www.meta-consultants.com

How AI is Impacting Marketing

2025-05-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the marketing landscape, reshaping how brands connect with consumers, make decisions, and optimize campaigns. From content creation to predictive analytics, AI is driving efficiency, personalization, and innovation in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago.

1. Personalized Customer Experiences

AI enables hyper-personalization by analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and interactions across channels. Tools powered by machine learning can recommend products, tailor email campaigns, and dynamically adjust website content to suit individual users—resulting in higher engagement and conversions.

2. Predictive Analytics

With AI, marketers can leverage historical data to forecast future behavior. Predictive analytics helps identify trends, anticipate customer needs, and allocate resources more effectively. For example, AI can predict which leads are most likely to convert, allowing sales teams to focus their efforts accordingly.

3. Content Creation and Curation

AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy.ai assist marketers in generating content at scale. Whether it’s social media posts, email copy, or blog drafts, AI reduces time spent on routine writing tasks. Additionally, AI can curate relevant third-party content for newsletters or brand pages.

4. Chatbots and Customer Service

AI-powered chatbots handle customer inquiries in real time, providing 24/7 support and reducing the burden on human agents. These bots can answer FAQs, process orders, and even guide users through complex decision-making journeys.

5. Advertising Optimization

AI plays a crucial role in programmatic advertising by automating the buying and placement of ads based on real-time data. Platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads use AI to test different creatives, bids, and audiences, maximizing ROI and reducing ad spend waste.

6. Image and Voice Recognition

AI is enhancing visual and voice search capabilities. Marketers can now optimize content for image recognition tools like Google Lens or voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, tapping into new channels for brand visibility and customer interaction.

7. Enhanced Customer Insights

Natural Language Processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis tools help marketers understand how customers feel about their products and brand. This feedback loop enables quicker response to issues and more refined messaging strategies.

Final Thoughts

AI is no longer a futuristic concept—it's a practical tool that's redefining the marketing industry. By embracing AI technologies, marketers can improve efficiency, enhance creativity, and deliver more relevant and impactful customer experiences. As the technology continues to evolve, staying informed and adaptable will be key to maintaining a competitive edge.

The Pitfalls of Profit-Driven Media: Why Reliable News is at Risk

2024-03-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

The media is failing to provide PROPER coverage of the US election - How come?
Profit-driven companies may not always prioritize the delivery of reliable news and information for several reasons:

Sensationalism: Profit-driven media outlets may prioritize sensational or attention-grabbing stories over more nuanced or less captivating but important news. This can lead to the spread of sensationalized or exaggerated information to attract more viewers or readers, ultimately driving up advertising revenue.
Bias: Media outlets may be influenced by the biases of their owners, advertisers, or corporate interests. These biases can shape the way news is presented and which stories are covered, potentially skewing information in favor of particular agendas.
Clickbait: Online media companies, in particular, may prioritize clickbait headlines or content that generates high traffic rather than focusing on accuracy or depth of reporting. This can lead to the dissemination of misleading or inaccurate information.
Commercial Interests: Profit-driven media companies may prioritize content that aligns with the interests of advertisers or sponsors, potentially compromising the objectivity or independence of their reporting.
Cost-cutting Measures: In pursuit of profits, media companies may cut costs by reducing investment in investigative journalism or fact-checking departments, which are crucial for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of news content.
Pressure to Maintain Audience: In a competitive media landscape, profit-driven companies may prioritize maintaining or growing their audience base over delivering accurate or comprehensive news coverage. This can lead to the prioritization of entertainment or sensational content over informative reporting.

Overall, while profit-driven media outlets play a crucial role in disseminating news and information, their financial motivations can sometimes conflict with the goals of providing reliable, unbiased, and comprehensive reporting. This is why it's important for consumers to critically evaluate the sources of their news and seek out diverse perspectives from a variety of sources.

Meta Consultants est. 2005

2020-04-25T17:44:00.009-07:00

People hold a variety of misconceptions about marketing. Most common is its confusion with selling and advertising. Selling and advertising are actually types of promotion which is only a component of marketing. Marketing involves much more, including product/service development, place (location and distribution), and pricing.
It requires information about people, especially those interested in what you have to offer (your “market”), such as what they like, where they buy and how much they spend. Its role is to match the right product or service with the right market or audience. Marketing, as you will see, is an art and a science. According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.” Simply stated it is creating and promoting a product (ideas, goods or services) that satisfies a customer’s need or desire and is available at a desirable price and place.

Modern marketing is a way of doing business, heavily based on the “marketing concept” which holds that; businesses and organizations should:
Advertising is a communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to use and obtain them. Almost every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, video games and the Internet. And that’s “our” turf, the internet - to narrow it down - the internet targeting Mexico and there in particular the Baja California Sur!

No matter if you a developer announcing a new development and initiate pre-sales, a tour operator offering scuba diving, a operator in the accommodation industry: all have one in common down the Baja. Your potential clients are most likely not living in the neighborhood and can stop by to check your services! A targeted advertisement strategy via the internet is one of the option - if not the best - to promote your services.

Marketing Strategies: - According to Wikipedia "A marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal."

Do you and your business developed a marketing strategy?? Did your marketing adviser consider fundamentals as an marketing strategy that serves as the foundation of a marketing plan? A marketing plan that contains a set of specific actions required to successfully implement a marketing strategy. For example: "Use a product to attract consumers. Once your organization, via this attractive product, has established a relationship with consumers, your organization will sell additional, higher-margin products and services that enhance the consumer's interaction with the attractive product or service.

Using an Ad Tracker is Key to the Affiliate Marketer

2010-01-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

There’s a lot of money in affiliate marketing. This is true, however, only to those are seriously and zealously working on his affiliate program. Success in affiliate marketing varies in every individual affiliate and for the most part, it depends on his will and perseverance. No matter how good an affiliate program is, it will not prosper if the affiliate marketer does not pay the price of hard work. One must exert extra effort especially on the aspect of promotion. Nothing will happen if the links or banners would just lie idle in a web page, an affiliate must be able to convince the visitor to click it and proceed to the business site to buy the products. No click-throughs means no income for an affiliate marketer.
You can actually generate a full-time income by means of affiliate marketing and you can do it at home, and yes, even while you sleep. You must have a good web site to begin with. It must have good promotional and informative contents, pleasing design, inviting banner ads and all other important elements in an affiliate marketer’s web site. It would be great if you have exhausted other means of advertising such as newsletters, email marketing, message boards and ad listings such as Google AdWords. You just have to go online once in a while to check your site and update it and to watch over the development of your marketing program. Does this sound so easy?

It can be this easy if you have planned your affiliate program well and have taken all the steps towards success carefully and diligently. Now, there’s a tool you can use to help you go through the program with ease and confidence, the Ad Tracker. For many experienced and successful affiliate marketers, the Ad Tracker is a key to a successful affiliate marketing program.

What precisely is an ad tracker? It is a marketing tracking software or program that allows you to trace and take note of every click-through made by visitors of your site and by other customers who got your referral link. There are ad tracking service providers as well, so you will just have to pay them to do the tracking for you. With the ad tracker, you can keep an eye on the progress of your marketing campaigns even offline. This tool or program is especially helpful if you are engaged in several affiliate and pay-per-click programs and have placed ads in emails, pop-ups and pop-unders, message boards, auto responders, Ezines, forums, several web sites, surveys and various ad service providers.

Of course, you don’t want all your efforts to be put to waste so you want to make sure you are getting paid for your hard work. Likewise, you want to make sure every dollar or cent you disburse in your advertising campaigns is wisely spent. With the help of the ad tracker, you will know accurately how many and which of your links where clicked on, how many clicked on your links, how many of your emails were opened and how many of those who opened your email clicked through the business site and purchased a product, how many products were purchased, which of your banner ads or links brought the most leads and sales and many other pertinent facts and figures you need.

Sales records and all data stated are necessary in any business as this could determine if your affiliate program is still worth continuing. This would also help you determine which of your marketing strategies is most effective and which is most beneficial for each product or service you are promoting.

Every decision and plan you make must be well grounded on facts. That decision or plan of action may not be the best, but it is something not to regret about when you had valid reasons for coming up with such decision or plan. You cannot just decide to terminate your affiliate program, just because you don’t earn big in an instant.

If you are serious with affiliate marketing, again and again, keep in mind that your success lies mainly on promotion and your hard work. If you don’t seem lucky enough to convince many of your site users to buy the products, don’t be disheartened and jump into a conclusion that your affiliate program is a failure. If it works for others, it could work for you, too. Know whether your advertising techniques are effective or not, which works best for your program and which doesn’t. Get an ad tracker to help you know all these and you’d surely be on the right track towards success!

Content

It’s all about image with promotional clothing and promotional mugs

2010-01-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

Whenever your employee (or customer for that matter!) wears a piece of promotional clothing, everyone who sees this individual will see your business name as well. So when you think about how many places an individual can travel in a single day by wearing promotional clothing with your branding on it, your business will have unparalleled advertising potential.
Corporate clothing is also a potential welcome gift for your employees and customers alike. Whether you give promotional shirts, promotional jackets, promotional polo shirts and promotional caps, your employees and customers will feel like they are part of a team, employees will appreciate being recognised for their hard work and will work even harder to be a part of your company. Scientific studies have shown that companies who encourage a team-building atmosphere in their professional environment also have a lower employee turnover rate. And as recruiting new employees can be a costly expense for growing businesses, so establishing a higher level of employee retention can be crucial to the future success of a business. In a similar way, all successful companies know that their foundation is built on a loyal customer base and promotional clothing and promotional apparel from Code Promotional Merchandise can encourage a stronger customer retention rate.
Second only to promotional pens in popularity, promotional mugs and promotional glassware are extremely popular…and with good reason! Just take a look at the average office environment and count up the number of branded promotional mugs you can see. That is the strength of the promotional mug as it is very rarely thrown away.

And from your perspective, you have a great range to choose from. Firstly, take promotional mugs and decide how you want your brand to be perceived. Choose from practical promotional travel mugs or classic promotional ceramic mugs, the cost-effective plastic promotional mug or the fine promotional bone chine mugs.

Or secondly, consider promotional glassware. Does the ability to provide an engraved promotional gift give your business message the opportunity to rise above the others? From promotional pint glasses to corporate gift boxed champagne sets, we have a selection for you at Code Promotional Merchandise.

Learn About Direct Marketing

2010-01-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

To really learn about direct marketing and how you can use it to better your business you should first understand what direct marketing is. According to Wikipedia, direct marketing is defined as "a sub discipline of marketing focused to driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific call to action". This marketing discipline can include and medium that allows you to communicate directly with customers. Some examples of direct marketing include, direct mail, email, newspaper, radio, television, and of course the internet. The main focus of any direct marketing strategy is to increase the number of customers that respond to your marketing campaign or "response rate" while also trying to decrease the cost of advertising. Increasing customer response to your advertising will accomplish two very important things. One, increase the number of sales leads generated by advertising, and two, further establish business name recognition.
The ability to properly communicate with your business's target audience is an extremely important factor in your overall business success. As you learn about direct marketing; keep in mind that persistence really does pay.

One of the most important aspects of designing a successful direct marketing campaign is in targeting your audience. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks directly to your potential customer's wants and needs will mean the difference between creating quality sales leads for your business and utter frustration at a lack of customer responsiveness.

Several important questions to answer when developing any direct marketing campaign are:

* Who..? Who are you targeting with your particular business message? Who are the people who would be most interested in hearing what you have to say?

* Why..? Do you just want people to review a few helpful products..or do you want them to retain your services?

* What...? What specific benefits are you offering through your message?

