Advertising @ Home

Is your business bombarded by sales and other marketing professionals telling you that the products or services they are offering are in the best interest of effective and cost reducing methods to market your organization? Finding your way through the maze of offers, opportunities and avoiding potential money pits highlights the importance for all businesses regardless of size to have a strategic marketing plan that is implemented and followed.

It is a tough market place for any small business and information is the key to making wise marketing decisions and for the survival of any business or organization. The relevance of a strategic marketing plan can not be under stated. It is unfortunate but all to common that people under the disguise of professionals in marketing and sales will boast their products and services as the most effective and cost reducing methods to market your business. Additionally, by writing articles or giving lectures for example, they attempt to give their claims a form of legitimacy. Beware of people making extraordinary claims, a true professional wants to sell you their product or service but also retains the integrity to learn your business and knows when the product or service is not a good fit. The benefit for this type of sales or marketing professional is your loyalty and trust in future business transactions.

A strategic marketing plan helps a business to avoid potential money pits that waste valuable marketing dollars in expenditures that may appear to cost less but have minimal or no measurable results. Simply because something may cost less and other businesses are participating does not make it a solid marketing decision for your organization and certainly does not guarantee successful results. Regardless of the ticket price if it does not produce measurable results and drive business to your establishment it is a money pit.

There are many good examples on the internet of people under the disguise of professionals boasting their products or services as sound marketing advice. One of these claims is that a business could inexpensively build brand recognition through the purchase of low cost promotional items with the organizations name or logo embossed on them; items such as pens, tablets, calendars, magnets, and much more. The problem is that this technique offers minimal to no measurable success in brand building, but more importantly does nothing to draw new customers into the business.

In terms of simple math, if an advertising business were to spend the same money that would be spent on embossed promotional items in traditional media channels such as print, radio, or television for example with an expected 2% rate of return and a minimal exposure of 12,000 individuals gives the advertising business the opportunity for 240 customers for that expenditure. If only 30% of the 2% actually make a purchase that provides the business with 72 new transactions. A business can multiply its average transaction price by 72 to see the real potential income from this one marketing expenditure. Another benefit is brand awareness that would be gained through the advertisement and the opportunity to build customers for life. Furthermore, to entice repeat business and brand loyalty the organization can offer its customers coupons. This method promotes customer appreciation and can be a low cost marketing method.

Moreover, with any marketing expenditure a business should always perform a cost benefit analysis in correlation with its strategic marketing plan. Simply, if it does not offer measurable results, drive new business, and build brand awareness it is a money pit.

Amy Dube has over 16 years of sales experience and currently works in advertising for a major publishing company.For more free Articles and Marketing Tips go to http://adube.info

Tags: advertisement, inexpensive, Marketing, marketing plan, professionals, small business

Any Plumbing business Website not linked into other websites of Industry specialists is leaking money. Any plumbing business not using an Email address in their advertising campaigns is suffering a major money break.

To date, there has not been any organization to show Plumbers how to link together with other trades and their websites. Plumbers need to advertise and market their services better and to understand how linking their websites provides the strength that the World Wide Web now demands.

All the Search Engines on the ‘net have changed their search criteria and if you aren’t linked, you simply don’t get ranked beyond the 100,000,000′nth place. And precious few people look beyond the first 10 to 20 names. People simply haven’t got the time or patience required to search so far.

Constructing Profits shows Plumbers how to advertise their services better through their website and seminars.

Because each Trade in the Building Industry has its own professional Associations, the desire to link with each other simply hasn’t been required. This requirement probably hasn’t been realized yet because everyone is too busy looking after their own people and that is as it should be.

The WWW is now a very demanding monster that is based on content and relevancy. The deciding fact for relevancy is now very much dependent on who links to whom. And this is where constructing profits can provide the relevant ‘glue’ to all the different trade associations, or to independent websites, so that relevancy is established.

We need to construct our own industry network web within the WWW.

Something else that I have found in my recent research is that many (far too many!) Plumbers in Australia don’t even list an Email address in their Yellow Pages advertisements. In today’s world this could almost be called “Business suicide”.

If you are unfamiliar with the ‘net, that is still not a reason for not having an E-mail address to take requests in a written format for a job. You don’t have to have a website to have an E-mail address but you do have to have an E-mail address if you want your business to grow.

The other advantage is to being able to take job requests in writing to protect you legally. If something goes horribly wrong with a job, and you have the job request in writing, you then have legal proof of what the job request entailed.

Many people will write an E-mail but they won’t write a letter. In fact, I would recommend every acceptance of a quote for a job is confirmed by E-mail.

Constructing profits is showing Plumbing and construction contractors how to “link up” to make more profit and spend less hours doing it.

By constructing our own network web within the WWW we gain industry relevancy in the Search Engine algorithms which translates into more jobs from our Email and Websites and more profit for our various businesses.

Constructing profits in a business is the foundation of a sustainable business.

http://www.constructingprofits.com
Showing contractors how to make more money
~ working less hours!

