Are Your Promotions Delivering Results? (Recon Thursday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Recon Thursday and today we’re going to take a look at effectiveness of promotions.

Which one of these scenarios best describes you:

1.       You are not running any promotions

2.       You are focused only on traditional promotions, such as television, radio, print or billboards

3.       You are only devoting resources to social media promotions using tools like LinkedIn, Twitter or Google at words

4.       Your campaigns are some combination of traditional and social media

There are many scientific ways to measuring the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.  Large companies such as Procter & Gamble have whole divisions devoted to the analytics of the data associated with their marketing efforts.

For a small company with limited resources, what make work best is a simple “gut check”.  Review the promotion you are running and ask yourself how it is working.  Is it driving results?  If so, continue using it.  If a campaign needs to run longer to assess results, then give it more time.  When enough time and resources have been devoted to a promotion and it’s not working discontinue it.  Advertisements may also run their course, ads and promotions can become over used or stale and that is another reason to end them.

One thing I like to do is use repetition.  I believe that a promotion needs to be seen several times before it begins to stick in the mind of potential customer.  Don’t be afraid to let something repeat over and over and over again.

Don’t be afraid to try something new.  I just shared guidelines around when to continue with a promotion and when to pull it.  So, go ahead and try new ideas and monitor to see if they are working.  That’s the key, pay close attention to whether or not phone calls, web inquiries and/or sales are increasing or if there is an increase to the bottom line.  If you are promoting heavily and none of those items are increasing that is when it’s time to rethink your promotion strategy.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Creating Your Marketing Action Plan (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Action Wednesday and we’re going to take a look at creating a marketing action plan, or, something I refer to as a MAP.

The marketing action plan is a valuable tool to identify the important marketing action items for your company.  What I love about a MAP is that it centralizes all of these items in one place.  Then you are able to prioritize which items you want to do first and which will be completed at a later date.

A documented marketing action plan enables you to ensure accountability by assigning responsibility as to who owns accomplishing each action item.  Lastly, the MAP provides flexibility.  Circumstances may change in the market place or in your company; the market action plan allows you to be responsive to an ever evolving environment.

Let’s take a look at the elements of a good marketing action plan.  I use project management software, such as FastTrack, to maintain my MAP and break tasks down into three categories: short term, intermediate and long term.

Working with key members of your organization, first create a column for tasks and describe each task is in as much detail as required.  Next, include a column for responsible party. This is the individual in your organization who is the champion of the task and owns its timely completion.  Ensure start and finish dates are determined for each item.  Include budget or cost where applicable so you know the amount of resources to allocate toward the task.

When the marketing action plan is complete, share it with the appropriate individuals in your organization and review it regularly to establish progress.  When your team members have input into developing the marketing action plan and have committed to a timeline for task completion, hold responsible individuals accountable for missed targets.  In my opinion, that should to be done more in small organizations.  When people know they are going to be held responsible they are going to get things done.

Your task for today is to do is build your marketing action plan.  The very first task should be marketing every single day with Once a Day Marketing.

That concludes Action Wednesday.  Be sure to join us tomorrow for Recon Thursday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

100th Blog: Celebrating Your Marketing Accomplishments (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Strategic Tuesday and this is a very exciting blog for me because this is my 100^th blog.  I want to celebrate our accomplishments working together since the beginning of the year to market every day.

I started Once a Day Marketing to provide you with knowledge, strategy and the inspiration to market every day.  If you have been following my blog, congratulate yourself because that means you are making the commitment to market every single day.  Evaluate your progress so far this year, are you implementing and getting results?  Are you doing the things you need to do to drive your business forward through marketing?

Once a Day Marketing now has followers in 44 states and 79 countries.  We are building a community of like minded people who want to improve their business marketing every day.  My commitment to you is that I will continue to do my daily blogs to inspire your efforts.  Your job is to read the blogs to build your knowledge base, find inspiration, develop strategy and market every day.

Please share this blog with as many friends as possible.  I would love to be reaching more businesses and organizations to inspire their marketing efforts.  They can view me on YouTube and Facebook, they can find me on Twitter and the Once a Day Marketing LinkedIn Group.  Also, please comment, Like and let’s build our community together.