* When...? Are you looking for a more immediate response from your reader...or are you providing food for thought and building your relationship?

* Last but not least...How? How do you intend to present and distribute your message to your potential customers?

Your study of direct marketing will be an on going process. It's important to understand what works for you and your business, what doesn't, and why that is. The key to success will be in continuing to try different strategies and techniques in order to perfect a particular combination of things that work well for you.

Pay Per Click Success Secrets - 7 Tips to Write Successful Advertisement in PPC Advertising Campaign

2010-01-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

One of the most significant components to your success in PPC online advertising is to write the highly successful advertisements in order to increase the click through rate (CTR) and the opportunities to turn those visitors into customers. Within this article, you will discover and learn great tips on writing the successful advertisement in PPC online advertising. The top success tip of writing the advertisement is to grab the viewer's attention as much as possible. You will discover and learn great tips and inside secrets on writing the successful advertisements in PPC. It is obviously that those tips will help you to write better or even highly successful advertisement in PPC online advertising.

1. Write to Your Targeted Audience.

The first step of writing the highly successful advertisement is to write your own advertisements directly to your targeted audience. With the better understanding in your market and audience, it is easier to write your advertisements directly to your targeted audience. It is obviously that your advertisements will not success if they can not lead directly to the targeted audience.

The real secrets of PPC online advertising are to: (1) identify the small group of people in the market and (2) research effectively and get better understand people in the market.

2. Address the Benefits Rather Than Features.

There is no doubt that you have to identify the benefits of your products or services, rather than the features of products. It has proven that benefits can lead you to sale, but features can not. It means benefits can sell your products to your potential customers whereas the features only tell your products to them!

The real secrets of PPC online advertising are to: (1) list down all possible benefits of your products and (2) emphasize your benefits into your advertisement.

3. Insert Your Niche Keywords into Your Advertisement.

Inserting your keywords into your advertisement is very powerful and attractive approach. It has proven that if you insert your keywords into the advertisement, the opportunities to increase the click through rate (or CTR) will be opened and grown. With those keywords, it is easier to grab the viewers' attention.

The real secrets of PPC online advertising are to: (1) insert your keywords into the first line of your advertisement in PPC and (2) insert those keywords as much as possible into the advertisement.

4. Include a Strong and Solid "Call to Action" Phrase.

Another powerful tip is to include a strong and solid "call to action" phrase into your advertisement. For example, you include: "Sign up", "Register now", and "Save on". Otherwise, the prohibited phrase could be: "Click here", "Visit here", "Come see" and "Press here".

The real secrets of PPC online advertising are to: (1) include your "call to action" phrase into your advertisement always and (2) do not include the prohibited phrase or break any PPC search engines' term and use of condition.

5. Use the relevancy display URLs.

It is great idea to include the relevancy display URLs into your advertisement. Obviously, the more relevancy display URLs are, the more opportunities for people to click on and visit are! You have to use the relevancy and active display URLs.

The real secrets of PPC online advertising are to: (1) embed your keywords into your URLs and (2) use the existing and workable URLs only.

6. Use Proper Grammar and Correct Spelling.

Obviously, you have to use the proper grammar and correct spelling in your advertisement. Without them, your advertisement will look non-professional advertisement.

The real secret of PPC online advertising in this tip is to ensure that your advertisements look professional. It is a great idea to review and ensure that you use the proper grammar and correct spelling before submitting your advertisement.

7. Ensure that Your Advertisement is Easy to Understand and Straight Forward.

The last tip to write the highly successful advertisement is to write your easy-to-understand advertisement. You have to keep your advertisement short, clear and direct to the point. You have a limited space to write your own advertisement. Thus, it is a great idea to keep your advertisement clear, complete and concise.

The real secrets of PPC online advertising are to: (1) get better understanding about the products or services you are trying to write ads and (2) keep your advertisements clear, complete and concise.

Finally, writing the highly successful advertisements is one of the most significant components for your online business in PPC online advertising. With the highly successful advertisements, the opportunities to increase the CTR in PPC online advertising will open and increase. The real secrets of writing the successful advertisements are: (1) write direct to your targeted audience (2) address the benefits of your products (3) insert your keywords in the first line of advertisement (4) insert a strong "call to action" phrase (5) use the relevancy display URLs (6) use the proper grammar and correct spelling and (7) keep your advertisements clear, complete and concise. Apart from these great tips, all you have to do next is to monitor, track and evaluate your advertisements for improvement in the future.

Learn more secrets of how to success in PPC online advertising (e.g. write the highly profitable advertisement, keyword research, campaign management and keyword bidding strategies) and become a wealthy affiliate millionaire. You will learn great tips, inside secrets and workable techniques on PPC online advertising, particularly Adwords, every singly month. Also, you will discover and learn monthly up-to-date affiliate information, top profitable recommended online affiliate marketing programs, do effective research, improve continuously your home based affiliate business, learn how to make big money online from home over $5,000 a day and participant with other successful affiliate marketing entrepreneurs. You will discover great tips on internet affiliate marketing for your highly successful. Also, you will save your time and money for your trial & error.

Join now - get the full access to unlimited business and revenue ideas, detailed reviews of your sale letter, candid critiques of your website design, traffic campaign strategies proven to attract buyers and tricks to increase your sales by 400% or more! You will discover and learn proven moneymaking secrets to instantly increase your sales over $10,000 per month or more!

Read more valuable articles, news and up-to-date information about home based affiliate business at: http://www.zMillionDollars.com/blog. You will discover a wealthy of informative about how to start, build, run and grow your home based affiliate business.

*Reprint Policy: Reprint in full with writer's name, contact information, active links and brief bio.

Master these four fundamental steps to network marketing

2009-12-30T09:15:00.000-08:00

Master these four fundamental steps to network marketing and be all but guaranteed both incredible wealth and great success. Fail to understand the importance of but one, and condemn your business to flounder and ultimately follow the path of so many eager, yet unprepared network marketing hopefuls. You may be thinking at this point, only four secrets to making millions and millions of dollars? Let's hear it then. Actually, there is really only one. Time and time again, success story after success story; all have this one truth in common. So, this particular gem I’ll save for last. If network marketing is all about networking and of course marketing, why do so many network marketers continue to struggle to realize the infinite networking and lead generating potential of the internet? Simply put, it's being done all wrong. How's that?

Network marketing (also known as "Multi-Level-Marketing" or MLM) depends most heavily on...

- recruiting / lead generation / relationship-building

- sales conversion

- ongoing consumption

- replicating yourself through down line motivation and training

If your network marketing business fails to recognize the importance and any one of these fundamental elements then quite simply, you won't have much of a business at all.

Everything starts with recruiting and lead generation. No leads means no sales. No sales means no down line. No down line means... I'm sure you get the idea here. The entire process is built upon the foundation of recruiting and relationship-building with the express intent of maximizing product consumption and the success of your down line. Your bottom line is this. If you can't replicate your success within your down line you ultimately fail to realize the true income generating potential of network marketing.

That being said, I'll take this opportunity to summarize my own cautionary tale for those who are new to network marketing or who are just now thinking of taking the plunge. For those who have been around the block a time or two please bear with me. Much of my story may undoubtedly sound very much like your own.

When I first made the decision to start my network marketing business, I believed that with a great product and an effective marketing system, enough hard work would guarantee me success. I had the right attitude, but the wrong impression of what made this business tick. I expected to have a great deal to learn and I was eager to do so. I attended trainings, bought books, studied sales copy, purchased leads, ran ad campaigns, the whole routine.

I managed to generate a fair number of leads, and only a few conversions. For me that was fine. I assumed that if x amount of traffic equaled y amount of conversions, all I needed to do was... You guessed it, drive more traffic. So, here I am grinding like a mad man at driving traffic, and losing all but my shirt in the process. That's when it dawned on me. Sure things are a bit slow going, but if my real return on my investment comes with creating a successful down line... How many members of my down line can I honestly say would be willing to put in this much time, effort, and yes money, for the same results. Not a single one...

I'll say this once more just to be absolutely clear. If you can't easily and effectively replicate a reasonable measure of success in your network marketing down line, then you are in effect spinning your wheels without going much of anywhere. If you assume that replicated content and replicated sites are the same thing as replicated success, you may want to think again.

Think of your business like a car and the content you provide your potential prospects as the wheels. If you expect to move your business you need the content you provide about your business to stand out. You need wheels that give your business traction. That traction comes in the form of having a unique voice and providing your prospects unique content about your business.

Well that about says it... Once you do your pre-selling and your marketing to generate your leads make sure you can provide good quality content to convert those leads into sales. Create an effective method to transfer some form of ownership to your down line so that they can achieve their own unique voice and replicate your success for themselves.

Oh and as for my million dollar secret... So, what is the secret that creates truly successful businesses, not to mention truly wealthy people? Here it is...

Do what you love... If you can find a way to turn your passion, your interest, even your favorite hobby into your business, then you will be in a much better position to achieve true success. Turning an opportunity to make money into something you love is infinitely more difficult that turning something you love into an opportunity to make money.

If this information helps even one person out there find a bit of the success that we all seem to be searching for, then I'd say that this article has served it's purpose very well. For any questions or further information, feel free to contact me.

Advertising - Precious Information Or Vicious Manipulation?

2009-12-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

Is advertising the ultimate means to inform and help us in our everyday decision-making or is it just an excessively powerful form of mass deception used by companies to persuade their prospects and customers to buy products and services they do not need? Consumers in the global village are exposed to increasing number of advertisement messages and spending for advertisements is increasing accordingly. It will not be exaggerated if we conclude that we are 'soaked in this cultural rain of marketing communications' through TV, press, cinema, Internet, etc. (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). But if thirty years ago the marketing communication tools were used mainly as a product-centered tactical means, now the promotional mix, and in particular the advertising is focused on signs and semiotics. Some argue that the marketers' efforts eventually are "turning the economy into symbol so that it means something to the consumer" (Williamson, cited in Anonymous, Marketing Communications, 2006: 569). One critical consequence is that many of the contemporary advertisements "are selling us ourselves" (ibid.)

The above mentioned process is influenced by the commodity of products and blurring of consumer's own perceptions of the companies' offering. In order to differentiate and position their products and/or services today's businesses employ advertising which is sometimes considered not only of bad taste, but also as deliberately intrusive and manipulative. The issue of bad advertising is topical to such extent that organisations like Adbusters have embraced the tactics of subvertising - revealing the real intend behind the modern advertising. The Adbusters magazine editor-in-chief Kalle Lason commented on the corporate image building communication activities of the big companies: "We know that oil companies aren't really friendly to nature, and tobacco companies don't really care about ethics" (Arnold, 2001). On the other hand, the "ethics and social responsibility are important determinants of such long-term gains as survival, long-term profitability, and competitiveness of the organization" (Singhapakdi, 1999). Without communications strategy that revolves around ethics and social responsibility the concepts of total quality and customer relationships building become elusive. However, there could be no easy clear-cut ethics formula of marketing communications.

ADVERTISING - PRESCIOUS INFORMATION OR VICIOUS MANIPULATION?

In order to get insights into the consumer perception about the role of advertising we have reviewed a number of articles and conducted four in-depth interviews. A number of research papers reach opposed conclusions. These vary from the ones stating that "the ethicality of a firm's behavior is an important consideration during the purchase decision" and that consumers "will reward ethical behavior by a willingness to pay higher prices for that firm's product" (Creyer and Ross Jr., 1997) to others stressing that "although consumers may express a desire to support ethical companies, and punish unethical companies, their actual purchase behaviour often remains unaffected by ethical concerns" and that "price, quality and value outweigh ethical criteria in consumer purchase behaviour" (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001). Focusing on the advertising as the most prominent marketing communication tool we have constructed and conducted an interview consisting of four themes and nine questions. The conceptual frame of this paper is built on these four themes.