Tags: Advertise, construction, contractor, leaking, market, money, networking, plumber, profits

Advertisements became a part of our life. They are everywhere and we are so used to them that often we don’t even notice them anymore. However, some of the advertisement images capture our attention and stay in minds for a very long time. Advertisements can evoke the wide variety of emotions in people. Every advertisement is different from one another. In this article I will concentrate on the advertisement idea of one of the leading clothing companies- “United Colors of Benetton”

United Colors of Benetton have produced some extraordinary and unique
advertisements. Benetton’s originality in their advertisements is
unlike any other clothing company. Instead of advertising their
clothes on beautiful female and male models, Benetton uses real
people, and situations and dilemmas in the real world to get their
name across. Their controversial ads are notorious for the shock value they exhibit.
People sometimes cannot believe that a certain advertisement is
actually aimed at selling clothes. This “shock value” technique has
recently been the new trend in 20th century advertising culture. It is
a clever tactic that has recently been employed by various companies,
agencies, and institutions throughout the world.

Benetton’s aim is for the public to see their distinct ads and
remember them. They want people to see an advertisement and think
about it, discuss it, love it, and even hate it. In their minds, any
publicity is good publicity. They believe that their unique ads will
drive you to their stores, and it does just that. Benetton’s profits
almost doubled to nearly two-hundred-forty-five million Euros (392
million Canadian dollars) in four years (1996-2000). The question
that lingers on everyone’s mind is how do you make someone remember an
ad when they are bombarded by hundreds of advertisements daily? The
answer; Shock them. Unlike normal clothing companies whose aim is to
only sell their clothes, “[Benetton] believes [that they] can do more
than sell products. [They] can broaden minds”. Benetton uses
advertisements featuring people dying of AIDS, dead soldiers,
cemeteries, poverty stricken children, etc. Their hope lies within the
public. They want people to see their advertisements and take it to
heart. Just as the Du Maurier cigarette company uses pictures of
diseased organs on their cigarette packs in hopes of getting people to
take action and quit smoking, Benetton uses real life images in their
ads to instil their humanitarian cause in the rest of the world. These
graphic images are not sugar coated and fancy like advertisements that
other large clothing companies use. Instead they are meant to startle
or shock the public and create an image in people’s minds that may
create concern for the well being of people, animals, and the planet,
and at the same time, create a curiosity that would impel someone to
visit their clothing stores and learn more about them.

Benetton has a hard time understanding why their advertisements spark
so much controversy. All of their ads feature real life situations.
Nothing is made up or fake about their ads. They are not purposely out
there to exploit human suffering. Instead they are trying to
demonstrate the extent of the problem. Many of their ads feature
issues of multiculturalism, peace, the tragic effects of war, and
disease. Many people are aware of these problems but choose to turn
their heads or forget about them, instead of doing something to help
the cause. Two specific advertisements that I found
to be very clever and interesting are those that promote the breaking
down of race discrimination. The two ads remind the public that no
matter how we look on the outside, everyone looks the same on the
inside; literally. One of these advertisements has a picture of three
real hearts. They are obviously not human hearts, but the viewer of
the ad gets the idea. On each of the three hearts it says one word;
Black, White, and Yellow. As mentioned before, the advertisement hopes
to remind and convince the public that although we might look
different on the outside, that on the inside we are the exact same.
Benetton tries to promote equality regardless of colour, race, or
religion. The second such advertisement that hopes to communicate and
promote the need for compassion with all other human beings is that of
three girls. The picture shows the three girls, one of African
descent, one of Caucasian descent, and the third girl of Oriental
descent, with their heads side by side, sticking out their tongues.
Once again, Benetton shows that regardless of the way we look on the
outside, that on the inside we are all the same. All our tongues are
the same colour, and look the same. The same goes with our hearts. It
is these types of advertisements that define Benetton and their cause.
They are campaigning for equality. They want people to remember that
when it comes down to it, we are all human beings, and that there is
no need for hate amongst us. Benetton has made a bold move in the
advertising industry and should at least be commended for trying to do
something that is very unorthodox. But of course, not everyone sees
their campaign towards progressing humanity in the same way. Many
believe that “Benetton is trying, through its depiction of the intense
suffering of living things, to evoke a feeling of compassion on the
part of the consumer, and to suggest that it is sympathetic”.
Controversy has erupted due to its numerous ads. Some people have seen
Benetton’s advertisements and have been outraged but have not taken
action, while others have been more active in taking a stand and
ensuring Benetton stops publishing their immoral ads. A few ads in
particular have stricken a chord with many of Benetton’s opponents.
Opponents of Benetton’s ads have been angered with Benetton for
exploiting human suffering. A few advertisements that have gained
recognition for their degree of controversy are “pictures of a
waterfowl stuck in an oil slick, a human body stamped ‘HIV-positive
and child labourers in the Third World–all bearing the slogan,
‘United Colors of Benetton’”.

The article was produced by the member of masterpapers.com.
Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at term papers. Get some useful tips for thesis and buy term papers.

Tags: unique advertising, United Colors of Benneton