines such as Google charge a
fee to display your ad when a user conducts a search using one of your keywords. These fees are
also called pay-per-click (PPC) fees.

Note

SEM statistics can provide excellent feedback on the effectiveness of your advertising. For example,
a metric called the click-through rate tells you the number of times your ad has been clicked relative
to the number of times the page containing the ad has been viewed. It gives an indication of how
appealing people find your ad to be. The more appealing it is, the more likely they are to click
through.
Online Advertising

There are many types of online advertising opportunities. One method is to use banner ads
embedded into web pages. Other options include interstitials, which are ads that appear before or
between pieces of content. Different social media providers, such as Facebook, also sell advertising
on their platforms.

Email

You can use email to send out newsletters and customized product or service offerings specific to
the customer's needs. You can also keep your customers up-to-date with company news, upcoming
events, and special offerings.

Once you have built a subscriber email list of potential customers who may be interested in your
products or services, email marketing is a very effective way to reach them, because your message
arrives in their email inbox, where they are likely to see it.

Social Media

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest (to name a
few) are all opportunities for marketing online. They work best when part of an overall content
marketing strategy, which emphasizes the quality and usefulness of the content you create for your
brand.

Note

Don't forget the "social" in social media. Social media marketing works best as a conversation with
your customers. It requires active participation rather than just posting ads for your products or
services.

Blogging

Maintaining a blog is another way to converse with your customers and keep them informed about
your products or services. A blog can be used to provide advice and get useful feedback.

The more value you can provide to customers through the expertise you share in your blog, the
better you position your brand as a trustworthy source. This can help customers be willing to take a
chance on your offering.

Key Takeaways

 Online marketing is the strategic use of digital networks and electronic devices to promote
your business.

 Online marketing can encompass many different methods of reaching customers, including
social media, email, websites, blogs, and search engine traffic.

 Nearly every business will benefit from online marketing because it's a great way to reach
people where they already are: online.

What Is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

Social media marketing (SMM) (also known as digital marketing and e-marketing) is the use of social
media—the platforms on which users build social networks and share information—to build a
company's brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. In addition to providing companies with a
way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones, social media marketing (SMM) has
purpose-built data analytics that allow marketers to track the success of their efforts and identify
even more ways to engage.

Why Is Social Media Marketing So Powerful?

The power of social media marketing (SMM) is driven by the unparalleled capacity of social media in
three core marketing areas: connection, interaction, and customer data.

Connection: Not only does social media enable businesses to connect with customers in ways that
were previously impossible, but there is also an extraordinary range of avenues to connect with
target audiences—from content platforms (like YouTube) and social sites (like Facebook) to
microblogging services (like Twitter).

Interaction: The dynamic nature of the interaction on social media—whether direct communication
or passive “liking”—enables businesses to leverage free advertising opportunities
from eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) recommendations between existing and potential
customers. Not only is the positive contagion effect from eWOM a valuable driver of consumer
decisions, but the fact that these interactions happen on the social network makes them
measurable. For example, businesses can measure their “social equity”—a term for the return on
investment (ROI) from their social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Customer Data: A well-designed social media marketing (SMM) plan delivers another invaluable
resource to boost marketing outcomes: customer data. Rather than being overwhelmed by the 3Vs
of big data (volume, variety, and velocity), SMM tools have the capacity not only to extract customer
data but also to turn this gold into actionable market analysis—or even to use the data to
crowdsource new strategies.

How Social Media Marketing Works

As platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram took off, social media transformed not only the
way we connect with one another but also the way businesses are able to influence consumer
behavior—from promoting content that drives engagement to extracting geographic, demographic,
and personal information that makes messaging resonate with users.

SMM Action Plan: The more targeted your social media marketing (SMM) strategy is, the more
effective it will be. Hootsuite, a leading software provider in the social media management space,
recommends the following action plan to build an SMM campaign that has an execution framework
as well as performance metrics:5

 Align SMM goals to clear business objectives

 Learn your target customer (age, location, income, job title, industry, interests)

 Conduct a competitive analysis on your competition (successes and failures)

 Audit your current SMM (successes and failures)

 Create a calendar for SMM content delivery

 Create best-in-class content

 Track performance and adjust SMM strategy as needed

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Compared to traditional marketing, social media
marketing has several distinct advantages, including the fact that SMM has two kinds of interaction
that enable targeted customer relationship management (CRM) tools: both customer-to-customer
and firm-to-customer. In other words, while traditional marketing tracks customer value primarily by
capturing purchase activity, SMM can track customer value both directly (through purchases) and
indirectly (through product referrals).

Shareable Content: Businesses can also convert the amplified interconnectedness of SMM into the
creation of "sticky" content, the marketing term for attractive content that engages customers at
first glance, gets them to purchase products, and then makes them want to share the content. This
kind of word-of-mouth advertising not only reaches an otherwise inaccessible audience, but also
carries the implicit endorsement of someone the recipient knows and trusts—which makes the
creation of shareable content one of the most important ways that social media marketing drives
growth.

Earned Media: Social media marketing (SMM) is also the most efficient way for a business to reap
the benefits of another kind of earned media (a term for brand exposure from any method other
than paid advertising): customer-created product reviews and recommendations.

Viral Marketing: Another SMM strategy that relies on the audience to generate the message is viral
marketing, a sales technique that attempts to trigger the rapid spread of word-of-mouth product
information. Once a marketing message is being shared with the general public far beyond the
original target audience, it is considered viral—a very simple and inexpensive way to promote sales.6

Customer Segmentation: Because customer segmentation is much more refined on social media
marketing (SMM) than on traditional marketing channels, companies can ensure they focus their
marketing resources on their exact target audiences.

Tracking Metrics

According to Sprout Social, the most important social media marketing (SMM) metrics to track are
focused on the customer: engagement (likes, comments, shares, clicks); impressions (how many
times a post shows up); reach/virality (how many unique views an SMM post has); share of voice
(how far a brand reaches in the online sphere); referrals (how a user lands on a site); and
conversions (when a user makes a purchase on a site). However, another very important metric is
focused on the business: response rate/time (how often and how fast the business responds to
customer messages).7

When a business is trying to determine which metrics to track in the sea of data that social media
generates, the rule is always to align each business goal to a relevant metric. If your business goal is
to grow conversions from an SMM campaign by 15% within three months, then use a social media
analytics tool that measures the effectiveness of your campaign against that specific target.7

Even in the digital age, people appreciate the human touch, so don't rely only on social media to get
the word out.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

Tailored social media marketing (SMM) campaigns that instantly reach a range of target audiences
are clearly advantageous to any business.
But—like any social media content—SMM campaigns can leave a company open to attack. For
example, a viral video claiming that a product causes illness or injury must be addressed
immediately—whether the claim is true or false. Even if a company can set the record straight, false
viral content can make consumers less likely to purchase in the future.

What Is Sticky Content in Social Media Marketing?

Sticky content is the marketing term for attractive content that engages customers at first glance
and then influences them not only to purchase products but also to share the content.

What Is Viral Marketing in Social Media Marketing?

Viral marketing is an SMM strategy that attempts to trigger the rapid spread of word-of-mouth
product information—a very simple and inexpensive way to promote sales.

What Is Earned Media in Social Media Marketing?

Earned media is a marketing term for brand exposure from any method other than paid advertising,
e.g., customer-created content ranging from product reviews and recommendations to shares,
reposts, and mentions.

What Are Some Examples of Social Media Marketing Strategies?

Social media marketing has grown to include several techniques and strategies to engage users and
market products and services. These include audience-targeted advertising, the use of
interactive chatbots, creating personalized experiences for customers online, the use of social media
influencers, building an online audience, and so on.

How Can One Get Started in Social Media Marketing?

To start working in social media marketing, it is good to have at least a bachelors degree in
marketing or a related field. Then, it's critical to gain a good understanding of how marketing
campaigns work on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. After that, showcase your
talents by creating compelling and effective content. Follow influencers and other social media
marketers to learn what they are doing well and where they fall flat. Together, use these steps to
create a personal brand that you can use to sell yourself and your work.

The Bottom Line

Social media marketing (SMM) is the use of social media platforms to interact with customers to
build brands, increase sales, and drive website traffic. As social media usage grows around the
world, both via computer and mobile devices, the ability to drive sales from certain user populations
is a growing business, rife with competition for views and clicks.

What Is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is any advertising activity that promotes products and services via mobile devices,
such as tablets and smartphones. It makes use of features of modern mobile technology, including
location services, to tailor marketing campaigns based on an individual's location.

Mobile marketing is a way in which technology can be used to create personalized promotion of
goods or services to a user who is constantly connected to a network.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

 Mobile marketing is an advertising activity that uses mobile devices, such as text promos and
apps via push notifications.

 Mobile marketing audiences are grouped by behaviors and not by demographics.

 Mobile marketing is a subset of mobile advertising.

 Marketing faces privacy issues related to data collection.

 Mobile marketing is much more affordable than traditional marketing on television and
radio.

How Mobile Marketing Works

Mobile marketing may include promotions sent through SMS text messaging, MMS multimedia
messaging, through downloaded apps using push notifications, through in-app or in-game
marketing, through mobile websites, or by using a mobile device to scan QR codes.

Proximity systems and location-based services can alert users based on geographic location or
proximity to a service provider.

Mobile marketing is an indispensable tool for companies large and small as mobile devices have
become ubiquitous. The key players in the space are the brands (and companies that they represent
through advertising), and service providers that enable mobile advertising.

Mobile advertising targets audiences not so much by demographics but by behaviors (though
demography plays a part, such as the fact that iPad users tend to be older and wealthier).

One notable behavior in the mobile marketing space is known as "snacking," which is when mobile
device users check in to media or messaging for brief periods. Seeking instant gratification equates
to more points of contact for marketers.

In mobile marketing, the device (especially screen size) does make a difference; users of
smartphones and iPad tablets react differently to mobile marketing.

For example, smartphone users tend to find informative content to be the most relevant, yet iPad
users tend to be captivated by interactive advertising that features rich media presentations with
eye-catching imagery (the message of the content is a secondary concern).

Mobile Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

Unlike traditional marketing efforts, mobile marketing takes advantage of the fact that many users
of mobile devices carry them around wherever they go. As a result, location-based services can
collect customer data and then offer coupons, deals, or promotions based on their proximity to a
store or a place frequently visited by the consumer.

These marketing campaigns can be more targeted and specific to the individual user, and should,
therefore, be more effective for the company doing the marketing. One example may be a
marketing campaign that sends food-related coupons to a customer any time they come within half
a mile of a specific supermarket.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing

Advantages
In regards to online related advertising, mobile marketing is much easier to access. You don't need
high-level technology or significant technical experience to get started. It's also easier to measure
the success of mobile marketing campaigns.

89%

Percentage of marketers that reported an increase in sales after utilizing location data to increase ad
campaign effectiveness.1

Mobile marketing is also extremely cost-effective. There are a variety of options to choose from for
any budget and the impact it can have when compared to the cost is significant. In a common
comparison, social media ads are much cheaper than purchasing ad space for radio or television.

Customers can also be reached in real-time with mobile marketing no matter where they are. Radio
or television marketing only works when a customer is in front of the television or has the radio on.

Disadvantages

There are privacy issues concerning how the data collected by mobile devices are used and whether
or not companies have the right to collect such data without explicit consent. Such data can be used
for identity theft or to send spam if it falls into the wrong hands due to data theft or poor security of
the information. Also, the tracking of an individual's locations and movements may be considered
crossing the line by some.

A particular drawback of mobile marketing is that it has the potential of increasing costs for the user.
For example, if a campaign directs a user to a video that requires a significant amount of data and
the user does not have an unlimited data plan, it may eat into their monthly data allowance or result
in charges if they go over their allotment.