THEME I. The Ethics in Advertising

The first theme comprises two introductory questions about the ethics in advertising in general.

I.A. How would you define the ethics in advertising?

The term ethics in business involves "morality, organisational ethics and professional deontology" (Isaac, cited in Bergadaa', 2007). Every industry has its own guidelines for the ethical requirements. However, the principal four requirements for marketing communications are to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Unfortunately, in a society where the course of action of the companies is determined by profit targets the use of marketing communications messages "may constitute a form of social pollution through the potentially damaging and unintended effects it may have on consumer decision making" (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999).

One of the interviewed respondents stated that "the most successful companies do no need ethics in their activities because they have built empires." Another view is that "sooner or later whoever is not ethical will face the negative consequences."

I.B. What is your perception of the importance of ethics in advertising?

The second question is about the importance of being moral when communicating with/to your target audiences and the way consumers/customers view it. In different research papers we have found quite opposing conclusions. Ethics of business seems to be evaluated either as very important in the decision making process or as not really a serious factor in this process. An example of rather extreme stance is that "disaster awaits any brand that acts cynically" (Odell, 2007).

It may seem obvious that the responsibility should be carried by the advertiser because "his is the key responsibility in keeping advertising clean and decent" (Bernstein, 1951). On the other hand the companies' actions are defined by the "the canons of social responsibility and good taste" (ibid.). One of the interviewees said:

"The only responsible for giving decent advertising is the one who profits at the end. Company's profits should not be at the expense of society."

Another one stated that "our culture and the level of societal awareness determine the good and bad in advertising".

The increased importance of marketing communications ethics is underscored by the need of applying more dialogical, two-way communications approaches. The "demassification technologies have the potential to facilitate dialogue", but the "monologic" attitude is still the predominant one (Botan, 1997). Arnold (2001) points out the cases of Monsanto and Esso which had to pay "a price for its [theirs] one-way communications strategy". In this train of thought we may review ethics in advertisements from two different perspectives as suggested by our respondents and different points of view in the reviewed papers. The first one is that it is imperative to have one common code of ethics imposed by the law. The other affirms the independence and responsibility of every industry for setting its own standards.

THEME II. Which type of regulation should be the leading one in the field of advertising?

The next theme directs the attention towards the regulation system which should be the primary one. Widely accepted opinion is that both self regulation and legal controls should work in synergy. In other words the codes of practice are meant to complement the laws. However, in certain countries there are stronger legal controls over the advertising, e.g. in Scandinavia. On the other hand the industry's self regulation is preferred in the Anglo-Saxon world. Still, not everyone agrees with the laissez-faire concept.

One of our respondents said:

"I believe governments should impose stricter legal frame and harsher punishment for companies which do not comply with the law."

Needless to say, the social acceptability varies from one culture/country to another. At the end of the day "good taste or bad is largely a matter of the time, the place, and the individual" (Bernstein, 1951). It would be also probably impossible to set clear-cut detailed rules in the era of Internet and interactive TV. Therefore, both types of regulation should be applied with the ultimate aim of reaching balance between the sacred right of freedom of choice and information and minimizing possible widespread offence. Put differently, the goal is synchronising the "different ethical frameworks" of marketers and "others in society" in order to fill the "ethics gap" (Hunt and Vitell, 2006).

THEME III. Content of Advertisements.

Probably the most controversial issue in the field of marketing communications is the content of advertisements. Nwachukwu et al. (1997) distinguish three areas of interest in terms of ethical judgment of ads: "individual autonomy, consumer sovereignty, and the nature of the product". The individual autonomy is concerned with advertising to children. Consumer sovereignty deals with the level of knowledge and sophistication of the target audience whereas the ads for harmful products are in the centre of public opinion for a long time. We have added two more perspectives to arrive at five questions in the conducted interviews. The first one concerns the advertisement that imply sense of guilt and praise affluence that in the most cases cannot be achieved and the second one is about advertisements stimulating desire and satisfaction through acquisition of material goods.

III.A. What is your attitude towards the advertisement of harmful products?

A typical example is the advertisement of cigarettes. Nowadays we cannot see slogans like "Camel Agrees with Your Throat" (Chickenhead, accessed 25th September 2007) or "Chesterfield - Packs More Pleasure - Because It's More Perfectly Packed!" (Chickenhead, accessed 25th September 2007). The general advertisement, sponsorship and other marketing communications means are already prohibited to be used by cigarette producers. Surprisingly, most of the answers of the respondents were not against the cigarettes advertisement. One of the respondents said:

"People are well informed about the consequences of smoking so it is a matter of personal choice."

As with many other contemporary products the shift in communications messages for cigarettes is oriented towards symbol and image building. The same can be said for the alcohol ads. A well-known example of emotional advertising is the Absolut Vodka campaign. From Absolut Nectar, through Absolut Fantasy to Absolut World the Swedish drink actually aims to be Absolut... Everything.

Advertising of hazardous products is even more harshly criticised when it is aimed at audiences with low individual autonomy, i.e. children. Two main issues in this respect are the manipulation of cigarettes and alcohol as "the rite of passage into adulthood" and the fact that "sales of health-hazardous products (alcohol, cigarettes) develop freely without much disapproval" (Bergadaa, 2007).

III.B. What is your attitude towards the advertisement to children?

Children are not only customers, but also consumers, influencers and users in the family Decision-Making Unit (DMU). Additional difficulty is that they are too impressionable to be deciders in the DMU. At the same time it is not a secret that marketers apply "the same basic strategy of trying to sell the parent through the child's insistence on the purchase" (Bernstein, 1951). It is not a surprise then that "spending on advertising for children has increased five-fold in the last ten years and two thirds of commercials during child television programs are for food products" (Bergadaa 2007). In the US alone children represent a direct purchases market of $24 billion worth (McNeal cited in Bergadaa, 2007) which certainly is on the top of the agendas of many companies. While exploiting children's decision-making immaturity advertisers often go too far in dematerialising their products and "teleporting children out of the tangible and into the virtual world of brand names" (Bergadaa 2007). Teenage virtual worlds like Habbo where snack food brands run advertising campaigns are already a fact of life (Goldie, 2007). The imaginative worlds are popular not only online. Hugely successful for creating a fantasy world is Mc Donald's. The company tops the European list of kids' advertisers while more than half of the children's adverts are for junk food.

In some countries there are harsher restrictions to the children advertising.

• "Sweden and Norway do not permit any television advertising to be directed towards children under 12 and no adverts at all are allowed during children's programmes.

• Australia does not allow advertisements during programmes for pre-school children.

• Austria does not permit advertising during children's programmes, and in the Flemish region of Belgium no advertising is permitted 5 minutes before or after programmes for children.

• Sponsorship of children's programmes is not permitted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden while in Germany and the Netherlands, although it is allowed, it is not used in practice." (McSpotlight, accessed 20th September 2007).

According to a research by Roberts and Pettigrew (2007) the most frequent themes in children advertising are "grazing, the denigration of core foods, exaggerated health claims, and the implied ability of certain foods to enhance popularity, performance and mood." But the junk food is not the only reason for parents' preoccupation. According to a study of Kaiser Family Foundation (Dolliver, 2007) parents are concerned about the amount of advertising of the following products (in order of importance): toys, video games, clothing, alcohol/beer, movies, etc.

The interviewed respondents were unanimous: "The advertising to children should be strictly monitored." Similar results were obtained in surveys by Rasmussen Reports and Kaiser Family Foundation. Nevertheless, the legal means are just one part of the children's protection. The other part involves "the decision-making responsibility of parents and teachers" which is "to assist their children in developing a skeptical attitude to the information in advertising" (Bergadaa 2007). The marketers themselves should also be involved in shaping the moral system of our future and "each brand should have its own deontology - a code of practice regarding children - rather than rely on industry codes" (Horgan, 2007).

III.C. Do you think there are many misleading, exaggerating and confusing advertisements. Are many ads promising things that are not possible to achieve?

It will not be exaggerated to state that advertising is in a sense "salesmanship addressed to masses of potential buyers rather than to one buyer at a time" (Bernstein, 1951). Since "salesmanship itself is persuasion" (ibid.) we cannot merely blame advertisers for pursuing their sales goals. However, in the last twenty years or so advertisers have increasingly applied semiotics in their messages and as a consequence ads have begun to function more and more as symbols. One extreme case in this stream of advertising is the creation of idealised image of a person who uses the advertised product. Bishop (2000) draws our attention to two "typical representatives of self-identity image ads" which entice consumers to project the respective images to themselves through use of the products:

- "The Beautiful Woman";

- "The **** Teenagers.

Through setting of such stereotypes advertisers not only mislead the public and exaggerate the effects of products but also provoke low self-esteem in consumers. At the same time they promise results that in most cases are simply impossible to achieve. Instead of promoting "'glamorous' anorexic body images" communication messages should use "varied body types" and should drop the idea of the "impossible physical body images" (Bishop, 2000).

To question III.C one of the respondents commented:

"The customers of these products [the ones advertised through thin models] are mostly people who do not have the same physical characteristic. For me, this type of advertising is deliberately aimed at people to make them feel not complete, far from attractive social outsiders."

However, another interviewed stated that: "every person has his own way of evaluating what is believable and what is misleading. Consumers are enough sophisticated to know what is exaggerated."

Similarly, Bishop (2000) concludes that "image ads are not false or misleading", and "whether or not they advocate false values is a matter for subjective reflection." The author argues that image ads do not interfere with our internal autonomy and if people are misled, it is because they want it. It is all about our free choice of behaviour and no advertisement can modify our desires. Perhaps, the truth lies somewhere in-between the two extreme positions.

III.D. What is your attitude towards advertisement that imply sense of guilt, and praise affluence that in the most cases cannot be achieved?

A more specific case of controversial advertising is the one used to "promote not so much self indulgence as self doubt"; the one that "seeks to create needs, not to fulfill them: to generate new anxieties instead of allaying old ones" (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). A response of our interviewee reads:

"It is not only a matter of advertising. It has to do with the social inequality and the desire to possess what you can not."

Hackley and Kitchen (1999) refer to this discrepancy as to "when reality does not match the image of affluence and the result is a subjective feeling of dissonance". The issue could be elaborated further through the next question.

III.E. Are advertisements stimulating desire and satisfaction through acquisition of material goods moral?

We live in a society which is more or less marked by materialism. Advertisements are often blamed to fuel consumption which is allegedly leading to happiness. The role of promoting satisfaction through acquisition of material goods has become so important that currently the "media products are characterised by relativism, irony, self referentiality and hedonism" (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). Is the popular saying "those who die with most toys win" really a motivator in consumers' behavior and could consumption be the cure of emotional dissonance? This seems to be the case provided a brand succeeds to enter in the evoked set of consumer choices. This new "kind of materialism" goes hand in hand with "the emergence of individualism via sheer hedonism along with narcissism and selfishness" (Bergadaa 2007).

THEME IV. Is the quantity of advertisements justified?

IV.A. Do you think there is too much advertising?

An audit of food advertising aimed at children in Australia by Roberts and Pettigrew (2007) revealed that "28.5 hours of children's television programming sampled contained 950 advertisements." Actually, we all are being bombarded by ads on TV, Internet, print media, etc. The amount and content of marketing communications messages puts the consumer's information processing capacity to a test. The exposure to marketing data overload often leads to diluted consumer's selective perception. Whether our responses are circumscribed by "confusion, existential despair, and loss of moral identity" or we "adapt constructively to the [communications] Leviathan and become intelligent, cynical, streetwise" (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999) is a question open to debate.

