Archive for the ‘public relations’ Category

Marketing and Advertising Executives Polled About Marketing Topics at Key Conference

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

 

 

At the recent “Masters of Marketing” Conference by the Association of National Advertisers, 1,200 client-side marketers, media and creative agencies, and others were polled via handheld devices about their marketing mix, budgets, plans, and tactics throughout the event. The results are shown below.

Adjustment to current marketing and media plans to account for the recent downturn in the financial markets: 

33% say spending will be reduced

33% say spending will be constant / marketing mix will be reallocated

27% expect to spend more

8% will keep everything status quo

CEO view of marketing efforts with respect to growth:

56% think of brand building as an investment

21% think it’s an unaccountable but necessary expense

15% are not sure

8% consider it an unnecessary expense 

Preferred social media site for driving brand growth:

32% say none

20% say YouTube

18% say Facebook

12% like them all

10% say LinkedIn

6% MySpace

3% Twitter

Plans for marketing expense in 2009 vs. 2008:

26% plan to increase spending more than 10%

13% plan to increase spending less than 10%

28% will hold stable

14% will decrease spending less than 10%

19% will decrease spending more than 10% 

The largest branding discipline offering opportunity for growth:

28% say social media integration

19% say grassroots, viral public relations

17% say traditional 30-second spots

16% say web advertising

7% say one-page advertisements in a newspaper/magazine

7% say direct marketing

5% say radio

Company’s current measurement method of brand growth:

70% say sales and net income

15% use third-party brand equity valuations

9% think shareholder value

4% measure by household penetration

3% say company culture

 

Source: Association of National Advertisers, October 2008

 

© 2008 MediaPost Communications

 

 

Reaching Your Marketing and Sales Goals Requires Planning

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

“80% of success is showing up” -  WOODY ALLEN

When attending trade shows, sales presentations and any important marketing and sales opportunities…

Are you doing all you can to take care of the other 20%?

One of the most common mistakes and missteps that companies make is to not spend adequate time on planning and strategy for their events, conferences and product launches. Often day to day operations take priority and forecasting is overlooked when planning successful trade shows, conference, sales meetings, product launches and sales presentations.

Consider that your trade show, advertising, travel and payroll budget for these events and product launches can account for some of your largest expenditures for the year. It makes sense to develop a plan, outline goals for each department and discuss how to best achieve the results from your trade show or product launch spend.

Here are 12 questions to ask before your next trade show or product launch:

1) What is your goal for your sales team for this event?

2) What is your messaging strategy for the conference attendees or launch?

3) What is your messaging strategy for the media?

4) Which product or products are going to be the focus of the show or launch?

5) What publication targets are most important to this target audience?

6) Does your branding, graphics and photography match your current product and company image? Is it consistent across all materials?

7) How do you plan on communicating your messaging to your target prospects? Web, print, speaker strategy or panel (other?)

8) Will the product(s) and samples be ready in time for this important launch or show?

9) Have you purchased advertising in relevant publications and websites likely to be read by the attendees?

10) Do you have a methodology for capturing customer data and for following up after the conference?

11) Have you appointed one person or a team to be in charge of managing the launch and or show? Do they have adequate experience?

12) How will you measure your results from the show or launch?

If you answered don’t know or no to some of these questions, then you may want to consider adding the help of an outside firm to aid you with keeping goals and timelines on track while you and your team manage the marketing and daily operations of the company. Another alternative is to assign one person as the “go to” task person but often in-house staff are either too busy or not experienced in all the elements needed to manage a successful conference or product launch: advertising, operations, logistics, media relations, marketing, direct mail and management of personnel.

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Sandra Evans is the principal of & Associates

& Associates is a full service marketing, design and public relations firm. Efficient, affordable and measurable results.

Contact: sandra@andassociates-ca.com
Visit http://www.andassociates-ca.com to learn more.