That concludes Strategic Tuesday.  Join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Being Digital: Negroponte Was Right! (Digital Friday/Product)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Digital Friday and my blog today is prompted by a story I heard recently on NPR Radio about a sheepherder in Mongolia who is following the NBA Orlando Magic via the internet.  That’s a big statement on being digital.

In 1995 I had the opportunity to hear Nicholas Negroponte discuss about his new book “Being Digital.”

Nicholas hails from the MIT Media Lab.  He is also well know for the model of One Laptop per Child and something called the Negroponte Switch where he states “everything that is wired should be wireless and everything that is wireless should be wired”.

In his book “Being Digital” he talked about things that we take for granted now.  He predicted the world of smart phones and touchpads.  It’s nice to see that it has all come to fruition.

The one topic raised that really made me think was that there are numerous advantages to being digital and having a digital product.  You have no manufacturing, packaging, warehousing or shipping. The product can be shipped electronically anywhere in the world.  Negroponte’s final point was just that, with the digital product there are no boarders, the world is one big market.

Seventeen years later I now have my digital product with Once a Day Marketing.  I have no borders constraining my product distribution.  I see people from all over the world, in fact 76 countries, following my blogs.  They are able to access it instantaneously 24/7.  I don’t have any packaging, shipping or warehousing.  Many companies, myself included, are moving toward being digital.

Nicholas Negroponte said that being digital would change the world.  No one following this blog would dispute that.  So the stretagic question is, are you being digital?  What are you able to enhance within your company to take advantage of the power of digital technology?

That concludes Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Product Strategy: FishDuck Wins Big

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Recon Thursday and we’re going to elaborate on one of the philosophies for introducing a new product into the market that we discussed on Monday, the Marketing Concept, by sighting the example of FishDuck.com.

You may recall that the marketing concept revolves around the identification of a product to fill a customer need.  Today’s example demonstrates how a new website vying to capture market share of internet college football coverage leveraged the marketing concept.

Charles Fisher, the founder of FishDuck.com lives in Eugene, Oregon and is a huge fan of Oregon Ducks football.  Over the last few years Oregon’s offense has been one of the most prolific in all of college football.  If their offense is complicated for coaches and players to follow, what about fans?  Charles’ goal was to create a very simple way for loyal Ducks fans to be able to understand the plays as they followed their team.

The concept began when Charles noticed there was something missing on the numerous websites covering college football.  He observed that despite all the coverage of the Ducks, no site provided in-depth analysis of how Chip Kelly’s offense was scoring all those touchdowns.  Charles created FishDuck.com to fill the gap and began sharing videos with Xs and Os clearly explaining how Oregon’s offense was working, the inside read, the outside read, and other techniques.

Over the last year FishDuck.com has gained many followers including ESPN and Bleacher Report, two of the prominent websites that cover college football on the internet.  They are now linking to his videos.

Using the marketing concept, review your products and determine if there are things you could be providing to your customers that they want and you aren’t currently providing.

As Charles identified the fact that fans wanted more information about the Xs and Os and created FishDuck.com, consider the possible Xs and Os you can deliver to your customers.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Prompt Responses to Customer Engagement (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Action Wednesday.  So how’s that branding and marketing going?  I hope you’re out there every day doing making the effort because in time it’s really going to pay off for your business.

Today we’re going to talk about how to improve your brand and profits by quickly responding to customer needs.  I’m sure you’re not this kind of person but there are many people in organizations out there who really work hard developing their businesses to get more customers and then they fail to reaction in a timely fashion when customers make inquiries.  It’s important to your brand, your customer relationship, and also to eventual sales, that you follow up with customers and make that favorable impression.

Let’s take a look at some of these engagement opportunities.  When your customers come into your store, are you immediately recognizing them and saying hello?  How about you office space?  People love to be recognized and even if there’s a delay they just want to know that you noticed them.

How about the phone?  When the phone rings do you make the effort to answer it immediately?  If they leave a voice message how quickly do you return the call?  A fellow consultant of mine makes it his mission to call back his customers within one hour no matter where he is in the world.

