Advertising and Marketing Issues

Archive for May, 2011

Seven Secrets For Successful Marketing

Marketers fail because they try to do to too much and lose focus. The raison d’etre for marketing is to grow the business. It is the prime directive. Any CMO or any marketer who doesn’t address this first and foremost deserves to be fired.

Yet setting and enforcing priorities while running a daytoday business managing up and down and putting out fires can be a serious challenge.

Consider these seven secrets to focus your thinking and allocate your time.

Start with the End. Determine what you want to happen. Visualize the successful outcome. Quantify and qualify the result you want. If you want to double sales reduce costs by 50 increase the margin 5 points or add 20000 new customers you can’t figure out how to do it until you know exactly what you want to achieve. Once the endpoint is clear you can construct the tactical plan to get there or reverse engineer your systems or resources to deliver the desired result. Invest time and energy upfront to scope out the goal.Be sure your marketing goals drive to or align with the CEOs business goals.

BTW in this business environment if you are aiming to capture the brand’s true authenticity produce the next new genre of TV commercial revolutionize how media is planned or bought recapture the glory of “new” advertising or teach the world to sing … don’t bother … start packing your bags.

Pick Your Shots. You can’t do everything. You don’t have enough time or people. And nobody has enough budgets to fund every good idea. Select the projects that will drive toward the goal fastest. Do them first and best. Pick a couple of slowermoving infrastructure building things to build your pipeline. Then merchandise your plan by marketing the marketing and get everyone to buy in.

Set the Altitude. Business is like 3dimensional chess. The game is simultaneously played on several levels. Get in touch with your ego and decide how you want to succeed and at what level. Then pick your level and your playing field and master the rules of that particular game. Do you want to be Buffet? Gates? Trump? Welch? Iaccoca? Each requires a different strategy and different game play.

Focus. Marketing is a dynamic game. Every day yields a hundred great ideas. You must be disciplined enough to make a plan and stick to it. There will be plenty of C level distractions to keep you interested. But you can’t afford to get off your game or to be distracted by something that doesn’t directly contribute to achieving your stated objective. You have to be hardnosed about this and take your ADHD meds every day.

Marshall Your Resources. The larger the organization the more likely the horses pull in diffuse or even opposite directions. You must manage your players and your cash to achieve the objective. There are many synergies and twofers along the way. Grab them. Slough anything that isn’t contributing to the direction or the rate of ascent. There are plenty of people within your team willing to go off on tangents handle pet projects dote on timewasters or hideout by doing “research” and endlessly exploring new options or alternatives. Reign these guys in. Managers must manage. Here is where you draw the line and surrender your “Mr. Nice Guy” role. That means setting the direction orienting the team and keeping the horses inharness sidebyside running in the same direction at a matched pace.

Learn the Plumbing. God is in the details. Much of your success or failure might be as well. Too many marketers don’t really understand what their firm makes sells or distributes or exactly how these things come to be and get into the marketplace. Unless you know the details you cant find the inflection points or identify the factors that can be leveraged or the economies of scale that can be found or built.

Learn the People. Find and befriend the guys who’ve been there forever and know where the bodies are buried; the guys who instinctively understand the unstated pathways and how things really get done using the informal networks and personal networks of influence. Dont assume that everyone who got there before you is an idiot a lifer or both. Usually there are great ideas and quick wins that have been buried or suppressed by politics or predecessors. Find them and use them.

Remember if it was a cake walk any idiot could do it!

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Danny Flamberg has been building brands and businesses for more than 25 years. As CMO at DuplicatePoker.com he has worked as SVP Direct Commerce at Everlast Boxing as VP of Global Marketing at SAP SVP and Managing Director at Digitas in New York and Europe and President of Relationship Marketing at Amiratti Puris Lintas and Lowe Worldwide. He earned an A.B an M.A. and a Ph.D. in politics and economics at Columbia University.

You may also find articles by Danny at the TalentZoo.com website under Marketing Moxie.

Seminars For Teenagers In Article Writing

Every teen wants to share and live their dreams at least for sometime. And reading articles can be one such time when a teenager can be lost in the dreams woven by the author of the article. Teen article writing seminars are a good way to get more teens interested in writing.

Teen age is an important stage in ones life that can be a turning point to many. To influence a teenagers life by others it has to be highly convincing and attractive to the individual and most often the hero. The teens are highly inquisitive and volatile. So a writer has to maintain a high degree of sensitivity concern and must have thoroughly researched the topic that was chosen.

The articles meant for the teenagers should be well rehearsed and convey clearly what it has set to do. It should be motivational and look at the positive side of life. This would help them develop a positive frame of mind. Advices and tips regarding learning writing speaking skills are usually widely welcomed. To shine in this most competitive of times known to mankind one has to be highly resourceful and sturdy. Any teen article writing seminars aimed at that should be useful. Also failures are something that teens are poor at facing but are forced to face. Steps to convert failures into steps to success could be life saving. Responsibilities at that age group come from many quarters and expectations tend to rise to unexpected levels especially when one is talented. Stress management is a very important issue sadly neglected.