Mobile marketing also needs to be perfect from the start. As users have smaller attention spans and
a variety of companies competing for their attention, a poor mobile marketing plan will fail to grasp
a user's attention and possibly lose their interest forever. For this reason, a mobile marketing plan
does not have room to be less than perfect.

Pros

 Easy to set up and monitor

 Cost-effective

 Real-time access to potential customers

Cons

 Data privacy concerns

 Possible increased data costs for the user

 Little room for error

How Do You Start a Mobile Marketing Business?

Set up a Mobile Website

People use their smartphones for almost everything these days and so it's important that your
website is formatted correctly for viewing on a smartphone. If you have an existing website, many
companies offer automated systems that convert your existing website for viewing on a mobile
platform. WordPress and GoDaddy are two great examples of companies that do this.

Other companies also create a completely new version of your website just for viewing on a mobile
device, commonly known as plug-and-play platforms. Another alternative if you are comfortable
with writing computer code is adding a line of code on your website that is able to determine the
screen size of the device being used and adjusts the site accordingly.

Set up Your Business on Location-Based Platforms

Setting up your business on the various location-based platforms, such as Foursquare, Gowalla,
and Facebook Places is a good way to make your business available to a wider range of people and
to start running mobile ad campaigns. Foursquare has been a pioneer in this respect, where
companies can run various promotions, such as offering discounts for meeting a certain number of
visits or "check-ins" on the app.

Dive Deeper

To get a real feel and understanding of mobile ad marketing you need to fully immerse yourself in
the experience. Start using location-based platforms wherever you go, check-in, use the various apps
available for paying in restaurants or grocers, check out ads, perform various voice searches, all to
get a feel of how people might use their mobile devices for consumer transactions. This can help you
to design your mobile ad campaigns more efficiently.

Start a Mobile Ad Campaign

Once your website is set up for mobile device viewing and you've understood how the mobile ad
marketing world works, it's time to set one up for your business. Mobil ad campaigns are a crucial
element for businesses to get viewership. If you have a skateboard shop in the neighborhood and
someone searches "best skateboard shops near me" you want to make sure that your business pops
up in their search.

There are a variety of ways that mobile ad marketing campaigns can be paid for. These include flat
fees for running an ad for a certain period of time, or on a cost-per-click basis, a cost-per-
thousand basis, or a cost-per-acquisition basis. Facebook, Google, Apple, Instagram, and other social
platforms all offer the ability to start your own mobile marketing campaign.

Utilize QR Codes

QR codes, which are square bar codes containing information, can be placed in a variety of locations,
and once scanned by a phone's camera, direct a user to a website that can show a business's
website, promotions, or other important information. They're a simple and easy way to make your
business known.

Examples of Mobile Marketing

Samsung

For the release of its Galaxy S6 phone, Samsung worked with Indian tech company InMobi to
develop interactive ads. These ads created a personalized real-time battery identification mobile ad
unit that displayed the product and service to a user with a demo on their phone when their battery
levels were low. The mobile ad highlighted the new phone's "super fast charging capability" right
when their battery was low, enticing them to upgrade to the new phone.2
Pond's

Pond's is another company that partnered with InMobi. Pond's created an ad for one of their acne
products that was interactive in that when a person looked at their phone, the camera would
capture their features and highlight acne-prone areas. The ad didn't require any software to be
downloaded or for the user to visit any other site.3

Ruffles

Ruffles witnessed declining sales in Brazil and decided to target teenagers with interactive ads. It
created a mobile reality game called AmiGo. The user saw what the game showed them while their
friends saw what the user's camera showed them. Friends would see Ruffle chips surrounding the
user and they could send voice commands to their friend on where they can grab the chips. The
more chips collected the more points the user would receive. Ruffles ranked the highest-scoring
users on its social media accounts.4

Nissan

Nissan created the "Evil Snowmen" ad for its Rogue SUV. The ad was a video where its Rogue SUV
fought a gang of snowmen. The ad also contained hotspots on the screen that users could touch to
learn more about the SUV's features. Other hotspots also provided weather and snow safety advice.

What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing (or WOM marketing) is when a consumer's interest in a company's

product or service is reflected in their daily dialogues. Essentially, it is free advertising triggered by
customer experiences—and usually, something that goes beyond what they expected.

Word-of-mouth marketing can be encouraged through different publicity activities set up by

companies or by having opportunities to encourage consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-
marketer communications. Also referred to as "word-of-mouth advertising," WOM marketing
includes buzz, viral, blog, emotional, and social media marketing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM marketing) happens when consumers talk about a

company's product or service to their friends, family, and to others with whom they have
close relationships.

 WOM marketing is one of the most powerful forms of advertising as 88% of consumers trust
their friends' recommendations over traditional media.

 Companies can encourage WOM marketing by exceeding expectations on a product,

providing good customer service, and giving exclusive information to consumers.

 The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) cites the best word-of-mouth
marketing strategies as being honest, credible, social, repeatable, measurable, and
respectful.

 WOM marketing includes various marketing techniques, such as buzz, blogs, and social
media marketing.

Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing differs from natural word-of-mouth references to a company's products
and services in how it may come as the result of a promotion, encouragement, or other influence by
a company, otherwise known as "seeding."

When a diner has a wonderful time at a restaurant because their expectations were exceeded and
later tweets about it, or when someone had a great experience using a product in a new way and
tells everyone they know about it, those are examples of word-of-mouth marketing. Also, word-of-
mouth marketing does not stop at the first interaction; it tends to lead to a cascade of follow-on
interactions.

The encouragement on the part of a company may take one of several forms. The best way is to give
them a reason to talk, such as exceeding expectations or providing insider skills or information about
a product.

Other strategies include offering consumers new ways to share information about a company's
products and services, and engaging and interacting with the consumer, such as through exemplary
customer service. This is especially valuable with social media-based customer service, which
provides for seamless sharing and promotion.

Benefits of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Eighty-eight percent of people around the world said they trust recommendations from friends and
family (earned media) above all other forms of advertising. This shows just how effective word-of-
mouth marketing can be.1

Consumers are more emotionally bonded to a company when they feel they are listened to by the
company. That is why many companies will have sales representatives discuss their products and
services with consumers personally or through a feedback phone line. This kind of interaction, as
well as promotional events, can stimulate conversations about a company's product.

There is a significant temptation to fabricate word-of-mouth marketing. Accordingly, the Word of

Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) crafted a code of ethics checklist for the industry, advising
that the best word-of-mouth marketing strategies are credible, social, repeatable, measurable, and
respectful, and there is no excuse for dishonesty.2

WOM marketing expert Andy Sernovitz has boiled down WOMMA's code of ethics into three key
rules to avoid issues:

 Say who you are representing (always disclose a relationship)

 Say only what you believe (be honest with an opinion)

 Never lie about who you are (be honest about your identity)3

What Are Some Examples of Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Word-of-mouth marketing includes the marketing tactics companies use to prompt their consumers
to talk about their levels of satisfaction with the company's service or product. These strategies
include brand loyalty programs, which reward customers for repeated business and provide them
platforms to provide user feedback; giveaways, contests, and sponsored influencers.

What Is the Digital Version of Word-of-Mouth Marketing?

Digital word-of-mouth marketing employs technology, particularly the Internet, to facilitate word-of-
mouth exchanges. Review boards, social media sites, and blogs are popular digital platforms
consumers use to share their experiences, good and bad, and these shared testimonials significantly
influence consumer purchase decisions.

Why Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing So Important?

Word-of-mouth marketing is important as it is an effective way to increase sales, promote products

and services, increase brand recognition, and build customer loyalty. Many companies employ
strategies that prompt customers to recommend their services and/or products and share positive
experiences. Essentially, companies create the spark that causes the firestorm of chatter among
consumers, and since studies show that most people trust the advice of family and friends, focusing
on word-of-mouth marketing can be more beneficial and cost-effective than other forms of
marketing.

The Bottom Line

Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is when a consumer shares a positive experience with their peers
about a good or service. WOM marketing is great for businesses as it generates business without
incurring additional marketing costs. Businesses can, however, purposely contribute to word-of-
mouth marketing efforts.

WOM marketing is usually experienced over dinner parties, texts, and casual encounters between
friends and family. It can also be set through buzz, viral media, blogs, and social media marketing.

What Is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing refers to a marketing strategy wherein businesses use direct channels to
communicate their brands with target customers effectively. The most popular communication
channels include catalog, fliers, phone call and text, postal and electronic mail, and social media.

Unlike traditional media advertisements, direct response marketing allows companies to reach out
directly to specific customer groups in a personalized way. Doing so also eliminates any third party
from the equation, saving precious time and costs that go into the campaign. A marketing strategy
like this typically adopts a call to action approach. Voicemail marketing, point-of-sale kiosks, and
personal selling are all examples of it.

Key Takeaways

 Direct marketing, also referred to as direct response marketing, involves marketing,

promoting, or distributing the products and services directly to customers through direct
channel marketing.

 Direct marketing examples with the call to action factor include telemarketing, leaflet
marketing, SMS marketing, catalog marketing, email marketing, social media marketing,
conversational marketing, etc.

 Filtering data through database segmentation is critical for determining which strategy to
apply for which consumer category. With a targeted marketing strategy, businesses can
expect better results.
  Feedback campaigns launched from time to time make customers feel valued. It also gives
measurable results, adding value to the brand reputation.

How Does Direct Marketing Work?

Communicating directly with customers is way better for a business than involving a third-party
medium to do so. Of course, the traditional marketing measures involving third-party advertising
media have been effective enough. But it made them spend aggressively on advertisements. As a
result, businesses started communicating with consumers directly and found the method even more
effective in driving sales.

In addition, when a business itself promotes and promises to deliver quality products and services,
trusting the brands becomes easier. It makes the direct channel marketing approach a better and
more reliable way of promoting or distributing goods and services.

With the availability of digital channels, however, direct marketing campaigns have become more
convenient in making brands reach their customers. Many businesses analyze the search data of
social media users to understand their areas of interest to prepare customized marketing messages.
For example, those who enjoy checking out restaurant ratings and reviews regularly are the best
target for food unit promotion.

To add a personal touch to the communications, email and phone/SMS marketing are used. A
business may use this method to include a customer name along with a compelling call to action. It
enhances the level of customer engagement, leading to increased lead conversions.

Businesses use online fliers, brochures, and other creative ideas developed to be published on social
media platforms or other digital channels to facilitate direct communication and generate leads
simultaneously.

Examples Of Direct Marketing

 RPS Hotels operates a chain of accommodation units for tourists from all over the world. It
introduced huge discounts on their most lavish hotels, sought-after by travelers for a dream
stay. As a result, they sent a direct text message to their loyal customers informing them of
the new deals and reward programs.

 The advertising agency XYZ promotes its brochure designs to make its existing customers
aware of the launch of its new service. It sends a generic direct marketing mail to only those
customers who might be interested in it or have an online presence. To make the email eye-
catchy, the agency preferred a diagrammatic representation of the overall process involved,
from designing to finally promoting the product – Browse, Zoom, Select and Promote.

 Toyota Motor Corp. is one of the best examples of how a business can go creative with
direct marketing. The Japanese automaker created the Synced Direct Mail before the launch
of the Toyota Corolla 2015 car model. It designed a catalog that integrated a traffic light set
up to let existing and potential customers know when the new model would arrive at the
dealership in real-time. It was powered by a timer coupled with a chip. The mail arrived at
customers’ doorsteps with the red traffic light signal that turned yellow before the launch
and finally turned green on the launch day. This creative marketing campaign resulted in
increased website traffic, more test drives, great demand for the model, and massive media
attention.
Direct Marketing Strategies

Although direct marketing helps businesses experience significant growth in their sales and
customer base, no one strategy works for all. Customer preferences and requirements play a crucial
role in determining what works the best for them and whatnot. It is, therefore, difficult for any
business to find the most suitable direct channel marketing strategy for a particular group of
customers.