Two opposite streams of attitudes were produced in our research. One stance is concerned with the undue quantity of advertisement. The other stream proclaims that "If there is an advertisement, so it is justified by a need." We agree that the communications overload may indeed have "pervasive effect on the social ecology of the developed world" (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). If the increasing communication pollution is not managed properly by both legal and industry points of view yet again the advertising will manage "to hoist its foot to its own mouth and kick out a couple of its own front teeth" (Bernstein, 1951).

CONCLUSION

In preparation of this paper we have used qualitative depth interviews in order to get insights for what actual customers opine. We have also substantiated our presentation with references to a number of influential articles in the field of ethics in marketing communications. Generally, our respondents as well as various authors have taken two opposing stances. The first one affirms that ethics in marketing communications matters considerably, whereas the other one downsizes the importance of ethics, thereby stressing the role of other factors in consumer decision-making, i.e. price, brand loyalty, convenience, etc.

Marketers should understand their "responsibility for the emerging portrait of future society" (Bergadaa 2007). Not only there is a need of legal ethical frame but also professional ethical benchmarks and deontology should be in place. One of the main challenges is to avoid creating "a happy customer in the short term", because "in the long run both consumer and society may suffer as a direct result of the marketer's actions in 'satisfying' the consumer" (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001).

The strength of the advertisement influence exerted on consumers is only one part of the equation. On the other hand we may affirm that consumers are not morally subservient and according to the information process models there is a natural cognitive defense. The communications tools "offer us a theatre of our own imagination" (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). Consequently, we accept the reality in terms of our own experiences. In this sense marketers do not create reality - they are simply a mirror of the society. We may argue that unfortunately this is not always the case.

Advertising is often deservedly seen as the embodiment of consumer freedom and choice. Notwithstanding this important role, when the choice is "between one candy bar and another, the latest savoury snack or sweetened breakfast cereal or fast food restaurant" (McSpotlight, accessed 20th September 2007) it represents anything else but not an alternative and certainly not a healthy one.

The words of Bernstein (1951), said fifty-six years ago are still very much a question of present interest: "It is not true that if we 'save advertising, we save all,' but it seems reasonable to assume that if we do not save advertising, we might lose all."

How can promotional merchandise work for your businesses marketing?

2009-12-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

For as little as $1 per unit you can get an item that can be put in the hands of a potential customer that has enormous retention value, keeping your brand message in view throughout the working day. After all, how many promotional pens have you got on your desk today? But it’s not just about customer retention. You need to be thinking about recruitment and re-activation too. To recruit, you need impact and what better way than to look at the more obscure and funny promotional items in the marketplace. From character usb’s and shaped stress products through to novelty pens and cuddly toys…the possibilities to make a statement are endless!

Look around the office now and count the number of promotional pens, promotional pencils, branded highlighters and promotional markers you can see. That’s why they are the most popular idea most people have when they first consider promotional merchandise. There use ensures high retention levels; they are great value for money and make a really cost effective giveaway too! And they have great scope to carry the message, visual and logo to a wide range of people.

But the options can move beyond the cost-effective range. Consider your best customers, they’re value to your business and you should be considering a suitable corporate gift. From fountain pens and rollerball pens through to boxed pen gift sets, Code Promotional has a great range of products from leading brand names including Parker Pens, Cross, Sheaffer, Senator, Waterman and Papermate.

So, our advice at Code Promotional Merchandise is to consider the use of the promotional item, consider your target audience, give yourself a realistic budget to work within and investigate how promotional items and corporate gifts can be a key element of your marketing plans and support the long-term growth of your business.

Promotional Clothing

2009-12-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

You can personalize just about any thing with your company logo, slogan, and contact information. When you give these products to show your appreciation for customer or employee loyalty, hard work, and even friendship over the years, you do more than give a gift, you keep your company's name fresh in the minds of the recipients. Every year, mostly business owners become interested in innovative advertising methods and are searching for many ways to gain more exposure. There are many specialists suggesting effective and creative promoting ideas and they all seem to have something in common: promotional products for the growth of their business. In today’s competitive world it is important to portray the right image for your business through brand awareness. Promotional Products are proven to have a positive and long-lasting impact on existing clients and potential customers. Used as sales incentives or thank-you items, promotional products provide a constant presence for your business name beyond the sale or service.

We are experts in providing a reliable, cost-effective and easy-to-use service to help you choose the right promotional products for your needs. We know and source only the highest quality merchandise from reputable suppliers and use a variety of printing and embroidery methods to ensure your promotional products are made to last. We believe that relationships are the most important part of our business and work tirelessly to make your Upbeat Promotions experience stress-free and hope that you will recommend or return to us in the future. Upbeat Promotions is proud to be a member of Australian promotional Products Association , which gives us access to not only the most innovative new release promotional products, but also serves to further guarantee our clients that the products and services we provide are recognized as being of the highest quality in the industry. Upbeat Promotions are experts in providing a reliable, cost-effective and easy-to-use service to help you choose the right promotional products for your needs. We know and source only the highest quality merchandise from reputable suppliers across the globe.

Multimedia specializes in web site marketing

2009-11-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

Multimedia specializes in web site marketing, advertising, promotions, and designs web sites that are both "user" friendly and "search engine" friendly. free advertising and web site promotion with traffic marketing and online advertising. A variety of programs are available to fit your marketing needs including: advertising, promotional options, content integration, permission-based e-mail marketing and market research/polling services. An experienced support network for insider information on advertising, promotion and marketing. Get answers to virtually anything about advertising, promotion and marketing, and other areas of promotional value. In small firms, the owner or chief executive officer might assume all advertising, promotions, marketing, sales, and public relations responsibilities. Computer skills are vital because marketing, product promotion, and advertising on the Internet are increasingly common. Persons interested in becoming advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales managers should be mature, creative, highly motivated, resistant to stress, flexible, and decisive. Marketing managers work with advertising and promotion managers to promote the firm's products and services and to attract potential users.

Most advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales management positions are filled by promoting experienced staff or related professional personnel. In particular, employers will seek those who have the computer skills to conduct advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales activities on the Internet. Our marketing solutions range from consulting on marketing and advertising promotions right to customer care solutions. Collegiate Concepts - Advertising specialties and promotional products with custom logos or marketing text, includes compete product catalog, best-selling items, and testimonials.

Objectives To assess the effects of tobacco advertising and promotion on nonsmoking adolescents' future smoking behaviour. Authors' conclusions Longitudinal studies consistently suggest that exposure to tobacco advertising and promotion is associated with the likelihood that adolescents will start to smoke. There are no trials of the impact of tobacco advertising and promotional activities on people taking up smoking. The Act bans advertising and promotion (including sponsorship) of tobacco products, with certain limited exceptions. The treaty obliges Party States to undertake a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as far as their constitutions permit. Internal tobacco company documents confirm that young people are a primary target of advertising and promotional campaigns .

The Association has repeatedly urged the Government to legislate for a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising and promotion. These data add up to a strong circumstantial case that tobacco industry advertising and promotional activity encourages adolescents to smoke. This decline was associated with an almost exponential increase in tobacco industry expenditure on advertising and promotion of cigarettes. There is considerable evidence that tobacco industry advertising and promotion are one of the major influences on the uptake of smoking by the young. The settlements bar the use of cartoons in advertising, promotion, packaging or labeling of tobacco products.

For details on web design and promotion, advertising rates, or speakers' services ... Median annual earnings of advertising and promotions managers in May 2004 in the advertising and related services industry were $89,570. Our other promotional services include safe opt-in targeted email and newsletter advertising, targeted banner promotions, and package deals. Online promotion and internet utilities: art, arts, artist, artists, advertising, promotion, free, submission, tools, services Without frame Online promotion No frame version art, arts, artist, artists, advertising, promotion, free, submission, tools, services Online promotion: art, arts, artist, artists, advertising, promotion, free, submission, tools, services ArT-YoU - Free advertising for the arts, the artists and the galleries. Generally speaking, advertising is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor. Site promotion services, both paid and free advertising are included.

For example, many managers are former sales representatives, purchasing agents, buyers, or product, advertising, promotions, or public relations specialists. These managers direct promotion programs that combine advertising with purchase incentives to increase sales. Tips Make sure that your advertising and promotion tactics support your sales tactics. a part of your online advertising, promotion and sales strategy. There is sure to be a Go Northwest! Sales Promotion Sales promotion tend to be thought of as being all promotions apart from advertising, personal selling, and public relations. http://www.advertising-internet-online.com/advertising-promotion

Marketing Strategy & Marketing Management

2009-11-16T17:35:00.000-08:00

Brand awareness is a direct product of the Marketing Strategy – by identifying the key target markets and having an understanding of the competitive environment it is possible to establish a picture of the level and types of “brand” advertising required to generate awareness of the brand for new customers and reinforce the message with existing consumers. Planning the elements of the campaign designed to generate a specific response is more closely aligned with the sales budgets and requires analysis of the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising.
Using response and conversion rates as a starting point allows MJH Group to determine the expected result for a particular level of spend in a particular area and plan the marketing strategy accordingly. This is correlated to the sales budget to help plan the necessary mix of advertising required to drive the response to deliver the sales result.

Creativity and Common Sense in Non-consumer Advertising

2009-10-31T01:18:00.000-07:00

“I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half.” This succinct resume of the advertiser’s dilemma is often attributed to John Wanamaker, the department store pioneer. Some people prefer to give the credit to Henry Ford, the automobile pioneer, or other favorite business giants. Whoever said it first, it is certain that it has been said thousand and thousand of times since. The significance of the observation is nothing short of astounding. These are people whose business is investing and harvesting financial assets, yet when it comes to advertising, they freely admit to wasting at least half of their money! But the observation can be turned on its head. Viewed from this perspective, it means that these same extremely clever and resourceful marketers believe that the power of advertising is so great, even at only 50% effectiveness they still get their money’s worth. This is equally astounding!

The value of advertising can most easily be seen with mass marketed products. For example, a breakfast cereal launches a major advertising campaign; within a few days to weeks the sales figures will reflect the impact of the campaign. With technical and industrial products, the picture is not quite so clear. Few people buy a car or a piece of industrial equipment on impulse. They build up to it over a long period of time, so that the cause-and-effect relationship between advertising and sales is virtually impossible to evaluate.

Nevertheless, advertising is indispensable. So the question is, can you construct advertising campaigns that will assure the best return on investment (ROI), even when that return cannot be directly measured?

The answer is both yes and no. It is “no” if you believe that advertising by nature is more of an art than a science. It is “yes” if you believe that advertising is a combination of both art and science.

It is certainly true that advertising has a major “art” component, i.e. that people who have a “feel” for it are likely to produce better, more effective advertising than people who don’t. Unfortunately, this verity has led to the false conclusion that advertising is predominantly art, i.e. a matter of taste.

When advertising is viewed as largely a question of personal preference, the rational component of the exercise takes second importance. Worse, it often degenerates into a kind of pseudoscience of rules and regulations with no scientific justification:

-- Be positive: no one likes negative advertising

-- Avoid simple, straightforward headlines; headlines should “tease” readers into the advert

-- Use big, bold visuals; people are impressed by pictures

-- Show the solution, not the problem: this is reassuring to potential buyers

-- Never write more than 15 - 20 words of body copy; no one reads body copy anyhow

-- Make payoff lines (slogans) clever and memorable, not explicit and to the point

The summation seems to be: Advertising is entertainment. If you can attract attention and give a show, then you will sell.

One writer on the subject bluntly stated: “Advertising consists of first hitting people in the face with a pie, then delivering your message.” It is of course true that you must attract attention before you can deliver your message. But just how seriously is anyone like to take your message while he is wiping whipped cream off his face?

