Innovative marketing strategies

It might be difficult not to believe an entrepreneur who has convinced thousands of investors to put their money behind an untried and untested innovation that their marketing directives will be successful. But experience has shown me that technological genius and capital raising acumen are not assurances for mass marketing mojo unless the image you are seeing in the mirror is Steve Jobs.

For everyone else, I recommend investing in marketplace research of both the wholesale and retail side of distribution as the euphemism of mine field will actually prove to be an understatement. Ask consumers for their opinions, watch for their unspoken reactions, challenge their willingness to please and respond to their aspersions with an open mind. With that input draft a psycho-demographic profile and challenge a variety marketing and media consultants to develop media plans and schedules. Keep in mind that your campaign must be in sync with product production, distribution cycles and media timetables – None of which are probably in lock step with your competitors, bankers or investor interests.

The new online social marketplace has presented communication professionals with unique opportunities for both free and paid impressions. The debate between CPM and CPC metrics hould not be taken as the only measures of success… brand recall isn’t SEO and unique visitors are not a measure of a customer’s willingness to buy.  More importantly, learning the differences will not suffice having practical experience. Being bloodied in battle and hailed as a victor keeps one both human and humble.

It wasn’t that long ago that advertisers invested in producing truly creative print ads, radio spots and TV commercials to engage consumers in a dialog with product marketers and their brands. So artful were these efforts that the Museum of Modern Art built a collection of the best examples.

More recently it was learned that the once presumed family friendly social networks; Facebook, MySpace, Google et al, have been aggregating the personal ID data from site visits and sharing it with their advertising media networks to effectuate higher click-thru rates.

Besides the unethical business practice what should concern all of us is the shift from earning the hearts and minds of consumers through relevant content exchanges to spying on consumer activities in an attempt to ambush their attention as they navigate the net.

Worse still is the thinking that a click is a value metric in building a brand franchise with a consumer. The click doesn’t actually measure a positive or negative brand recall, but it does serve as an accounting methodology.

Roy Grace, creative director of “Spicy Meatballs”– “good advertising is achieved by cooperative effort between agency talent and clients with courage and intelligence. For those that know there are short cuts, but choose not to take them — I’m with you.

So much of our current marketing energies are focused on abetting the ability of a prospect to locate a brand online that the “solutions” which consumers are actually searching for may be overlooked in an effort to execute optimization.

Solutions of real value are most often found within current, relevant content that addresses the answers to the; who, what, where and why questions… the DNA of a successful brand.

Truth be told, it is easier to optimize a site than it is to imbue the essence of a brand with relevance, substance, character, merit, functionality, purpose, resolve and then affirm those key brand terms with performance guarantees.

 Invest in the underlying values and the credibility of a brand will become the subject of peer conversations both on and offline.

We are sponsors of a culture driven by virtual conveniences craving irrefutable credentials to support what appear to be its impromptu choices.

Appearances can be deceiving though as the traditional exemplars of “branding” have evolved through the socialization of marketing. Personal networks now endorse the role of the consumer as the publisher of its peer to peer messaging. While the brand continues to be perceived as a personal credential, the consumer, rather than the brand has emerged as the “qualified” expert.

The “why” answer is a question of trust. The consumer is skeptical of media messages and has been empowered with the tools to verify the credentials of a product by communicating with a global community of peer users. Managing that interpersonal correspondence can present unanticipated consequences – both positive and negative.

Today, marketers need to actively participate in the conversations of the peer community and do so openly to be compliant with FTC guidelines in the interest of a truthful outcome.