Businesses have to have the filtered data available to make a direct marketing strategy successful.
Finding prospective customers and targeting their needs will help them make the best purchase
decisions. Using the regularly updated database, companies segregate their target audiences based
on different parameters, including age and gender, income, demography, needs, interests, buying
patterns, etc.

The marketing professionals can then start with a strategy to check if it is effective for the customer
group selected. Customer response would enable them to evaluate its efficacy. Depending on the
inference, the marketers can continue with or modify their measured marketing approach.

No matter what approach is considered for pitching to customers, having a call to action should
always be preferred. Providing consumers with a “toll-free number” or a “Shop Now” tab on e-
commerce websites will encourage them to take the next step right away. Thus, it is also referred to
as a customer or direct response marketing.

Other strategic steps include conducting feedback campaigns, preparing surveys, and polling on
social media websites to assess how the brands are doing in the market. It will help businesses
examine their market status and thereby help improve the framing of the upcoming strategies.

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

 Direct channel marketing helps businesses communicate with target customers based on
various factors.

 The cost of marketing reduces since there are no middlemen or other advertising media
involved.

 Businesses tend to receive a direct response through the call to action used in direct
marketing campaigns.

 It establishes the trustworthiness of the brands as they interact with customers directly.

 The customers feel valued when businesses connect with them through personalized
messages.

 A business can measure the success of campaigns by analyzing consumer actions and
preferences and change its strategy accordingly.

 AI-driven chatbots facilitate conversational marketing as the new form of direct channel
marketing.
  Feedback campaigns launched as part of direct response marketing help businesses assess
the performance of their products in the market.

Disadvantages

 As customers may not appreciate frequent direct communications, it will negatively impact
the brand image.

 Some direct marketing emails or messages might misguide customers, leading to scams and
frauds.

 Customers post their information online while communicating with brands, making it
vulnerable to invasion by external elements that might exploit it in the future.

What is Database Marketing?

Database marketing is an extension to direct marketing. It allows the increase of customer

engagement and loyalty programs for businesses. One of the main reasons marketers use database
marketing is due to its power to create a personal shopping experience for customers. Not only that,
but it also improves the efficiency of your marketing.

The significance of Database Marketing

It is helpful to organizations in several ways. We discuss a number of those below:

 Helps separate existing customers from new leads

It comes with the successful increase of new leads. Because database marketing has the skill of
tracking consumers down based on their information from a database, it also allows the ability for
businesses to separate new leads from existing customers that have been loyal to your business.

 Prioritizes valuable accounts

It also comes with a focus on accounts that are deemed valuable to your company. You not only
want to increase sales with database marketing but general awareness so that your business can be
widely known to more consumers beyond the target audience you’re attracting. As for valuable
accounts.

 Allows the ability to protect customer behavior

As mentioned before, database marketing can track customer behavior. It also provides companies
protection of customer behavior data, which is confidential information used to improve marketing.

 Ability to test new ideas and products

Not only you can track buying behavior but rather gain the ability in testing out new products and
ideas that can update how you market your business. Experimenting with products with the use of
trends and ideas can increase innovative ideas that you can bring to the next campaign.

 Used to gather feedback to understand your customers’ needs better

Marketers constantly try to find ways to gather information on customers. It does just that in a
deeper sense. It gets under the surface of what your customers’ needs are and creates a better
understanding of what to improve with your products.

 Your brand stays relevant and top of mind

Since your brand will be well known far and wide by consumers as part of a database, it’s no secret
that your brand will continue to stay relevant. Staying at the top of your business marketing game as
well as staying relevant to customers is another perk to look forward to with the use of database
marketing.

 Increased customer retention by building relationships

Good businesses build good relationships with their customers. That’s what keeps them coming
back, right? With the increased customer retention, customers will most likely stay loyal to your
brand and keep shopping with you.

 Establishes leadership credibility and brand affinity build-up

Brands for businesses not only begin to build up even more with database marketing but the
credibility of leadership as well. The information that databases provide can be seen as the magic
lead generation tool that can assist marketers on how to increase customer loyalty and brand
awareness for the business itself.

 Future promotional campaigns

Using information to your benefit can also help with future campaigns. When trying to promote your
business with database information, it is best to save that information and apply useful feedback to
your future promotions. This gives you enough insight to improve and execute your next marketing
game plan.

Different Types of Database Marketing

1. Consumer Database Marketing

Consumer database marketing is database marketing that targets consumers using information such
as a first and last name, email address, gender, phone number, and location data.

With consumer database marketing, marketers apply the concept of B2C or D2C marketing to their
strategies. In essence, companies use this type of marketing to solely focus on growing a consumer
database with different types of strategies. Examples of consumer database marketing can be seen
in the chart below.

2. Business Database Marketing

As for business database marketing, companies who sell to other businesses use this form of
database marketing to target more businesses. This practice is also known as B2B marketing.

Business database marketing differentiates from consumer database marketing in a way where it’s a
slightly smaller database and mainly targets companies who can be considered valued accounts.
Webinar events, free trial offers from software, and even whitepapers are prime examples of
business database marketing.

Benefits of Database Marketing

There are several benefits. According to a 2020 report conducted by HubSpot(1), 68% of businesses
use automation in some way. With the help of database marketing, businesses can seek the great
help of customer databases. Read about how customer databases can elaborate as a strategy in
terms of lead generation.

How Customer Databases Help

With the help of customer databases, businesses increase insight on buying behavior and have the
ability to determine what’s in store for their target consumers overall. It’s the key tool to succeed in
database marketing.

 Identify customer groups – from your most loyal, high-value customers to first-time
customers and occasional purchasers

Separating different customers into groups is an excellent practice. Sorting them out from your most
high-valued to your first-time customers will keep customer groups nicely organized for customer
databases.

 Create detailed customer segments based on demographics, behaviors, or even personal

interests

Coming up with detailed customer segments such as giveaways, contests, and discounts based on
demographics, behaviors and personal interests can help build up your customer databases. The
more engaged and creative you become with coming up with segments, the more customers you
reel into your database.

 Design highly personalized messages for both current and prospective customers

Creating personal messages for current customers can increase brand loyalty. As for prospective
customers, this gives off a good impression and a warm welcome that can increase engagement.

 Determine the best channel and time to engage customers

With the build-up of a customer database, marketers can determine what types of content can fit
perfectly for certain platforms. This increases awareness and possible customer engagement from
new users.

 Improve your marketing efficiency by not wasting time and money sending campaigns to
those who are unlikely to respond

Because the majority of database marketing focuses on numbers, you want to improve the efficiency
of your marketing with campaigns. However, it’s also important to pay your money’s worth to
responsive consumers. This mainly means that your time and money are precious and that simply
wasting it on an unsuccessful campaign will lead to a dead end.

 Build effective loyalty programs that provide the right incentives for repeat purchases

You’ve seen it or experienced this before. Loyalty programs that lead to nowhere. Building an
effective loyalty program with the right incentives can help customers immensely. The purchases
that are made with your business deserve to have loyal customers seeking perks for repeated
purchases.

 Improve customer service by providing support staff with a 360° view of the customer’s
interactions with your brand
Support staff plays a role in this process of database marketing. That’s why your support staff must
have a broad perspective on customer interactions with your brand in order to improve the
customer service of your business.

Challenges of Database Marketing

There are lots of ways to collect data to succeed with marketing. However, the overwhelming
amount of tools to track information on marketing data can lead to fragmented systems within the
marketing department of your business. In the end, having less is more rather than the other way
around.

( Also Read: Challenges & Actionable Solutions for Database Marketing )

Steps to Building a Marketing Database

1. Develop thought leadership articles

Articles are another way of engaging with target audiences. Writing leadership articles can also
increase a marketing database. It’s the first step to staying relevant and keeping your customers
hooked.

2. Offer free trials

Whether it’s software or a type of service you promote, it’s effective to offer free trials to customers.
When you allow customers free trials, you’re giving them time to try out your new product as well as
promoting it subtly.

3. Create a free tool to use

Aside from free trials, coming up with tools can also increase database marketing. Features are a big
deal for customers. See this as an opportunity to create and release a new tool that users can use for
free.

4. Collect customer information during checkout

Since you’re collecting data from location, address, emails, and texts, what better way than to
extend different ways to collect customer information. During checkout, a majority of cashiers tend
to ask if customers would like to join a rewards program. This is a tactic that increases database
marketing so well because you simply get the customer’s information right then and there.

5. Acquire a business contact database of your ideal prospects from a data provider

Having a business contact database assists with a data provider can increase your chances of staying
in the marketing game. When you have a contact database of ideal prospects, you increase a list of
go-to people that can effectively work with your business.

6. Collect website visitor data via online cookies

Every user encounters this. It’s a pop-up ad that asks if you would like to turn on and accept online
cookies. Most businesses do this as a way to collect your visitor data, which then they used to
increase and improve database marketing engagement.

7. Create a Facebook Chatbot on your business page

Establishing a live chat feature or Facebook Chatbot can increase your chance of more user
interaction. This not only engages with potential customers but improves the support that
customers can get from your business 24/7.

Difference Between Database Marketing and Direct Marketing

Database Marketing Direct Marketing

A form of direct marketing The oldest form of marketing

It involves the collection of customer data in order to Direct marketing solely relies on direct
create personalized distribution or communication to
consumers

It tracks buying behaviors, and offer post-purchase Direct marketing is presented to

feedback as well as online reviews potential customers based on
information that’s been gathered about
them

Examples of database marketing include: Free trials, Examples of direct marketing include:
Loyalty Programs, Personalized emails, Free shipping Texts, Emails, Brochures, Fliers,
offers, Online Contests, Social media giveaways, Newsletters, Targeted online display ads,
Discount codes Coupons

Final Thoughts

There are different approaches to database marketing. The only difference between database
marketing and direct marketing is that one form of marketing mainly attracts and markets to other
businesses and another traditionally attracts customers directly.

There are plenty of reasons why database marketing is a popular marketing strategy for businesses.
However, it all comes down to the challenge of building up a marketing database with relevant
content.

Overall, businesses that use database marketing can have a better chance at reaching out to loyal
and new customers because of the relevancy that database marketing brings.

Personal selling means establishing direct contact with existing and potential customers through a
sales team. Its aim is not just to engage and convince customers to buy a product/service but also to
build strong relationships with them.

Personal selling adds a personal touch to the sales process. The salesforce is usually well educated
and trained to handle customers' queries and resolve their problems. They assess customers' needs
and fulfill them by coordinating the company's efforts. The success of personal selling depends on
the sales team's ability to forge strong and sustainable customer relationships.

Salespeople must also possess strong interpersonal skills and prioritize customers' needs above all
else. These are key to building customer trust and eventually leading to a sale.

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Fig. 1 - Personal selling - adds a personal touch to sales

Personal Selling Advantages and Disadvantages

There are some advantages and disadvantages when implementing a personal selling strategy.

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Personal selling advantages

First, let's talk about its plus points. Here are five main advantages of personal selling:

 Bilateral communication – Personal selling is two-way communication. The salesman and

the customer have to talk and discuss every aspect of the product or service before
completing the sale.

 Customer's trust – When communicating with customers, a salesperson can foster the trust
factor between them. The key is to listen to the concerns or queries of the customers and
provide them with information that would help put those concerns to rest. By the end of this
process, a salesperson will likely win over the customers' trust.

 Personalized solutions – Salespeople could assess the needs of individual customers and
provide them with unique deals or solutions. This can contribute to a more positive
experience.

 Higher flexibility – Salesmen control the flow of communication in personal selling.

Therefore, they can be flexible in their approach and change the marketing message
accordingly. It offers them more control and improves their chances of making a successful
sale.

 Instant feedback – Customers can provide instant feedback to the salesman in personal
selling. They can inform the sales team about their experiences using the product/service
and any issues they might have encountered during the process. It eventually helps the
company to improve its sales activities.