How about email replies?  When customers email you are you getting back to them quickly with the answer to whatever their question might be?  How about social media interaction?  You’re creating a social media environment using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  What happens when they respond?  Are you responding back in a timely fashion?

How about something as simple as a business proposal?  You go into a meeting, present your services, and the prospect likes your offering and requests a proposal.  Are you getting back to them quickly with that proposal because they’re in the mode to buy.

And then delivering a product when ordered?  Your customer wants it and paid for it.  Are you shipping ASAP?

Getting back to your customers promptly really shows that you care about them.  It also creates a favorable experience which enhances the brand in their minds.

So your action item today is to look around your company and make sure you are responding quickly to all the touch points with your customers.

That concludes us Action Wednesday.  Be sure to join us tomorrow for Recon Thursday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

A Strategic Look at Logos (Strategic Tuesday/Physical Evidence)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Strategic Tuesday and I know by following us and implementing marketing every day your business is getting stronger.

Today we’re going to talk about logos, one of my favorite subjects.  I love logos.  I love seeing logos on signs and business cards and products and so forth.

The purpose of a logo is to remind consumer of your company.  You want it to be unique and distinctive so people recognize and remember it.  The objective of that logo is to entice customers to gravitate to it and your product when they make a purchase.

When I mention Nike, Chevrolet or McDonald’s, can you clearly see the logos in your mind?

Here in the state of New Mexico a Zia (left) is very popular logo.  It’s the symbol on our state flag and many companies use it as their company logo.  The goal of your logo is to separate you from the crowd, it doesn’t make sense to use a symbol that many other companies are already using.

As you are developing or analyzing your logo, consider how distinctive it is to your customers.

Below is the logo for my company The Idea Group.

Take a close look.  It’s an “i” and a “g”.  It may not pop out at you instantly and it’s not critical that you detect the i/g.  It has accomplished the objective of being distinct and unique.  I’ve been using the logo for ten years and when people see it, they remember it.  I’ve have people remember meeting me years earlier before because of that logo on my business card.

That’s what you want to accomplish, make it memorable.

That concludes Strategic Tuesday.  Join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

5 Marketing Philosophies Defined (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Smart Monday.  We have a great topic today and before I begin I would like to thank you for following our blog.  I hope you are improving your business by marketing every day and, if you are marketing every day, that you are seeing the results.

Today we are going to revisit marketing guru Philip Kotler’s work on five different philosophies for introducing a product into the market place.  Sometimes there is a product looking for a market and sometime there is a market looking for a product and you have to decide which situation applies to your product.

First is the production concept, creating a low price product that is readily available and widely distributed.

Second is the product concept.  In this scenario you have created high end product with a high price that has many features and benefits for the consumer.

Third is the selling concept.  In this instance, you believe that people won’t seek the product on their own and sales will be driven by heavy marketing and promotion.

Next is the marketing concept.  This is used frequently, especially today, and consists of designing your products to fill the needs of customers.

Last is the societal concept.  Similar to the marketing concept, this takes into consideration the individual, people in general and the environment when creating a product that is a win for everyone.

The selling approach is starting to be replaced by social media inbound marketing.  Rather than heavy, aggressive marketing it’s more subtle.  Potential customers find your message and follow it back to your business and product.

Evaluate your product and your goals to determine which of these philosophies is going to work best for you.  Consider, for example, that local/sustainability and being “green” are growing trends, however, customers don’t always buy green if it’s a lot more expensive.

So, again, you have to decide which of these five strategies is going to work best for you.

That concludes Smart Monday.  Join us tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Social Media: A Two-Way Street (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Digital Friday and we are going to discuss and item I noticed in a blog by Lauren Friedman where she commented on five brands that embarrassed themselves through social media.

I don’t think anybody doubts that social media is a great way to communicate, share information and build relationships, however, social media is a two-way street.  When you share information your followers will share their thoughts in return.

Businesses may forget that and use social media as a one-way channel to push their content through to consumers.  When that occurs, it may be a source of issues.

In Lauren’s blog, she mentions companies such as McDonald’s, Toyota, Chapstick and Volkswagon embarrassing themselves in social media.  They had good intentions to create a positive exchange with their customers but in each one of those cases things went awry.

In some instances they received negative responses they didn’t know how to handle that.  In others the wrong impression was created in the marketplace.

