Marketing Wisdom

I’m sure many of you have read the news about how internet advertisements are dropping in value (i.e. lower cost) and the reason being that FaceBook and MySpace ad costs are so much cheaper then the rest of the advertising space on the internet, the true costs of an ad are not being reflected correctly.

Duh!!!

I run ads on FaceBook at $.05 per ad, and I get my ads shown to millions of users for pennies. Who wouldn’t do that? WHY wouldn’t they do that?

There is obviously going to be a dichotomy that is going to occur – where management and reporting of ad spend will be split between Social and ROI (Rest Of Internet); and even considering Social Media advertising, that will become split also – as Twitter enters the market with ROI ad rates vs. Social ad rates (again, Facebook and MySpace).

There is no answer and there shouldn’t be – users of FaceBook, for the first time in their lives, can run ad campaigns for as little as $50.00. When they want to open up the rest of the internet market, they will have the awakening that $50 a month won’t even touch one day on the ROI.

Don’t fall for an agency (or the media) saying that the rates are wrong – they aren’t – they are different based on what and who the market is.

As the economy worsens and companies continue to save money by cutting their work force, marketing is front & center for the first thing to be cut; be it employee’s or budget’s.

As I continue to counsel companies that marketing is the last thing to be cut, they, as usual, cut marketing as fast as possible. As this occurs, I continue to experience and see one thing in particular and that is employee’s think that they are being laid off because of their performance, not because of the economy. They can’t believe that they are being laid off because marketing is so important to any organization, but, it is not the case, it is because most management teams don’t understand the value that marketing can bring a company during tough economic times.

If you have been recently laid-off, please remember that 99% of the time is because of the economy. Keep your head up and start looking for that next job. Nine out of ten times, your employer already told you that they would give you a great recommendation – TAKE IT!

Take anything that your company is offering; put ego to the side and accept whatever is being offered. Life is not fair but you must get over this and move on as quickly as possible – you were not let go because of your performance!

What am I saying? I’m saying that you are a good worker and you do put time and effort into everything you do – it is the economy that is causing people, just like you, to be laid off. Go enjoy the two years of unemployment that you can get (or get back out there and bring your expertise and knowledge to a company that has not been adversely affected by this economy).

Talk with any CEO or Entrepreneur and you will hear them talk about how mentors helped them through difficult as well as growing times.

Unfortunately, many young CEO’s and General Managers think that having a mentor or many mentors are a sign of weakness. I cannot disagree more.

A mentor, especially during the “young” time of your company, is ideal for the following reasons:

1) He/she can bring focus when it is needed.
2) He/she can strengthen a weakness that you may have (i.e. they can bring accounting help if you don’t have any idea of how to set up your accounting practice).
3) They are a great sounding board.

The last is ideal for the young CEO. So many young managers are embarrassed or think that it is a sign of weakness to ask for help (or just brainstorm) internally in the company – a mentor cannot be seen in this light, as they are not with the company and are not linked to the success or failure of the company – they are linked to the success or failure of the individual.

Don’t believe that your “Board of Directors” or your “Advisory Board” is made up of mentors for you, the CEO. They are not. Yes, they want to help and want success, but, not you specifically. They want the company to be a success. They will just as quickly remove you from your position as they will walk away from a losing proposition.

As I have written so many times before – surround yourself with mentors that a) want you to succeed, b) help you see the forest and not the tree and c) strengthen your weakness’s. If you do this, your odds for success have increased dramatically.

As you start your marketing career, remember what you are doing, right now! Learn from your activities today. Understand what you are doing and why you are doing it – i.e. your activities in the grand scheme of things.

As you get older and move into bigger and bigger things, your experience as an assistant manager WILL come back to help you. You will understand why a tri-fold brochure is needed, when you need to ship something same day vs. overnight, or even how you will have a complete 20′x20′ booth built in less then a week for the largest trade show in the world.

What’s my point? My point is that your boss or boss’s boss won’t know or have any inkling. You may be the VP of Marketing and your CMO may have NEVER had to work a trade show in their life (I mean WORK a trade show, putting it up and tearing it down AND working the 10 hour daily shifts). Your experience will enable you to be a better manager of your staff. Of being able to talk to the CEO from experience.

So many times throughout your career you will have a boss that has not done half of the things you have. This does NOT make him stronger, nor does it make you stronger – it makes you WISER.

Being wise saves time, effort, and money – three things that are becoming more and more relevant in today’s economy.

Don’t disregard your past too easily or quickly – it has value more then you or anyone else could ever measure.

Was going through some of my old documents that I had written where I discussed brands and their power…over decades and over centuries.

Came across my positioning document on the Christian Cross. How it has changed very little over the centuries – even as it was “copied” by the many different Christian affiliations/groups throughout the world.

Most still keep it a simple black cross, but others have added the Christ figure, and others added a crown of thorns as a background, others added a hill under the cross, and so on.

My main point, as is true today, is that the essense of the brand (the main look/design) has changed very little over the centuries; enabling what all brands (consumer level) want, instant recognition as well as an instant “feeling”.

As you continue to build your brands, don’t be so quick, or shortsighted, to only look at brands in the past few years. Look at brands over the past century or longer; because we all know that the true measure of success of a brand is its staying power.