Personal selling disadvantages

That said, personal selling is not without its disadvantages. Here are some challenges when
implementing personal selling:

 Training costs – Having a well-trained sales team comes with its costs. Companies spend
huge amounts of money on training their sales teams. Training equipment, travel expenses,
and health care benefits are some costs associated with training a sales team.

 No quick results – Training the sales team to implement the sales strategy could take a lot of
time. There are no shortcuts to getting quick results. It is a process that needs time to
provide the results the company desires.
  Negative image – As mentioned earlier, there are many negative stereotypes regarding the
image of salespeople. Some customers avoid personal selling because they do not want to
face a pushy and aggressive salesman breathing on their necks to complete the sale.

 High turnover – The employee turnover rate is high in personal selling. Salespeople tend to
change companies quickly, chasing better pay and commissions. It disrupts the sales
activities of companies as they would need to hire and train new salespeople.

Types of Personal Selling

There are three main types of personal selling. Companies could use one or all of them based on
sales activities. It is decided in the sales strategy what type of personal selling is ideal for improving
sales performance:

 Order creator – In this type of personal selling, the task of salespeople is to create orders.
They give customers information about products and services and try to create needs for
those products/services. They do not sell products themselves but initiate a process that
eventually leads to sales.

 Order getter – In this type of personal selling, companies employ the services of frontline
salespeople to bring in new customers. salesmen'sen's job is to convince the customers and
assist them in making a purchase.

 Order taker – This type of personal selling involves handling requests and queries.
Customers contact the salespeople and inform them about their needs or problems. The
salespeople give them information about the products/services that could fulfill their needs
or solve their problems. The main task is to take orders from the customers.

Personal selling examples

There are many examples of personal selling in our daily lives. From a departmental store employee
to street vendors, we see the use of personal selling in marketing and sales. Here are a couple of
examples of personal selling:

Personal selling example: The sales rep in tech stores

The sales representatives in tech stores help customers in making purchase decisions. They listen to
queries, provide information, and assist customers. They ask customers questions about their price
range and desired specifications and suggest a product that fulfills their requirements.

Personal selling example: Door-to-door sales

One of the common examples of personal selling is door-to-door sales. The salespeople knock on the
doors of potential customers to advertise and sell the products/services. They try to convince the
customers to buy from them with their strong interpersonal skills. In many cases, they give free
product demos to eliminate customers' doubts.

What is catalog marketing?

Catalog sales or catalog marketing is a type of sales technique used by businesses to sell
their products using catalogs. The list of items sold by the company is mentioned on a piece of paper
or on an online platform in the hope that the receiver will buy one or more things from the catalog.

The sender of the catalog provides contact information such as contact number, contact email, or
physical address on the catalog. The recipient of the catalog places orders through one of these
contact methods provided by the sender. For example, the recipient can place an order for the
products that he wants by calling the sender.

Companies that produce several products prepare their catalogs and take orders from the buyer
directly. Otherwise, catalog marketers act as intermediaries between the buyers and the
manufacturers.

Types of catalogs

Catalogs can be divided into several categories depending on their method of distribution or based
on the contents of the catalogs. In this section, you will learn about the different types of catalogs
that you can use for your business.

1. Single company catalogs

Single company catalogs are used by companies that produce several products. Such companies
create their catalogs for catalog marketing purposes. Examples of companies that make their own
catalogs are footwear, apparel, home furnishing, sports products, beauty products, health products,
auto parts, kitchen accessories, and jewelry, etc. The products are mentioned in a catalog in a
particular manner.

A catalog marketer might suggest all related products together so that a buyer can place orders for
several things together. For example, if there is a discount offer, if a buyer buys two products
together, then those two goods will be mentioned on the same page.

Otherwise, to boost impulse shopping, several products are scattered on different pages of the
catalog so that the shopper spends more time viewing the products. Contact information is provided
in the catalog in such a way so that the shopper can easily find it when he wishes to place an order.

2. Multiple company catalogs

Multiple company catalogs are a type of catalog where products from different companies are
mentioned together in a single catalog. In this way, companies that produce fewer products get
an opportunity to make the use of catalog marketing for the sales of their products. Multiple
company catalogs are distributed by intermediaries or retailers to provide more options to their
customers. It is common to find similar products of competing companies on the same page of the
catalog.

In this type of catalog marketing, the buyers place orders with the producer of the catalog. The
catalog producer either buys products from the manufacturers or shares the portion of income with
the manufacturer made by the sales of the products. Many customers prefer multiple company
catalogs as it provides them with an opportunity to compare products from different companies
together before making a final purchase.

3. Print catalogs
This is the type of catalog where the categorization of catalogs is done based on their distribution
methods. A print catalog contains a cover that mentions the kind of products mentioned in the
catalog, followed by the pictures and detailed information about products.

The catalog providers who receive orders through mail provide return envelopes with prepaid
postage. Otherwise, contact information like mobile number or email addresses is mentioned in the
catalog using which the buyer can place an order.

4. Online catalogs

Online catalogs contain similar information as that of printed catalogs, but using online catalogs, the
seller saves the cost of printing and mailing. Moreover, online catalogs are better as compared to
the printed catalog when it comes to updating the information on the catalogs. More advanced
online catalogs provide facilities to shoppers to sort products based on their price and popularity.

In addition to this, they can also buy products immediately using online catalogs. The examples of
online catalogs are platforms provided by e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart. The
shoppers can not only view the products but can also buy products immediately by making payment
using electronic payment methods.

Advantages

1. Easy to reach hundreds and thousands of potential customers just by sending one mail.

2. You don’t wait for your people to come to your store to make a purchase. You can send
them details about your products and offers using catalog marketing.

3. Low risk of failure of the business. A catalog business grows slowly. In this way, as a retailer,
you can start your business by making little investment in the beginning.

4. Better cash flow as buyers is required to pay in advance if they want to buy something.
Hence, you don’t need to worry about your money getting stuck.

5. Better control over advertising expenses as you are spending your money to advertise to
only targeted customers rather than advertising to the mass population.

6. With catalog marketing, you can keep checking on the Return on Investment (ROI).

Disadvantages

1. Catalog businesses grow slowly because sellers are required to win the trust of their
customers to convert them into loyal customers.

2. The high initial investment of catalog marketing because the seller is not only needed to
produce catalogs but also required to buy the list of prospective customers.

3. Low response rate. People are less responsive to catalog marketing because of the
availability of different shopping platforms.

4. You require excellent writing skills to write details about the products. A poorly written
catalog will create a negative image of your products.
 5. Catalog marketing business is always at a disadvantage when it comes to comparing with
brick and mortar businesses. Because in a store, a buyer can try and physically see the
products before buying it, which is not possible when you sell products using catalogs.

What Is Telemarketing?

Telemarketing is the direct marketing of goods or services to potential customers over the
telephone, internet, or fax. Telemarketing may either be carried out by telemarketers or increasingly
by automated telephone calls or "robocalls."

The intrusive nature of telemarketing, as well as reports of scams and fraud perpetrated over the
telephone, has spurred a growing backlash against this direct marketing practice. Telemarketing may
also be referred to as "telesales" or "inside sales."

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 Telemarketing is the direct marketing of goods or services to potential customers over the
telephone or the internet.

 Four common kinds of telemarketing include outbound calls, inbound calls, lead generation,
and sales calls.

 Due to the intrusive nature of telemarketing, including spam calls, many customers are
against it.

 Countries such as the U.S. and Canada have federal "Do Not Call" lists where individuals can
register their phone numbers to avoid telemarketing calls.

How Telemarketing Works

Telemarketing is the practice of contacting, vetting, and approaching potential customers. It does
not include the use of direct mail marketing methods.

Telemarketing may take place from a call center, an office, or, increasingly, a home. Many times,
telemarketing can involve a single call to assess interest or suitability, and then follow-up calls to
pursue a sale. Various data may be used to narrow down large databases of names to a small
number of higher-probability customer prospects.

Telemarketing is used by for-profit businesses, nonprofit charities, political groups and candidates,
surveying, donation solicitation, marketing research, and other kinds of organizations.

The term telemarketing was first used in the 1970s with the advent of a new, cheaper class of
outbound long-distance telephone services and inbound toll-free services.12

Types of Telemarketing Activities

The act of telemarketing can be divided into four subcategories:

 Outbound: Companies actively reach out to customer prospects and existing customers via
outbound telemarketing calls, also known as "cold" calls.

 Inbound: These telemarketing calls are based on inbound inquiries about products or
services as prompted by advertising or sales efforts. These are considered "warm" calls as
 customers will typically have submitted an interest form online or already be familiar with
the company.

 Lead generation: This is the collection of intelligence about the profiles, interests, and
demographic data of potential customers.

 Sales: Telemarketers who are trained salespeople engage in this persuasive activity. They
aim to close a deal on the phone.

Telemarketing may entail a variety of activities, such as surveying, appointment-setting, telesales,

database maintenance and cleaning, and providing a call to action.

What Is an Example of Telemarketing?

If you receive a call from somebody you don’t know who seeks to sell you products or services, you
are talking to a telemarketer. These individuals contact people usually with the intention of selling
something and can be very persuasive.

Is Telemarketing an Easy Job?

Telemarketing isn’t for everyone. People working in this profession are generally hung up on
continuously throughout the day. After being told where to shove it, you’ll be expected to quickly
make another call without losing any enthusiasm. Not everyone is capable of dealing with such
rejection or able to bounce back immediately. It takes a special kind of person to be able to deal with
that and stay upbeat for eight-odd hours a day. You’ll also need to be really good at selling things.

Do Telemarketers Make Money?

Yes, though how much varies by company. Telemarketers are paid by the hour, by sale, or a
combination of both. Commission is often a key component of salaries as it incentivizes staff to make
sales. Usually, to earn a decent wage and avoid getting fired you’ll need to make your employer
money.6

The Bottom Line

It’s always wise to be extra diligent when you get a cold call about purchasing a good or service.
Don't be pushed into doing anything you don’t feel comfortable with. Telemarketers can be very
persuasive and talk us into doing something that maybe isn’t in our best interests.

Know your rights, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and take some time to make a decision if you
need to. Most telemarketers are honest people but there are a few scammers out there, which is
why we sadly always need to treat unknown callers with an element of suspicion.

Sales Force Meaning

The sales force is the employee force of an organization that is responsible for selling the products
and services. The primary functions which are included in the sales force definition are the
interaction with the customer.

They are responsible for communicating the details, information to the customers and gathering
information in the form of feedback from the customer. Hence, the sales force is an important
aspect of marketing management, customer relationship management.
Sales Force Management

Sales force management is subdivided into part of marketing management. As marketing part
involves the designing and creating of marketing strategies. Whereas, it is the responsibility of sales
force management to implement those strategies. Moreover, sales management is of the elements
of the marketing process.

Because they implemented strategies they are called muscles of marketing management.

Sales force management involves personal selling, customer relationship management. Because of
these reasons, sales force management is a customer-oriented department. And, one of the basic
aspects which are described in of sales force is personal selling.

As the success of a business depends upon the performance of its salesperson. Moreover, how the
build a relationship with their customers.

Objectives Of Sales Force

Sales force definition explains what are the reasons and objectives of a sales force. Sales managers
are not only responsible for personal selling activity. But also they are responsible for managing a
large and often diverse set of salespeople. Plus, they are also responsible for managing sales efforts
within and outside companies.

Here are the objectives of any salesforce which are desired by the sales management:

Objectives Of Sales Force

Organization Growth

A very basic and primary objective of any organization is growing. As every organization working to
grow and improve performance. So, it becomes a primary objective for the basic operation
department i:e sales management to contribute to organizational growth.

Note: Organization’s growth is directly proportionate to the market share and sales volume.

With continuous growth in sales and improvement in marketing strategies organization tends to
increase its market share, which results in the rapid growth of an organization.

