Punk Marketing

Doing some research on this subject, i found two “big names” of this marketing technique, Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons, authors of “Punk Marketing”, a book that focuses entirely on this subject.
They believe that, nowadays, the power is in the consumers’ side, showing the same that happened at the “punk music”, with the consumers revolting against the tradition.. the basic, searching for more creativity.

I know that may be repetitive with what you get at the internet, but i think its important to mention it. I mean, to describe some key points that the authors recommend to have success on punk marketing, here i present what i consider to be the most important key points:
1 – if you don’t take the risk, you die
2 – try to change the rules of the industry
3 – do not try to satisfy everyone
4 – never loose your honesty
5 – let the customers find out the quality of your brand
6 – be one step forward than your rivals
7 – communicate in a simple and objective way
8 – bet on quality, not quantity
9 – use new marketing tools
10 – question yourself constantly
(check the video and see the 15 topics)

For me, punk marketing developed a lot with the the easy access to a huge amount of free information when a lot of consumers connected to internet. Lets see, today is easy to do some research about a product that we want to buy, seeking information about similiar products on the internet. This gave more power to consumers. Consumers can compare prices, and “fight” for the equality of them.

Punk marketing rejects the true and pass more power to the consumers.
May be not something new to put in practice but warns consumers to be informed and deny what is imposed to them.

Some punk marketing advantages:
You can use various marketing techniques, several tools
Gives a great advantage to the consumers, more power to them

Disadvantages:
As an entrepreneur you must be aware that today the power is much more divided, and the consumers have the ability to claim better prices and different solutions

Sources:
http://www.punkmarketing.com
http://www.punkmarketing.com/blog
http://economia.publico.clix.pt
http://imagensdemarca.sapo.pt

Retro Marketing

Today i decided to write about a marketing technique, a way of communicating that for me is revolutionizing the market.
I’m speaking about retromarketing … I realize that more and more companies and marketing managers are using this communication tool.
Consider this case, ABBA, not as a band, but as a brand. A band of the old 70’s portrayed into movies, games, playstation and a lot of merchandising?

What does this create? An enhanced image for the elder people and a new definition for younger people who may not know neither the band nor the brand. The results – an empathy with the public, took families to watch the movie and was a success at the cinemas around the world.

After expressing my opinion, lets see the opinion for known authors.

To Stephen Brown, author of Marketing – The Retro Revolution:
Has marketing moved from “new and improved” to “as good as always”? Is the new old “new”? Retro-marketing is all around us, whether it be retro-products like the neo-Beetle, retro-scape, such as Niketown, or retro-advertising campaigns, which make the most of the advertiser’s glorious heritage. The rise of retro has led many to conclude that it represents the end of marketing, that it is indicative of inert, ossification and the waning of creativity. Marketing – The Retro Revolution explains why the opposite is the case, demonstrating that retro-orientation is the Harbinger of change and a revolution in marketing thinking. In his engaging and lively style, Stephen Brown shows that the implications of today’s retro revolution are much more profound than the existing literature suggests. He argues that just as retro-marketing practitioners are looking to the past for inspiration, so too students, consultants and academics should seek to do likewise. History reveals that new ideas often come wrapped in old packaging. Marketing – The Retro Revolution unwraps this retro-package and, in doing so, offers radically new ideas for the future of the field.

Analysing some “case-studies” we easily identify the major advantages of retro marketing:
– Lower costs to create images
– Lower costs at a legislation and rules (registration of trademarks, patents, logos)
– A great ability to reach a wide age range

But there are also disadvantages:

– A big possibility of the newest people can’t identify themselves with the brand
– Difficult to be identified even to some people of that time
– Can bring some memories but not visible results, like the purchase of the products

If this technique continues to be fashionable, what can happen to the market?

Sources:
http://www.sagepub.com/
http://www.retroworld.com
http://www.amazon.com

Ambush Marketing

Ambush Marketing is a marketing campaign by an organization with the goal of associating themselves indirectly with a sports event in order to gain the recognition and benefits associated with being an official sponsor (Sandler & Shani, 1989). An example of ambush marketing took place in the 2000 Sydney Olympics when Qantas Airlines used the slogan, “The Spirit of Australia” in imitation of the games’ slogan “Share the Spirit,” despite Ansett Air being the official sponsor.

Ambush marketing is opportunistic. It’s goal is to take advantage of situations which allow brands/products to get extra exposure at minimal cost. Sometimes that involves going right into the lions den and clashing head on with a competitor who dominates the main message dissemination channels. Sometimes it requires stealth and more guerrilla-like tactics.

As we can read at wisemarketing.com:

Is a marketing technique which involves riding on the coattails of a major event without paying sponsorship fees, essentially using the event as a free promotion. One classic example of ambush marketing occurred at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, when the Nike company covered the city in ads, benefiting from the focus on the city for the Olympics without having to pay the often hefty sponsorship fees. Ambush marketing is a source of frustration for promoters of sports events, as well as companies which do pay sponsorship fees.

