Exciting to see KSM branding client in the Financial Times! Go DreamBuilder!

Take a look...definitely worth a blog post after so long.  Kick-Start Marketing identified, created and designed the DreamBuilder branding.

Congrats to a great organization with a fantastic mission!

Click here for the Financial Times article.

Putting on Your Social Media Shoes: Get the right fit!

These days, every marketing newsletter in my inbox centers on the new era of marketing -how to use social media and how to implement the latest marketing techniques.

Well and good. And helpful. My only beef with the onslaught of this kind of messaging is that we’re focusing so much on the tools that I wonder if we are forgetting some marketing essentials:

• Listen to your clients
• Look at your budget
• Be true to who you are as a company

What does this mean? It means all of the new gadgets and tools on the market are tools! You still
have to have a marketing strategy that works for you and your clients.

Let’s look at some examples:

Company A is a B2B professional services firm whose clients don’t use Facebook for professional use, only personal use. Some of Company A's clients and contacts use LinkedIn. Company A would glean little benefit from Facebook or to Twitter. Company A is successfully meeting
its clients where they are professionally, keeping a constant eye on the competition and maintaining a professional aura with various other marketing tactics.

Company B is also B2B professional services firm. They use media relations more than they used to and have started to embrace some social media, but like Company A, Company B’s clients use Facebook personally, not professionally and their attempt to market using FB was a dismal failure – one they could see coming but one they thought they had to explore. They use Twitter, but their other tactics including webinars and regular industry leading analysis marketed
straight to the client are more effective, efficient, and cost effective tools that generate hard leads for their industry.

Company C is a B2B and B2C services firm. They sell both to businesses and consumers. They, on the other hand, are having great success with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn…their clients are on those sites and using those tools; Company C needs to be there, too.

Both Companies A & B have felt the pressure of utilizing social media more – the interesting part is that in both cases, the pressure did not come from the clients. Au contraire. It came from boards or leadership concerned they were not on the bandwagon and losing a marketing opportunity. Company C chose to use social media as a part of their overall strategy because it was right for their company. It fit.

It comes down to using the right tool at the right time to suite the right market. Don’t stress yourself if you are not on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Look at your strategy and if the shoe fits, then only then by all means, put it on!

New Research by McKinsey: Reaching the Consumer

We are constantly changing, and so is our approach to spend money - whether as a consumer for personal activity or a professional for our business. This month, McKinsey just put out an interesting take on the way we approach a purchase decision in today's world. It's different from the traditional approach we've all learned in school and followed - particularly as marketers - for decades...take a look.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Strategy/The_consumer_decision_journey_2373

HOT! Revisited...GM files Chap 11

Back in December, I wrote an entry about the auto manufacturers and my son. No recollection? Here's the link to Monday, December 15, 2008: http://kick-startmarketing.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-02-04T09%3A13%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7.

Today, the news finally hit that GM filed for Chap 11. End of an era, CNN calls it. No, no more so an end of an era than when Delta filed.

It's a change for the better; an opportunity.

Remembering Sham Wow

A client recently told me that when she walks out of sales calls, she is stymied. Why on earth was it so hard for that guy to understand what we are offering?

After further review of what was being presented, it became clear that the products were not clear to the customer. It was clear to my client, but because it didn’t translate to the prospect, there was not a sale.

The solution? Keep it simple. Don’t get caught up in internal processes and "stuff." Show the client what they need, show them what you sell, tell them how they can get it. Remember those Sham WOW commercials? Here it is, this is why it's great, this is why you need it, now this is how you TOO can get it!

Coca-Cola Marketing 101

I’ve got a poster of a 1910 Coca-Cola advertisement in my office. It’s a little Victorian, it’s a little ruffly and it’s a lot too pink for my taste. However, I keep it as a constant reminder of how Coke starting really selling it’s sweet, syrupy, odd, soda fountain drink on a large scale more than a hundred years ago. It was all marketing.

Now, my family is from Atlanta, so I am a proud Coke drinker. Though I live in Texas now, a soda will never be a Pepsi. A soda is a Coke, a pop is a Coke. A Coke is a Coke. Bottomline.

It’s in my culture, it’s ingrained in my vocabulary, and it’s definitely the only carbonated drink I’ll eat with pizza. And to think, it all started with marketing.

Reading, Writing and Relevance

Back in the Fall I wrote about maintaining relationships in a down economy. Now, there’s more information than ever coming out about the truth of this fact. But, how do you do this?

Read your clients. Know what they need, know what they want, be sensitive to their situation

Write to your clients! Stay in touch. Don’t wear out your welcome, but write to them. Let them know you’re thinking about them.

Relevance…Keep it relevant, keep it useful, and keep it respectful.