Compliment Marketing Activities

As we discussed in the sales force definition, they are the muscles of marketing management. So,
sales need to compliment the marketing strategies and planings.

For example: when marketing teams design strategies for sale or market test or brand promotion,
they will only be successful when the sales force will implement those strategies correctly.

Moreover, complimenting marketing strategies includes implementing and getting feedback from
customers as well.

Revenue Generation

Another important and necessary objective of salesforce is to create more revenue for an
organization. With constant growth and increase volume of sales, the proportion of revenue also
starts to increase.
And the most important and basic purpose of the sales force is creating or generating revenue for
the organization

Market Leadership

Higher profits, revenue, sales are the results of how much an organization can achieve the market
share. So, it’s important for a sales team to achieve and capture the maximum market share or to
become the market leader to maximize their sales, revenue and growth.

For example, Jio has maximized its profits, revenue by becoming the market leaders in the telecom
industry. As a result, they have maximum market share, revenue, growth.

Motivate The Sales Force

Another important job which counts in the sale force definition is that the employees or the force
require to have motivated people. To so, sales managers requires to keep incentives, awards
rewards, seminars, training. All these help in motivating the employees, so they can give their best
performance.

Note: Number of incentives and rewards given mostly in the sales department.

Also, it is one of the HR-related roles of sales manager which they have to perform.

Increase In Sales Volume

A very basic and primary objective of a sales team is to increase the volume of organization sales. As,
when the sales increase with the market share increases, with this revenue increases and there is an
increase in the organization’s growth.

Sustained Profits

With increasing profits, sales and market share organization targets to achieve stability in the
organization’ growth. According to the sales force definition sales management strives to increase
sales and reducing costs, this ensures good profits for the organization.

Converting Prospects To Customers

Converting a prospect into a customer requires planning and creativity. The process, techniques and
strategies are created and accomplished by the sales force management.

Converting the prospects increases the market share and there way toward market leadership. As a
result, the organization achieve high sales, revenue and growth.

These were the objectives of the sales force that the organization set for the sales department to
achieve the organization’s vision and mission. The objectives of the sales force predefine in sales
force definition.

SalesForce Process

The process of communication between salesperson and customer seems simple and small. But, in
reality, the process of selling and working of sales managers have more comprehensive and rich
work.

Any type of selling either personal or online requires a lot of planning, preparation, and analysing
before and after the sales has been done. As the sales force definition describes the requirement a
salesperson is knowledgeable about the product and the product hierarchy of the organization.
Here is the entire process of which followed in sales management:

Sales Force Process

1. Pre-Sale Preparation

Before making sales every sales manager needs to gather information regarding the product and
about the customer’s problems as well. Since customers face problems regarding the use of the
product or purpose or details or features of the product.

So, a sales force needs to know about the product and they have to prepare and find solutions for
customers problem. According, to sales force definitions sales-person, must prepare themselves
regarding company, product, market, customers, environment, competitors.

Organization prepare provide sales and leadership training programs to develop skills for problem-
solving and understanding customers demands.

2. Prospecting

After preparing themselves about the surroundings, products etc, now salesperson needs to find the
prospects. Prospects refer to potential customers. Prospects are the people, who are unwilling, not
have the ability, unsatisfied, Not knowledgeable about the product to buy.

As, the sales force definition describes salesforce find the potential customers from current
customers, other sales-people, online actives, location targeting. Afterwards, the salesforce prepares
the list of prospects, who have the willingness, power, and motivation to buy the product. So, the
salesperson can approach them for sale.

3. Pre-Approach

Once the salesperson has selected their prospects, now its time to prepare themselves for the sale.
Sale preparation includes finding the customers problems, needs and wants. Afterwards, the
salesperson finds solutions to customer problems.

Last, they prepare their presentation in such a way that it provides a solution and make a sale to the
customer.

4. Approach & Sales Presentation

In the next step as the sale force definition describes the salesperson who contacts the customer.
Contacting can be in form of face to face, phone, interview, the salesperson. The approach consists
of two major parts. Obtaining an interview, and the first contact.

Once the salesman has sought and found potential customers and he has matched their wants with
his product, he is ready to formally present that product to the customer.

The presentation can be:

1. Oral

2. Visual

3. Verbal
A good presentation must be:

1.Clear

2. Complete

3. Confident

4. No Dimining of Competition

5. Post-Sale Activities

As the sales force definition describes the customer’s problems and solution. Post-sale activities
include analysing performance.

Analysing what wrong and what good has been done on how to improve the sales force process to
improve sales management and the organization revenue.

Another thing which counts in the post-sales activity is customer relation, post-sales services. To
build strong relationships with the customer, it is important to provide post-sale service, ask them
about their experience. It not only builds strong relationships with customers but also makes future
sales with the customer easier.

Post sale Activity Must include:

1. Post-sale services

2. Feedback

3. Asking for any other requirement

Sales Force Planning In Sales Management

Definition describes the sales managers have to plan their every step in sales management. Sales
force planning incudes the objectives, barriers etc to how to create a call of action.

Careful sales force planing gives a much clear vision to the organization and a proper roadmap for
the sales department to follow.

Here are the steps which sales force planning follows while doing:

Sales Force Planning

Evaluate The Current Situation

A very first step an organization have to is to evaluate their current position. Evaluating their current
position in the market or environment, helps them to understand what are the important and
requirements for the organization in the current position.

For example: if an organization is having a great position, a good market share and have the ability
to invest in more further projects. The organization can plan or set the objective in the next step of
expanding according to Horizontal Marketing.

Define Your Objective

As we discussed earlier in the sales force definition it is important to lay down the objective for the
salesforce to achieve. The objective is not only referred to as department objectives. These are ay
down considering the organizational needs and requirements. Plus the objectives in sales force
planning are mostly inspired by the mission and vision of an organization.

Knowing The Barriers

After knowing where the organization is heading towards, a manager should also analyse the
barriers which can be proved as road blockers or disturbed the sales force planning. As we discussed
in the sales force definition customers have issues with products. Similarly, a sales force faces
barriers like competitions products, customers services, market environment etc.

SWOT Analysis

After the organization has known the barries which can cause the problems externally. Now, the
organization should also know about the internal position of an organization as well.

For example: In our earlier example organization was desired to expand its operation. For that
purpose, the organization conduct a SWOT analysis to identify the threats and opportune within the
Sales management of the organization.

Create Your Sales Call Strategy

Creating a sales strategy refers to creating a plan to implement marketing strategies. As sales
management are the muscles of the marketing management described in the sales force definition.
So, in a sales force, the planning call designs a strategy in such a way that complements the
marketing management strategies and plans.

Identify Needs

Once the sales team finalizes their strategy, then its time to identify the requirements which need to
be present for the implementation of the strategy. Generally, the needs for implementing the sales
force plan are related to:

1. Recruitment

2. Training

3. Technology

4. Funds

Requirements could also include a list of accounts. The important thing is to identify needs upfront.

Outline An Action Plan

Outlining the action plan which in the sales force definition explains including items such as finalizing
pricing with your company before you make the sale. It is more like a to-do list that is done by the
sales professionals to make a sale.

Let’s assume an organization has set the target of increasing the sales volume by 40%. And the
marketing department set the marketing strategy as well to increase sales volume. Afterwards, sales
management creates the call strategy- increase in sales of each salesperson by 7%. So, the action
plan will be the individual plan which each employee creates to achieve their specific target.
Here were the steps which are included in sales force planning. It describes the sales force
definition, meaning and its application in an organization.

Designing the Sales Force

Two critical decisions determine the design of sales force: sales force size and sales force
organization.

Sales Force Size

Sales force size is decided by workload approach. Workload approach is based on calculation of total
annual calls required per year divided by the average calls per year that can be expected from one
salesperson. It is done in following steps:

(a) Customers are grouped into categories according to the value of goods bought and their
potential for future.

(b) Call frequency, i.e. the number of calls per year to an account is assessed for each category of
customers.

(c) Multiply the call frequency by number of customers in each category, add the sum for all
categories to get the total number of calls that would be required.

(d) Average number of calls that can be expected from a salesperson is estimated.

(e) Number of salespersons = c/d

Sales Force Organization

The following forms of sales force organizations are employed by companies:

Geographic

The sales area is broke down into territories based on workload, i.e. number of calls that a salesman
would be required to make, and sales potential of the territory. A salesperson is assigned to each
territory to sell all products of the company.

This provides a clear territory to each salesperson and there is proximity to customers as the
salesperson spends considerable time in the territory, enabling efficient handling of customer
orders. But when products are technically different, the salesperson cannot be knowledgeable about
all products and their applications.

Product

A salesperson is responsible for selling one or only a few of the products that the company sells.
Specialization is effective where a company has a diverse product range selling to different
customers. It allows each salesperson to be well informed about a product line, its application and
customer benefits. But if products sell to the same customers, problem of route duplication and
multiple calls on the same customer can arise.
Customer based

Salespersons can be organized along market segment, account size, or new versus existing account
lines. Computer firms organized their sales force on the basis of industry served like banking,
retailing and manufacturing, in recognition of their varying needs, problems and potential
applications. Salespersons gain in-depth knowledge of customers and are able to monitor trends in
the industry.

Key account management

An increasing trend in many industries is towards key account management which reflects fewer but
larger customers. The company maintains special relationships with customers who place large
orders. The supplier relies on repeat purchases from these large customers. It is very important for
suppliers to retain these accounts.

There are many advantages of key account management. Some of them are:-

• A close working relationship is developed with the customer. The salesperson knows who makes
what decisions and who influences various players involved in the decision. Technical salespeople
can call upon technical staff of buyers and there is greater interaction between the functional
specialists of the two companies.

• The customer knows that a dedicated salesperson exists, so it is clear who to contact when a
problem arises.

• The extra resources devoted to a key account means that there is more time to follow up and
provide service after a sale has been made.

• It enables more in-depth penetration of the Decision Making Unit. The salesperson can pull the
buying decisions through the organization from users, deciders, influencers to the buyer rather than
the more difficult task of pushing it through the buyer into the organization. The supplier has more
influence with the people who determine the choice of suppliers. Sales have risen after following
this approach.

Emerging trends in sales force organization

Some companies adopt a three-tier system with senior salespeople handling key accounts, sales
representatives selling to medium-sized firms, and telemarketing teams dealing with small accounts.
A tiered salesperson system with key account selling at the top provides promotional opportunities
for salespersons as they have more time to spend with customers allocated to them. It also allows
them to tailor their activities according to the type of customers that are allocated to them.

Another trend is regarding the new versus existing accounts. One team focuses on tasks of
prospecting while the other team services existing customers. This avoids neglect of opening of new
accounts by salespeople who may view their time as being more profitably spent with existing
customers.

In practice, a combination of structures may be used to gain economies of geographic form with
specialization inherent in product or customer-based systems. A company having two product lines
may divide the country into geographically based territories with two salespersons operating in each
territory with each salesperson handling one line.
Sales and Marketing Compensation

Compensating sales and marketing employees is a critical, and complicated, issue for
many companies. Sales incentives are very common today and many companies experience
mixed success with these programs. Incentives work best when they are integrated into well-
established performance management processes. These plans require careful design,
excellent administration, and constant communication.

Some Important Best Practices For Sales Incentives

1. Understand Your Customer and Sales Model

It is important to develop incentives that support your sales models. Do you rely on deep, long-
term relationships? Or does your company sell products to a mass or retail market?
Each model requires different features and your incentive plan should reinforce the primary
sales model.

2. Determine Program Objectives

What are the two or three things that you really want to accomplish with sales incentives? Are you
trying to increase market-share? Revenues? Asset growth? These questions are critical, as they
become the foundation and guideposts for the program.

3. Work Hard On The Underlying Analytics

Make sure that you really know how increasing sales will translate into profit. This new profit should
fund the incentives that you will pay to your sales staff. You may be willing to pay a higher
percentage of “new money” in the beginning, but make sure you are not paying
for sales or revenues that you already generate!