This type of marketing most commonly occurs in association with major sports events, although potentially other events could be used as a venue for ambush marketing as well. At a typical sports event, several companies pay very large fees for exclusive marketing rights, and these fees can sometimes number in the billions for events like the Olympics. In return for the fees, the company gets exclusive advertising space, and it is supposed to get protection from competitors. Rival soda companies, for example, cannot both pay sponsorship fees for the same event.

A variety of techniques are used in ambush gmarketing. The most basic is simply buying up billboard space around an event, assuring that people who attend the event will see the marketing. This practice is entirely legal, although event organizers and sponsors may find it annoying. Ambush marketers may also be more subtle, doing things like passing out t-shirts, hats, and other promotional gear to people attending the event so that their branding is seen in the stadium.

The issue of ambush marketing highlights the growing reliance on sponsorship fees among many major sports organizations. Some people have suggested that the massive sponsorship fees compromise such events; for example, at the Olympics, athletes are often not allowed to bring their own food and drink into the Olympic Village, so that if they are photographed or videoed, they will not undermine the sponsor of the event. In other instances, a sports team or organization may be forced to make certain concessions to meet the demands of a sponsor, raising questions about their integrity.

The next time you attend or happen to be in the neighborhood of a major sports event, you can probably spot some ambush marketing. In the stadium itself, large banners typically proclaim the major sponsors, and they may also play advertisements or pass out promotional materials. Look to the fringes of the stadium for materials from competitors.

Advantages:
– can take advantages from other campaigns
– save some money on communication

Disadvantages:
– can be offensive to the market rules
– may has a bad association to the customers

Sources:

http://www.scribd.com/
http://www.wisemarketing.com

Guerrilla Marketing

Well, we can define Guerrilla Marketing as an unconventional type of marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. It’s a different way of promotions, running on a very low budget by relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets. Typically, guerrilla marketing is unexpected and unconventional, where consumers are targeted where they would not be expecting, which can make the idea that’s being marketed memorable, generate buzz, and even spread virally. The term was defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary to also describe aggressive, unconventional marketing methods generically.

The success of Guerrilla Marketing happened because it broke the old advertising barriers. It passed the conventional creativity to other level, with unusual campaigns.

The advantages are easy to identify:

You can learn more about the consumer because you have a direct contact with him
As a marketing user, you can express your creativity
Can have excelent results spending less money than other marketing techniques
You get a closer relationship with people
However as all the other techniques there is also disadvantages:
You can be seen as too much agressive, and the most important one, you can’t be sure as the advertising campaign will be seen by the customers as you want with the risk of for some can be taken in a wrong way.

Sources:
http://www.gmarketing.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/
http://www.youtube.com

Tribal Marketing

Tribal marketing is a marketing strategy that attempts to create social groups or communities that are centered around a product or service. The credo of tribal marketing is that postmodern people are looking for products and services that not only enable them to be freer, but can also link them to others, to a community, to a tribe.

MACH, John 2005

With this, tribal marketing is aiming to strenghten the links with the consumer also, it explores the emotinal side of the customers focusing the motivations and feelings of his tribe or target audience.

As we can see on the video tribal marketing is focused on company/consumer relationships instead of traditional marketing where the consumers are viewed as passive and isolated. Nowadays consumers are increasingly joining tribes to share and express their passions through rituals and practices

A good example of tribal marketing is the Obama campaign. As i read on an article by DeAndrea Laub:

“What makes the Obama supporters so much more enthused (and therefore willing to donate millions) about their candidate than the McCain supporters? Obama got beyond his fear of being a leader, got beyond his fear of speaking up for what he believes in, and was able to inspire a nation to follow him. Obama also figured out what were the common, core beliefs of his followers and embraced them. Obama was able to successfully lead, to successfully inspire a tribe to follow him, to believe in him, and to act on their beliefs. ”

So, the main advantage of tribal marketing is the ability to create groups and this will be more easier to a markeeter put in practice his work. But the biggest disadvantage is that not all consumers feel the same way and its difficult to “fit” them all in different “tribes”.

It’s time to re-think the company, it is time to go tribal!

Sources:

Marketing & Innovation – Site des marketeurs visionnaires depuis 1996

http://www.wordspy.com/words/tribalmarketing.asp
http://www.news.pharma-mkting.com/pmn411-oped.html
http://ezinearticles.com/
http://www.tribaling.com

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing is like in informatic virus, it encourages people to pass along a marketing message. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends the brand notoriety will grow very quickly.

