DWM Marketing

Marketing 101: (Brand awareness+call to action)*correct deliverable= increased revenue…well maybe this is formula if your annual revenue is consistently above $10mm, or is it?

When should you consider your company large enough to invest in brand awareness? Maybe the better question is when does your market place dictate that you should invest in your brand. As the economy shrinks in the early upcoming months in 2009 businesses are forced to make decisions on where to cut the budget. Upright overhead, inventory, marketing, product development, etc…Perhaps when it comes to marketing the decision is easier, cut the branding campaigns and focus on getting customers through the door with sale prices or discounted loss leaders. When you evaluate your market place consider what competitors are doing and what message they bringing to the market. Fortify your company’s brand and stake your claim. Branding is the most important tool to a firm wanting to grow market share. Don’t just broadcast sale prices, stick to your plan and see it through.

Branding campaigns do not have to be expensive and should not be sacrificed when the balance sheet isn’t smiling back at you. Branding holds your company’s market share against your competitors. To your customers your company is only what you tell them it is. When marketing cuts their budgets and only speaks to the target customer in sale price, call-to-action messages what is the real message being sent? Hold your products value and increase your customer service. Keep your branding campaigns in place but reduce the spend level to compensate for a leaner budget. Marketing is never a solo act; customer service, product value, and good management will make a successful company even in difficult economic times. Use your sale priced campaigns sparingly to avoid roller coaster revenue or else your customers will stop paying your regular prices and wait for one of your sales.

Use professional advertising resources when developing your brand to avoid throwing good money after bad by doing it yourself. Focus on your business and let the professionals focus on your marketing.

Want to talk more about branding? We do to! www.darkwatermedia.com

So most people have had a chance to weigh in on the newly proposed and approved $152 billion dollar stimulus package. Most would agree that getting a few extra hundred dollars is not a bad thing but what are you going to buy with it? The obvious choice would be to pay down debt but that is not much fun. So what “want” is going to be satisfied? As retailers gear up for the summer shopping DWM recommends that as a store owner you answer the question for consumers by smartly designing packages or products that would normally be too expensive down to a price point that matches with the differing amounts of the econ stimulus checks.

The checks are to be mailed in May & June and your marketing needs to be in place before hand including supporting POP displays to help compliment your call to action in your pro active mediums. Using Radio, Mailers, TV, or Outdoor are good examples of mediums to initiate and bring attention to your product. Once in the store or interested take advantage of their decision to shop you by coordinating your marketing through out your website, store or sales pitch with consistency between your media and the look and feel of the final product. i.e. if your target customer is typically going to receive a $1200 check take your most popular product and price it at $1,299 even if it becomes a ‘loss leader.” Then once your customer is in your store have in store signage and sales pitches that compliments the advertising message. Here is where the up-sell and impulse buy items are crucial. Make sure that you realize that the buying decision has already been made when they walked in the store, now you must bring the value proposition that they can afford more of what they wanted because of the stimulus check. Down with recession and up with happy consumer spending!

Learn more about marketing and how to utilize low cost “grass roots” advertising at  www.darkwatermedia.com

go to www.darkwatermedia.com to learn more about DWM, Inc. See our contact information, our clients, current projects, and ambitions.

Welcome to Dark Water Media’s blogger…think about the last product you purchased when it came down to which brand to choose you chose the most familiar even it was a little more expensive. Why? Because you have used it before and have had pleasant experience. The product seemed to set the bar for others to be judged by. Well that is what DWM has set out to accomplish in 2008, many of our clients have good products and services and stay competitive in their industries, but when it can time for their customer to choose where to shop we needed an extra push. www.darkwatermedia.com Branding…make yourself familiar and inviting to your customer base and prospects. People like to know what to expect and don’t often like to be surprised about a store when they get there. They want to bump into the products and services that they desire and be told that you should buy this, you know this product works. You will be satisfied with purchase. Branding though painful at times for a business, is the staple behind any successful advertiser.