In marketing there are two common techniques, pushing and pulling.
Pushing means your marketing material is geared towards pushing your product onto the customer. This means offering incentives for employees or sales representatives to push your product or placing your product in areas were customers impulsively buy. Promotions are a form of push marketing, or advertisments that end with "buy now."
For example: Energy drinks love to use push marketing. You will see numerous street teams handing out products and promotions to potential customers. A lot of perks are given to retail stores to carry specific energy drinks, such as free tickets to events, price breaks, and merchandising material.
Pull, means your marketing strategy inspires consumers to demand your product. This technique requires you to use your head rather than your wallet. You need to come up with ways to relate with and engage your target market. Tools often used are sponsorship, product placement, PR stunts, and word of mouth.
For example: Apple Computers very rarely pushes. Instead they use product placement, PR and innovative advertisements to create consumer demand for their products. If you look at Apple computer advertising you'll notice that they never end with quotes such as "buy now" or "available at the following locations." The ads are never trying to push the product, instead the message is "this is who we are, this is our product, and this is what it does."
An energy drink company that focuses on pull marketing is Red Bull. By sponsoring events such as the soap box derby, concerts and Formula 1, Red Bull has created an image that is relatable to its target market.
Both Apple and Red Bull offer no price breaks to retail stores, and almost no perks for selling their product. However thanks to their powerful pull marketing strategies they offer something that other brands can't, guaranteed consumer demand. Stores like London Drugs know that although Apple and Red Bull products are priced higher and have smaller margins, the product is demanded by their customers. Because of this stores are forced to stock these brands.
So why don't all companies use pull marketing?
-It takes time to see results
-Consistency is key
-Coming up with creative ideas takes too much time and energy
These are the three biggest reasons small-medium sized companies don't use pull marketing.
Contact MarketR to learn how we can help you develop cost effective pull marketing strategies.
Pushing VS Pulling
Did You Know - The Online Revolution
MarketR was formed because the Internet is in the process of revolutionizing the marketing industry. The Internet allows you to communicate with your target customers quickly, and cost effectively. Unfortunately many marketing agencies in Vancouver are struggling to understand how to use the internet effectively. Even worse is when agencies feel they should charge clients the same ridiculous fees as offline marketing.
Visit the MarketR - Main Page to learn how you can use the Internet to grow your business.
The Internet is growing at an incredibly rate. If your company is not harnessing the power of the Internet you will get left behind.
"It's Only a Mistake If You Do It Twice"
Unfortunately I can not take credit for this quote, however it is one of my favorites.
The internet is a relatively new tool for marketers. This means no one person is an expert. Of course some people are more proficient then others, but nobody can say I am the best online marketer. If you hear someone say this, I advice you not to believe much that comes out of his or her mouth.
One thing does separate great online marketers from not so great online marketers. That one thing is the ability to test and refine. Great online marketers are not afraid to take controlled risks, keyword controlled, in order to develop new more effective online marketing techniques.
Example: The MarketR team just finished implementing a Google AdWords strategy for the Sauder School of Business at UBC. The strategy focused on 3 geographic regions, China, India and Canada. We had no idea what keywords and ad variations would deliver results, so we tested and refined.
Step 1:
Using tools such as Google's keyword selector and Google Insights, we were able to develop a large list of potential keywords that were both generic and geographically specific. Our team of search marketing creatives developed a variety of ad variations for each geographic region.
Step 2:
We tested. We segmented each campaign so that we could easily see which keywords and ad variations were delivering the best results. We ran the campaign and continuously monitored the performance.
Step 3:
We analyzed. This is an important step that poor marketers and business owners miss often. Always reflect on everything you do, this is the driving force towards improvement. Unfortunately poor marketers are afraid to reflect because they are scared of what they might find. This forces them to implement the same flawed strategies over and over again.
Step 4:
We refined. We looked for keywords and ad variations that were doing well and we removed the ones that were not. We were able to see trends in each region that we could never have anticipated before testing. We leveraged these trends by increasing our budget around these high performing keywords.