If you do not know what is viral marketing, don’t worry, certainly you know the same kind of marketing but in the “physical” world, it’s called word of mouth marketing. Nowadays, with the “elecronic” relationships increasing everyday, this technique is developing through e-mails, chats, social networks, etc..

On an e-business if you keep a good relation with a customer, if you take care of him and he becomes satisfied, it will work exactly as the “old” way. The customer will pass a positive image of your company to all his contacts and this will certainly reflect on your business.

In a simplified way, viral marketing is any strategy that encourages individuals to pass an advertising message creating an exponential exposure and influence of this message.

We can consider the first success case of viral marketing the Hotmail, a business that came to contradict all the previously imposed rules. It was the first free e-mail of the world, something that now looks normal but at that time came to revolutionize the market.

For anyone who manages an online business, i can give some good examples that i found on my research that can improve your business:

1. e-mail signature: basic but effective, that two or three lines at the bottom of your email… have you ever stopped to think how many people, with the forwarded e-mails, are going to see your website info? It’s free  and with a guaranteed return. Returning to Hotmail, each time you send an e-mail through hotmail is automatically added the sentence “Get your free e-mail at http://www.hotmail.com”, how many people will see this simple message?

2. offer something, the visitors like it free! Books, tickets, everything… I personally have my own website www.PortoHoje.com and there i did not forget about this tip. The visitors like this, they talk about this, they pass the message and most important, they return to the website.

3. another good example of viral marketing is the webcards. They multiply like viruses. How many of us haven’t received electronic cards for Christmas or festive seasons? To see the webcards, the people need to go to the website and they forward it almost instantly, this will generate an high traffic to website.

4. instant messages; you must have a great social network in any program like msn, aim, icq…. can you see the potential of such a small application? Try to send your link to all your contacts, send.. be creative and this will be reflected in short-term visits.

5. exchange banners; imagine your website referenced in several sites with the same subject, not competitors but with the same interest to users… you will achieve users that it’s difficult to achieve in other marketing technique.

6. have you ever seen “if you like this website recommend to a friend”?, today it seems normal, but when this idea started it was a big “boom” at the world wide web. If someone see some advertising from a friend’s recommendation he will certainly feel more secure and probably will do the same to his friends. Be creative, think outside the box.

The advantages are easy to identify:

– you can reach a wide amount of users
– this technique has exponential growth
– it has immediate results and can extend to medium-term results

The disadvantages may seem few, but there are some:

– can often be considered as spam
– with the amount of instant messages that we receive, can be seen as just one more. Instead of viral marketing there are actually many viruses and its being difficult to trust some messages even when sent from friends.

I think the most important for those who intend to use this technique is the ability to be creative, no matter if the idea seems ridiculous, test it and be successful or not, just dont be quiet 🙂

Sources:

www.wikipedia.org
www.sourcewatch.com
www.marketingterms.com/
www.meio.ws
www.simviral.com

Neuromarketing definition

In a simplified way, Neuromarketing studies how a person’s brain respond to advertising messages. It’s the application of Neuroscience to marketing.

After my research, i can define neuromarketing as a neuroscience subject of research with the aim to study the consumer through is brain and apply this study  to marketing, explaining his preferences, motivations and expectations.

Neuromarketing includes the direct use of brain imaging, scanning or other brain activity measurement technology, doing this can measure a subject’s response to specific products.

To have a wider concept about this marketing technique, i’d choose some authors’ definitions:

 For Jim Meskauskas, editor of imedia connection (www.imediaconnection.com):

“Neuromarketing is the study of the brain’s responses to advertising, the brands encountered in our daily lives, and all the associated messages and images that are strewn throughout the cultural landscape of everyday life.”

Also McLure and others on “Related Neural of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks”, published by the journal Neuron, said: “The neuromarketing is the combined use of medical technologies, with the special attention by the image of functional magnetic resonance imaging, and knowledge of psychology. It applied to the patient, but the consumer/customer in order to hear their reactions and attitudes towards brands, products, services and even people, and thus develop promotional campaigns and institutional promotion of more effective”.

Some benefits of neuromarketing:

– A real knowledge of consumer perceptions

– Easy to know the consumer as its impossible to know in other marketing techniques.

Disadvantages of neuromarketing:

– Each consumer has different stimuli and even creating a standard pattern it’s difficult to know such a heterogeneous group

– It’s also difficult to find consumers that agree to be part of a neuromarketing scientific study

After the analysis of several articles and blogs, i think this is for sure the less creative technique, nevertheless, is the most “scientific”, trying to explain trough the science the consumer behaviour and the influences it has in the marketeers decisions.

Sources:

www.face.fi/tag/culturalbranding/
http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com
www.neurosciencemarketing.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/neuromarketing
www.wikipedia.com
http://neuromarketing.blogs.com

what is SEO?

I am an online marketing fan. I feel that with the use of internet increasing over the years, stealling a lot of people to traditional media (television, newspapers, radio), it makes sense to learn a little bit about SEO.

