Integrated Marketing Communications

Why use an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Strategy?

The marketing world is rapidly changing with the emergence of new social media platforms, mobile applications, and new ways to reach consumers, so we must find new ways to fulfill these needs.  Not only is it important to create a new and creative marketing strategies, it must be consistent throughout all selling and advertising platforms to be effective; this is the idea behind IMC.  When paired with successful and cohesive branding, IMC will allow customers to receive the same message across all social media platforms, experience a convenient and smooth shopping experience regardless of if they are shopping in store, on a laptop, or using a smart phone, and an overall fulfillment of the consumers need of a hassle free experience. 

Nike is a great example of a successful IMC program.  Since the inception of the slogan, “Just Do It” in 1988, the company has successfully brought together its vast number of media platforms under this one concept.  In the competitive world of sporting goods, Nike has been able to hold its market share without having to consistently change or revamp its marketing efforts due to the integration of its brand and marketing strategies.

In conclusion, by using a well-structured IMC strategy, you can ensure that customers will get the right experience regardless of the medium that they use.  Additionally, you will find that IMC provides competitive advantages including financial rewards, and the ability to perform at a higher level with the cohesiveness that comes from IMC.

http://www.stephenzoeller.com/why-use-integrated-marketing-communications-approach/

Predictive Analytics - The New CRM

Data is expected to get to 44 zettabytes (1,000,000,000,000 gigabytes) by 2020. Retailers analyze data and apply it in the real world to predict purchase behaviors, optimize which products get shown on a page while scrolling, allow institutions to stop fraud, etc.

Customer relationships management software (CRM) have remained stagnant since the 1990s. CRM has become largely inefficient because reps have to spend tome manually entering data and spend even more time searching through it.

Machine learning and predictive data engines is bringing us closer to enterprise apps that tell users what the highest-value or most-urgent tasks are so they can be prioritized with artificial intelligence and decision support algorithms. The future of CRM is predictive analytics and knowledge of a specific industry and workflows of the business function.

CRM isn’t dead yet, but it will be unless it gets smarter and can save more time rather than wasting tme with data entry and lookup.

Event Marketing

Every four years a city gets chosen to adopt the Olympic Games. Hosting an event that attracts more attention globally than any other event comes at no small cost. The most recent Olympics in Rio had the heavy price tag of $20 million dollars. So how do you market an event that is as expensive as the net worth of Snapchat? To reach every household in the world is no easy task, but let’s take a look into what marketing tricks are used for the customers actually attending the games.

The marketing director from the Rio Olympics, David Giglio, was asked to give three tips for fan engagement that were utilized from the Olympics that could be applied to the marketing of other events. His first tip was to “Let them live vicariously.” At the Rio Olympics there was an event centered on an activity that was a green screen that allowed the fans to use props and backgrounds that allowed them to get in the mind set of an athlete. It gave them the competitive drive that the Olympics is built on. What this means for your company is that you should put the customer in the shoes of the athlete, product user, or actor that you are trying to market.

The second tip that Giglio provided was “Bring in the talent.” What can better market your event than the athletes participating at it? The event marketing team pushed the Olympians to attend as many meet and greets and other sessions as they could to both benefit the event and the promotion of themselves. This method could easily transition to your event by utilizing your celebrity endorsers or even current loyal customers.

The final tip that Giglio provided was “Educate them.” With an event having such a deep history as the Olympics, there is plenty to learn. Marketing with information is a great tool to utilize because the customer actively wants to learn more about what you are selling. This method can easily be transferred to any type of business. In the end, customers want to learn more about the product that they are buying. It is the job of event marketing to ensure that nobody leaves an event just as educated as they came in.

http://www.eventmarketer.com/article/tips-on-fan-engagement-road-to-rio/

Retail Marketing

Green Friday?

              With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, many retailers are anticipating not the holiday itself, but the day after. Black Friday is a huge day for retailers all over the nation who offer exclusive deals online and in stores. This year, one retailer is looking to make a positive impact through this lucrative tradition. High-end outdoor apparel and gear retailer, Patagonia, is donating 100 percent of its Black Friday sales to save the environment.

 The retailer stated it will donate an estimated 2 million dollars to grassroots environmental groups that protect local communities’ air, water, and soil. These groups are small and typically underfunded. It is not unusual for Patagonia to donate money to positively impact the environment; the company values the environment and bases numerous company decisions off the company’s environmental impact. Patagonia has had issues in the past regarding sustainability and ethics, so over the past few years, the company has planned and implemented changes to these issues, and planned to increase their contribution to saving the environment.

