Marketing – Page 38

Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar November 2014

Here’s the regular look ahead…

…this time at the coming month of November 2014…

…for events, occasions and anniversaries we can use as the basis for marketing campaigns and promotions.

FIRST…a reminder that the end of the year and CHRISTMAS is fast approaching!

For pretty much all marketers, Christmas and the New Year is a time of peak opportunity to make sales…

…BUT there is a lot of competition of course. So, it’s important to be well prepared.

Before that, November in the USA means…THANKSGIVING (this year on November 27).

(In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is a month earlier on October 13).

This year is the 90th anniversary of the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade (in 1924).

“Black Friday” follows, which marks the start of the Christmas season shopping frenzy!

On a more somber note, November 11 is Remembrance Day…which takes on some added significance with this year being the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of events and occasions…

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If You Can Fake Marketing Authenticity…

…then you’ve probably got it made! Great marketing cartoon from Tom Fishburne…

There’s a famous quote that goes…

“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

Originally from Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944) a French diplomat, dramatist and novelist (although I’m guessing the very first version would have been in…French!)…

…although most people will attribute it to comedian George Burns (“Sincerity – if you can fake that you’ve got it made”).

Anyway, it seems that in mainstream-marketing-land something similar to sincerity – “authenticity” – is in vogue.

As Tom puts it…

“Marketers are increasingly pushing for ‘transparency’ and ‘authenticity’ in their brand communication. But, for many brands, this is surface-deep. They want advertising that makes them look authentic and transparent without actually being authentic and transparent.”

Rather makes you wonder what they were doing before, doesn’t it? Were they being “opaque” and “inauthentic”? Sadly, yes in many cases…and I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Well worth reading the whole article and discussion at “marketing authenticity”.

As a slight aside…

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Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar October 2014

Time to look ahead at the month of October 2014 and the events, anniversaries and occasions that smart marketers can take advantage of and use as the basis and reason for an event-driven promotion.

The stand out occasion, and one beloved of marketers, is of course “Halloween” on October 31.

The origins of Halloween seem to be a mixture of pagan festivals marking the end of summer…

…combined with the idea that at this time of the year the spirit-world comes close to our world…

…adopted by the Christian religion as the eve of “All Souls Day”.

Whatever, it’s the traditional occasion to acknowledge the after-life and the supernatural.

So, an opportunity to use themes in your promotions like…

“It’s Scary What You Are Missing!”

“Now a spooktacular, very limited time, opportunity”

“Terrifyingly scary profits coming your way…”

…and so on.

You could also use the theme of FEAR (of loss, for example)…

…but don’t get too scary about it!

Apart from Halloween October has plenty of different events and occasions…

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The Ultimate Sales Machine – Book Review

I was recently prompted to take another look at the book “The Ultimate Sales Machine” by Chet Holmes.

Sadly, Chet died in 2012 at a relatively young age. At the time I posted this…

“Chet Holmes – Marketing And Business Giant”

…with a brief introduction to what turned out to be his only book.

After a rather longer interval than I intended, here’s a fuller review of “The Ultimate Sales Machine”, a book that deserves a place in any serious business and marketing library.

Chet Holmes was widely regarded as “America’s greatest business growth expert” and one of the greatest teachers of marketing, sales and business success. A business partner of giants such as Jay Abraham, Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy, Chet cut his teeth and first made his name working for Charlie Munger, long-term business partner of Warren Buffet.

“The Ultimate Sales Machine” was Chet’s first and only mainstream book. As the title suggests, the main focus of the book is on making more sales but there is a lot more to the book than that. The book incorporates much of Chet’s broader business philosophy and it might be better thought of as a guide to “Complete Business Success And The Ultimate Sales Machine.”

The core of the book is indeed Chet’s blueprint for building your own top-notch sales machine. That includes…

1. Setting your sales strategy and approach
2. Getting the right people for your sales team
3. The tactical nitty-gritty of implementing the sales strategy, making the sale and then keeping customers happy over the long term.

Before that, the first 3 chapters cover what Chet calls the ”building blocks you must have…to succeed long term”. They are…

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Looking Ahead – Marketing Calendar September 2014

Welcome to the regular “Looking Ahead” feature where we consider the coming month, September 2014…

…and the events, occasions, anniversaries and holidays that smart direct response marketers can use as the foundation for event-driven marketing promotions.

After the lull of the last month or so…

…it’s a time of a change of seasons.

It’s Autumn in the north and Spring in the south…

…and these can be used as broad themes for a promotion.

Tied in with these, in the northern hemisphere it’s “Back to School” or “Back to Work” and the start of the run-in to the end of the year.

In the southern hemisphere, “Spring Time” or “Spring Cleaning” can be used as a theme.

Also, this year sees the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 1…

…and also the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 2 (generally reckoned to have started on September 1 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland).

These events are not necessarily something to be used as the basis for a marketing campaign but they will be in the news and in people’s thoughts.

Looking at some specific occasions…

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