Marketing

Ask your current advertising specialist to define marketing . . . and watch them break out in a cold sweat.  Really!  Do it!  The outcome is usually quite entertaining.  What you will find is that most people don’t have a clue.  The reality is that marketing is a process that encompasses every aspect of your company.  The process began the day you began to think about launching your company, what you were going to call it and what you were going to do to be better than your competition and how and what you were going to shout from the mountaintop when you got there to create brand differentiation and awareness. Simply stated, marketing is the process by which you create and bring to market your unique product or service.  It touches every aspect of your company from how you answer the phone to how you treat your team members.  The key to understanding marketing is to understand that it is “a process”.

Research

Research is a vital part of Marketing, and the foundation of the strategic process.  Research should be ongoing in your organization. Something as simple as asking your customers how they heard about you can be illuminating. More sophisticated research will keep your company on track when you feel like you are lost in the forest of day to day operations and competitive battles. Customer Satisfaction Studies, Competitive Analysis, Pricing Studies, Product Testing, Focus Groups along with industry research from your trade associations and organizations like Simmons Data, Scarborough and Gallup all provide valuable information that will help you develop your Strategic Marketing Plan.

Marketing Strategy/Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning is the foundation of a good marketing and advertising program.  It provides clarity and definition that should be incorporated into your company mission.  Every thing you do should address your Strategic Mission Statement. The process is hard not fun, yet so necessary.  When you get it right, your Strategic Mission Statement will become a beacon that keeps your team on course to success. At the end of the day  without this process, your marketing plan is a shot in the dark.

Integrated Marketing

Many of the biggest dilemmas facing marketing managers today are the questions created by the New World Order of Marketing. What should I do?  I have multiple targets for my product(s) and don’t know how to create advertising that will appeal to each consumer group.  Branding Plus Marketing Group will help you through the maze of integrated marketing and create a step by step execution strategy that you will understand and be comfortable with.  Even the most complex situation can be managed when properly segmented under a well defined Marketing Strategy.

Product Launches/Rollout Strategies

Just like your overall marketing strategy, new product launches and rollout strategies should be planned from the bottom up.  Branding Plus Marketing Group will use the same comprehensive strategic process – dedicated to a narrow segment or specific new product.  Not sexy, but very effective.

Social Media/Viral Marketing

Seth Godin popularized the concept called Viral Marketing.  Years before Seth ever wrote about it, Martha Rogers wrote a book called, “The One To One Future” talking about how communications were changing from vertical to horizontal.   Today we truly live in a time where just one person can have  a profound impact, positive or negative, on your business.  To truly understand the concept of Viral Marketing is to have a fundamental knowledge of one-to-one communication  and a broad-view of resources and their capabilities. Branding Plus Marketing Group will work with you to manage your electronic/viral/web/Social Media strategy. Illustrative of the pace of the revolution we are in is the pace at which the process is renamed. Three years ago, it was viral marketing.  Today it is social media management. What will it be tomorrow? Frankly it doesn’t matter what it is called so long as you have perspective and a dynamic strategy designed to evolve and manage your electronic footprint.

At Branding Plus Marketing Group...

results matter.