Socrates of Marketing

I love Marketing. Any kind really. Advertising, strategy, social media, guerrilla, viral, you name it I like it and have either experimented in it or actually worked on it. I figure I would talk a little about what has worked for me as well as my general philosophy on marketing itself.

When I take a look at Marketing I really like to see how I can dive into the consumers mind. I take a look at the typical consumer (I know, research!) to see how they think and feel. Sometimes this is already done for me but most times this will include people watching in heavily crowded areas (This is a very necessary skill in Marketing in my opinion).

After I get a feel for who I am aiming at (I never take more than a few hours as time is money), I begin to formulate the channels that will be used. I have experience in a variety of different Marketing backgrounds so my campaigns tend to include a variety of ideas (and I personally prefer ideas that are considered Guerrilla in nature).

Best advice is to go with what you are comfortable with and what fits with your demographic. If you do not understand Social Media, do not go there. You will lose out on business but by not executing a social media campaign well you will be exiling those potential clients for quite some time.

Need help? Let me know in the comments what specific advice you need and I will be more than happy to help you out.

"I’m an ideas man, Michael…"

So I have been thinking of little things I could do to make the Marketing world a little better place. Figured I might as well get my head wrapped around the idea of brainstorming on a regular basis for that day when I get a job. Well I figured I would share some of my ideas…. with the knowledge that they may get stolen at some point.  Well here it goes (and I am not sharing all my ideas… that would be stupid).

My first thought is on the location-based app world that is starting to bloom. It is no secret that I really like Foursquare. It has become an addicting little pass time  for me as of late. I began to think of how Foursquare to monetize their business (and this goes for Gowalla, Loopt and the others out there) and came to a conclusion. All of this data that these companies collect is VERY valuable. You find out how many people they usually show up with, what they are saying and how often they go (probably what kind of phone they checked-in on as well). This can be a lot of use for marketers. Why not sell this information to the companies? Now before you grab your I-want-my-privacy pitchforks let me explain that they would not get any information you are not giving to your social networks and you could opt-out of the personal information sharing, just the location sharing would be shared.

Start off with a pricing plan that for each location you want info on you pay a certain price. Then if you want info on your competitors you pay more. Well you can see where I am getting at here. This would help with the market research and make sure these budding social media companies stick around a while longer.

Next up I figured I would put in a PR idea I have. This also deals with Foursquare and the adoption of social media into your integrated marketing strategy. So you already use email marketing… or you should, and now you are diving into the realm of location-based sharing to get your company out there. You have your Twitter, Facebook, blog, Flickr and other social media profiles on your website. Now what? Well you can check to see who is Mayor of your locations and give them a little bonus or discount. You then mention the discount on your website to entice others to jockey for that coveted position. Even better, you post the profile or name of the current mayor of your locations on your Facebook, blog and email newsletter to encourage competition. You make people want to gain that mayorship to gain that recognition. Maybe give discounts for kicking a mayor out. You want turnover in that mayorship because that means loyalty and repeat business.

These are just some of my ideas. Take them as they come. Ask me for more… but the next ones will cost you (I want a job).

Sex sells (Now maybe people will read my blog!)

So we have all heard the phrase that sex sells. Well does it really? Short answer is yes. Now this would not make for a good blog post so I figure I will give my two cents on why sex seems to work so well.

I have a theory with advertising and marketing and the most effective campaigns. The best campaigns have that “Wow Factor” that leaves the audience with quite an impression on the company or product. Sex just so happens to be one of the items that can work and that is why it sells. Humor is also one of those huge aspects of advertising that just works for some companies. Look at Budweiser and the famous Bud-Weis-Er frogs from so long ago. Spokespeople also work along the same lines. Michael Jordan had a great run with Gatorade and Nike.

Basically I guess my reasoning behind this post was to partly debunk the “Sex Sells” line while also showing why the line is true. Confusing, I know. Also I wrote this to show that sex does not have to be used in advertising as Humor, Spokespeople and more can be used. You could say that lazy advertisers use sex to sell their products but that too is not entirely true. There are products and companies that have used sex to sell their products VERY effectively. As with any campaign you must take a look at the target audience, your product and the company culture to determine if sex works. Basically my blog post has been a way for me to declare the validity of and uselessness of sex in advertising.

If that was not confusing for you then you are my hero. That is all.