1. How will this piece be used?

 

1. Who are your target audiences?

 

1. Will they be mailed, handed-out or picked up (relative percentages).

 

1. Will they be used:

a)    at trade shows?

b)    taken on sales calls?

c)     mailed?

 

1. Will they be used to enclose or accompany a proposal?

 

1. Will they be used with a cover letter?

 

1. Is there a need for two types of brochures (according to prospect-priority)?

 

1. What quantity will you need?

 

1. Are there size restrictions or preferences?

 

1. What kind of “statement” do you wish for them to make?

 

1. What (3-4) points, in their order of importance, do you want to emphasize?

 

1. What are your major characteristics, qualities, selling points?

 

1. What primary qualities differentiate your company from competitors?

 

1.  What is the number-one (prospect) misunderstanding you encounter?

 

1. Can we include testimonials?

 

1. What photographs/illustrations will be most appropriate and/or persuasive?

 

1. What do you like best about brochures?

 

1. What do you like least about brochures?

 

1. Can you show us a brochure that you wish were yours?

 

1. What are your primary concerns about this project?

 

1. What would please you most upon its completion?

Earlier today, an associate and I were reminiscing about those great broadcast advertisements Phoenix auto dealer Lou Grubb did way back when (the Seventies). Called “Take 5,” they always featured a little word sketch delivfered in Lou’s smooth, unobtrusive way. Of course, they always were tied into a little, one-line selling message at the end. How refreshing when compared to the usual car dealer screamer ads. And Lou had a great line: All Chevrolets are created equal .  .  . the difference is the service!”

I hear tell that old master of the soft sell is still alive and kicking into his 90s. Too bad more of us haven’t used your method, Lou. Hats off to you!

 
Former baseball great Yogi Berra was “credited” with the following quote: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

As humorous as this may sound on the surface, it’s when you go beneath the surface to face real-world  issues that indecisiveness can become a problem. In terms of marketing, this can range from budgeting to campaign planning and from media selection to brand positioning. The worst thing we can do when it comes time to make such a decision is NOTHING.

The best thing is to take an analytical approach based on marketplace conditions and – perhaps – the current state of your business. If what you are doing is not working, a significant change of direction is indicated.

 

 

 

The other day, during a discussion about the state of the economy, I heard someone say: “We can’t change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.” The meaning of this is obvious. It’s not the storm that determines our direction; it’s the action we take to move through or, if necessary, around it.

  

          “Business has two basic functions: Innovation and Marketing.

           These produce results. All the rest are costs.”

                                                                         Peter Drucker

 

 

 

Peter F. Drucker–writer, management consultant and university professor– was born in Vienna, Austria in November 1909 and died in November of 2005.    He published his first book, The End of Economic Man, in 1939.  He then joined the faculty of New York University’s Graduate Business School as Professor of Management in 1950.  Since 1971, he has been Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.  The university named its management school after him in 1987. Drucker has written 35 books in all: 15 books deal with management, including the landmark books The Practice of Management and The Effective Executive; 16 cover society, economics, and politics; 2 are novels; and 1 is a collection of autobiographical essays.  His most recent book, Managing in the Next Society, was published in fall 2002. He was a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal from 1975 to 1995 and has contributed essays and articles to numerous publications, including the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Economist.  Throughout his career, he has consulted with dozens of organizations — from the world’s largest corporations to entrepreneurial startups and various government and nonprofit agencies. Experts in the worlds of business and academia regard Peter Drucker as the founding father of the study of management. For his accomplishments, Peter Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush on July 9, 2002.                                                                             ©  Marketing Partners of AZ 2002

 

A dozen tips for working with a marketing firm

 

 

1.    Treat them as insiders; share pertinent information liberally.

 

2.    Always keep them “in the loop” on seemingly trivial as well as important decisions that may have an effect on sales and your marketing success.

 

3.    Acquaint them with your corporate culture and key management staff.

 

4.    When practical, introduce them to other key outsource vendors, such as their HR or CFO counterparts.

 

5.    Have your staff members and other outsource vendors submit to them for review all internal and external communications that could have a possible impact on your corporate image and sales.

 

6.    Meet or communicate with them regularly, not merely in last minute or emergency situations.

 

7.    Neither discard, nor accept their advice, suggestions, copy-writing points or strategic advice without first understanding the rationale involved.

 

8.    Respect their marketing expertise and heed the advice that results from it when doing so seems inherently warranted.

 

9.    Read every communication they create carefully before approving it.

 

10.          Never approve suggestions with which you are not comfortable.

 

11.          Maintain what amounts to a “partner relationship” conducive to the development of mutual trust, constructive dialog, creative and strategic two-way input, and a level of synergy that promotes effectiveness. 

