Ethical Marks Up and Down
Recently I gave a presentation to the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce about writing your own marketing plan. During the presentation a question came up about pricing. Although pricing of products and services typically is part of the business plan, it can also be an important marketing strategy. Sometimes by raising your prices you can actually increase your business. As any marketer knows, it is all about perceptions and your higher pricing often helps convince of higher quality.
I then mentioned a strategy of “marking it up to mark it down.” The thought process in this strategy is that if you have a higher list price it allows you to mark it down (sales, coupons, etc.) and still get your margins. (Obviously this is more for a retail/consumer product environment than for a service or B2B account.) I then spoke briefly about the psychology of “getting a deal” and how consumers feel good about that process. Even if they could have purchased a competitor’s product of a better quality for less money, the idea of getting a deal trumps the comparison shopping.
Later, I received an email from Carol Smith at Just Fare Market (www.justfare.org). She asked an interesting question on whether the strategy “to mark it up to mark it down” was ethical. I asked her to elaborate:
50 things you can do to market your company
This is part of a Chamber class in Fond du Lac. It’s simply a list of things you can do to market/promote your business. Feel free to add to it!
3-D Photography
3-D movies are all the rage again and people are rushing to get their movies out on the big screen. Of course we’re talking about the 3-D where you put on glasses and the movie has realistic, or sometimes fantastic, depth to them. (There is another type of 3-D movie where the imagery is computer generated using 3-D modeling techniques, but that is another discussion. The recent Toy Story is an example that uses both 3-D types.)
That Pavilion at Olbrich Gardens in Madison using "cross-eyed" 3-D viewing technique (click to enlarge.) To view in 3-D, simply sit in front of the photo and cross your eyes. A combined 3-D image should form in the middle. (It takes a little practice and some people have a hard time making it work.) The web link has anaglyphic photos - red-blue glasses needed. www.GunterAgency.com/3d
I’ve actually been playing around with 3-D imagery since I was a kid. Read the rest of this entry »
Pinheads
Lastest television commercial that we created for the Ad Diner. That’s me saying, “hey, don’t make him mad” (the one being referred to as a “pinhead.”) www.AdDiner.com
About RSS
The Guest Author for this post is Trevor Gunter. Trevor manages the web components of our businesses and is the de facto IT person for our companies, as well as playing an important role in the creative department.
We’ve recently added RSS feeds to the ad listings on the Ad Diner. This is a great feature for visitors who use RSS and want to keep an eye on new offerings, but only a small fraction of internet users actually know what RSS is. If you aren’t familiar with it though, it’s worth taking the time to give it a try. It might dramatically change the way you use the web.
Stating the obvious, part 3
(This is part three of a series. Read part one and part two.)
One of the things that I emphasize with students is that their ability to listen will serve them well in the advertising world. Many times my best ideas aren’t even my own, I just listen intently and take what the clients say and give it back to them. Most of the time they don’t realize what they are saying. And I think it is a fair statement that we polish the idea a little bit.
One of the best slogans we ever created for a client was the phrase “Know Your Worth” for Royal Neighbors of America. RNA is an insurance company that specializes in marketing to women and has a long history. They were the first insurance company to even offer insurance to women (hard to imagine that there was a time when women couldn’t buy insurance), they were also very involved in the women’s suffrage movement, working to give women in the U.S. the right to vote. They grew very big over these early years and kind of rode that success for years to come.
The phrase “know your worth” wasn’t our invention. It actually was a line buried within a paragraph on their website. It took an astute designer (Holly Stine) to see that line and think that it could be a defining phrase for the company. (Which also shows that it doesn’t matter what your title is, a designer can come up with good copy, a copywriter can have good graphic ideas.)
Unfortunately, after three presidents and four marketing directors within a two year period, the fourth marketing director decided to ditch the “Know Your Worth” slogan. That’s too bad, but often new marketing directors feel it is more important to make their mark and they can’t do that with someone else’s ideas.
Stating the obvious, part 2
The dog house in front of Companion Animal Care in Fond du Lac.
(This is part two of a series. Part one can be read here.)
We’re currently working with an animal hospital in Fond du Lac. One of their problems is awareness. We’re addressing part of that awareness problem with some innovative marketing programs that are literally getting prospects to walk in the door. But one of their problems is that people don’t know where they are located, even though they’ve been located on a very recognizable street for many years. (And Fond du Lac isn’t that big of a place.)
Their monument sign was fine and out near the street where it could be seen easily. Do they need more signage or something different?
I suggested creating a landmark out front that people would notice. We narrowed it down to two different ideas. A pond with a large sculpture of a dog peeing into the pond (you know, a dog version of the cherub statue peeing fountain.) Or building a structure. The structure won out. And what would that structure be? Well a dog house, of course.
They had already hired a talented artist, Therese Randall, to paint murals in their building. She returned to turn the dog house into a piece of illustrative art. Now if anyone asks them for directions, they can say they are “in the place with the big yellow doghouse out front.”
Hardrock Gunter Interview
A number of years ago I found some recordings of Hardrock Gunter. With an interesting name, I did a little research which eventually led me to find Hardrock living in New Mexico. To make a long story short, we’ve become good friends and in October of 2008, we took a vacation to New Mexico. During our visit, we interviewed Hardrock.
Hardrock is one of the first rock and rollers out there.
Stating the obvious, part 1
Sometimes the best marketing ideas are the simplest ones. Once you implement them, they seem obvious. Some are so obvious after the fact that, as a marketing company, people tend to wonder why they are paying us.
A few years ago we were approached to work on a new advertising campaign for Berghoff beer. I put my creative team to the task of coming up with concepts for the regional beer brand. The background information showed us that the current audience was an older demographic. Our charge was to reach a younger target without alienating the older drinker.
“When you say…”
George Tenne, a good friend and former co-worker, always has an interesting story to tell. George has been in the advertising business for a long time and shares a story here about his work with Budweiser. George is a recruiter and runs a virtual agency.
I originally saw this article from George in Pam Witzig‘s newsletter, first in a series of articles on a series of “Mad Men” that she is running, articles featuring real life stories from advertising men back when there were only three TV networks to advertise on. (George recruits for Pam’s employment agency.)
August Busch III had just told the agency that we needed to come up with the next major Budweiser ad campaign. The agency was hopping and we even cut back on our three Budweiser lunches. When you worked on Bud you didn’t have martini lunches. Some of the creatives even came in before 10AM. The word was out, if we didn’t nail it then it would be up for review. And when Mr. Busch said “jump!” …well, you know the saying.