Advertising may have elements of show business. But if it is only show business, it will fail. On the other hand, if we are more detached in our analysis -- i.e. if we put the art of advertising and the science of advertising into better balance -- we many learn some valuable lesions. And gain some valuable commercial leverage.

I have done considerably work in pharmaceutical marketing. Doctors are perhaps the most difficult targets in the world, because what you “sell” them is ideas and information, which later on they may or may not turn into prescriptions for their patients. Thus, while the following examples relate specifically to doctors and medicines, the underlying principles are universally valid. Throughout this article, wherever you see the word “doctor”, mentally substitute the name of your potential technical and/or industrial customer and see how well these ideas fit.

Facing the Facts

David Ogilvy, one of the most highly regarded gurus of consumer advertising, asserts: “Very few advertisements contain enough factual information to sell the product. There is a ludicrous tradition among copywriters that consumers aren’t interested in facts. Northing could be farther from the truth.”

If this contention is valid for housewives, how much more valid must it be for doctors!

Medicine is a serious business. When a doctor reads a medical journal, he is looking for medical information. Otherwise, he would be reading something else. It therefore follows: Advertising in medical journals that gives real medical information is likely to attract more attention and achieve better results than advertising which doesn’t.

If this seems self-evident, medical journals bear witness to the opposite. The majority of adverts tend to fall into two categories:

1. Lots of words, but little real information (lack of a focused message).

2. A clever headline, a pleasing picture—and no information at all.

The excuse for the first kind of advert is often: “It is a new product; we need to create a personality for it.” It is hard to imagine how an empty personality, based solely on errant prose, will result in positive promotion.

The excuse for the second category of adverts often is: “It is a well known product; this is simply a reminder advert.” Certainly it makes sense to remind the doctor that a medicine exists. But it makes even more sense to remind him of why he is using it, if he is already using it. Or why he should be using it, if he isn’t.

The 80/20 Rule

The objection will now be raised: Doesn’t this “art + science” concept of advertising necessitate long body copy? Does it make sense to write long body copy when no one reads it anyhow?

Let’s examine this contention in reverse order.

For every 100 doctors who read the headline and look at the visual of an advert, let’s say only 20 will actually read the body. Does this represent an 80% wastage? Emphatically no.

The 80/20 rule is a fundamental tenet of technical and industrial marketing, i.e. in general 80% of sales come from 20% of customers. The same principle applies to advertising.

Readers who just look at the headline and visual, then turn the page, at that moment are not the real customers for the product. Those who remain to read the body copy are the real customers for the product. This is the ideal moment to tell them bout it, because this is when they want to know about it. Otherwise, they too are likely to turn the page and an excellent selling opportunity will be lost.

Body is important, in fact vital, because it is your only real chance to make the sale. But how long should that body copy be?

This is like asking how long is a piece of string. You don’t answer this question by counting the number of words. Rather, you consider the value of the words. The best guide is: If the body copy contains one word more than needed to deliver the message, it is probably too long; if it contains one word less than need to deliver the message, it is definitely too short, regardless of how many words are used!

Of course, it makes no sense to simply print the prescribing information. As Bill Bernbach, a legendary practitioner of consumer advertising, has written: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer; that it informs and renders a service. Then be certain that it says what it has to say in a way no one has ever said it before.”

Notice the balance in this advice.

First: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer.” This is advertising as a science. Determining what you want to say about your product and what you ought to say about it are two different things. This is why most good advertising starts with market research. And never lets anything go to press before it has been thoroughly tested.

Second: “Be certain that your advertisement says what it has to say in a way that no one has ever said it before.” This is advertising as an art.

How the advert expresses its message, both visually and verbally, can vary dramatically depending on who is saying it. The total impact the advert will achieve intimately depends on the talents of the art director and the copywriter, the so-called “creates” of the business.

The Use and Abuse of Creativity

Introducing the copywriter and art director into the discussion raises the vexing question of creativity in advertising.

“Creativity" is probably one of the most abused and misused words in English or any other language. As we have seen, some people think it means hitting people in the face with a pie. We have also seen the dangers of this approach. Surprising and shocking people in order to gain their attention can:

-- Undermine the credibility of the serious message you are trying to deliver.

-- Lead to rapid advertising “wear-out”. You can surprise and shock people only once; after that, you are likely to have no effect. Worse, you may have a negative effect!

Stripped of mythology, saying what you have to say in a way that it has never before been said simply means: Putting forward the essentials of the message in such a way that they cannot be ignored -- on the first exposure and on subsequent exposures.

So much emphasis is placed on attracting attention and conveying a message on the first exposure (“pie in the face”), very little thought seems to be given to what will happen, if anything, on the second, third and subsequent exposures. This is the concept of “wear-out”; after how many exposures does the advert stop having any useful impact?

The concept of wear-out is closely allied to the idea of repetition. Unlike supermarket adverts, adverts for prescription pharmaceuticals seldom appear only once (“Buy now before supplies run out; Special discount prices, stock up now”). Instead, they usually run for at least several months, and often a year or longer.

True, few doctors read the same advert more than once, but they cannot help seeing it more than once. They will certainly see it much more often than they will see the pharmaceutical representative who visits them. Advertising is the most frequent and most consistent point of contact between the doctor and the company.

A truly efficient advert should have impact each and every time it is seen -- whether it is read each time or not. This is why the fundamental structure is so important. And why it is well worth spending the time and energy to get it right, i.e. concept development not only for journal adverts, but also for brochures, mailings, oral presentations, symposia, etc.

How do you create advertising with such power and longevity?

In general, any advert that communicates the product name and main sell proposition in a flash should continue to work as long as the underlying strategy remains the same. The assumption is, each exposure -- even if it is only as long as it takes to turn the page -- reinforces previous impressions of the message in the journals, mailings, etc. Adverts that rely on “teaser” headlines or other indirect approaches are more problematical. It is far more likely that the doctor will perceive this kind of advertising as promotion rather than information, and will turn the page with no reinforcement of the selling message.

Courage and Conviction

A truly effective long-life advert may not always appear smashingly striking at first sight; however, if it is well constructed it will grow and gain strength over time. By contrast, an advert that is extremely striking at first sight -- this being its major attribute -- may in fact lose power over time. Sometimes overnight.

Developing advertisements that sell on first and subsequent exposures admits of no hard and fast rules. Some times it may mean an extremely factual advert that looks almost like editorial copy; other time it may be an advert with a highly emotional content. It all depends on the nature of the product; the nature of the market, and what ideas, true or false, are already in the doctor’s mind.

There is more to good technical and industrial advertising than meets the eye. Indeed, a superficial analysis is likely to be very misleading, with very expensive consequences. To properly evaluate an advertising campaign, it is necessary to know the underlying strategy and the objectives that strategy is designed to achieve.

By way of example, here are the descriptions of three advertising campaigns I produced when I was creative director of a specialized medical advertising agency. You may not fully understand the products, but look closely at the description of each advert.

1. Product: Vasodilator

Objective: Increase prescriptions by repositioning it as the first product of a new, more effective therapeutic class

Headline: “6 Actions on the Blood and the Vessels to Combat Claudication and its Premonitory Symptoms”

Visual: 6 symbols in the form of a rectangle representing the 6 modes of action

Body copy: factual, moderate length

2. Product: Benzodiazepine

Objective: Stabilize leadership position/market share in an anti-benzodiazepine marketing environment

Headline: “My Conditions for Prescribing an Anxiolytic to My Patients”

Visual: Intelligent, serious-looking general practitioner speaking the headline

Body copy: factual, short

3. Beta-2 mimetic bronchodilator

Objective: Maximize sales potential by overcoming market prejudice to using oral beta-2 mimetics in the treatment of nocturnal asthma

Headline: “Asthma: Night Is the Enemy”

Visual: Artist’s impression of the experience of a night-time asthma attack, painted by an asthmatic artist who actually suffers such attacks.

Body copy: factual; extremely short

At first glance the vasodilator and benzodiazepine adverts might appear uninspired, even banal. They are unlikely to win any awards for advertising “creativity”. On the other hand, the asthma advert is exactly the type that could win a creativity award.

Despite their superficial differences, fundamentally they are quire similar. All three adverts had very high awareness and credibility scores. One of the so-called “banal” adverts was so well received -- and had such an impact on sales -- that when we proposed a more “imaginative” version, the product manager, originally unconvinced by it, growled: “If you touch my advert, I will break your arm.”

Conclusion: All three adverts were extremely creative in the real sense of the word, because they:

The serious advertiser would do well to bear this functional definition of creativity uppermost in mind.

It takes courage to reject an advertising campaign proposal that is striking, cute, funny, artistic, etc., in favor of one that doesn’t seem to possess these desirable characteristics. A so-called “unimaginative” campaign that clearly responds to the needs of the market and has the innate capacity to grow and develop (i.e. continue generating sales) is considerably more creative, in the true sense of the word, than one that flashes like a meteor, then dissipates its energy and loses impact before it has had a chance to do its job.

Reason Why Advertising

2009-10-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of XXI century, companies take extreme care when formulating and executing sales promotions and advertising campaign. In some emerging markets, advertising efforts can raise eyebrows if companies appear to be exploiting regulatory loopholes and lack of consumer resistance to intrusion. Advertising is defined as any sponsored, paid message that is communicated in a nonpersonal way. Some advertising messages are designed to communicate with persons in a single country or market area. Some advertising campaigns are created for audiences across several country markets such as Europe or Latin America, and can be defined as messages whose art, copy, headlines, photographs, tag lines, and other elements have been developed expressly for their worldwide suitability. Advertising has a great influence on the society as it is often designed to add psychological value to a product or brand, it plays a more important communications role in marketing consumer products than in marketing industrial products. Advertising can control the circulation of ideas about a particular product.
Frequently purchased, low-cost products generally require heavy advertising support to remind consumers about the product. Not surprisingly, consumer products companies top the list of big advertising spenders. IBM, Tesco, M&S just a few of the companies with significant advertising expenditures.

The message of advertisement must be encoded, conveyed via the appropriate channels, and decoded by the customer-receiver. Communication takes place only when meaning is transferred. Three main difficulties can compromise an organization's attempt to com¬municate with customers: (1) the message may not get through to the intended recipient. This problem may be the result of an advertiser's lack of knowledge about appropriate media for reaching certain types of audiences. For example, the effectiveness of television.

(2) The message may reach the target audience and may be understood but still

may not induce the recipient to take the action desired by the sender. This could

result from a lack of cultural knowledge about a target audience. (3) The effectiveness of the message can be impaired by "noise" which means external influence such as competitive advertising, other sales personnel, and confusion at the receiving end. These factors can detract from the ultimate effectiveness of the communication.

Before the WWII period, David Ogilvy was one of the most well-known persons in advertising industry. His work and ideas of David Ogilvy was influenced by such famous figures as John Caples Claude Hopkins, and Raymond Rubicam. He foresaw new trends in advertising and emphasized the importance of salesman-ship-in-print philosophy before Albert Lasker. He wrote: "You have only 30 seconds [in a TV commercial]. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull ... " When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire." (Ogilvy 1985, cited "Advertising" 2004).

In the post-war period, two main forms of advertising, "image" and "reason why" advertising appeared. Both types have some advantages and disadvantages. In general, it is possible to say that image and "reason why" advertising are used by the companies to deliver different messages to their target audience.

"Reason why" advertising school combines the features of two different philosophies: "Rational" advertising and "Unique Selling Proposition". The rationale means that people are motivated and persuaded to buy the products. Obviously, this approach does not take cultural considerations into account. The advertising appeal is the communications approach that relates to the motives of the target audience. For example, ads based on a rational approach depend on logic and speak to the audience's intellect. Ads using an emotional approach appeal to the heart of the intended audience. In other words, some ads use a knowledge-based appeal whereas others appeal to feelings. Unique Selling Proposition is the promise or claim that captures the reason for buying the product or the benefit that ownership confers.