Prior to launching any social media campaign, carefully consider the content and audience reaction.  Anticipate questions and comments and prepare a response plan in advance.

In the case of the companies noted above, as big as they are, their campaigns were failures.  It was a very public learning experience for all of them.  A small company such as yours also has to focus on the potential public response to your social media content.

Social media is a great tool for building communities and relationships as long as your message is well crafted and potential feedback, negative as well as positive is anticipated.

That concludes Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Signage: Always a Good Sign (Recon Thursday/Physical Evidence)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Recon Thursday

We’re going to take a look at signage as physical evidence, part of the 7Ps.

One might argue that there are too many signs, however, we are a visual society and signs are important to us.  They provide general information, help us find our way or, are a call to action such as Don’t Walk.  Signs are an integral part of our society

Signage can be a large part of physical evidence, one of the 7Ps of Marketing.  It creates a visual presence for a company with a physical location and will drive traffic.

First and foremost, signs must be readable.  There is a new coffee shop in a local strip development and I cannot read the sign from the parking lot.  It is the only sign in the strip mall that is so inadequate.

Another element is design.  Stores frequently do not put enough thought into what their sign physically looks like.  It should be appealing to draw in potential customers.

Signs of poor design and/or quality are a reflection on your business just as much as if you didn’t say hello to customers when they walked in the door.  Items such as missing street numbers are part of signage and detract from a business’s appearance.

Next time you are out and about, take a look at the signage around you.  Note the characteristics of the signs that you like and don’t like.  One that particularly irks me is when a business hangs up a flimsy, Xeroxed paper sign that gets bent and faded.  That doesn’t tell a very good story about the company displaying it.  It says they don’t care about making an effort to provide customers with a pleasing visual presentation of their information.

In the future when you are designing signage, take your observations into consideration and create a sign that will really drive interest and traffic to your business.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Cultivate Your Business Relationship Garden (Action Wednesday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Thank you again for following our video advice.  I hope it’s providing you with the knowledge, strategy and inspiration to market every day.

Today’s video advice comes from working out in the garden.  I was looking at my southwest plants and that inspired an idea around cultivating and nurturing business relationships.

In Santa Fe it’s a bit of a challenge to grow the perfect garden.  There is not much water and the soil is poor.  To make the soil thrive, there is a product available here called Yum Yum Mix.  It’s filled with all sorts of great ingredients to augment the soil.  The rule is that if you feed the soil, the soil will feed the plants.

A similar method applies in developing and nurturing business relationships.  If you create a strong foundation and add the right ingredients, you will grow strong ties.  And that is what building relationships is all about.

Your assignment for Action Wednesday is to go out into your relationship garden and begin working it.  First consider the plants you want in the garden.  By that I mean determine the new relationships you would like to establish.  Leverage networking and business contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for opportunities to identify potential new relationships.

Next design your own Yum Yum Mix to add to the soil and create a solid foundation for relationship building.  Then like any gardener, seek out each individual plant (relationship) and nurture it.  Ensure it has the opportunity to grow strong by providing enough water, soil and sun or, in the case of relationships, time, attention and follow through.

If you spend time cultivating and nurturing relationships you will accrue benefits for your business.  Relationships may grow quickly or slowly, but eventually they will generate new revenue, partnership and other great opportunities for your business.

Thank you joining us for Action Wednesday.  Be sure to tune in tomorrow for Recon Thursday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Landing the Perfect Client (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing. It’s Strategic Tuesday and today I am going to discuss the process around landing the perfect customer or client.

Let’s take a look at what makes a perfect customer or client, there are several important ingredients.  First there should be a good fit between the customer needs and products/services you offer.  You don’t want to force anything on a customer; they should want your product.

Seek relationships that are sustainable.  You work hard to get new business, you would rather it not be a one-time only sale.  Nurture relationships and keep them going over a long period of time.

Lastly the transaction should be profitable.  Don’t spend more servicing clients then you are making.  Strive for balance between price and the effort to support the client.

Consider these strategic questions when you are seeking out that perfect customer/client.  First define specifically who that perfect client is.  People in your organization may already have numerous leads.  Searching appropriate database could identify additional potential customers where there is a nice fit.