If the internet is important and i think we all agree on this, then, to get a good “spot” on search engines is getting essential. In my point of view SEO is, as the name indicates, Search Engine Optimization, its the entire process that leads a website (personal or institutional) to get a better/higher result when searched in any search engine. We can do that proccess on a blog – by the tags we add, or in a website – by the way we define all the code and content. The results? An huge amount of free visits, and this generates, more traffic, more visits, larger databases, a better notoriety and consequently PROFIT.

I decided to do some research about this subject:

First i realize that there are few companies with the “Adwords Qualified Professional” certified by Google in Portugal, so … companies… open your eyes! Then i confirmed that my opinion was not far from the reality and i got interesting conclusions.

I didnt know for example that Google controls 75% of all internet research in the world, but in Russia they only occupy 9% of this market leaving the search engine Yandex with about 50%. This show us that to have success in search engine optimization for international markets we may also need the translation of the website, a top level domain and a webhost local server. If you search “buy house” at Google, the domain www.buyhouse.com, by the quality of the “name” will have more chances to get a better visibility than the competitors. So, the brand as a great impact and a significant part of the website visits.

According to Shaun Anderson who wrote several articles for the http://www.hobo-web.co.uk, SEO is the art of getting the website to work better with search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
“The key to successful SEO, I think, is persuading Google that your page is most relevant to any given search query. You do this by good unique keyword rich text content and getting “quality” links to that page. Developing the next time your page, consider what looks spammy to you is probably spammy to Google. Ask yourself which pages on your site are really necessary. Which links are necessary? Which pages are getting the “juice” or “heat”. Which pages would you ignore? ”

I honestly recommend to anyone using Internet as a work tool to find more about this subject.

The websites that i used:

www.wikipedia.org
www.josefernandes.pt (in portuguese)
http://www.inesting-search.com/
http://www.hobo-web.co.uk

Create buzz on your audience.

For me, buzz marketing is a technique of word-of-mouth that captures the attention of a consumer about a product or subject. The consumers share the information with another people and doing this they will increase the reputation of the brand. When I say that is a technique of “word-of-mouth” i mean it because when a company hires someone to provide instructions about how to use a product, that personal contact will create a great impact on consumers, this is called “to create buzz”.

There are many buzz marketing advantages, if you receive a message from someone you know or trust wont you be more opened to try a new product? 
Plus, the buzz marketing is a low production cost technique , it is seen as a personal technique where everybody will have more into account because it was said by someone they know.

But we’re not talking only about advantages, this technique can be seen as very intrusive, it’s like telemarketing in the face of the customer and also very “false”, when we think we really have an opinion or point of view from a person and the reality is this person belongs to a company and its only doing his job.

There are some examples of buzz marketing:

With the beginning of the web 2.o with many websites such as facebook, youtube, myspace, hi5, they used the buzz marketing to expand the social networks they have created.
Some sport brands, such as Nike and coffee brands, Nespresso, use personalities on their commercials that the public knows very well to illustrate how the product works, this will create a great impact on the audience.

It’s a sucess technique!

It was difficult to obtain information from well known authors, however the most important websites that I found:
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://en.mimi.hu
http://www.commercialalert.org

Experiential Marketing

Experiential Marketing is probably the type of marketing strategy that i have more curiosity, perhaps because it is the less developed one when compared with another countries where is absolutly required!

Some weeks ago, i read an article in a portuguese magazine (Sábado) that in my country we “already” (finally…) have one company specialized in “Olfactory Marketing” named AROMIX, and this caught my attention for the subject because soooo many things can be done.. and that is the time for the new generation of marketeers..

A simple definition for Experiential Marketing:

Is a type of marketing that tries to evade the traditional parameters, providing to the consumer experiences easier to keep in the memory. It attemps to connect consumers with brands in personally relevant and memorable ways.

Advantages:
– The consumer becomes part of all the campaign and this way the company can know exactly how it thinks, and redefine some advertising

Disadvantages:
– if the experience has a negative side, the company lost immediatly the costumer

So.. i can give you the experience to see a video as an example of some kinds of marketing experiences and think about the last words on the video: “EFFECTIVE, TARGETED, CUSTOMIZED and FUN”, its all about experiential marketing!

A brief history of communication… :)

I found this animation “stop-motion” about the history of communication.

This campaign from “The Carphone Warehouse” was created in August by CHI agency, London. It’s a good away to think about our “obession” to communicate!

Hope you like it 🙂

Be welcome!

Be welcome to my latest creation.  This project was proposed by my management communication’s teacher.
I’m an IPAM student, a portuguese marketing university but i decided to write in english because i dont know if i will keep this blog in the future, it will all depend on your comments… 🙂 so, don’t be afraid.