Because products are frequently at different stages in their life cycle in various national markets, and because of cultural, social, and economic dif¬ferences that exist in those markets, the most effective appeal or selling proposition for a product may vary from market to market. Rosser Reeves, the top account man at Ted Bates and representative of "reson-why" school created a well-known phrase "Unique Selling Proposition". This took place in the mid of 1950s, and since that time has been widely used by advertising professionals. "Unique Selling Proposition" means that "promoting one key feature and benefit of any brand for years and years and years would cut through the clutter of advertising and build an unassailable position in the consumer's mind" (unique selling proposition - debunked!, 2003). Today, unique selling proposition method of advertising does not work well.

According to Reeves the aim of this method is "getting a message into the heads of most people at the lowest possible cost" (Rothenberg, 2005). As an example of Reeves successful slogans is "Wonder Bread helps build strong bodies 12 ways," publicly boasted how one client spent $86.4 million in 10 years "on one piece of my copy." (cited Rothenberg, 2005).

The audience of "Reason why" advertising is uneducated but not stupid people. For this reason, it appeals to logic of a potential consumer. The gurus of "Reason why" advertising are John E. Powers, John E. Kennedy and Albert Lasker, Claude Hopkins, and Rosser Reeves. "Copy" was the technique created by John E. Kennedy and also called "Salesmanship-In-Print". "Kennedy's experience with The Regal Shoe Company, Post Grape Nuts, Postum Coffee, and Dr. Shoop's Family Medicine Co. proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he truly had isolated that fundamental concept" (Reason-why advertising, 2005).

To evaluate the response of a "reason-why" advertising campaign quantitative research is used. Also, coupons, samples, advertise sales and measure the response help the company to reach its target audience and increase sales. The armory of communication techniques at the organization's dis¬posal, which might be used singly or in combination, can be blended together into an effective and persuasive communications mix. Zealotry, which implies, according to Bob Garfield, knowable and formulaic, plays a crucial role in "Reason why" advertising.

In contrast, "image" advertising school is designed to enhance the public's perception of a company, create goodwill, or announce a major change such as a merger or acquisition. It is based on emotional and aesthetic appeal and ahs an impact on consumers' imagination. The main figures which played a significant role in "image" advertising school developmentwere Helen Lansdowne Resor, Earnest Elmo Calkins, Theodore MacManus, Bill Bernbach, Mary Wells Lawrence.

Bill Bernbach is considered the "creator" of "image" advertising. According to Bernbach the main concepts of this type include: "1. appeal to the heart instead of the head, reach people through their feelings; 2. Soyez Différent (Be Different), 3. Be Relevant, 4. Advertising is an intrinsic part of the product!, 5. Be Credible!, 6. Advertising is not a science, it's an art!, 7.Don't be a follower, be a leader!, 8, 9. Be Provocative and Take a stand. (Top Ten people, 1996).

The good example of image advertising is the Boeing ads which were part of a European print cam¬paign launched in 1997 to enhance Boeing's image by raising awareness of the num¬ber of jobs the company created locally. Following the merger of Daimler and Chrysler in the fall of 1998, a series of full-page print ads announced the formation of the new company. Global companies frequently utilize image advertising in an effort to present themselves as good corporate citizens in foreign countries.

In contrast to "reason why" advertising "image" advertising can be used "for large, widely known companies, but it's not a cost-effective technique for smaller companies without widespread name recognition" (Moses, 2005). In his article, Moses explains that "reason why" advertising (he calls it informative) should be used by smaller companies. The ads of this type allow the company to put "specific information about their products and services, the benefits of buying their products and perhaps even a little about the company" (Moses, 2005).

Effective image advertising requires developing different presentations of the product's appeal or selling proposition. In other words, there can be differences between what one says and how one says it. Many alternatives are available including straight sell, scientific evidence, demonstration, comparison, testimonial, slice of life, animation, fantasy, and dramatization.

John O'Toole defined the big idea as a flash of insight that synthesizes the purpose of the strategy, joins the product benefit with consumer desire in a fresh, involving way, brings the subject to life, and makes the reader or audience stop, look, and listen (McDonald, Christopher, 2003).

Taking into account the information mentioned above and the development of each type it is possible to say that there is no universal type for all products. Today, "reason-why" and "image" advertising are used for promotion different categories of products trying to find the best way to reach their audience. For instance, "reason-why" advertising is usually used for pharmaceuticals, technology and packaged goods campaigns. The responsibility for deciding on the appeal, the selling proposition, and the appropriate execution lies with creative.

Nevertheless, this type of advertising gives lower response with cosmetics, clothing and cigarettes. The visual presentation of an advertisement is more important than logic zealotry-like message. Also, some forms of visual presentation are universally understood. Revlon, for example, has used a French producer to develop television commercials in English and Spanish for use in international markets. These commercials are filmed in Parisian settings but commu¬nicate the universal appeals and specific benefits of Revlon products. By producing its ads in France, Revlon obtains effective television commercials at a much lower cost than it would have paid for commercials produced in the United States.

PepsiCo has used four basic commercials to communicate its advertising themes. The basic setting of young people having fun at a party or on a beach has been adapted to reflect the general physical environment and racial characteristics of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The music in these commercials has also been adapted to suit regional tastes. Other examples of image advertising include Nokia's pur¬chase of full-page newspaper ads to congratulate Florida for winning the 1997 Sugar Bowl. The ads also mentioned the Nokia Sweepstakes, which featured a million-dollar prize if a contestant could throw a football through an inflated cellular phone at a distance of about ten yards.

Of course, the success of this approach will depend in part on avoiding unintended ambiguity in the ad copy. Then again, in some situations, ad copy must be translated into the local lan¬guage. Translating copy has been the subject of great debate in advertising circles. Advertising slogans often present the most difficult translation problems. The chal¬lenge of encoding and decoding slogans and tag lines in different national and cul¬tural contexts can lead to unintentional errors. Virgin Airlines represents an example of "reason why" advertising. Japanese car marketers create a public relations campaign designed to convince Clinton that new taxes will not bring benefits neither to Japanese exporters nor the USA.

To conclude, half a century experience of advertising prove the fact that both "reason-why" and "image" type of advertising are usefully tools to build the bridge between audience and a marketer. They are used for different products to create temporal and worldly, and an image, powerful and lasting effect.

2009-10-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Sanjay Sharma asked:

Are you looking to grow your business? Are you someone who has just started a business and you want to let other people attract to your new business or products? Then opt for advertising, the best option for you. Yes, unless you advertise your product or business, you can never wish of being successful in the market.

Unless the masses know about your new product or business, it would be very difficult to survive in the market. Well, you can always go for print advertising for your product or business. Print Advertising does not cost much compared to television advertising and you get good response from the masses.

If you are ready to burn a hole in your pocket, then you can definitely go for television advertising. The response that you get from the Television Advertising would never disappoint you. What’s more, this form of advertisement is considered to be the best one as it reaches every nook and corner of the world within seconds. In this way you can make a public response of your product through different forms of advertising.

Try to utilize more aspects

If you are seriously thinking of expanding your business then you can always go for outdoor advertising. This form of advertising has become very popular in recent years. You can hire or make use of your own vehicle for publicity of your product by putting a big banner or do a road show with lottery or even quizzes.

So you need to plan well in order to go for an effective Outdoor Advertising. Your goals should be very clear and you need to know the market, location and audience well without which you cannot target the customers. So preplan yourself and try to make the best advertisement possible so that it attracts more crowds.

Go for other forms of advertising

If you thought that there is only print advertising and television advertising, then you are wrong. With the advent of the FM radio, there are businessmen who go for radio Advertising as well. You do not have to pay much as compared to television advertising.

This is the main reason why people opt for Radio Advertising to reach to the masses especially the young generation or the people who are always on move. Also nowadays you can find Airport Advertising, basically airport advertising mainly targets toward the high end and global customers.

This is indeed considered to be a new and better form of advertising where audience from different parts of the world can be targeted about your business or product. After all it’s all about customers. For more information about Worldwide Advertising Network in terms of Advertising, Airport Advertising, Television Advertising, Print Advertising, Outdoor Advertising, Radio Advertising, Internet Advertising, Mobile Advertising & Media please visit us at: www.worldwideadvertisingnetwork.com

Tags:- Worldwide Advertising, Advertising, Airport Advertising, Advertising Network, Print Advertising, Television Advertising, Radio Advertising, Outdoor Advertising, Internet Advertising, Mobile Advertising, Advertising Agency, Advertising Company, Media

Content

Signature Line: An Overlooked, Virtually Free Marketing Tool

2009-10-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Veronika Noize, The Marketing Coach asked:

Once my clients truly understand that marketing is about relationships, we start talking about how those relationships are created and maintained to determine appropriate marketing tactics for their businesses and personal styles. But no matter what kind of business my clients are in, they all have the same excellent relationship marketing tool at their fingertips: Their e-mail messages.

E-mail messages are the most frequently overlooked (and virtually free) marketing tools available to entrepreneurs. No, I'm not talking about electronic mail campaigns, or spamming, but using the messages you send out every day to your clients and colleagues as a subtle marketing tool. You can do this by adding more information to your signature line in all your e-mail.

How many times have you received a message from people who aren't using a company domain name in their e-mail address, so you're not sure who Bill or Sally @Hotmail.com is? Or what if you're in that position yourself? Many low cost Web hosts will forward e-mail received to you@yourdomain.com, but don't provide an e-mail address from your domain name. So how do you look professional when you're dealing with a $35 a month Web site and free Internet e-mail? You use an annotated signature line.

Most e-mail programs allow users to create an individual signature line that is appended to all outgoing messages. If you're not using one, you are missing an effective and virtually free way to market your business. And as an added bonus, your marketing message can be seen where paid advertising is forbidden such as on electronic bulletin boards, giving you a competitive edge is such circumstances.

So why bother to annotate your signature line? Here are some good reasons:

1. Annotating your signature line makes it easy for your clients to find your contact information when they want t o buy again. Sure you may have given them a business card, but what if business cards are lost or misfiled? Creating a situation in which your client has to look in the Yellow Pages for your phone number may be risky, especially if a competitor has a more compelling marketing message.

2. Annotating your signature line reminds and makes it easy for your clients to visit your web site. Of course that's assuming you want your customers to visit your Web site. And why wouldn't you? Your Web site is a great visibility tool that builds your relationship with your customers.

3. Annotating your signature line identifies the origin of your messages so that if they get forwarded, people who are interested in what you have to say or offer can find you easily. Evan if you know for sure that your customers have your address, your fax number or understand the full range of your products or services, that information does not forward with your e-mail unless you put it there. So if one of your loyal customers forwards an e-mail from you to a colleague and your contact information is not included, you've just closed the door to a new business opportunity that your customer opened for you by forwarding your message.

4. Annotating your signature line can be a gentle way to remind customers of upcoming events ("Sale end Friday, Dec 27th" or "Don't miss our open house on Jan 17") to buy again ("Call today for a free quote"), to promote a new product or service ("Ask me how our new widget will save you money"), to encourage forwarding and referrals ("Forward this newsletter to anyone you thing will find it valuable") or to call for feedback ("If you like working with us, tell your friends. If you don't, tell us and we'll make it right").

So what should you include in an annotated signature line? At the very least, your e-mail signature should include you full name, title, company name, web site link, plus you phone and fax numbers. Also consider a direct access phone line (if different than the company phone number), cell phone number, company tag line or motto, an offer, a reminder to buy, last call for a special deal, teaser for the future products or services, or even an inspirational quote, if it reinforces your marketing message.