4. Keep It Simple

It is important to keep your plan as simple and transparent as possible. Select a few critical sales
criteria (new accounts, revenues, net deposits) and resist the urge to include everything good. Pick
the high impact outcomes that can be measured consistently. Too many variables lead to confusion
and administrative headaches.

5. Establish Goals and Targets With Each Employee

It is very important for managers to meet with employees and set relevant, measurable goals. There
should not be any mystery about what is expected. You should have minimum, target, and stretch
objectives—with different levels of rewards for each level of performance.

6. Pay Sooner Than Later

Incentive payments should be linked as close in time to performance as possible. If you have
quarterly goals, then you need to pay bonuses within 30 days of quarter end to drive home the
connection between performance and rewards. If you measure performance over a longer time such
as one year, get the payments out on a predictable date each year.

7. Coach for Performance

Make sure that your managers provide continuous feedback during the process. They should track
each employee’s progress toward their goals and talk to their employees on a regular basis. There
should be no surprises (or excuses) when it is time to pay bonuses.
8. Deliver What You Promise

A common problem in sales and incentive programs is that management fails to follow through,
either in administration, timing, or even size of payouts. These programs require a serious
commitment and sufficient support to execute. Furthermore, you will lose credibility quickly if you
do not follow through on your end.

What is relationship marketing?

Relationship marketing is a marketing strategy with the goal of maximizing profits by building
strong relationships with customers and increasing their satisfaction with products and services.

This strategy depends on customer relationships to lead business growth, as opposed to expanding
the market share of the company's products and services. It aims to build customer loyalty through
repeated transactions and word-of-mouth diffusion.

Putting the customer's needs first, relationship marketing not only provides products and services
that solve their unique problems, but also builds long-lasting relationships by following up with them
after their purchase.

The growing importance of customer relationships

Changes in consumer behavior

With the popularization of the Internet and smartphones, consumers can now easily find
information on products or services on their own. As a result, the number of consumers who wait for
information to be given to them by sellers, which was common in the past, has decreased, and
consumers who take active steps to gather information on their own have become the mainstream.
This change is a major reason why relationship marketing has become so important.

Changes in the way consumers gather information

Changes in consumer behavior have made it possible for consumers to gather as much information
as they need, and this has led to a demand for more transparent information when considering a
purchase. The buying process has also lengthened, as customers take more time to go over each
piece of content and continue searching until they can make a rational decision based on all the
facts. This is why relationship marketing, which emphasizes the building of long-term relationships
rather than fast sales, has received more attention over the years.

Because of these changes, the market is now centered around the consumer. This situation has
created the need for relationship marketing, which considers the customer's perspective first and
foremost.

Increased demand for personalization

Now that consumers have easy access to info online, the traditional approach of treating all
customers the same way and providing them all with the same information is considered to be less
effective. It has become necessary to provide personalized information based on data.

You now need to break your list of prospects and existing clients down into segments, and send
content that is tailored to their interests and needs. One of the principle ideas in relationship
marketing is to treat each customer as an individual, and personalized content is just one way of
achieving this.

Benefits of relationship marketing

1. Increased life-time value per customer

Life-time value (LTV) refers to the predicted net profit of an ongoing relationship between a
customer and a business. A maximized LTV is considered a huge benefit of relationship marketing.
This is achieved as there will be more repeat purchases from existing clients, and you will have to
invest less costs into new customer acquisition.

2. More repeat purchases + lower CPA

If you can gain the trust of your customers, they will be less likely to waver and switch to a
competitor's products, and will repeatedly purchase from you. If you can develop products and a
customer experience that keeps everyone satisfied, you can avoid customer churn as well.

3. Business growth through word of mouth

These days, when everyone is on social media and look to their peers or influencers to learn what’s
trending, word of mouth advocacy is very powerful. If you can turn your customers into loyal
customers - or better yet, fans - they will act as free advertisement to promote your products and
services in their circles, helping you to attract new customers.

4. Larger average deal size

By cultivating loyal customers through relationship marketing, you can expect to increase the
average deal size and the amount spent per year, thereby maximizing the amount spent per
customer.

Relationship marketing strategies

Database marketing

Database marketing aims to increase sales by utilizing customer information such as purchase
history, demographics, and survey data, to provide a more personalized experience. The purpose of
database marketing is not to develop new customers, but rather to build stronger relationships with
existing clients, and it is a very effective method of relationship marketing.

By focusing on the needs of the customer, it is possible to provide detailed support, increase the
likelihood of receiving orders by approaching customers as their needs arise, and reduce work time
by centralizing customer data. Ultimately, database marketing leads to a more efficient
marketing~sales funnel.

Account-based marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing (ABM) is arguably the most popular B2B marketing strategy. ABM involves
pinpointing the highest-value clients and targeting all your marketing messages, content, sales
efforts, etc. towards them. By seeking quality rather than quantity of customers, you can focus your
resources on companies with high LTV potential, thereby expanding your marketing ROI.

Since your target is narrowed down to a select few groups, you need only focus on their data,
making it easier to keep track of which prospects are active and engaging with your brand online.
Related Article: What is Account-Based Marketing (ABM)? Definition, Examples, and Tools

One-to-one marketing

One-to-one marketing is a hyper-personalized strategy. Communication is all based on the

customer’s unique values, interests, and situation. The main advantage of this approach is that it can
improve the cost-effectiveness of marketing by sending out targeted information, while also
improving the relationship with customers by providing a better experience.

Since content is not sent out to your entire list at once, you need to spend time planning different
messages for each target, which can be time-consuming, but also highly effective.

INTERNAL MARKETING

Internal marketing involves promoting your organization’s mission, objectives, purpose, culture,
products and services, and brand to your own employees. Occasionally referred to as “employee
marketing,” the purpose of internal marketing is to “sell” your business to your employees so they
are more engaged, brand-aware, and knowledgeable about your organization.

Like other forms of marketing and advertising, internal marketing is a necessity. It’s hard for
employees to care about their work if they don’t understand the value of your organization — and
it’s no secret that disengaged and disconnected employees can be costly. A lack of internal
marketing could also hurt your hiring and recruitment efforts, making it difficult to find
employees and retain talent, which, in turn, can lead to more disengagement and negatively impact
your bottom line.

That being said, it’s never too late to develop and execute an effective internal marketing strategy
for your organization. As long as you approach it thoughtfully and deliberately, you, your employees,
and your business can still benefit from internal marketing.

Internal Marketing Examples

There are countless opportunities to put internal marketing into action at your organization. You
may have implemented a strategy or shared internal marketing materials without even realizing it.
Common avenues and channels for internal marketing include:

 Social media profiles, company website, and other online activities;

 Job listings and promotion opportunities;

 Company benefits, perks, and work-life balance initiatives;

 Training, learning, and development sessions;

 Internal communications, including emails, instant messages, and phone calls;

 Workshops, brainstorming sessions, and meetings;

  Employee performance reviews, feedback opportunities, and spotlights;

 Company, project, and product branding and marketing;

 Company news, updates, milestones, and achievements.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; don’t be afraid to try new things to find what works for your
organization. Creativity is your friend and just might be the competitive edge you need to reap the
full benefits of internal marketing.

Benefits of Internal Marketing

Internal marketing can benefit both your employees and your organization as a whole. Some of its
major advantages include:

 Employee Engagement: Internal marketing can keep employees informed about and
supportive of your company. If their jobs have a purpose and they feel like they’re a valued
part of your organization, they’re more likely to be enthusiastic about and devoted to their
work.

 Company Culture: Since it allows you to communicate your mission and values, internal
marketing can help develop and strengthen your company’s culture. Having engaged
employees can further solidify culture, making your organization a more positive and
enjoyable place to work.

 Brand Awareness: Not only does internal marketing help with developing your organization’s
brand, but it also boosts brand awareness among employees. This helps employees become
brand advocates who publicize your company (both for customers and potential employees)
outside of the workplace. As long as your messaging is consistent, this can also help with
your external marketing efforts.

 Staff Empowerment: With increased brand awareness, your employees are better equipped
to do their work. This is especially true for staff members who work with clients, allowing
them to improve the experience customers have with your business.

 Recruitment and Hiring: Internal marketing can also support your hiring efforts, making it
easier to market job openings and recruit talented employees. With more engaged
employees and strong company culture, your organization will gain a positive reputation,
making it a desirable workplace for more applicants.

 Retention: What’s more, this also can help you retain employees, both new and old. It’s
believed that increased employee engagement reduces turnover, allowing you to keep the
best workers on your team for the benefit of your business.

Internal marketing is too important for your business to ignore or neglect. However, it’s crucial to go
about it properly for your internal marketing efforts to be effective.
The Keys to Effective Internal Marketing

To enjoy these benefits, you have to build an effective internal marketing strategy. Like any other
marketing initiative, internal marketing requires time, attention, and care if you want your efforts to
be successful. The key components of any internal marketing include:

 A clear strategy for your business as a whole;

 Specific operational goals that support your strategy;

 An open and trusting relationship with employees;

 Honest, clear, and frequent internal communication;

 A high-quality employee experience, from beginning to end.

What is Cause-Related Marketing?

Definition: Cause-related marketing is defined as a partnership between a business and a non-profit

organization (NPO) used for promoting sales of the business and cause of the NPO. Hence, cause
marketing creates the benefit for both- as the non-profit benefit will gain financial support, and the
business or corporation will enjoy optimized marketing.

Often people are attracted to the business who are socially responsible. Such businesses will be able
to receive positive recognition for their brand. Cause-related marketing started in the form of
essential donation, which was a part of a product sale.

Whenever a customer purchases a particular product, there would be a mention that a certain
amount of the product’s cost price will be used for the charitable cause. A lot of cooperate
companies use this type of marketing to embrace the importance of the social causes.

Benefits of Cause Marketing Campaign

Efficient marketing is essential for brand awareness for both a cooperation and non-profit
organization. Non-profit organizations are generally have limited budgeting.

Hence having a partnership with cooperation will earn them the necessary means of making their
organization known. Given below are some of the benefits of cause-related marketing;

1. Customer loyalty

Both nonprofit organizations and corporation can expect their outreach and gain customer loyalty
via cause-related marketing.

2. Fulfills CSR

Cause marketing campaign fulfills the businesses’ need for corporate social responsibility.

3. Optimizes awareness and reputation

Cause marketing creates a positive image for the cooperation and hence helps in staying ahead in
the competition. It ensures improved credibility for the non-profit organization.

4. Increases sales
As per Cone Communication Social Impact Study in 2013; more than 90% of the customers say that
they would like to opt for socially responsible companies. Around 89% of the customers say that
they like to hear the update on the social causes like equality rights, breast cancer, etc that the
brands are supporting or offering sponsorship to.

Disadvantages of Cause Marketing

Given below are some of the drawbacks of cause-related marketing;

1. Can be costly

If not managed well, then cause marketing efforts would be a waste of money and time for both
parties.

2. Wrong decisions

Partnering with the wrong brands or NPOs would cost one to lose a positive image of their brand.

How to build Cause-Related Marketing Campaigns?

Before investing in any form of marketing, it is essential to calculate the budget and means to devise
and implement a successful campaign. A successful campaign can lead to generating new leads. It
ensures brand loyalty and trust among one’s target market segment.

If implemented successfully, it would help both one’s business and non-profit organization. Hence it
is crucial to focus on implementing a marketing plan before launching a campaign.

Step 1 – Identifying the cause

Cause-related marketing should focus on reflecting the values of one’s company or business. Partner
with a non-profit organization that is somehow related to the business.

The first one needs to know about their audience and accordingly devise a campaign built around
their values. This will help in increasing brand loyalty among one’s customers. Also, With the
meaningful purpose, the employees of one’s company will be more than willing to participate.

