Brand Hijack
February 1, 2008 by admin
Filed under Advertising, Books, Marketing
Marketing without Marketing
by Alex Wipperfurth (14200)
Companies like Starbucks, eBay, Palm and Red Bull have built multi-billion-dollar valuations without using any conventional advertising campaigns. Far from being lucky breaks, the success of these and other companies demonstrate the smart approach to building a business and a brand in the 21st century is to do what can be termed “marketing without marketing.”
More specifically, these brands create the illusion that success is happening serendipitously as driven by the users rather than as dictated by the corporation. This is good, because it means the user base feels like they’re in control of the brand. Consumers who instantly and automatically reject traditional marketing as being too intrusive respond well to the invitation to help shape what their favorite brand will mean in the future. This is the essence of marketing without marketing.
The key to building a brand nowadays is to let the market hijack your brand. The more marketplace involvement you have, the better — even if that takes your brand off in unanticipated directions. What you’ll ultimately end up with is a brand experience that is richer, better, more genuine and therefore more sustainable than anything you would have consciously developed yourself. Have the confidence to let the market decide how your brand evolves.
MBA in a Box
January 31, 2008 by admin
Filed under Books, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Strategy
Practical Ideas From The Best Brains in Business
Joel Kurtzman (09100)
At one level, business isn’t as difficult to master as the business schools and other sellers of educational courses would have you believe. To be successful in business, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist. In fact, if you want to be well rounded and successful, there are ten key areas you’ll need to have some knowledge and expertise in:
1. Innovation
Always keep refininig and improving the product or service you sell.
2. Sustainability
Businesses must do more than make money — thye must contribute.
3. Accounting
For capital markets to exist, accurate financial information is required.
4. Strategy
For companies, strategy is all about direction and thinking clearly.
5. Managing
Good managers learn more from the people they manage than they teach.
6. Human Resources
Smart businesses stay that way by sharing knowledge between people.
7. Leadership
Self-improvement is the foundation on which successful leadership is built.
8. Marketing
Marketing and advertising are long-term investments, not expenses.
9. Communication
Communication can mean the difference between success and failure.
10. Execution
The best way to learn is to study the slip-ups of others and avoid them.
I have asked some of the best minds in business to put down some of their best thoughts. I have asked them to be candid, open, and opinionated. I have asked them to tackle the subjects they love from perspectives that they know work. I have asked them to give readers a glimpse of how they think about what they do. My goal is to help readers shift their vantage points, shake up their thinking, and stretch their minds.
–Joel Kurtzman
Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive
January 16, 2008 by admin
Filed under Books, Competition, Marketing
(13900)
Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate and Outnegotiate Your Competition
Harvey Mackay
This is the magic formula for success. It’s easy to explain but difficult to execute. You can add your own extra dimension with vision, backing your own judgment or a host of other personal factors.
No one has the only game in town–there’s a never-ending a cycle of change and destruction inherent in the capitalist society. New opportunities are continually being created for those with determination, goals and concentration.
You don’t learn to swim with the sharks in a single outing. High-stakes challenges demand practice and perseverance.
Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive
Selling Sucks
How to Stop Selling and Start Getting Prospects to Buy!
by Frank Rumbauskas Jr. (24600)
Forget about trying to memoriE the “fifty power closes of sales champions” or any other canned sales pitches. That’s for people who want to spend their careers figuratively twisting their customer’s arms to make them buy something they don’t really want. Selling that way is difficult, stressful and ultimately manipulative.
Instead of doing that, work only with people who are motivated enough to actually approach you. Partner with prospective customers and help them buy. If you work with those who have approached you to buy rather than the other way around, then instead of being a manipulator all you need to do is become an effective persuader.
To be successful in sales, poosition yourself so that people who genuinely need what you have to offer approach you to buy because you’re the expert in that field. In other words, get more qualified prospects to come to you and then help them buy rather than going out and drumming up people to sell to. As counterintuitive as it may sound, the real secret to selling more is not to sell at all.
If you develop a workable system for getting enough business to come to you, then you can forget about the high pressure salesperson’s old way of selling:
Cold calling or sales blitzes
Elevator pitches and other memorized pitches
Overcoming objections and sleazy closes
Power closes and strong-arm tactics
The new way of selling:
Networking speaking engagements
Website
Customer community
Automated systems
Exclusive customer club
Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days
One Dynamic Blueprint to Maximize Profits and Increase Customers
Jay Levinson & Al Lautenslager (13100)
With 30 days of consistent effort, you can upgrade and enhance your organization’s entire approach to marketing.
The guerrilla marketing creed is that it’s possible to achieve conventional aims (like sales and profits) using unconventional methods (like investing energy in your marketing and not just more money). When it comes to marketing, the missing “secret sauce” is usually implementation rather than conceptualization. Loads of people spend all their time getting in position to start marketing when in reality they should be just getting into action. Energy, passion and enthusiasm can cover up a lot of gaps in your marketing know-how.
Guerilla marketers take the time to decide where they want to do business. They don’t even attempt to be everything to everyone. Instead, guerrillas focus on one part of the marketplace and serve that segment as well as possible. When it comes to marketing, knowing where you don’t want to play is just as important if not more so than knowing where to play.
Guerrilla marketers also view marketing as an investment rather than an expense. For example, if you spend $3,00 to generate an additional $5,000 in new business, your marketing hasn’t cost you anything. Marketing that works is an investment, and when marketing works well, the return on investment can be impressive. It’s only when marketing is done wrong and doesn’t work that it becomes an expense. Guerrillas focus on developing and using marketing that works.