Category Archives: General Marketing

Is Politeness Driving Your Brand Off the Boredom Cliff?

  By Guest Blogger | May 8, 2013 - 7:34 pm | , ,
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Creating a Brand PersonalityWe’re told to be polite, earnest, and respectful. However, as we’ve learned from Reality TV, face slaps and unfiltered emotions are often more engaging than polite interaction. Micro-blogger Chad Johnson attracted a lot of praise for the influence he earned with raw unfiltered messaging; Twitalyzer in 2011 called Chad Ochocinco the most influential American on Twitter.

Recently, we’ve seen an epic “brawl” on Twitter centered around Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book, Antifragile-Things That Gain From Disorder. Dr Taleb has attracted a lot of attention with his challenging, brash, and often bombastic tweets. His persona is more Ochocinco then Emily Post. Even more interesting is that his topic is Macroeconomics and Econometrics rather than cheating spouses, baller theatrics, and celebutantes. He is making economics interesting.

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Free Live Marketing Training with Danny Iny [Webinar]

  By Jonathan Payne | August 22, 2012 - 10:52 pm |
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At the end of the day, business success really boils down to marketing.

If you don’t have the right product to sell to the right people at the right time, your business is done.

But you don’t just “pick up” marketing.  It’s not something you wing and hope you get right.  No, you master marketing the same as you master anything else: By turning to those who have proven their knowledge and expertise in real-world scenarios.

Well, we have a treat for all of our readers and it comes in the form of a marketing training webinar from a proven marketer, Danny Iny.

Danny Iny Marketing Webinar Click here to continue reading…

What Metallica Can Teach Marketers About Product Changes

  By Jonathan Payne | August 7, 2012 - 6:09 pm | ,
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“Why would they do that?

Seriously, how in the world did they ever decide this would be a good idea?”

Consumers often aren’t the biggest fans of major unexpected changes.  Facebook users flipped out when Timeline started rolling out to the masses, for instance.  Coca-Cola has had more than one run-in with angry consumers over changes to their packaging.Product Changes and Marketing

With that said, there’s a simple fact of life in marketing: Product changes are inevitable.

  • Technology improves
  • Economies fluctuate
  • Markets shrink and expand
  • Consumer expectations and perceptions shift
  • Budgets rise and fall

Everything in business changes.

The way to survive in a competitive market is by launching new products or changing existing products.  But changing existing products creates a bit of a problem for marketers:

When changing a product, how do you capture the segment of ever-changing consumers without leaving your most loyal customers out in the cold?

 
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How Social Media Impacts the Consumer Decision Making Model

  By Jonathan Payne | April 23, 2012 - 9:00 am | ,
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“You don’t have to buy from anyone. You don’t have to work at any particular job. You don’t have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose.” – Harry Browne
Consumer Purchasing Model

 

Anyone who has taken a formal marketing course knows all too well the traditional consumer decision making model depicted below.  Here’s how it works: consumers recognize a void between their desired and actual states, seek information on products that will fill that void, form a consideration set of products, make a decision/purchase from those alternatives, and evaluate the purchase.

The steps of this model haven’t changed since the marketing revolution of social media, but what has changed is the way these steps are carried out.

 

What has changed are the ways consumers seek information, evaluate products, and give feedback about those products.

 

Marketing is no longer between the brand and the consumer; it is now between the brand, the consumer, and hundreds or thousands of the consumer’s friends and followers.  All with a few keystrokes and a click of the mouse.

It would be a gross understatement to say social media is a game-changer with respect to consumer behavior.

While social media arguably impacts all levels of the consumer decision model, there are two areas in particular that it disproportionately affects: Information Search and Post-Purchase Evaluation.

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