Marketing is a complex, fickle and often rewarding beast to tackle. No firm can do without it. Even firms who manage to make it with limited spending in their marketing department will often generate word of mouth via the strength of their product or service alone. After time, this form of marketing can spread like wildfire, especially in a local environment. There are so many different ways of marketing in the modern day. In time past, a newspaper ad or specialist sign was perhaps the height of what you might achieve. It was considered an honor to get on the television once upon a time, and cost an arm and a leg to do so.
Nowadays you have social media marketing, complex SEO management, all forms of digital media marketing, physical and print media, radio, sponsorships, affiliations, and this is only scratching the surface of how you might apply your brand to future exposure if you really focus on doing so. However, the flourishing of modern marketing has made the marketplace pretty saturated. Almost all of us interact with at least one form of advertising in our day, even if that’s just passing it in our peripheral vision.
However, this shouldn’t make you feel nihilistics about your future marketing efforts. This could be a great opportunity! Consider:
A Spectacle
It might be that in order to draw eyes, you need to craft a spectacle. People are too used to the potential of extremely well done graphic design, to the point where they expect it as a default. They expect a flashy ad with cute infographics and a light acoustic guitar track. They expect a humorous logo, or a minimalist statement in their magazine ad. In order to train the eyes to focus on you, you need to give people no choice BUT to look at you. Of course, we mean this in a manner of ‘focusing engagement’ rather than ‘forcing.’
Let’s take an example to show what we mean. It might be that at your next event, the budding use of inflatables can help signpost your tent, or simply add more decoration and spectacle that adds a sense of occasion to the affair. This is why companies use hot air balloons, sky writing, and many other novel and interesting methods that the eye is drawn to in order to ensure memories are formed, and people of all ages and walks of life can appreciate the sense of momentous potential your business is concerned with focusing on.
The Right Way
Advertising is often about opportunity, but you must do so in the right way. There have been many advertising blunders in the past that failed to read the enormity or emotional impact of a situation. A shining recent example featured that of Kardashian sister Kendall Jenner. Pepsi crafted an advertisement for television which depicted two warring factions, the police and rioters arguing and screaming in slow-motion at each other due to obvious political differences. This was right around when the heat of the 2016 presidential election was becoming relatively intense for everyone. Kylie Jenner, beaming from the crowd, presented a police officer with a Pepsi and calmed everyone down, resolving the argument and winning the day.
It’s not hard to see why this was mocked, and in some cases considered offensive. Of course, while the damage of the advertisement was perhaps less than people enjoyed suggesting, there’s no doubt it was tasteless through and through. Thankfully, you needn’t follow in these footsteps. However, you can decide to take advantage of difficult times in the right way.
Let’s suggest an apartment block suffers a fairly intense fire near your local firm. No one is injured and the building is evacuated successfully, but the building is destroyed. Later it’s found out that the sprinklers were faulty, speeding the spread of the fire. You are a sprinkler company, thankfully not associated with the brand that failed. It might be that offering hefty discounts on all buildings nearby that wish to replace with another brand could be worthwhile. You might even donate some for free, as lifes are more important than profit and sales. However, while you might not be gaining a huge amount of profit from doing this, you have fostered heavy goodwill and massive brand recognition in an area. It might even make the news.
This might seem like a slimy marketing method in this highly-specific example, but upon further investigation you realize how there isn’t injury here. People are protected, your brand has contributed, and people might think to you in the future. This long example illustrates that sometimes, considering how you might market in the right way by seeing the opportunities in the social sphere could be worthwhile, but be sure you never cross that fine line into exploitation, as many firms larger than yours have unfortunately fell into that, as evidenced with the previous Pepsi example.
History
More than ever, people want to feel connected to the businesses they use. They want to be ethical consumers with understanding. They don’t want to be the type of consumers who just pick something up from the shelf without knowing what it is. They usually abhor the term ‘consumers.’
A great way to help you become a caring and relatable business is to celebrate your history. Care for your story. Tell it to people. Everyone knows the story of Ben & Jerry’s, which is what makes that Ice Cream brand so relatable in the eyes of so many people. Do you have a family history that contributed to your business? Did you struggle in college to get this thing off the ground? What differentiates you from all of the other products in the market, without that answer being solely limited to the product itself? All of the words below this header could simply be bundled up into one word – ‘soul’. We all want businesses to have soul. Considering how you might express yours could elevate your marketing ambitions without much in the way of extra spending.
With these interesting tips, you should understand why modern marketing is a complex and fickle beast, but can be tamed if you’re sensible and wise.