 

12.          Have an overall strategic plan, and amend it as may be required.

 

 © Marketing Partners, Allan Starr 2004

The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from “Web site” to “website” (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow.

Among the more interesting changes –- at least from a grammar and style standpoint –- are separating out “smart phone” as two words, hyphenating “e-reader,” and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs.

Beyond that, the AP has also defined a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging. While most of them should be fairly well-known to regular web and mobile phone users (ROFL, BRB and G2G are among the definitions) one actually was new to me: POS.

According to the AP, this stands for “parent over shoulder” (I’ve used POS to refer to something else occasionally, but I digress), and is used by “teens and children to indicate, in an IM conversation, that a parent is approaching.” Elsewhere, other terms making the cut include “trending,” “retweet” and “unfriend” (“defriend” is also acceptable, though the AP concludes it’s less common).

Finally, the AP also offers some basic rules of thumb for how social media should and shouldn’t be used by journalists, with a focus on making sure they continue to confirm sources and information they find on blogs, tweets and other forms of social media.

The full 2010 AP Stylebook, which includes the new social media guidelines, was released today and is available on the AP’s website

 
Have a written marketing plan, listing – at a minimum – your objectives, strategies, tactics, strengths, weaknesses and benchmarks. Marketing plan templates are available online or through marketing professionals.

So, make a plan, but never fear to “break” a plan, replacing all or parts of it with something better.

To survive, let alone be a category leader, adequate numbers of prospects must be developed. This cannot be accomplished through time-and-energy-draining two-way communication, either face to face or on the phone. Publisher McGraw Hill has estimated that the average sales call requires approximately 45 minutes, and that an average of three calls is required to close a sale. That’s simply inefficient.  Prospecting is what marketing – the one-way communication element of sales – is ideally suited for.  Whether by e-mail, surface mail or online,  your sales success likely be in direct proportion to your one-way outreach

General Motors has stepped back from the financial brink, reporting its first quarterly profit Monday since 2007. These earnings mark progress toward the turnaround GM mapped out last year in financial viability plans, which played up a role for the plug-in Chevy Volt.

GM used the extended-range electric Chevy Volt model — due out at the end of this year — in those bids for aid to bolster its credentials as an innovative, green-minded company. Today, 10 months after the “New GM” launched (leaving much of the automaker’s assets in a company controlled by the feds), the General has ticked the box for profits — thanks in large part to an improving economy and government-managed restructuring that allowed it to slash costs. Now comes the quest for a green halo, as part of GM’s efforts to sustain profits for the long term.

During the first three months of this year GM says it generated a net income of $865 million, compared to a $6 billion loss in the same period a year earlier. For GM shareholders (the U.S. treasure holds a 60.6 percent stake in the automaker), this amounts to earnings of $1.66 per share in the latest quarter — a dramatic uptick from the $9.78 per share loss in the first quarter of last year.

Chris Liddell, chief financial officer for the automaker, commented on Monday, ”We’re in the process of rebuilding a company here and putting down the foundations is one of the most important things when you’re rebuilding. One of those foundations is clearly achieving profitability.”

The road to building a nimble, green and innovative business that can be proactive with its technology, as competition heats up among car companies from Silicon Valley to China, holds plenty of challenges for the downsized automaker. But its significantly stronger bottom line puts it in a better position to invest in advanced alt-fuel vehicles like the extended-range electric Chevy Volt.

GM has reportedly spent more than a billion dollars to develop the model, and does not expect to turn a profit on it for at least the first generation or two. But it’s looking to gain other rewards from the Volt. In an automaker’s lineup, a “halo” car  is meant to cast a positive glow over a company or brand — showcasing technology, styling and smarts while also helping to define what the brand stands for and luring customers into showrooms to buy other models. With the Volt, GM has said it’s hoping in particular to boost its image in two high-growth market segments where the automaker has lagged: young and environmentalist car buyers.

In this latest quarter, newer models provided a bump to GM’s sales figures, with the new Buick LaCrosse, Chevy Equinox, Camaro and Cadillac CRX making up more than 110,000 of the nearly 184,000 vehicles that GM sold in April. As the Chicago Tribute reports, the models sold last month at a “combined rate nearly 300 percent over the vehicles they replaced.”

GM is targeting production volumes of only 8,000-10,000 units for the Chevy Volt next year. But with its high profile and the heavy bets GM has placed on it as a green halo vehicle, it could help increase the automaker’s momentum as it revs for an IPO.