For a Wow customer experience, align your product offering to the customers’ needs.  It’s critical to ensure they are going to want what you offer.

Make the effort to have your brand precede you.  That’s what branding is all about, having customers/clients know about you before you knock on their door.

Then, target marketing to the potential customers you have identified.  Design/implement communication with these prospective clients regarding you products/services.

Finally, involve your sales force and begin knocking on doors.  Determine how to obtain introductions, meet with clients, build the relationship and then close that sale.

I know you can land the perfect customer or client.  It’s is going to take some time and commitment on your part, however, the rewards will be worth it.

That concludes Strategic Tuesday.  Please join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  If you need branding support, please contact me to discuss an online or face to face service engagement.  That information can be found at the end of this video.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

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Branding vs Marketing: No Chicken and Egg (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Before we begin our discussion I would like to let you know that we have a brand new LinkedIn Group called Once a Day Marketing.  It’s designed for dialogue between small businesses and marketing experts who will share their expertise to enable businesses become more successful.  Go to LinkedIn and join us to start participating.

Today we are going to answer the age old question of which came first, the chicken vs. the egg; at least when it comes to marketing and branding.

Let’s start by looking at the definition of branding vs. marketing.  Branding is creating an accurate identity in the mind of your customers of what your product is all about.  Marketing is the process of conveying or communicating that information to your target audiences. Branding precedes marketing and that is what we are going to talk about next.

Let me site an example to explain further.  Companies often say they are branding and marketing are because they have a website.  Creating a website is a great milestone to achieve however, but it is neither branding or marketing.  A website is really a marketing tool, one of the 7Ps of marketing.  Ensuring the website conveys the appropriate identity to be shared with potential customers is the branding.  How a company lets people know about the website in the first place is the marketing.

To accomplish your branding objectives you must have a clear vision of your product’s benefits, what makes you number one in the marketplace and who your target customers are.  Then develop a clear marketing direction to allow potential customers to find you.  So, in my mind, branding does precede marketing.

Therefore, if branding is the chicken and marketing is the egg, I think we have finally have figured it out: the chicken definitely precedes the egg.

That wraps up Smart Monday, try to stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Once a Day Marketing's LinkedIn Group (Digital Friday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Digital Friday and it’s exciting because we are unveiling the new LinkedIn Group for Once a Day Marketing.

In my previous advice I have discussed the importance of joining LinkedIn and how LinkedIn Groups can be leveraged for developing relationships.  Today I am announcing the Once a Day Marketing LinkedIn Group.  The purpose of the Group is to share knowledge, strategy and inspiration to market every day.

There are two aspects of this online community.  One is participation by emerging companies who are seeking answers to marketing and branding questions.  The other is information sharing by branding and marketing experts who have appropriate expertise.  That is what our community is all about: encouraging small businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed by marketing every day.

In the Once a Day Marketing LinkedIn Group you are able to take part in discussions with emerging entrepreneurs initiating marketing and branding questions.  Experts will respond to questions regarding product, pricing, promotion, general branding with tactics that can be used to market more successfully.

The Once a Day Marketing advice video will be added on a daily basis providing a central location to view the video and participate in discussions.

You will also be able to promote your own business.  The Once a Day Marketing Group is a forum to share your business activities.  You may even encounter potential clients or customers in that space.  Job posts welcome as well for both seeking a job or jobs available.

The objective of the Once a Day Marketing Group is for people to come together to talk about marketing and branding and assist community members to succeed in their endeavors.

Go to LinkedIn Groups and search for Once a Day Marketing and join today.  Whether you are an emerging business or an expert, become part of the community.  This is a great opportunity to share knowledge with each other.

Share the Group with your friends and invite them to join.  Let’s build our community so that all of us have an opportunity to really shine in the branding and marketing world.

That concludes Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Pricing Your Competition: Do You Stack Up? (Recon Thursday/Price)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Recon Thursday when we get you thinking about topics such as your competition.

Since we have been discussing pricing strategies, I thought we would dive into what you should be doing to ensure you are thoroughly familiar with your competitors’ pricing.

