Thursday, March 3, 2011

Marketing 101: Going retro can be the new thing.

Marketing is tough nowadays. It takes well educated decisions to make it work since in today’s economy marketing budgets are under the microscope. So, how can you get more with –possibly- less?

Let’s start by admitting that If marketing professionals would be in the Army, we would be the 1st battalion, front row, ready to fight. Let’s face it we are the business gurus, the how-to people, and the point-to-persons.

So, how do you tackle today’s complex business needs with the most optimized and cost effective strategies? Well, it turns out we need to go back to basics…Marketing 101. For every marketing challenge known today, the basic marketing steps we learn way back when traditional media was king…still are applicable:

1. What is the service/product
2. What is the source of the need that needs to be fulfilled
3. Bring “fresh eyes” to look at the problem
4. Establish clean, quantitative goals
5. Know your audience
6. Look at your messaging
7. What are the critical trends in the market? Or what is the momentum in the market?
8. Benchmark yourself
9. Track the results

Later in this series I will be discussing each individual point outlined here.