Posts Tagged ‘marketing trends’

Marketing Trends to Look for in 2012

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

A new year brings new resolutions, expectations and, in marketing, a shift of focus from the year's end to the year that lies ahead. The New Year is a time marketers should take advantage of–a chance to clear their plates and start something new. By taking advantage of new and emerging trends, you can leverage your marketing and ultimately elevate your brand. So, here are some marketing trends you may want to look for and take advantage of in 2012:

More Content
Getting more valuable content out to your audiences is a big focus in 2012, but just getting it out there isn't the point–spreading it is. The use of sharing buttons on a blog or website will get others to help spread your message for free.

Reputation Management
Catching (and dealing with) customer issues in a timely manner is becoming a popular way to showcase your brand's trustworthiness and reinforce your reputation. Accepting and responding to customer feedback will show that your brand takes customers seriously and remains positive even through the worst.

More Photos
A picture is worth a thousand words, so why not use those words to your brand's advantage. Sharing of photos on social networking sites has skyrocketed, and one of the best ways to create interaction is to post relevant images that users are likely to share.

Creativity to the Max
Each year, marketers vow to "push the limit" when it comes to creativity. The trend for marketing is no longer just to "be creative" in their products but, instead, to build creativity into their culture as a marketing firm.

More Social Platforms
Google+ is something to be watched in 2012. It hasn't completely taken off with the general public just yet, but it–among other platforms like Pinterest–is something to keep your eye on for the New Year.

Focus on Timing
An emerging trend for 2012 is scheduling content to go out at particular times via social media and mobile platforms. Researching what time of day most people log in to Facebook, and sending relevant posts out at that time, will deliver great results.

More Mobile
Tablets and phones are the new computer, and so your website should be optimized for them. Delivering real-time and location-based content to mobile devices is a gold mine for marketers.

Looking for success in the New Year? Join AMA Tampa Bay to access our resources and network of marketing professionals who can help guide you in the right direction. Visit us online to learn more or view our membership options.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Staying Ahead of the Curve: Mobile Marketing Can Work For You

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Technology is one of the biggest driving forces in our society. It allows people to communicate, entertain themselves, and organize their lives. Whether you are tech savvy or not, and even if you do not work directly with marketing via technology platforms, you must be aware of developments.

Mobile marketing is the concept of reaching consumers while they are on the go. This means directing marketing and advertising efforts at the mobile devices that people carry with them every day. It might be a smart phone or a tablet computer; either way you can reach a customer any time of the day.

Types of Mobile Media

Basically mobile marketing is a broad term for any form of communication that allows you to reach your target market while they are on the go. No waiting for them to sit at their home PC, turn on their television, or open that direct mail promotion you sent out. Mobile marketing can be:

  • A text message campaign
  • QR codes on your outdoor advertising so that passersby can immediately visit a landing page that you choose
  • Search engine or website-based ads (Google AdWords, Bing Ads, etc)
  • Mobile phone apps

What You Should Know

Kids: We might call them kids, but the next generation of consumers is almost out of high school and ready to join the adult world. Nielsen shares that:

  • Teens talk less on the phone than any other demographic, aside from those over 65 years old This means they are approachable via text, social media, and other means of reaching people on the go, as this is how they currently communicate socially.
  • 58% of teens in a survey last September said that they “always” or “sometimes” look at ads on their mobile devices.
  • 18-year-olds spend less time on their PCs than other demographics. This means they are more likely to be on a mobile device.

Apple: Steve Jobs and his team are poised to release iOS5, a new operating system that will increase the usability of Apple’s mobile devices. It is also rumored to have some features that advertisers can benefit from, such as the ability to directly interface with Twitter, and make it easier for users to stream video. As Apple devotes efforts to increasing the usability of mobile devices and making it simpler for advertisers to get involved, you can bet that Android will be doing the same thing.

International: Asia represents some of the world’s fastest growing and industrializing markets. Nearly half of the online respondents who do not own smart phones in a survey targeted at Asian nations reported that they intend to purchase one this year. Similar trends are also developing here in the U.S.

To learn more about mobile marketing and how you can benefit from it, join us at 11:30 AM at the Hilton St. Petersburg Carrillon Parkway. We will be hosting an informative event on mobile marketing that will double as an opportunity to network with other marketing professionals.

Sources:

Apple’s iOS5 will be game-changer for mobile advertising: experts (MobileMarketer.com)

Smart Phones Surging in Southeast Asia (NielsenMedia)

Related Posts:

Getting in on Cell Phone Applications

The Changing Face of the Web

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

Leveraging Trends

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Marketing is about communicating with people and getting the word out about your brand. In order to effectively communicate, a marketer must know what the people they are talking to are into. This subject normally brings about a conversation on trends. Trends are intangible concepts that represent a collective ideal. More plainly, they are an interest or group of interests that have a following in the community. They can last anywhere from a few months to years, depending upon whether people stay interested or not.

It is the job of a marketer to identify trends that apply to their business and find ways to use that community interest to their advantage. Some trends are industry specific, and some transcend multiple industries, and even cultures and societal demographics for that matter. A problem arises for some marketers when trends change. They usually change organically with public interest, but sometimes there are other forces that regulate change. Staying on top of change means you are staying on top of trends, and that leads to marketing gold.