Step 2 – Determining the contribution

After identifying the just cause for partnerships, one needs to determine how much and what each
party contributes. One needs to look beyond the monetary contribution and gifts.

One can help to boost awareness and recognition by contributing in the following means;

 Events for charity

 Direct mail campaign

 Email marketing

 Event planning

 Social media campaign

 Advertising through other modes of media

 Copywriting

 Volunteer groups from the cooperation

  Donation for the commodities

Step 3 – Involving the audience

The primary purpose of any marketing campaign is to have a determined response from the
audience. With the help of social media or a customized landing page, one can motivate their
audience in participating in the campaign in several ways.

Some of those ways are-

 Donating for the cause

 Sharing about the brand through the social media post

 Participating in events conducted by the partners.

One can use customer relationship management software to navigate the right set of audiences for
cause-related marketing. The software helps in follow-up and creating a personalized message of
appreciation. Therefore the audience will feel more involved in the campaign due to the sense of
responsibility.

Step 4 – Promoting in collaboration with the non-profit organization

A campaign will be more effective if both the cooperation and the non-profit organization are
promoting it. Both of the partners can enhance their outreach by tagging each other in social media
posts. Both the parties involved must announce their affiliation through the newsletter, press
release, and so on.

One has to take full advantage of the partnership. Strategizing with one’s non-profit partner will help
to implement the campaign successfully. One can achieve the goal of creating and increasing
awareness and exposure.

What are the Types of Cause Marketing Campaigns?

There are several ways one can design their cause marketing campaign to meet the goal. Given
below are some of the ways one can utilize cause marketing;

1. Point of sale

This is one of the most basic of cause marketing. When selling the product, the vendor who is a
partner with the organization will ask the customer to make an essential donation for the charity.

2. Special products

There are certain ‘special products that the customer would give to the charity when brought by the
customer.

3. Special incentive for donation

Certain companies offer incentives to the customers like coupons, discounts, and so on in exchange
for a cash donation.

4. Buy one, give one model

It is a very straightforward approach towards creating both commercial and social value of a
commodity. Every purchase from the customer results in a donation to the selected non-profit profit
organization or community.
5. Digital campaign

Campaigning with the help of digital media helps in creating marketing opportunities for both
partners.

Some of the best practices for Cause Marketing

Below are some of the best practices for cause-related marketing;

1. Working towards the goal

At the time of partnership, both the party involved must be transparent about their goals. This helps
in implementing effective marketing strategies. One has to have a clear understanding of the goal to
put forward the relevant action to achieve the goal.

2. Authentic

Implement marketing strategies or campaigns that will resound with the needs and the values of
the target market. The campaign should be unique and urge people to take action.

3. Building a relationship of trust

Besides achieving the goal of the partnership, one should also focus on building a quality relationship
with their partner. The effect of cause marketing has a long-term impact. Therefore it is necessary to
nurture the relationship of trust to ensure success.

4. Analyzing the campaign

It is important that to keep track of one’s campaign progress. It helps in measuring success by
compensating for the failures. One can get a deeper insight into their target market.

5 Cause-Related Marketing Examples

Some of the notable examples of successful cause marketing campaigns are-

1. American Express Statue of Liberty’s restoration

American Express is a brand that coined the term cause-related marketing for the very first time in
1983 for describing its campaign of raising money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.

It donated one cent to the restoration whenever any of its customers used its charge card. This way,
it raised more than $1.7 million, plus its card use rose to 27%.

2. Billie’s project body hair

Billie is a brand specializing in the sale of razors and other female body care products. The company
started, “Project Body Hair” campaign to celebrate the body hair of women. It was started to
highlight the issue of female beauty standards.

The campaign focused on the facts of female body hair that exists that is generally the razor brand’s
don’t show. The company wanted to change this hairless tradition. Billie’s effort was to normalize
the fact that it is okay to have body hairs.

It is a campaign celebrating women’s natural beauty. It brought awareness to the audience about
unrealistic beauty standards. Hence people started talking about the initiative, which ultimately
leads to inculcating brand loyalty among the customer.
3. Time to care with the body shop

In the year 2020, The body shop, a beauty, and wellness company started an initiative, “The body
shop”. The company used social media for spreading awareness of the importance of skincare.

Through the hashtag, the initiative was spread across the global platform keeping the community
informed. The North-American team has partnered with the shelters and assisted living communities
to donate body-care products. This ensured that everyone would have access to basic self-care
products.

4. Leftovers challenge from the mythical kitchen

A well-known YouTuber chef, Josh Scherer, who is the host of Mythical Kitchen, teamed up with
various channel hosts to introduce the initiative #LeftoversChallenge. This campaign is also
supported by the Restaurant workers community foundation.

The purpose of the initiative is to make food accessible for everyone. #leftoverchallenge urges
people to make a creative meal from the leftovers and share it on social media using the hashtag.
Also, in addition to that, the creators set up donation links on their posts for the purpose to seek a
donation from the audience.

5. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s act for the ocean

The “Act for the ocean” campaign was started by the Monterey bay aquarium. It aims to educate its
target audience about climate change and aquatic life.

The campaign highlights the issue of how aquatic life is being adversely affected. The videos also
educate the audience on several ways to helping Aquatic life. The company has been expanding its
outreach with the help of various social media networks.

What Is Social Marketing?

The term “social marketing” refers to the adoption of commercial, promotional technologies into
programs that are intended to influence the response of target audiences to improve both the
individuals’ well-being and the well-being of the community in which they belong.

It includes concept development, pricing, information exchange, delivery, and market analysis. Social
marketing is developing, putting into action, and managing programs intended to influence the
degree to increase acceptance of social ideas. It is a type of marketing that is expanding quickly and
has a significant potential to lead to decreased consumption.

Social Marketing Concept Explained

Social marketing, sometimes known as “marketing for good,” is a strategy that promotes positive
societal transformation by focusing on influencing individuals’ actions or ways of life rather than just
selling an item or service. Its emphasis on community engagement is distinct from commercial
marketing, marketing via green or sustainable practices, and marketing via social media.

The goal of such marketing is to modify people’s behaviors for the greater good of society – to the
individual’s profit and benefit of society as a whole – by using the concepts of commercial marketing
and the social sciences.
It is used by a wide variety of nonprofit organizations and charities, as well as by government
organizations, emergency services, and agencies. Likewise, some examples are highway safety
alliances, policemen, firefighters, and paramedic groups. Social marketers also handle campaigns for
charitable causes of a commercial brand’s product or business.

In addition, nonprofit organizations use such marketing to boost their fundraising efforts. It helps in
furthering their organization’s mission or effecting societal shifts. Following are the strategies that
can be used for doing social marketing.

#1 – Work Collaboratively

Generally, with low finances, implementing a full social marketing program and not just a
communication effort requires outside resources and experience. Hence, Cooperation and
reciprocity are powerful. See if there is a similar group that regularly addresses the target audience.
If so, building a strategic relationship for assisting their existing projects helps. Beyond regular
partners, other groups may appeal to a similar target market.

#2 – Internet Marketing

Online marketing helps firms stretch costs. Hence, digital media and new websites have created
numerous new possibilities. However, online is a cheap, ever-changing landscape. So, ensuring web
marketing reaches the target demographic is vital. Also, it should not be used as a solo method.

#3 – Online Press Release

Posting a story for free on any PR Web and sending bulk emails works well. Developing a list of
prospects to send press releases and creating narrative articles about persons touched by the
campaign and the advantages of behavior change helps spread the word.

#4 – Word Of Mouth

Don’t overlook word-of-mouth in healthy communication and marketing. Many individuals find the
company through word-of-mouth. Keeping the target audience talking is vital for habit change since
we all listen to our relatives, friends, and coworkers. The more avenues one can contact the target
audience using social outreach, the more impact a firm has.

#5 – Make Widgets

Widgets are code snippets that users may copy and paste into webpages or blogs. Creating widgets
that partners may publish to backlink the firm helps. Action messages, not simply data, should be
included.

Types

Following are the types of social marketing.

#1 – Not-For-Profit Marketing

It refers to companies that do not seek financial gain but use it as a marketing strategy to promote a
cause. However, a typical example of nonprofit marketing is a campaign to generate donations and
recruit volunteers using direct mail and mass media. Since this is the case, serving the greater good
is the overarching aim, but the organization’s primary objective is to earn money to be competitive
with other charitable organizations.

#2 – Marketing For A Social Mission

This partnership between a for-profit and nonprofit company supports a charitable cause or other
similar endeavors. In addition, the sales of the items produced by the commercial organization
contribute to the pro-social motive. However, an equivalent would be something like sponsorship,
when a charitable organization allows a for-profit firm to publicize its relationship with the charitable
organization to improve people’s impressions of the for-profit corporation and the products it sells.

On the other hand, cause-related marketing generates revenue for the charitable organization as a
direct consequence of the products or services sold. Therefore, advancing a social cause is not the
primary purpose of a firm; rather, it is the secondary goal of a company to increase sales or any
other marketing objective.

#3 – Marketing With A Conscience

A comparison may be made between sponsorship and pro-social outreach. Nevertheless, the for-
profit company aims to improve the public’s opinion of its goods and services by establishing a
cooperative partnership with an organization or cause that works to improve society. so social
marketing allows firms to convey how they have a wake conscience for helping society back.

#4 – Societal Marketing

It is possible to confuse societal with social outreach or marketing, but the two are not the same.
Kotler and his colleagues refer to businesses like this as socially responsible profit-making
companies. However, societal marketing is considered a natural extension of the fundamental idea
behind marketing. For making a profit from the determination and satisfaction of customer
requirements in a manner that protects or enhances the consumer and society.

Examples of Social Marketing

It is widely used in sectors of health and safety, environmentalism, and social action.

Let us look at the social marketing examples to understand the concept better.

#1 – Anti-Smoking

Many organizations and health institutes utilize such marketing to reduce smoking and encourage
quitting. These activities assist new smokers and help individuals with the habit quit. Some
compelling TV ads portray real-life smokers with lung cancer or tracheostomies.

#2 – Forest Fire Prevention

Many NGOs indulge in wildfire prevention social campaigns. Other tactics include billboards and
signs near campers and fire extinguishing recommendations.

#3 – Recycling

Conventional recycling marketing, such as curbside collection or electronics drop-off facilities,

focuses on teaching. Showcasing reusable things, such as cloth or heavy-duty plastic bags for
shopping, and how to reuse furniture are additional ways social outreach efforts on recycling
operate, along with state-level bottle redemption programs.

#4 – Handicap Accessibility

The effort of such marketing by the American Disability Association promotes disability inclusion. It
helped modify laws and rules to make transportation, housing, and playgrounds handicap accessible.
To build an emotional connection with consumers, firms employ handicap awareness month, metro
and elevator posters, and billboards.

Advantages And Disadvantages

Let us look at the advantages and disadvantages of the social marketing concept:

Advantages

 It gives businesses a competitive advantage. Consumers want to purchase goods from

ethical and socially accountable firms. These trends will gain appeal as campaigns and
concerns around social and ecological issues expand.

 A further benefit is the premium pricing. Businesses transform their social and
environmental initiatives into distinct selling factors, enabling them to charge greater prices.

 Promotes health awareness and facilitates the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

 It contributes to green marketing efforts.

 It contributes to eradicating social ills that harm society and people’s lives.

Disadvantages

 It is not uncommon for commercial marketing to be conducted under the pretext of social
outreach marketing.

 Creativity may sometimes be problematic since it forces the listener to interpret the
message for themselves, and the interpretation may not be particularly assertive.

 There are occasions when the notion of such marketing is not seen as an adequate mass
communication theory.

Future of Marketing

Apart from having creative and analytical minds, marketers have to always be up-to-date with
constantly changing marketing landscape. If you run a business, you have a hard nut to crack as well.
Getting across to today’s consumer is a complex process that requires adjusting your efforts to
emerging trends. Being first, or at least one of the first, gives a competitive advantage. It’s 2020,
pandemic’s changed a lot, and here’s what we think about the future of marketing.