Groundwork should be done before conducting teen article writing seminars. To have a scheme of things to be planned insights can be gained by meeting teachers and parents of the teens and getting a feedback on the practical problems that are faced in day to day activities either through a questionnaire or writing. Based on the inputs seminars can be held to highlight the most glaring of problems.

Problems can be different in different areas. While in the higher strata of society it might be to discourage excess spending emphasizing parents monitoring and channelizing their energy properly. In contrast in a poorer stratum it may have to be more motivational to focus to aim higher in spite of odds stacked against. So the prevailing situation has to be studied to find a remedy by writing.

Teen age people belonging to any group are usually good dreamers. Fictional writing would always be welcome if it is in their preferred frequency. They should be allowed to indulge in the activities of their liking without interfering with the day to day activities and their responsibilities. Peer pressure recreational drug use addiction and forming relationships are some spheres where a lot of mismatched ideas are floated around within the group. Educational and informative articles in these areas would be top of the teen wants.

There are many teen article writing seminars which are held regularly. We as parents must encourage our children to attend these seminars. Teen article writing seminars are a nice place for you to find something to do with your child too.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;For more useful tips hints please browse for more information at our website:
www.newbiescopywriting.com
www.articlewriting.reprintarticlesite.com

Selling To Seniors: Gauranteed Methods To Increase Your Annuity Production

You’ve heard it many of times. You have seen countless commercials advertising to them. You may have even seen the staggering statistics. They own over 70 of the wealth in America. Look Out. Its a bird…. Its a plane….. No. Its those SENIORS.
Companies all across the country have launched their campaigns spent millions of dollars but cant seem to gain this wealthy market. They just simply scratch the surface. Are Seniors not purchasing Indexed Annuites? Is this market fading out? Why are most of the conventional methods of marketing simply not working? I will be more than happy to answer these questions. YES seniors are STILL purchasing Indexed Annuites. NO the senior market is growing at an alarming rate. No my answer to the last question is going to take a little more explaining but here is my response. Conventional methods dont work because you CANNOT market a Product to Seniors you have to market the BENEFIT and become a PROBLEM SOLVER. Here is what I mean.

If your providing Indexed Annuities or any financial service to the senior market. There is one simple formula involved. If you do not address the needs and common concerns of seniors you WILL NOT make the sale. I dont care how much money youve spent on sales software your fancy presentations and your clich sales scripts. Seniors react to PROBLEM SOLVING. Too many agents and companies focus on their hot new product. It has all the bells and whistles. It also may be very good for seniors to have but theres one major problem. You can have the best new indexed annuity in the world but if you dont uncover the need of your prospect its pointless. You MUST reveal their HOT BUTTON. Every individual is different. Asking the right questions is an important phase of getting closer to the sale. For example you may want to ask them a question such as what is your biggest concern facing retirement? Allow them to communicate with you. Alot of sales are lost because the agent does not take the time to actually listening. It is important to become a good listener.

Having great products presentations and software goes without saying. However you have to show Seniors that you actually care about them. They are buying YOU not your company your product or your hour long sales pitch. Take an interest to them. Listen to their story and where they come from. You learn more about how you can help them just by using your ears. LISTEN! The worst thing you can do is be a salesman. A salesman sells products to a consumer. For Example lets analyze the role and characteristics of a doctor. A doctor sits with his patient. He asks them a series of questions. The patient replies with all of the symptoms they are having. Obviously at this point the patient is unhappy and wants a solution to the problem. The doctor sits and writes as the patient speaks. After the doctor is finished taking notes he has a precise idea of how to handle his patient’s problem. The Diagnosis is made the medicine is prescribed and the problem is SOLVED.

In the senior market you are a money doctor. You sit with your prospect. You ask questions and your prospect begins to reveal concerns aspirations and gives you a road map to becoming a problem solver. After you have gathered all your information you have a diagnosis. Problems have been exposed and you know just how to help your prospect. If you apply this mentality you will dramatically increase your production.

Your mindset can be the difference in being an average producer to having a million dollar annuity practice. Try thinking like a doctor for 30 days. When you sit down with your prospects. When you call them or they contact you. You will definitely be surprised at how this way of thinking can change your practice. Remember my fellow agents; Seniors are human beings so have compassion respect and dont forget to always LISTEN!!!

About the writer:  Meiyoko Taylor is the Chairman CEO of Milestone Retirement Group Inc specializing in protecting the retirement income of seniors and retirees. He has over 7 years of experience in the insurance/financial services industry and is a guest speaker for various sales teleconferences across America. He has worked for companies such as AIG Monumental Life and Mutual Of Omaha. Meiyoko Taylor is currently servicing the NJ area contracted with companies such as ING Penn Treaty Network America LTCI Sun Life Financial American Equity and Old Mutual. For more information you can visit Milestone Retirement Group on the web at http://www.retirewithmilestone.com.