The company’s main motivation for this campaign stems from President Elect Trumps alterations to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions. Being an outdoor oriented company, the environment is of high value to Patagonia. In the past, the popular retailer has participated in several sustainable projects including creating a $35 million fund to help pay for solar rooftop panels. With Black Friday quickly approaching, Patagonia is hoping to make another successful contribution to the environment. Keep this in mind while you are out shopping with your family the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps this year you can make your Black Friday a Green Friday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/patagonia-black-friday-environment_us_58345f37e4b058ce7aacf01b?section=us_business

Sales Blog

For many sales professionals, this team of year is not joyous and wonderful. It is crunch time…it’s the fourth quarter. Sales professionals around the country are scrambling to hit their quota’s so they can deem their year a success. But what is stopping them? Colleen Stanley, CEO of SalesLeadership Inc. says that sales people tend to work harder and not smarter and forget these three main points. The first point is identifying the company ‘pain point.’ Is there a place where your company is consistently being chosen over your closest competitor? Finding these areas will help many companies increase numbers and set up well for the first quarter of 2017. The second area, is in a prospects psychographics. A salesperson needs to identify which traits a qualified prospect has and only target those people. As Colleen mentioned earlier, at this time of the year professionals tend to work harder and not smarter, targeting prospects who have good characteristics will help increase numbers. If all else fails, the third way that Colleen talks about, is lead sources. These are non-competing vendors that will sell good prospects to a professional. These sources can be a good way to get a final push for numbers when heading towards year end. Colleen Stanley gives a few good ideas for professionals to use as they enter the final push of the sales year.  

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/three-reasons-your-sales-team-isnt-hitting-quota-colleen-stanley-ceo

Digital Marketing

Kohl’s Black Friday

Being the second largest department store chain in America Kohl’s is expected to drive customers into their stores on Black Friday, the busiest day of the year.  Kohl’s needs to stay ahead of the game and gain the attention of shoppers, this year they are getting help from Weber Shandwick.  Together they developed a media strategy which includes a trivia contest offering prizes, and reaching out to customers by dealing with them in the act of shopping. They teamed up with Disney’s Frozen and they were the head of the Frozen conversation. Kohl’s asked the first trivia question at the American Music Awards and that created a lot of conversation and helped Kohls accomplish their goals. Kohl’s made top brand in the overall Black Friday conversation.  Most of the mentions came from Twitter, and they consistently made the Trending Top List.  These two campaigns gave Kohl’s a very nice advantage from the beginning. They achieved being a go-to-source for Black Friday.

The social strategy started with the AMA’s when they aired a commercial about the sweepstakes for Black Friday. They next day Kohl’s launched a Twitter contest (#KohlsSweeps) where people can win gift cards if they answer the trivia question correctly.  There were tweets sent out before the actual question to get more people to participate and create build up.  This helped a lot more consumers to look at the Kohl’s Twitter page. They also posted content for the contest every fifteen minutes which maintained their social presence. The other campaign that is going on is Frozen.  Kohl’s has had a partnership with them since 2014 and is considered one of the top retailers for Frozen merchandise.

Kohl’s held the title for top organic trending hashtag during the Black Friday hours. 64% of brand mentions were for Kohl’s. According to Nate Koch the Social Marketing Planner at Kohl's “Overall, Kohl's saw a 234% shift in percentage of positive sentiment during Black Friday week, gained over 11K new fans across social platforms, and generated over 370K Twitter mentions, resulting in over 255MM potential impressions. The retailer surpassed 2013 results by 400%, with 450K total engagements received on Twitter during the campaign timeframe (inclusive of paid content). On Twitter, the engagement rate grew 35% from 11/24-11/27, as excitement and awareness for the contest continued to build”.

Digital Marketing

Top Three Things To Do To Transition To A Digital Marketing Job

http://www.spectacledmarketer.com/top-3-things-to-do-to-transition-to-a-digital-marketing-job/

            Digital Marketing is growing more and more every day.  If you have considered going into this field read the tips below to help you transition and get a job in digital.  

1.     Invest in Building Your own Online Presence

Now a day’s employers will Google candidates’ names to find out more information about them. If nothing shows up when someone types your name into a search bar that will make it extremely difficult to even get considered for job in digital marketing.  You will want to build strong profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  You can even have your own website or blog to grow your online presence as well.  Having solid profiles can bring you exposure and hep you network with many different kinds of people. 

2.     Educate Yourself and Stay Updated on Things

Digital marketing is always changing and at a very fast pace.  If you are not familiar with the new technology or new social media than this filed may not be for you. This job requires knowing exactly what consumers and customers want and being able to adapt to the changes in the market quickly.

3.     Stand for Soemthing!

When an employer Googles your name, you want them to be able to know exactly what you stand for or believe in after reading about you. That is how they get to know you and see things from your viewpoint. This is also how employers see if you will fit in well with their company and lets them know what filed you are interested in. 

As more and more people turn to social media, and the internet, the bigger the demand for jobs in digital marketing.  Take these tips and start your path into a long career in Digital marketing.