posted by admin on Apr 12
Yes.
Of course it does.
Maybe it’s not so apparent if you have a two-week work placement in the industry and you’re only doing some filing, but the time spent in marketing will still have led to a certain corrosion of the soul.
Simply being in that environment – having people thinking about how to exploit other people all around you for two full weeks – you’re bound to suffer a little.
It’s most apparent in the careerists though – those people dedicated to the hollow art of foisting unwanted products on disinterested parties. You can see it in these people’s eyes and clothes. Mostly the clothes.
posted by Lee on Mar 31
Tokyo has been witness to a new generation of drinks machines over the last few months, which feature a technology so advanced it can cater it’s marketing to the current user.
The ‘Acure’ vending machine features a 47-inch touch screen instead of the traditional glass front display and also sports a digital camera. The camera is used to assess the user’s age and gender when using them. This automated analysis can then be sued to target different products to different age groups or sexes. It can also store demographic data over time in order to rank products that are more popular and give them more prominence. Think of it like Skynet (Terminator reference), without the nukes and aggressive personality.
The Acure is currently used to offer beverages, but could distribute other product types in future. Although it’s not like to be replacing standard drinks machines any time soon, it does offer up to six times more sales according to initial results from a report from the test run. The report also supports the fact that the Acure may makes its way over to the United Kingdom within a year’s time, so remember to keep smiling when you go to buy your Diet Coke.
posted by Lee on Oct 19
Whatever sector your business is operating in, it’s highly likely that you’re still feeling the effects of the credit crunch, and recent Government proposals regarding spending cuts and recovery have no doubt left you feeling a little wary.
However, even when you’re keeping a close eye on your spending, you can’t afford to put marketing activity on the back burner, and you need to ensure that your brand is at the forefront of your target audience’s mind.
You might be thinking that this will involve spending thousands on promotional materials, offers and advertisements, although it really doesn’t have to if you’re prepared to put your creative thinking cap on.
If the design and print of your company’s promotional materials is outsourced to an expensive external company, bringing the job in house can help to cut costs whilst ensuring that you are maintaining your presence in the market.
Attending events and trade shows is also a great way of achieving brand visibility, and if you’re feeling lucky, you might even be able to blag discounts for exhibiting- especially if you have several staff attending.
Lastly, ensuring that all staff have professional, well-designed business cards is very important, and can help you to gain and keep in contact with useful new contacts.
posted by Lee on Jun 12
Yesterday I spoke about how certain TV adverts are targeted at certain viewers and appear in certain programmes overly frequently. Generally, this is bad. Sometimes it works.
The example I would give is the Just For Men ad with a frumpy daughter and a dad going for a job interview. When he gets back, he tells her how he’s going to need… ‘more ties!’ and they both hop about joyously like utter dicks.
At first I thought this advert was stupid. Then I found it fantastically annoying. Then, somehow, it’s laughable quality gave it laugh-worthy quality and I ended up enjoying it. If I ever get bothered about my grey hair, one brand name is now very familiar to me.
posted by Lee on Jun 11
It can take a lot to lodge something in a person’s brain. I’m not doing about a pick-axe or a spear here, I’m talking about advertising.
Different ads ‘bed in’ at different speeds. Generally, a person will need to see an advert a number of times for it to really have much of an impact. But how much is too much?
Because some advertising campaigns are highly targeted, you can find that you see the same ads again and again and again if you watch certain programmes regularly. When these ads become overfamiliar, they merely become irritating and this is the feeling your target audience ends up with.
posted by Lee on Jun 10
Marketing isn’t just about raising awareness about your product. It’s about presenting it in the right way to the right people.
When I was in India recently, I spotted a worrying trend in the TV advertising there. As well as having ad breaks and various companies sponsoring each programme (often six or seven sponsors for one show) they also have these invasive ads that run during the thing that you’re watching.
The way it works is the main picture is shrunk slightly – like a window on the computer – and ads are presented along the bottom and side of the screen while the programme continues. I experience intense irritation whenever these ads are run. Is that the feeling you want associated with your brand?
posted by Lee on Sep 1
Marketing is key, to generate cash in a business, you need a market, to achieve this, you need market share, for market share you need marketing. Without marketing you are finished, that’s right properly finished.
I think that some genius marketing techniques can give you the edge over your competition, although your budget might have to be up for it.
A good example is Comparethemarket.com using mere cats as their mascot if you can call it that, the good thing is that it works, Confused.com has been beaten well and truly here. They have even created a website for Comparethemerecat.com which incidentally sees a lot of traffic.
Take a look at this picture, who has got the edge, despite the fact they are not in direct competition with each other.
posted by Lucy on Aug 11
Marketing jobs are set to rise mainly due to when the economy starts to slow down marketing jobs are usually the first to be cut. So now with companies recruiting for people to start in their marketing departments is a good sign that confidence is increasing in the economy.
Over the past month recruitment companies have noticed that there has been a sharp increase in the demand for marketing positions.
During the first part of the year many companies were not spending valuable money on marketing projects and also taking on staff.
Over the last month there has been a massive increase in the demand for jobs in the marketing sector which was a really positive step forward. 20 or so jobs were called for while six months ago were would only have been half that meaning that recruitment agencies had to proactively go out and find the right candidates.
Another encouraging fact is that redundancies have started to slow down also hinting at the economy starting to recover.
posted by Lee on Jul 29
It has just been announced that Microsoft and Yahoo will be joining forces. The agreement means that the Microsoft search engine will power Yahoo and Yahoo will sell advertisements on its advertising network for both companies. Together they may have the power to take on Google. Combined, this will give them 30% of the search market. In any case the partnership is expected to bring in an extra $500 million. The contract is for 10-years.
With Google having a whooping 60% of the market can this merger have a significant effect?
By sheer coincidence, my annoying Google capture came up with:
posted by Lee on Jul 20
Talks between Microsoft and Yahoo have begun again. Yahoo and Microsoft are likely to pool their reasources to gain market share of the advertising revenue. The partnership would see Microsoft displaying adverts for both parties on its search engine Bing while Yahoo would take over display advertising sales. Nothing has been settled so far and the partnership may not materialise.
Individually, their market share is such that they lack the reach required to achieve a good revenue for their advertising services. Yahoo’s U.S. search market share is 19.8 percent while Microsoft’s is 8.4 percent (according to comScore) compared with Google’s 65 percent.