Most people think “advertising” when they hear the word marketing. That’s understandable because much of what we see/hear as consumers involves traditional advertising activities—newspaper ads, television commercials, billboards, etc. These media ads are the most visible and “in your face” marketing activities, so it’s not surprising that most of us think that these ads are marketing.
But, they’re not… Continue reading “Marketing is Bigger (MUCH Bigger) Than Advertising”
I used to love the E*Trade commercials with the talking babies. They were cute, clever, and they made me laugh. In fact, every time I see one—regardless of how many times I’ve seen it previously—I laugh. I liked them. They were well done. They had good production values. They were clever.
But, did they work from an advertising standpoint? Continue reading “What’s the Purpose of Advertising: To Entertain or to Sell?”
Marketing is a must-have for businesses of any kind and any size. In fact, all businesses are using marketing to some degree whether they know it or not.Continue reading “The (Absolute) Power of Product and Its Impact on Your Marketing”
Whenever I’m called upon to offer a critique on or advice about a company or consultant’s copy – whether it’s on a web site, in a brochure, an ad, a blog, or whatever – the first thing I do is read through the copy to see whether the focus is on “we/me” or “you/your.” Most of the copy I look at is the former. A quick, easy and relatively painless way to improve it Continue reading “When You Make It All About You, You Lose”
First there was AIDA, then the notion of a sales “funnel” emerged and the concept of a buyer’s journey that began at the top of the funnel (TOFU), moved to the middle of the funnel (MOFU) and ultimately ended with a sale at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU). But is this concept too simplistic—and too linear—to truly represent today’s buyer’s journey? Was this model ever relevant in a business-to-business environment? Are content marketers wasting their time attempting to create copy that focuses, discreetly, on TOFU, MOFU, BOFU?
There’s a raging — and quite interesting — debate that I continue to see taking place in various online forums about the relationship between PR and marketing. I’ve found it especially interesting because I recently was engaged in the same debate while teaching PR courses at a local university. Surprisingly to me, there is a group that believes quite strongly that PR is not part of marketing: that it is a separate and distinctly different function within an organization.
Frankly, that’s just “crazy talk” to me. Continue reading “The Blurred Lines Between PR, Marketing and Advertising”
In the digital age of rapidly increasing technology and here-today-gone-tomorrow fads in fashion, popular culture and consumer tastes, it can seem like the rules of marketing are constantly changing, rendering obsolete what may have been sound advice just 10 or 20 years ago. But despite the near-constantly changing winds at the edges and frontiers of the marketing industry, the vast majority of the core principals remain unchanged and have stood the test of time. Continue reading “Time-Tested Tenets of Effective Marketing Haven’t Changed in 100 Years”
Occasionally companies and their advertising teams will find themselves in hot water for controversial advertisements or campaigns that set out to be edgy or funny, but push the envelope a bit too far. Consider, among the many examples, Bacardi’s “ugly girlfriend” ad, Burger King’s sexually suggestive “Super Seven Incher” ads and Dove’s “Before & After” ad showing a transition from a black to a white woman.
Likely these companies knew they were taking a risk in putting those ads out there but didn’t fully appreciate the likelihood of the level of potential backlash. But sometimes ads not intended to contain any type of offensive content still manage to offend. Continue reading “Peloton: The Latest Example of Consumer Outrage Over Ad Content”
Publishers have a lot on their plates these days—from fraud and ad blocking, to Facebook’s recent News Feed changes, to GDPR, increasingly rampant technological innovations and more. On top of the traditional issues related to publishing, publishers also have increasingly been pulled into generating ad revenues through ad tech—a constantly shifting landscape that can certainly be a diversion from creating quality content to meet audience needs.
How are they managing? In some cases, they’re outsourcing this aspect of their ad operations (ad ops) to white-glove consultancy services. Continue reading “What Are White-Glove Advertising Services and Should You Be Using Them?”
We recently responded to a reporter’s question of: “Are buyer/audience personas just a better way to say ‘stereotypes’?”
The answer:
Yes, but…
Continue reading “Do Buyer Personas = Stereotypes? Yes, but…”