It doesn't have to be fancy to get read. You can make simple borders around your key messages or information by using your title key (~), a dash (-), and underline (_) or even a series of asterisks (*). Bottom line: Every professional needs a standard signature line in all business correspondence. Because that is exactly what e-mail is professional correspondence. Of course, we use it so casually and so frequently that it hardly seems like something professional at all. But bear in mind that all correspondence between you and your customers is an opportunity to enhance you business relationship, even if that communication happens only in cyberspace.

Content

Plan The Right Internet Advertising Campaign

2009-10-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Valipat Munpan asked:

Plan the right internet advertising campaign with a internet marketing agency. Professional Internet advertising agency with marketing solutions for your website. Our internet marketing agency employs successful strategies and solutions to create a strong internet advertising presence. So check out Mamma's Internet marketing solutions, including pay-per-click advertising, graphic ad network, xml search feeds and the branded search box. An internet marketing company will be aware that advertising your banner across search engines is mainly for branding purposes for you company. You will be restricted initially to using all forms of online advertising when carrying out your internet marketing promotion.

Computer skills are vital because marketing, product promotion, and advertising on the Internet are increasingly common. The effectiveness of Internet marketing, advertising, and promotion can be enhanced by the use of rich media. We specialize in internet marketing strategy, online advertising, web marketing and conversion. It focuses primarily on electronic commerce and Internet advertising, includes corporate profiles and book reviews, and is aimed at professional Web marketing personnel. These are just a few of the Internet advertising agencies that a web marketing newbie could turn to. Of all the internet marketing resources available today, banner advertising most closely resembles traditional print marketing campaigns (non-internet). Banner advertising has long been a major media resource for internet marketing campaigns.

Effective internet marketing and advertising techniques include concept development, design, copywriting and media selection. This will prove extremely costly on your advertising budget and a waste of time carrying out your internet marketing strategy. We are an internet advertising company that can plan the right marketing strategy for your company's unique requirements. The advertising and Internet marketing affiliate company takes care of everything and you can focus on building more traffic to your website. There are numerous affiliate advertising and Internet marketing affiliate programs to join. Also some easy tips on website design, internet advertising and marketing. This form of internet marketing could result in a large investment for your advertising budget in the long term. A recommendation when doing your internet marketing with cost per click would have to be advertising with Adwords on Google.

Focusing on the latest trends in contextual advertising, pay per click, internet marketing tools, niche marketing, and strategies for generating passive income. In particular, employers will seek those who have the computer skills to conduct advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales activities on the Internet. When it comes to internet marketing advertising, having the technology isn't enough. Producing successful internet marketing advertising combines best in class technology and a team of second to none internet marketing advertising professionals. I have detailed below the most cost effective forms of internet marketing to advertising your business using your company website. Bulk email marketing is currently the most cost-effective online advertising method available to Internet businesses and organizations.

Internet Marketing, advertising, and promotions can serve as separate, mutually supporting elements of an integrated, targeted email campaign. Our internet marketing advertising skills have been proven since that time we've proven our internet marketing advertising skills. Through my experience in dealing with internet marketing I have outlined below a few tips for the inexperienced of advertising your business online. The Guidelines set standards of ethical conduct to be observed by all involved with advertising and marketing activities on the Internet. All the while monitoring your internet marketing and advertising campaigns and generating reports while building and providing PR support.

I have kept the layout as simple as possible so new businesses advertising their business online can grasp the ultimate internet marketing solution. To obtain a no obligation Internet marketing evaluation and online advertising consultation plus in-depth planning assessments, contact the global solution leader today. Our internet advertising consultant firm employs successful internet marketing strategies and advertising solutions to create a strong online presence. You will need to develop personal relationships with account managers within the internet marketing company you choose to do your advertising with. Our internet marketing advertising will attract people to your site, encourage them to interact, and ensure repeat business. Video delivers an emotional impact in Internet marketing, advertising, and promotional messages that rivals or exceeds that of television and radio broadcasting.

Online advertising services and internet marketing strategies also. If you can find an internet marketing company that allows pay on performance packages when advertising online, you are on the right track. There is currently no international unanimity as to whether country of origin or country of destination applies to advertising and marketing on the Internet. Dynamic Digital Advertising knows what it takes to convert searchers into visitors and then into your loyal customers with Internet marketing that works.

If you can find an internet marketing company that allows pay on performance packages when advertising online, you are on the right track. You will need to develop personal relationships with account managers within the internet marketing company you choose to do your advertising with. An internet marketing company will be aware that advertising your banner across search engines is mainly for branding purposes for you company. I have detailed below the most cost effective forms of internet marketing to advertising your business using your company website. We are an internet advertising company that can plan the right marketing strategy for your company's unique requirements. The advertising and Internet marketing affiliate company takes care of everything and you can focus on building more traffic to your website.

http://www.advertising-internet-online.com/advertising-internet-marketing/

Content

The use of promotional gifts – the business case

2009-10-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

Code Promotional asked:

1. The impact on brand awareness.

A well documented independent study in 2004 has shown that customers are more likely to remember the names of companies who have advertised with promotional gifts. The study showed:

High Recall; Customers will remember your organisation long after they've received the promotional product. Repeated Exposure; The company make a lasting impression because of the length of time the promotional item is kept. Favourable Impression; Customers who receive promotional items come away with a measurably more favourable impression of the company resulting in an increased propensity to do business with you.

The study (conducted by LJ Market Research for the PPAI (Promotional Products International Association)) showed more than 75% of people surveyed were able to recall the advertisers name on promotional items received within a 12 month period. By contrast, just over 50% of people could recall a single newspaper advertisement from within the last week.

The study also found that recipients were most likely to hold on to items for longer if they were useful and / or attractive, thus providing longer and repeated exposure for the advertiser. Around 55% of recipients reported keeping their gifts for at least 1 year, and more than 25% of those who did not keep their gifts passed them on to other people providing pass along exposure for the advertiser.

Source: Promotional Products - Impact, Exposure and Influence

2. Increased sales driven by increased levels of goodwill

Because everyone loves to receive a gift there is little doubt that promotional gifts given to existing customers, new customers or potential customers increases good will and creates a favorable impression. In the study referred to above, 52% of people who received promotional gifts went on to do business with the company who sent the gift. Furthermore, nearly half of those who had not yet done business with the company said that they would be more likely to do business with them in the future.

3. Adapt at working across a plethora of environments

Promotional gifts are multi-faceted and are therefore adaptable to a whole range of circumstances and situations. The vast range of available products from the humble promotional pens and promotional mugs to high spec electronic items ensures that there is something to suit all manner of budgets. Moreover, the ability to choose themed product groups is an ever-increasing option e.g. golf, ladies, Christmas etc.

Promotional gifts can be great for increasing traffic at exhibitions and trade shows alike, arguably getting a better response rate compared to direct mail campaigns by increasing sales and referrals, promoting new products and services and gaining more traffic to your website. They can also be used internally within your company to reward employees, promote moral, commemorate achievements and enhance loyalty and productivity.

Summary: Promotional gifts...can you afford not to?

As a business investment using promotional gifts can reap many rewards and provide excellent returns. Brand building, increased exposure, creating a favorable impression with customers - all translate into increased sales and revenue. These benefits will not only make your company stronger in the short term – but can lead to longer sustained growth and success. After all, as the saying goes, success breeds success. Take the time to choose the right promotional gift and you will reap the benefits from a business and financial standpoint well into the future.

For help, advice and guidance simply visit http://www.codepromotional.co.uk/ today...we’ll be happy to help!

Caffeinated Content

2009-10-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Marketing Buzz asked:

Do you know what the best type of Marketing is for your company?

How about a Yellow Pages advert? Pay per click? Maybe some direct mail followed up a telemarketing campaign?

Well whilst each of these are perfectly valid marketing routes and one's any forward thinking company should at least test the very best type of marketing for all types of business is the type that is FREE!!!

That's right Ladies and Gentlemen, if you're working with a tight marketing budget (or indeed with no set marketing budget at all) then you can now get exposure for your product, service or company in the form of PR (or Public Relations).

For large companies PR is big business. They will think nothing of employing staff with the sole intention of getting the name of their company in the media (be it written press, television, radio or online). And because the PR market is seemingly dominated by the larger companies small companies shy away from using PR in their marketing mix.

If this applies to you then good times could well be ahead as PR is a vital part of the marketing mix for smaller companies in particular as they often don't have the time or money to spend on often expensive advertising or other marketing.

Successful businesses of all sizes use PR to promote their business, build their reputation and become a recognised expert in their particular field. And the beauty of PR is that everyone is an expert in something. And by passing on your expertise in a particular subject in the right way you become newsworthy.

And that is the real secret when it comes to good PR. It has to be interesting and newsworthy. Nobody cares that you've just launched a new website or that Mrs Jones in Accounts has just become a Grandmother for the second time (both subjects I've seen in press releases and both subjects I've seen in journalist's bins!!). And if you've ever attempted PR only not to have it published then I wouldn't worry too much about it as you're amongst the 99% of companies who send out PR that isn't newsworthy or interesting.

Here are a few words on Why PR is important.

Communication lies at the heart of today's modern society. Be it on the internet, television, pod casts or whatever medium you choose. And with so many firms competing for the same business as you, how do your customers differentiate between you and your competitors?

The answer lies not particularly in the size of your Yellow Pages advert but how you project yourself and what your firm has to offer.

PR has a huge sway in the minds of consumers as the perceived third party endorsement that comes from editorial coverage can be substantial, maybe even more so than advertising that can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds.

PR done well can result in increased exposure, increased business and increased profits. And if you want your business to be the best it can be then becoming good at PR is something you want to do.

And remember, it's FREE!!!!

Create a video blog...instantly.

2009-09-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Code Promotional asked:

Buy your best customers a corporate gift to show your appreciation for their continued business you are setting your business above the competition. If your customer has the option to choose between your business and another in the future, these corporate gifts will help settle any debate – they will be inclined to select your products and services.

Be creative with your corporate gifts. You want to give a gift that your customers will use or appreciate time after time. After all, every time they reach for your promotional product, your company name will be there to remind them about your products and services. Each use of your gift will be advertising and promoting your business. You can’t say that when it comes to traditional advertising alternatives like television, radio or print ads!

With the right gift, your customers will feel appreciated and spend their budget with your business. In this way, you will have repeat business from them. What are the right gifts to encourage and ensure higher customer retention rates for your business? Analyse your target market and you can find the best corporate gifts. Are they baby boomers or a younger generation? Both groups would enjoy the latest technological gadget, but the baby boomers might really enjoy quality golf equipment instead. Are you targeting women versus men? What is their income range? Knowing these answers will help you to make the right investment with corporate gifts that will impress your customers.

Make your next advertising investment a wise one when you look for corporate gifts. You can encourage customer retention that will give your business a strong foundation. Corporate gifts are the smart, long term investment that will give your business a great return on its investment time after time. See how corporate gifts could make a financial impact on your business when you look through the vast selection of quality promotional, branded choices. You could place an order and start enjoying the influence of your thoughtful corporate gifts now.

There are a number of corporate gifts that you can find that are different from your usual, run of the mill promotional gifts. After all, your corporate gifts need to be a sign of your appreciation, encouraging a future, strong relationship between your company and the associate or business. Look for unique gifts that the associate or business cannot find elsewhere. If you can offer speciality corporate gifts, your business will be remembered for its thoughtfulness. What are the best corporate gifts you can give? Search for something that will have a lot of meaning to your target market. Are they young? Are they active? Are they concerned about retirement? Playing golf? What motivates them? What would help them in their daily personal or business interactions? Find the answers to these questions and you can search the wide selection of high quality corporate gifts to get the right one. You can find the right item that will continue to encourage a strong business relationship.