Now our client has a focused, well refined and effective AdWords strategy that will deliver outstanding results for approximately one month. It might seem surprising that we only expect it to deliver great results for one month. However at MarketR we understand that the internet is continuously evolving, meaning you have to continuously test and refine new strategies to deliver exceptional results.
Remember:
Don't be afraid to try new things. If it doesn't deliver results, stop doing it. If it does, continue doing it, and test ways to make it even better. Always reflect on how successful your marketing strategies are. Or risk throwing your money away.
MarketR Main Page
Everyone needs a main page, even MarketR. Today we are excited to announce the soft launch of the MarketR Main Website.
Check it out and let us know what you think. www.marketing-revolution.com
Social Media - Join The Party
Social media is like a big party. People are catching up with old friends, or friends they just saw that day. People are sharing stories, getting to know new people with similar interests, and being introduced to people by their friends.
Everything that is talked about at a party is talked about using social media.
-How good the movie was that just came out.
-Who went out on a date with Kate.
-What happened in the hockey game that just ended.
Why does this information matter?
The reason why most social media marketing fails is because marketers fail to realize why people use Twitter, and Facebook.
Twitter is a party for people who are too busy to stay for long and just want to keep updated.
Imagine someone shows up to the party and doesn't stop talking. This person doesn't listen to what other are saying. Instead he keeps talking about how cool he is and why people should be friends with him. Guess what? He is quickly kicked out of the party. Now imagine someone shows up pretending to be someone they are not. Check out the post on Brittney Spears and Twitter. We all know what happens then.
Facebook is a party for people who have too much time on their hands and want to know everything about everyone.
The problem is that if your not interesting then nobody cares to get to know you. Meaning if your content is not updated daily with video, pictures and conversations with others nobody cares if you are at the party or not. Another big problem related to Facebook is that the older generation are starting to show up to the party. Imagine peoples relatives and even worse, parents showing up. It will be interesting to see if the younger core group of Facebook users will start to find a party somewhere else.
Don't be the party crasher. Listen to what people are talking about and engage in the conversation. Keep your content fresh and genuine. If your brand is aimed at the younger generation use Facebook. If not, find something else. Remember that social media is a two-way conversation. It is not about talking, it is about listening and engaging.
Remix Manifesto
Today is the Vancouver screening of "Remix Manifesto" a documentary about the copyright laws.
The internet allows anyone to collaborate with people from all over the world. The creative content that has been developed thanks to the internet is incredible. Just look at Wikipedia, one of the most popular websites in the world with content generated by people all over the world. In order to fund Wikipedia they asked for donations and were able to raise millions of dollars through small donations.
Unfortunately there are some corporations that don't like the empowerment the internet brings. Mostly because controlling what people can and can't do is how these companies make money.
Check out the trailer for the documentary. Playing March 8th 7pm at Vancity Theater. Also the film is part of opensource cinema. Meaning all video clips were posted online and anyone could collaborate in putting in the background music and clipping the film together.
Leverage = Doing More With Less
MarketR was featured once again on a popular PR blog. Check out the post about leveraging social media.
Again this shows why the internet is so powerful. When done right, publicity about your company can spread like wild fire.
When we developed the marketing strategy for Toni&Guy's W.A.R. show, we knew it was going to be a huge success. We had no idea about the publicity MarketR would get.
The key is to leverage everything. Turn something small that your company does, into something big.
I just had a meeting with a client who donates to local charities on a regular basis. I asked who knew about their donations? The client replied, the company's staff know about the donations and clients when they come visit the store. This is great initiative, as it builds company moral and clients feel great about patronizing a store that gives back to the community.
The internet allows you to take it one step further. By posting the annual donations on a company's twitter account, blog and e-mail newsletter you take it to the next level. Now thousands of people know about your great contributions. Potential clients are more likely to patronize your store and individuals looking for a job in a company that values giving back are likely to give you a call.
Where it gets really good, is when other bloggers and twitter users start talking about your contribution. Now thousands more people are talking about your company's donations and thousand more potential clients know why your company is different from others.
You never know what is going to be picked up by people on the internet, but there is only one way to find out. Remember to leverage everything!