Consumer of tomorrow: Generation Alpha

Millennials are nothing new and so is Gen Z. If you’re curious about the consumer of tomorrow, you
should keep your eye on Generation Alpha.

Who are are they?

“(Generation Alpha) will be the most formally educated generation ever, the most technology-
supplied generation ever, and globally the wealthiest generation ever,” says Mark McCrindle, who
researched and confined the name for the generation born between 2010 and 2025.
Surely, generation Alpha is the first generation completely born into technology. Being exposed to
technology during formative years will probably result in their digital literacy, high expectations for
gamification, shorter attention spans, and who knows what else.

Also known as Generation Glass, they’re expected to prefer virtual world to the real one. Technology
at their disposal will become the extension of themselves. With technological advancements such as
AI, self-driving cars, and other solutions that facilitate existence at their disposal, Generation Alpha is
said to pay an even greater attention to self care: mental wellbeing, interests, and other shades of
personal development.

Given the fact that the oldest Alphas are 9 years old, it’s still too early to draw any reliable and long-
term predictions about their consumer behavior.

Generation Alpha marketing is already happening.

Ryan of Ryan ToysReview has been reviewing toys on YouTube since the age of 4. He’s gathered 18
million subscribers what makes him a great influencer and partner for brands marketing to
Generation Alpha.

How Generation Alpha will evolve? Only time will tell.

Forget 4Ps, welcome 4Es

It’s not something you want to hear if you spent years on learning all marketing theories which used
to help you build value proposition. They are not valid anymore. Famous Product, Price, Place,
Promotion from Marketing Mix are not effective anymore.

OK, so what do we have instead 4Ps now? Welcome 4Es – the new approach to customer value
proposition, which embodies Engagement, Experience, Exclusivity and Emotion.

People don’t buy only products.

They buy experiences and emotions instead. You should change thinking “what should I sell” or
“how should I sell” to “WHY should I sell it?”. Emotional branding is what makes a business stand
out.

This is the concept of Golden Circle, invented by Simon Sinek.

The most successful brands don’t offer just physical products or services, but great experiences,
emotions, and a story that resonates. Disneyland or Coca-cola sell happiness, Adidas or Nike give you
a courage to follow your dreams, L’Oréal sells beauty, and Apple sells a challenge to the status quo.

This is how Coca-Cola speaks to its audience. Their value proposition is richer than just a can of soda
– it’s happines.

Artificial intelligence, duh

AI has already been here for while. Marketers deal with it on a daily basis in various tools they use,
be it for email marketing, content, or analytics. AI is an inherent part of engines that run these tools,
decide, filter, and suggest solutions.

At the same time, consumers are more and more presented with proactive, AI-driven solutions in
conversational interfaces which help, guide, remind, and present them with personalized solutions,
or products. It’s common knowledge these days.

While chatbots have been with us for while now, we’re already seeing another emerging trend of
voice assistants and voice interactions. At the moment, we’re familiar with Google Assistant, Siri, or
Amazon Echo that help us run daily chores. It seems that voice interactions will soon step into
business and help us navigate through menus, get familiar with FAQs, help or simply manage a
service.

Then, the arms race will get down to whose AI solutions will bond best with the consumer.

The thing about AI in marketing is that its development is a natural course of action. It’s not only
because consumers expect more personalized and convenient experiences, but also because AI is
the only and the most effective tool to gather information about customers.

If you want to stay up to date with AI in marketing, you should familiarize yourself with a term
called martech. Martech refers to the connection between marketing and technology. In the face of
technological development, the role of marketers, apart from the creative one, will require the
knowledge and command of tools, most likely, AI-fueled tools.

Most consumers wouldn’t care if 73% of brands disappeared for good

I know it might be a hard to acknowledge, but that’s what research shows: most of consumers won’t
bother if a brand stops existing tomorrow and it concerns nearly three quarters of all brands.

If unhappy at some point, consumers easily turn to another brand. After all, there’s a full panoply of
distinct manufacturers, brands, and services that coexist, and can fill the gaps others miss out on.

Why are consumers so apt to change their choices?

Consumers these days expect brands to respond do their emotional needs, contribute to local and
international communities, stand for a cause, and support great ideas.

Here is Coca Cola again. The campaign touches currently important issue to our society. A can of
soda is just an addition.

Brands should not only reach us on a deeper, emotional level, but also ensure that every step of
consumer experience is alike unique, including the most important part of it – the product.
The concepts of brand, its stories and values are important and matter during the acquisition and
consideration phase.

At the end of the day, its the product that matters most. Great stories, causes, and values won’t buy
someone into a poor product. When a product falls short of expectations, consumers choose a
better option without a blink of an eye.

Digital media monitoring and analytics the goldmine of insights

Whether it’s tombstone carving, electronics, or web applications, every single business needs to
hone its online presence these days.

There’a a number of businesses that operate mostly online and whose customers are online as well.
It means that the majority of conversations about their brands and products happen online.

Consumers discuss brands and products in social media, industry experts and news sites publish
reviews, competitors post latest product updates. Online buzz is a source of business intelligence
which already is out there, online.

Online buzz about business-related topics provide insights that can help businesses improve
strategy, brand reputation management, competitor analysis, market research, customer feedback,
consumer research, influencer marketing, product design, or trend forecasting.

And this is where media monitoring and analytics come in as the way to collect and analyze all this
information. Media monitoring tools aggregate all publicly available content that contains
predefined keywords. They scan in real time websites, blogs, discussion forums, review sites, in
social media, podcasts, or newsletters.

Media monitoring and analytics tools have a heap of analytical functions to help you make sense out
of the data. It’s the ultimate tool to understand what online buzz says about businesses, products,
services, competitors, trends, and consumers.

Given the fact that more and more businesses, particularly during the pandemia, move to the
Internet, media monitoring will become invaluable.

Build intimate one-to-one relations

One-to-many marketing model used to work very well in the past. The process was easy. Marketers
did an in-depth research about target group, defining a persona and its basic characteristics. Then
they developed a communication style and messages to send to the target group. Conversion rates
maybe were not impressive, but the model worked.

With the digital media growth this model evolved slightly. The Internet let us gather basic
information about users and marketers could then target their message to narrow groups of people
with similar interests, demographics and habits. It is more accurate way to reach out to consumers,
however not as effective as it used to be a few years ago.

Cloud computing revolutionized marketing communication. Nowadays, data lets us collect detailed
information about consumer behavior, their preferences and interests. You can leverage it to create
personalized marketing messages to individuals.

However, if you want to distinguish your brand among others and make clients loyal you should take
a step further.
Today’s consumers need individual service and personal approach in every aspect. They can
appreciate when a brand goes the extra mile in customer service. Showing your clients that you care
will help you build firm relations with them and then keep them with you and your brand. The most
important, though, is to make those relations personal.

WestJet put a smile on more than 250 passangers who made their wishes before departure and
were given personalized presents after landing. Video explains it all.

Don’t be superficial

Do you know why most brands do not resonate with the target groups they try to reach?

Because they fail at building deep and firm relations with them. They reach them only on the
superficial level on which you cannot really engage a person. Consumers are emotional and love
experiences. If you want to convey your message and win your audience you need to touch their
hearts.

The real engagement will not come from a Facebook contest in which users get prizes for likes. It’s
an investment not worth the effort. It will bring you only short-term effects. Your follower base
might increase, but the people will leave if you don’t engage them on emotional level.

John Lewis releases Christmas commercial each year and it’s one of the most longed-for elements of
the holiday season. Each year the advert tells a different touching story that puts us into a holiday
mood.

Influencer marketing is a key to Millennials’ world

Bloggers, vloggers and other influencers have the power of shaping consumer opinions. Internet
users are more willing to trust recommendation from a favorite YouTube creator rather than from a
brand. Influencers are genuine and trustworthy, so people put more confidence in what they have to
say.

More brands have started to appreciate the power of cooperation with influencers and more often
engage opinion leaders in their campaigns and general marketing communication. They see the
potential of such actions as they do bring measurable results.

There are plenty of ways to involve popular people in your marketing communication. You can
simply find influencers who are potentially interested in your company or its value
proposition with Internet monitoring.

Naturally, they have to resonate with your brand and your audience. Then you can, for example,
shoot an ad featuring a famous person or engage a blogger or vlogger in content creation. There are
many options and its up to your creativity how it would look like.

Emirates Airlines for instance made a commercial featuring Jennifer Aniston.

People crave meaningful stories about real humans

We’ve been exposed to a picture of the world that is build up on artificial reality. Media shows us
perfect images of celebrities, actors and public figures. We do like watching that, but on the other
hand, we crave the world that is close to our own. We want to see people that are honest and
genuine in what they do and more importantly they are just like us.

This is why a teenager with no professional background who shots videos in his or her bedroom and
post them to YouTube has wider audience than any other brand that caters to the young. It’s mostly
because they speak the same language as the community, present a straightforward message and
fans can personally relate to them.

If you, as brand, want to reach out to your audience you should focus on your audience’s real
problems and needs. Relate to issues that are relevant to them at the moment. With such message
you can become meaningful to the consumers.

Target wanted to emphasize their dedication to education initiatives by running a contest that would
award schools $1 billion over the next few years. Concurrently, they released a video showing
powerful, heart-warming moments of teens opening their acceptance letters.

Get along with new apps

Living in the times of constant changes might be problematic for a marketer. You get used to one
app or social media platform and by the time you become an expert it is replaced by something new.
However, if you want to stay on top of things you need to adapt to new technologies and follow your
target audience on platforms they use.

Young people are not so active on Facebook anymore. Nowadays Snapchat and Vine are becoming
the leaders. Also Periscope is gaining ground and all the other apps that provide
disappearing content sharing. But don’t involve to much, in a year or so this landscape will look
differently.

A few years ago Snapchat or Vine campaigns were a rarity and nobody really took them seriously.
Nowadays they are very common and bring measurable results. Audi wanted to engage future
buyers so they launched the Snapchat campaign. They shared news and interesting facts from a bit
different perspective, getting very positive feedback on Snapchat and different social media
platforms.

Young consumers don’t trust brands

We live in the times when one thing is being said on traditional media and another thing people see
through different channels. This inconsistent image evokes big confusion among consumers,
especially the young. Information broadcast on traditional media is often perceived as lies. It comes
as no surprise, that people don’t trust neither media nor brands that are irrelevant to consumers.

For the past decades we’ve been flooded with untruthful ads, so don’t act confounded when your
audience doesn’t believe a message you try to convey.

Consumers are more skeptical and suspicious about what they hear and see on the Internet and
other channels. If you want to convince them to your brand you, most of all, have to be honest and
genuine. On top of that, to gain consumers’ trust you need to give something first. You have to offer
a value that is relevant to your audience.
Jeep wanted to reach out to the target audience with its new car – Jeep Renegade. The
brand engaged a rock band – X Ambassadors and shoot a commercial video that perfectly conveys
the message and resonates with the target group.

Music plays a big role in marketing and advertising

If you think of any successful campaign now, there was probably a good music involved.

Music has been one of the most powerful tools in marketing and advertising for the past decades. It
helps brands to create an emotional connection with their target audience and develop a strong
bond between them that empowers brand recognition and loyalty. It is universal language that lets
us communicate our thoughts, views and opinions with global audience. It has tremendous impact
on our moods and feelings. Use that!

You can leverage audio content to enrich stories you want to tell. The right music combined with the
right brand and the right visual content can increase the success of your marketing efforts.

The below example of the P&G Moms Olympic spot shows how touching music paired with the real
story makes a brilliant campaign that goes viral.

This is how the marketing landscape looks like right now and probably in the next few months.
However, don’t get attached to it and take all these trends for granted. The marketing of tomorrow
might be totally different than we can imagine.