Marketing Wisdom

I’ve been waiting for the advertising to begin from “non-affected by the oil” states.

One, Michigan, has just introduced theirs, called “Pure Michigan”, showing the beaches along the Great Lakes, the rough shoreline, waterskiing, boating, and all the other watersports that can’t be done in a Gulf State.

Who will be next? And will any of them make the ultimate leap and say “Why go to a beach that’s covered in oil, come to our state where….”.

It will happen. There are other marketers out there like me that will take advantage of situations like this. It won’t and shouldn’t be wasted (I just hope that they do it in good taste!).

I wonder if Pepsi has any regrets about it’s logo (BRAND!) change to that of Candidate Obama’s logo two years ago?

Will there be another “change”?

So many executives say “We must have a positive ROI and a positive ROAS!”.

I’ve written about this before; so many executives that have none or very little marketing experience all think that marketing can be easily measured by running an ROI (or ROAS) formula.

Marketing managers are very adept at spinning the ROI and ROAS to their benefit, especially as internet grows and becomes more important to the spend. Is this dishonest? Absolutely; it allows them to keep their jobs.

But, the diservice to the company is also a diservice to themselves.

ROI is a simple measurement that keeps companies doing many of the same marketing practices.

Managers as well as executives are shorting the opportunity to pursue an alternative marketing strategy that could quite possibly push their company, as well as their careers, into the stratosphere. It is something that I continuously harp about here, for you and your marketing team to be successful, you MUST explore and pursue, if you can, any and all non-traditional marketing opportunities. Everyone does a tradeshow. Everyone offers $1.00 off on their next purchase.

Don’t be shortsighted – take a risk and present alternative marketing opportunities to management. The worse that coul happen is they say “No, we want to continue doing the same thing”. But, maybe, they may say “You know, we would like to increase our marketing share by 1%” and off you go.

Even if you can’t measure it, take a chance.