63 “Killer” Marketing Strategies
How to insure that your product/service/offer is the best it can be, presented the best way it can be.
First thing first: Beware Creativity
Creativity can creep into the picture many ways, including your own boredom with your business; overestimating the sophistication of your market; taking advice from unqualified sources, etc. The most important thing to remember, as David Ogilvy put it is: creativity is what sells.
Every element of an ad, printed piece, or strategy should advance the sales process. If something does not move the prospect closer to purchasing, what is its purpose?
It’s interesting to note that much of the advertising that wins the awards and the approval of the advertiser, his associates, friends and family members fails miserably in selling anything.
Most marketing purposes can best be served by sticking to the proven basics, rather than relying on the current creativity fads.
Principle #1: Ask yourself - are we being creative just for the sake of being
creative?
Principle #2: About humor - being funny in marketing is risky. When it works, it’s wonderful, but it flops much more often than it works. Ask yourself - why are we trying to be funny? Does it capture attention better than any other mechanism? Also, a tip - being funny is safer with regular customers than with new prospects.
Principle #3: Watch out for the “creative graphic artist” in putting together
your print media. The Artist is irresistibly tempted by creativity for creativity’s sake, to justify his existence!
Principle #4: Why should I, your prospective customer, choose you vs. any
and every other alternative available to me? You MUST answer this question!
Principle #5: If you offer the same product or service as someone else, one of you is unnecessary.
UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)
Is a marketing concept, according to wikipedia, that was first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands. The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. Today the term is used in other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar objects.
Today, a number of businesses and corporations currently use USPs as a basis for their marketing campaigns.
Without a UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION, marketing is a tough challenge. Having a USP that can be clearly and concisely stated often makes marketing easy. A good USP should:
• differentiate you from any and all competition
• emphasize a positive, desirable customer benefit
• be easily understood
One of the best examples of USP helped Tom Monaghan build an empire in a stagnant, over-saturated industry. “Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less — guaranteed!” Not only is this a terrific USP based on the above criteria, it actually reveals a masterful insight into that particular customer’s overriding concern; in this case, not the best tasting pizza, not the best ingredients, and not price; delivery. (Incidentally, Tom Monaghan is a savvy marketer. An exclusive interview of mine with him appears on the following pages.
Read and download the rest of the book: “63 “Killer” Marketing Strategies”.
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