No matter which pricing strategy you pursue, you have to know what your competition is doing with respect to their pricing.  Are they pricing higher, the same or lower?  What is their positioning compared to yours?  What benefits do they offer their customers compared to the benefits of your product?  Once you have the background, then you can determine the best pricing strategy for your business.

Sometimes you are readily able to determine competition information.  Sometimes it’s very challenging and you have to be a detective.  There are numerous ways to spy on competitors.  If they have a retail presence you can be a secret shopper and look at their pricing.  You can also leverage the web; their social media efforts and advertisements and the promotions they run.  You may even want to seek others in the industry to provide insight around how your competition is pricing.  The objective is to be as knowledgeable about your competitors’ pricing as possible.

The goal of your pricing strategy is to choose a price point that will excite your customers and entice them to buy.  If you do a better job pricing then your competition you are going to gain a bit more market share and more dollars in your bottom line.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  We are unveiling the new LinkedIn Group called Once a Day Marketing, which is very exciting for us.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Strategy: The Price is Right - Part 2 (Action Wednesday/Price)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  We are continuing our series on pricing strategies.  Yesterday we discussed four pricing strategies: penetration, skimming, competition and product line.  Today we will look at four additional strategies.

Many years ago pricing wasn’t utilized as a marketing ploy.  Companies practiced “cost plus” pricing, leveraging financial and accounting data to determine actual and fixed costs, then added a margin.  Or, a business may have employed “castles in the air” pricing, charging whatever the market would bear.

The factors that come into play when evaluating pricing strategies are the uniqueness of your product and what your competition is doing.

The first strategy we will discuss is called bundle.  In this scenario various products are bundled together and sold at a lower price than the individual items.  Supermarkets frequently practice this method.  They may advertise bundles of house cleaning products or milk and bread to entice customer to buy additional items.

Next is psychological pricing.  Here you determine a price that will be seen favorably in the eyes of your customers.  Would a customer be more likely to buy a $1 order of French fries or an order for $0.99?  The actual difference in price is negligible but psychologically the two price points are viewed very differently.

Then we have premium.  A high price is established to create greater perceived value for the product.  Some consumers will gravitate to a high price because they believe they are getting more for their money.

Last we have optional pricing.  This strategy may be employed by a car dealer for instance.  They offer a base model to which can be added a variety of options. Customers are given the option to add such items as stereos or leather seats to the product for a higher price.

There are numerous pricing strategies available.  Determine which are most appropriate for your product and your market.  You may want to try different pricing strategies for various target customer segments.

Pricing is the only one of the 7Ps that doesn’t cost anything to implement.  Pricing drives your revenue and eventually your profits.  It is essential to thoroughly evaluate the process of pricing and impacts to your customers.

That concludes our series on pricing.  Stop by tomorrow for Recon Thursday. To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Strategy: The Price is Right - Part 1 (Strategic Tuesday/Price)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today we are going to dive deeper into one of the 7Ps of Marketing: Price. There are great pricing strategies you can leverage to better penetrate the market or make more profit.

Today and tomorrow I will be sharing eight different pricing strategies.  Choosing the correct one(s) is dependent on your goals.  Do you want to distribute your product in the marketplace quickly or are you establishing a position in the marketplace as a very high-end product that commands a higher price.  These are factor that you will have to take into consideration.

Pricing is driven by supply and demand.  Are there a lot of the widgets out there or not very many?  How unique is your product?  Are customers clamoring for your product or can they find something very similar right next door?  Also be attuned to what your competition is doing.

The first pricing strategy is called penetration.  Very low pricing is established to push product into the marketplace quickly.  Margins will be low, however, this strategy should drive increased volume.

Next is skimming.  A higher price is set at product launch to capture dollars from early adopters (consumers who want a product when it firsts comes out).  You are able to charge this customer a higher price because they will pay the premium to be the first ones on the block to get a new/upgraded product.  After you’ve exhausted early adopters you can offer a slightly lower price and then another customer tier will come in, and then another lower price and another tier will come in.  Keep reducing the price until you have your entire target market in the channel buying your product.

For competition pricing you decide if you want to be lower than your competition, the same as your competition or higher than your competition.  Consider gas prices.  When you’re at an intersection typically all of those gas stations have the same price.  A station across town may have a lower price because they are trying to attract customer.  Perhaps another station offers more service so their gas may be priced higher.

