A = Audience

Everything in marketing begins with your customer.  What problem are you trying to solve for them?  Who are you trying to sell to?  What do you know about them?  What motivates them and what would encourage them to buy?

The more you know about your customers, the easier your job becomes.  So do your homework – this isn’t a section on which you should be relying on guesswork.

B = Brilliant Marketing

OK…I had to make it fit my ABC!  Your marketing mix is the step between working out who your audience is and deciding how you will reach them and with what messages.  This brings into play your product benefits, your pricing, your promotion and your distribution strategies and it flows from the information you know about your customers.

Ideally, you should have products that solve problems for your chosen audience, pricing that will be attractive to your prospects, your products/services available in places your audience shops and promotion in things they see or read using messages that are relevant to them.

C = Conversion

There is no point to marketing unless you’re converting sales… and this is the bit many marketers forget or wimp out on.  But if your actions aren’t leading to profit, someone should be questioning them.

A good friend of mine once told me that marketing is what you do to get the phone to ring and sales is what happens when you pick up the phone and it’s a great distinction.  And you need both elements to have a successful company.

So there you have it…the ABC of marketing.

I look forward to receiving your feedback and comments.

Small companies (with up to 49 staff) account for 48% of employment – which is staggering.  What if we could help each of those companies employ just one more member of staff?  Surely that would be a very fast way out of the recession?

Likewise, these companies provide a rich source for any target audience – there are millions of SMEs across the country and it’s likely they need assistance and services and sales – especially at the moment, so they can thrive and grow.  Let’s stop focusing on the big guys and get where the real action is!

I’d love your comments.

From a branding perspective, every audience member will have perceived something different…

• Have you been overwhelmed with the colour and the passion of the people (as I am)?
• Are you overwhelmed with the images of poverty and suffering?
• Would you say their branding shows a united nation?

Every one of the millions of people around the globe watching the World Cup will perceive something about South Africa as a country. And South Africa as a brand.  And it’s the same for your company – your customers will pick up on subtle messages about you and your business, and they will make up their own mind about what you stand for – and what you don’t.  And their perception is reality – at least for them.  the question is, will it stop them from buying?

And will some minority prospect ruin your brand for others?  With the advent of social media, it’s very easy for one or two dissenting customers to have their say about your business; whether founded or otherwise.  You need to Google your name and that of your business, and try to control the messages about you and your brand – at least comment on any bad publicity where you are able.

Back to Africa, the question this week is whether the symbol of the South African global football brand – the vuvuzela – will be constrained in some way.  For me, the sounds of the vuvuzela sum up South Africa’s branding – it’s loud, it’s colourful and above all, it’s fun.  Would you like someone else to take control of your branding the way we’re trying to take control of theirs??

This decline in revenue has been blamed on falling classified advertising revenues – that particular group saw a decrease of 30%.  Can you imagine your business revenues dropping by that percentage?  There’s no question it’s been a tough year.

And, it’s been coming for a while… the internet has changed the way many of us choose to receive our news.  And, the market is being increasingly fragmented with the growing number of digital TV channels available, increasing numbers of magazines and e-newsletters and online news channels, not to mention Twitter which gives us real-time news often before even the journalists know about it.

But what does that mean for you and your business?

• If you use advertising as one of your marketing methods, by extra careful about the audience numbers you are reaching.  We would always advise asking for an ABC audited circulation.
• Speak to other advertisers targeting a similar audience and ask if they would share their return on investment figures or response rates, so you can calculate potential returns.
• With audience numbers being increasingly fragmented, you may reach smaller numbers – but you may also be able to really narrow down your target market
• Always test the advertising method, before signing up for a long-term contract.  Three months is plenty enough time to judge whether something is working and if you monitor your results, you will be able to justify any future expenditure
• Don’t always blame the advertising medium – if your advert is rubbish, or you aren’t aiming at the right audience, I’m afraid the advertising company can’t be blamed

I have no doubt our newspaper industry will survive this latest onslaught – after all, they survived the invention of radio and television.  But, just as before, they will have to adapt to survive.

Nokia cleverly manufactured all their phones with a single ring tone – which most people didn’t change (possibly because they either didn’t know how to, or couldn’t be bothered).  As a result, the tune has become an integral part of the digital world we live in.  And it promotes the Nokia brand every time it’s heard.  It’s fantastic marketing.

Other pieces of music which have been used in marketing and have become an integral part of the brand include the Hamlet and Hovis tunes.  Apple have also used music to great effect in their adverts; many of the tunes having since become top 40 hits.

Appealing to the senses in this way makes perfect ‘sense’; particularly if you can match the music to your audience, as the brands in the previous examples have shown.  For example, if you have a retail shop or restaurant, what music would your audience typically want to listen to – is that what you’re playing in the environment where customers buy?  The supermarkets are experts at sensory marketing – next time you have a wander round, listen to their choice of music and see if you can tell who they’re targeting.

I remember a great example someone shared with me a while ago about a realtor (estate agent) in the United States who attended an industry conference in the midst of the recession.  Whilst his colleagues were lamenting the terrible situation, he was telling everyone he’d had a great year and asking what they were complaining about.  The other attendees couldn’t believe it and some questioned him about how he was enjoying success when everyone else was struggling.  He told them that he was finding it tough too, but that noone wanted to know that.  People buy from successful, enthusiastic people, so that’s what he was – and it was working.

There are some estate agents who have been enjoying success even in the past twelve months, with property prices falling, whilst vast amounts of the market have been cutting staff and reeling in costs.  So, what makes the difference?  Why are some really busy and others terribly quiet?  Why are some still making lots of money, even in a downturn?  It’s not a different industry, different geographic areas, or a vastly different model.  So, if it’s not the model, is it the business owner?

We had a recent example ourselves of how great marketing, backed up with fabulous customer service can generate property sales.  A few months ago, a property developer customer of ours launched the first phase of their development; just nine properties.  Because of the way it was marketed, over 300 people attended the launch weekend.  Two people turned up with cash deposits and fought over one of the plots and, a few months down the line, eight of those nine properties are sold and seven more have been sold off plan for the next phase of the development.

(I should add that this company has three local competitors, all offering lower priced new properties within a few miles.)  So why were they so successful?

Of course, I can’t tell you exactly what we did, because they paid a lot of money for that strategic help, but it shows it can be done.  The top tips were:

• Focus on your audience – understand who you want and target them specifically
• Do something different – every estate agent advertises in the property pages and on Right Move.  How can you make people stop and think, and take notice of you?
• Offer people something for free – the power of free champagne cannot be understated!  (In fact, the competitor up the road announced a champagne open weekend the day before this particular launch – I love it when competitors copy you – it shows you’ve had a great idea!)
• Create a fear of loss – with so many people at the launch, prospects wanted to make sure they got the property they wanted, so they committed on the day and put down sizeable deposits to reassure the developer of their serious intent.
• Have some fun – I cannot tell you how much fun this project was.  We worked alongside a graphic designer, a web designer and a copywriter.  To have the luxury of a creative team meant the customer benefited from four creative brains – and it definitely paid off.

Give it a go – what have you got to lose?