Content

2009-09-17T03:42:00.000-07:00

zmilliondollars asked:

PPC stands for Pay Per Click - a popular advertising technique on the Internet. Found on websites, online advertising networks, and especially on search engines, Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) involves sponsored links that are typically in the form of text ads. These are usually placed close to search results (or called organic results), where a PPC advertiser pays a particular amount to visitors who click on these links or banners and land on the PPC advertiser's web page.

In essence, Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) is all about bidding for the top or leading position on search engine results and listings. PPC advertisers do this by buying or bidding on keyword phrases that are relevant to their products or services - the higher the bid, the higher the spot on the search results, the more the people will find the ad (and click on it) to go to their websites (this is why some people call it "keyword auctioning" or “keyword bidding”). PPC advertisers would then pay the bidding price every time a visitor clicks through the website.

Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) is also known under the following names/variations:

- Pay per placement

- Pay per performance

- Pay per ranking

- Pay per position

- Cost per click (CPC)

Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) is usually done with the following standard procedures:

1. Setting up an account and/or deposit funds.

2. Creating a relevancy keyword list.

3. Choosing (and setting up) an account with a PPC search engine.

4. Bidding on the ad placement, including the search result words or phrases.

5. Writing out an ad copy.

6. Setting up the 'landing pages' for your ads.

7. Placing the advertisement in the search engine.

There are many benefits to Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising), making it an effective way of advertising your own business 'online'. Personally, I believe that Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) is one of the most effective way to promote the NEW online business. You can drive laser-targeted traffic to your website and start advertising online & increasing your business’ reputation dramatically.

READ THIS: If you are interested in Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) and how to make big money online at home through search engines. You’ll discover the benefits of Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) below:

- Get launched immediately. PPC advertisements are implemented very quickly - they can go 'online' within an hour after winning the bid and paying for it.

- Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality traffic. Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) provides you with a quality or a well-targeted traffic. Visitors are narrowed down into 'qualified' people who are actually looking for specific products and/or services that you offer - those who are more likely to become a 'lead' (a convert) and complete a transaction (either by buying your product or subscribing to the service that you are offering.

- Widen your reach. Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) provides additional traffic to your website, aside from the natural or "organic" search engines.

- Track your ROI investment. Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) makes use of a tracking system that will determine exactly who comes to the website and what they do once they arrive - the length of their stay on the site and the number of pages (including the actual pages) that they view. These are valuable tools in determining statistics such as return on investment (ROI), acquisition cost-per-visitor, and conversion rates (the percentage of visitors who are converted into customers or leads).

My experiences reveal that you have to know what you are doing with Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising). Without the appropriate knowledge and marketing strategy, you are losing big money from your pocket.

Keep reading this article, if you are interested in Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) and are looking for the significant things to consider while you are creating your own Ppc Online Advertising campaign.

Below are some important things to consider when planning on Ppc Online Advertising campaign. You’ll discover my recommended 7 easy tips to create your profitable PPC online advertising campaign and make big money through Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc).

1. Know your product very well. Take an inventory of the product and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).

2. Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or monthly budget; and stay with it. This means keeping your budget in mind, avoiding bidding wars if possible.

3. Bid just right. Know how to bid right effectively - a bid that is too high can exhaust all of your money, while a bid that is too low can make you lose that spot.

4. Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin against your spending or expenses. Know when to stop and terminate your Ppc Online Advertising campaign - if you spend more on advertising but have little or no sales at all.

5. Find the right targeted keywords. Decide which keyword phrases to opt and bid for. Do some effective keyword research, either by actually looking at existing search terms or with the use of online keyword suggestion tools, to know which terms are mostly used when searching for items that are related to your business. Focus on specific keywords, not on general ones.

6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which can persuade and move a searcher. There are several approaches to this:

- Discount offers

- Testimonials

- Celebrity/famous endorsers

- Money-back guarantees

- Free trials or sample offers

- Freebies

- Reverse psychology

- Major benefits ("Lose weight")

- Direct instructions ("Click here")

7. Maintain a high quality & professional-looking website. Your web content should be regularly updated and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. There should be no broken links or images. The website should be simple - designed in such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and load. Include contact details to create a good impression among potential customers.

My bottom line is that if you’re done your own Ppc Online Advertising campaign properly, Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) can be an effective marketing tool that will maximize the return on your investment. Also, you can make big money online at home through your Ppc Online Advertising campaign.

Learn More About Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising (Ppc Online Advertising) at: http://www.iPayByClick.com. You’ll find everything you have to know for building your profitable PPC online advertising campaigns. Also, you will learn how to become a super and success PPC advertiser on the website.

Caffeinated Content

2009-08-29T17:06:00.000-07:00

The Marketing Affiliater asked:

Online affiliate marketing began as a natural outgrowth of the popularity of "linking" to other sites. To put it simply, online affiliate marketing is a time tested strategy for making money online. It it is a network of online partners who refer business to your website.

It does not matter whether you have a website that sells a product or a website that has nothing to sell. But by adding online affiliate programs, you can not only add value to your website, but also maximize potential revenue.

Affiliate Programs, they say are the ideal way to make your website profitable.

Online affiliate programs began in the mid-1990,s and are currently a popular way to earn money online. In fact, research shows that affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective way to generate online sales. The concept of revenue sharing paying commission for referred business, predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web in November 1994.

The simplest way is to just introduce your visitors to the business opportunities, products and services that they need, and, "make money online" based on commissions from these sales. In fact, online affiliate marketing is a great work from home business available to anyone with a computer and a desire to run their own affiliate business.

However, there is a catch to "affiliate-marketing". That is to say over 80% of affiliates never get a check over $100, the 15% get the occasional check and it is the remaining 5% who really get monthly checks of any real size from affiliate programs.

To get started in affiliate marketing, you must know the fundamentals. For which you're going to need an "affiliate marketing guide" to teach you the basics. Once you've studied the basics and grasped the "idea", I don't think there is any looking back.

Now, there are dozens of books advertised on various websites, making claims of massive earnings that can be achieved easily. Most of these guides are resell rights of other peoples' ideas which are marketed under the marketers' name. Now, there will be a time you may be doing the same thing what they are doing now. This is a natural phase most people go through and isn't that what affiliate marketing is all about!

I am not saying those books are bad. But there are better ones out there. There is The Affiliate Marketers Handbook and the Super Affiliate Handbook. Recently, another book that is drawing much attention, purely because of the number of sales it has generated in such a short time is the Rich Jerk. The name justifies his character. But his ideas seem to work and the book seems to be on top of the charts. Now what more can you say, but to commend on his niche idea.

You can also look for more such good product(s) and which are in high demand from the ClickBank Mall. Just type "affiliate marketing" or affilate marketing guides and you would get instant access to loads to such products. Provide them your credit card details and voila! you can instantly download the book of your choice.

Although most aaffiliate marketing books are good in their own way, what boils down is to how you implement the knowhow you gained from it PRACTICALLY. Although this may take up some some time, it is to be noted that no books nor any marketing courses can come anywhere close to pure practical experience. Some good affiliate guides are given below in the resources section.

Learning to market on the internet as an affiliate is only step one. If you're serious about online affiliate marketing, then you have to plan and set up a basic affiliate campaign. This is a start to finish campaign to getting started in affiliate marketing. It explains keyword research, finding profitable partners and markets, information on affiliate networks, guides and resources to making money online.

There is relatively an easy way to make a parallel income during the early stages of your online afiliate marketing home business. It can also help you avoid the common mistakes most of us make during that period. I am quoting this from personal experience.

Try and get hold of a FREE Web Page, containing a few successful affiliate programs. You can use it and learn how to run an affiliate campaign, at the same time learning the ropes of affiliate marketing. If you market this well, the chances are you will make money. Your main and only job would be to advertise your FREE website, by submitting it to search engines, e-mail it to friends, colleagues and others. Within a month or so, you shall see some income trickling in.

You also get familiar with search engine marketing, affiliate networks and affiliate directories, and other areas of online affiliate marketing.

Content

2009-08-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Rave On Promotions asked:

Every company wants the same thing; to be a household name in their market or industry. Promotional products can do this for you. All the commercials and advertising in the world cannot do the trick. It takes getting your name in front of your customer's face as much as possible.

How to use promotional products.

These products come in many different forms. From tee shirts to golf balls, engraved silver flasks to personalised ink pens, the products are designed to impress. More importantly, the product has your company's name written- no, emblazoned-on it. Every time that customer uses that item, they will think about you and/or your company.

Most commonly, promotional products are given away on customer visitations. Right along with your business card, you can hand that contact a pen or even a small magnet. If they happen to be a really good customer, think ahead and order a nice personalised item such as logo golf balls or a silver pen set with their initials on it. Something that says "thank you" and brands the product.

Sometimes, you can drop a little something in the snail mail to them saying thanks for your patronage. Maybe you could put the customer's entire sales team in notepads or even binders. Anything that will be used many times over and has your company written all over it. That is the idea behind branding with promotional products.

When to use promotional products.

The best time is on a first visit. Once in the door, you want to put your company name everywhere possible. Stop by the sales team members cubicles, introduce yourself and hand them a pen or business card. The next time they pick up that item, you are on their mind.

Another good time to use these products is after a significant sale. Some managers disagree with this but it never hurts to say "thanks" for a large purchase. In these cases, a better quality product is called for. Perhaps a promotional hip flask or crystal paperweight.

Another way to use these products is to hand them out to suppliers as they visit you. When you have built rapport with them, you might strike up some discounts.

Why you should use promotional products.

This is really a simple one. You want your company name to be known as an authority in your specific market, right? That is precisely why you should use promotional products. When used with customers, not only do you get your name seen, but you become synonymous with that customer's product line. When used with suppliers, you may find a little more cooperation from a stubborn vendor after a small token of appreciation.

Either way, the benefit is easy to see and the entire idea is centered on advertising, branding and recognition. Aside from the obvious reasons, using promotional products to brand your company is just good advertising. Those folks that use your products and do business with you will tell their colleagues about you.

That's the real power of product branding through promotional products.

Content

2009-08-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

PaulaJ asked:

These days, maintaining business standards is getting tough. The competition level is so high that as a business person you need to find out unique ways for your product promotion. Well, in this regard promotional products are doing good business to assist business persons in finding out good ways to promote their products among masses. However, promotional products are the best option that you can opt for when you need to promote your products or services among target audiences. If you are on the hunt for finding items that can feature your company’s products promptly then promotional products are the best way to have. While going for promotional products ensure that you are selecting the right one as far as the promotion of your product is concerned. If you going to promote toys then selecting mugs for your target audiences as promotional products will not be a wise move.

Well, promotional products are the one that can make your marketing look simple. It just capable enough to fit with your budget and all set to deliver you high standards as far as your needs for promoting the products is concerned. Promotional products are essential in terms of complimenting other advertising resources and can too enhance the effectiveness of your whole effort behind promoting products. These are the best tools as business person you can ever have through which you can draw attention of potential customers. Even though you are going to market your product on a busy street, quality promotional products can bring more attention for your product from miles away. In the race of promotional products few conventional means like promotional balloons, promotional umbrellas and other resources are doing good business.

You can too obtain few other advantages with promotional products. These products can stay for a long duration and you can repeat them each time when there will be a need for promoting your products among masses. In such way you can avoid any extra expenses on additional promotional products for your purpose. These promotional products are designed and fetched to market with a single objective – that is to make your product appealing so that your business can draw maximum amount of exposure.

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