Lastly we will discuss product line strategy where you offer a variety of products each at a different price point.  Customers on a budget may buy the entry-level product.  Then there are middle and higher price tiers.  You are essentially offering an ala carte menu to your customers so they can choose which product they want to buy given the benefits and the budget they have available.

There are various approaches you can take with pricing.  The scientific approach is called price elasticity, determining what a marginal change in price will do with respect to how much of your product people will buy and the related profit.  On the other side is the psychology of pricing, which has no bearing on what the cost of the product is.  It’s all about what you think the market will bear with respect to your product.  You as the marketer have to determine the best pricing approach to take.

Tomorrow we’re going to talk about four more pricing strategies.

Thanks for watching.  Please join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  If you need branding support, please contact me to discuss an online or face to face service engagement.  That information can be found at the end of this video.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Protecting Your Brand (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today we’re going to talk about brand protection.  You’ve worked hard to build a brand, now you have to work equally hard to protect it.

Look at some of the top brands in the world such as Coca-Cola, Nike and Google.  The reason they are the top brands is these companies create trust, a sense of loyalty and confidence in their brand.  Then they protect the brand in every way possible, ensuring that nothing will diminish brand confidence in the minds of their customers.

As a brander developing your brand, you have to be the brand police.  You have to make sure you protect your brand as well.

Let’s take a look at the University of New Mexico’s Lobo football team.  In the past several years they have not done a very good job protecting the brand.  While the University of New Mexico does have great basketball, soccer, baseball and track teams, a few years ago they brought on a football coach who was not able to achieve a winning season. The team won one game in each of his three seasons and lost more than 30 games.

Let’s discuss what happened during that time.  Consider the strategic aspect of not replacing the coach sooner: ticket sales, advertising revenue, television rights and recruitment of new athletes all went down.  Fans became apathetic.

UNM did replace that coach and brought on someone with experience coaching Notre Dame.  Now the question is how long is it going to take them to regain the brand stature they had only several years before?  That’s why it’s so important to always protect your brand.

Once you have your brand perfected and your customers know what to expect from your brand, it’s your job to make sure you protect it however you can.  That may mean subtle things such as not altering your logo, tagline or fonts and colors.  Those attributes are the extended identity that they recognize.  Ensure that customer service is great, that pricing is what they want and so forth.  But once you get that brand where you want you protect it.

It may take considerable time to bounce back from serious issues like Lobos Football.  You can’t predict what that timeframe may be.  Be proactive and ensure that you are never in that situation.  When you see your brand faltering, focus attention on it immediately to correct cause of the degradation.  Then, as ways, continue to enhance the brand to the best of your abilities.

That concludes our Smart Monday.  Be sure and stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

10 Eye-Opening Social Media Facts & Figures (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Before we begin today I would like to encourage you again to give me more “likes,” “tweet,” share my blog with your friends and to give me more comments.  I use this information to enhance what I deliver to you as my valuable customer.

Today is Digital Friday and I wanted to bring to you some really eye-opening facts and figures about social media.

I arbitrarily identified 10 facts and figures that I thought were very interesting related to social media.  It’s funny to think that the numbers I give you will already be obsolete by the time I finish this blog. 

·         1 trillion YouTube views in 2011.

·         800 million Facebook users

·         Charlie Bit Me is the #1 viewed YouTube video with 436 million views

·         290 million Tweets on Twitter each day

·         150 million LinkedIn users

·         50 million Tumblr posts per day

·         37 million fans on Coca-Cola’s Facebook page

·         23 million follower for Lady Gaga on Twitter

·         200,000 text messages per second

·         100,000 new Word Press pages each day

The point I’m reinforcing is that social media is here to stay and theses numbers are only going to get bigger and bigger.  In fact, a year from now when we review these statistics again, the figures will probably be mind-boggling as to how vast the difference has become.  Strategically, what you have to do is figure out a way through your social media campaign to cut through the clutter and make sure you find the followers you’re looking for.

I think you’re well armed now to go out this weekend and share all your knowledge about social media with your friends.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.