A Quick Case Study

We are going to use the fast food industry as a miniature case study for our purposes. The fast food industry has profitably taken advantage of a fast paced lifestyle and a need for quick gratification. Depending on whom you ask, some people will consider these two distinct trends, while others see them as the same. Regardless fast food restaurants have tailored their offerings to meet these needs and done it very successfully. The down side is that their offerings are extremely unhealthy. Healthier food made from quality ingredients has emerged as a trend in our society, and it has slowly gained steam for many years now. Couple that with our nation’s obesity epidemic, and you have a trend that many people can get behind.

This is turning into a real problem for the industry. It hasn’t drastically affected their sales yet, but as the trend grows it has potential to be detrimental. Nearly every grocery store in the Tampa Bay area has an organic section. Additionally entire grocery chains have popped up dedicated to better quality food. If people get used to these food sources, a Whopper simply won’t taste good in the end, regardless of the time one can save in getting a meal.

The current answer seems to be an all-out marketing blitz. Reports state that so far this year, the fast food industry has pumped $4.2 billion dollars into marketing. While continued sales indicate that this strategy might be working, nothing is for certain. Local governments are even coming out against the industry. The City of San Francisco recently passed legislation banning toys in unhealthy kid’s meals. Toys were an obvious marketing effort, giving the meals something extra to appeal to kids.

Maybe the problem for fast food giants isn’t the freedom to serve the products they prefer. Maybe they aren’t properly identifying the trend and directing their products and efforts accordingly. McDonald’s has had success with their smoothies, which are arguably healthier than a burger and fries. Maybe they should keep looking in that direction. They already have salads; now maybe they should have their culinary experts (Yes, believe it or not chains that serve shakes and burgers actually employ chefs to run their test kitchens) find ways to make their salads taste better and incorporate more low-fat dressings.

The chains are there–they have the brand names, the distribution and the price points. All that needs to be adjusted is the product. Yes, this will affect price, but basic scaling dictates that when you decide to sell a few thousand of anything per day you can bring the cost down. Spending a little up front to leverage a trend is worth it. It definitely beats the other potential option of going out of business.

An immediate shake-up of the entire product line would not be good. It would happen too fast and let’s face it: millions of people still prefer grease with a side of ground beef over healthier alternatives. Slowly integrating healthier products that taste good would be a great way to stay on top of changes in dietary interest. It might also be a good way to keep some impending regulation off their backs.

Sources:

AMA Tampa Bay

Political News

Grist

Boston.com

Related Posts:

Still Going Green

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Marketing | 4 Comments »

Not in Retail? Consumer Habits Still Matter

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Last week, we looked at the results of Deloitte’s annual Back-to-School Shopping survey. Results indicate that, although they’re nowhere near ready for spending freely, consumers have adopted a less pessimistic attitude about their finances. Retailers were especially pleased with this news, since it indicates a fundamental increase in consumers’ willingness to spend money.

But what if you’re not in retail? While the survey results may be interesting, do they really impact you as a marketing professional? Particularly for those in B2B marketing, consumers’ retail spending habits may seem a bit irrelevant, or at least tangential to overall marketing strategy. But any marketing professional can gain insights from these results.

Marketing is about People

We all know our target markets. Your target market could be married women over 50 who own multiple cats—or it could be Fortune 500 companies that need accounting consultants. Either way, a person somewhere is responsible for making the choice to purchase your product or service. Even in the B2B marketplace, where all prospects might fall into disparate demographic categories, the targets are still all people.

Our challenge as marketing professionals is to reach those people with compelling messages that will inspire them to trust us—and ultimately to patronize our businesses. Therefore knowing about consumer habits, attitudes, and preferences makes sense, regardless of your individual industry or focus.

Lessons from Back-to-School Shopping

This year’s trends in shopping indicate not only an increased willingness to spend money, but also an increased use of multimedia to enrich and inform the shopping process. For marketers, this means it’s important to follow the ABC’s of 21st-century marketing:

  • A is for Authenticity: Customers increasingly crave transparency and authenticity from corporations. And that doesn’t mean a corporate blog. Customers want a personal connection with brands and they also want to know that their social networks recommend those brands. Consumers turn to mobile apps and social networks with more and more frequency, looking for reviews, feedback, and recommendations.
  • B is for Balance: That explosion in social media and mobile apps has led many companies into “shiny object marketing,” where they abandon traditional marketing tactics for the Next Big Thing in the marketing universe. But the most successful marketers know that they must maintain a balance of traditional and online marketing strategies if they wish to maintain brand awareness. After all, consumers still watch television, open mail, and read magazines, so it makes no sense to completely discard traditional marketing and advertising practices.
  • C is for Choices: We must always remember that every prospect—and current client—has choices, and those choices are growing ever more accessible. Illustrating point of difference—and taking steps to improve accessibility—are critical for successful marketing. Even components that may seem to have little relation to marketing can work to support marketing efforts. In other words, if you think search engine optimization is just for the IT department, think again. The right SEO and landing pages facilitate prospects’ discovering you online.

What’s your take on how the marketing landscape has changed? How do you believe it will evolve in coming years? Share your opinion with us! If you’d like to write a guest blog, please email Kristin@ballywhointeractive.com.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Market Research | 2 Comments »