You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more than the stars of the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. ? Nahum 3:16 (NIV)

Unlike the time of Jonah, Nahum prophesied to Ninevah when the nation was dying. One of the many judgments of Ninevah was that businesspeople were exploiting resources and people with no intent to replenish what they used. This is a warning to us today: are we only seeing how much we can get from our business endeavors, or are we aware of the true costs that we are incurring to all of those around us? Simply making a profit is not enough for God when it comes to doing business.

No Publicity Is Bad Publicity

Oftentimes the philosophy behind branding is - "no publicity is bad publicity; we just want to get our name out there as often as possible and in as many venues as possible; we want our name on every sign, billboard, in every commercial, movie, we want it everywhere, in all places, we want everyone to know about it, everyone, everyone." Others disagree with this philosophy, finding it too broad and crude to suit their purposes. Their attitude is - "we want the public to react to our idea or name in a specific way; we don't want to merely splash our idea and name all over the place; we want to carefully target where we put our idea or name, and so have more control over how it is received."

Branding just gets the idea, name, business, brand, or product "out there."

Branding isn't necessarily interested in getting Mr. Jones or Mrs. Horowitz to go out and buy the product right away. Branding isn't necessarily concerned about getting Mr. Smith or Mr. Schulz to sign up for the business right away. Branding isn't necessarily focused on getting Mr. Allen or Mrs. Polanski interested in a certain movie star away. What, then, is branding concerned with? It's simple - branding just wants to get the idea, name, business, brand, or product "out there." Branding wants to simply introduce the idea, name, business, brand, or product to the public at large - and, most importantly, branding wants to keep the idea, name business, brand, or product in the public eye as long as possible - hopefully permanently.

Set Sales Goals

It is important for a company to have sales goals. Without goals, it is impossible to create a meaningful plan. Sales goals act as a control mechanism and the organizational structure to guides the company. Often a sales force fails to reach its goals because the organizational structure hinders the effective implementation of the strategic sales force planning.

It is important to have a sales plan driven by company goals because they communicate performance expectations and the time periods of expected delivery. The goals express the company’s desired number of sales. To improve as a company, it is best for management to set goals that are realistic but exceed previous sales; doing so perpetuates growth. Each sales person will have quotas. A reward system often encourages the sales team to not only meet their quota but do surpass it.

Sales goals are determined by many factors. A manager can start by determining the average amount of sales made in by a company on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. The actual sales team can be involved in developing the sales goals by brainstorming tactics and discussing the nuances of the product and target market.

M/I Promotions can help you set and meet your sales goals. Contact us today.

Terrell L
TerrellL@MIPromotions.com
M/I Promotions
http://ping.fm/YJj17
816.921.3633

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Trends Influencing the Effectiveness of Advertising

There are many trends influencing the effectiveness of advertising. Advertising has dominated the social media playing field. For many years Google and other search engines have been the best location for online advertising. Now sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have jumped on the advertising bandwagon. Advertising on social media has a few advantages over traditional marketing. Geo-targeting is a major benefit. Social media allows one to target individuals of a specific state or city. Now, advertising changes from a mass broadcast to whoever may see the message to direct communication within a precise area. Social media also allows advertisers to target birthdays, age, keywords, gender, relationship status, and interests. All of these attributes increase the effectiveness of advertise.

Emerging technology effects advertising. Rapid technological change, particularly the development of information technology and its relationship to marketing, has led to the substitution of computers and other machines for unskilled labor. Today anyone who knows how to use a company and do online research can organize a reasonable marketing campaign. There are many advances in technology that make marketing a lot easier and efficient in cost and time. Rather than using direct mail, we use electronic mail. Rather than attending networking events, we use social media.

Consumer behavior is being affected by advances in advertising technology. Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. Price increases are a major change agent. Escalating prices lead to financial problems and compromises for many families and businesses. No matter how much an organization advertises families are cutting back on recreational activities, shopping, eating out, and entertainment.

Product Life Cycle

A company’s positioning and differentiation strategy must change as the product, market, and competitors change over the product life cycle. Product life cycle is significant because consumer behavior is influenced by it. It is important to understand that products have a limited life; product sales pass through distinct stages with different challenges, opportunities, and problems for the seller; profits rise and fall at different stages of the product life cycle; and products require different marketing, financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each stage.

Advertising, sales, promotion, and competitors experience changes through the different stages of the product life cycle. During the introductory stage sales growth tends to be slow, promotional and advertising expenditures are at their highest ratio to sales, and there is an advantage to being a pioneer rather than entering a highly competitive market. The growth stage is marked by a rapid climb in sales and new competitors enter with new product features and expanded distribution. Companies maintain or increase their promotional expenditures to meet competition and to continue to educate the market, but sales rise much faster than promotional expenditures. When the rate of sales growth slows, the product enters a stage of relative maturity. During this stage a company might use market modification, expanding the market for its mature brand by expanding the number of brand users. By doing so, the customers of the competitors can be won. Sales are stimulated by modifying other marketing-mix elements such as prices, distribution, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and services. Last, during the decline stage, sales decrease, competition increases, and promotions and advertising budgets are cut.

Terrell L
TerrellL@MIPromotions.com
M/I Promotions
http://ping.fm/0q2nO
816.921.3633

Competitive Advantage

Maintaining a unique competitive advantage is import. Competitive position is a marketing objective. A strong corporate image creates a major competitive advantage in the business-to-business marketplace. Identifying a product with a cultural symbol is difficult but, if done successfully, can become a strong competitive advantage for a firm. When media selection is performed correctly and messages are designed to fit with the chosen media, the chances for success greatly increase. When these issues are well-coordinated, a company creates a major competitive advantage.

Competitive advantage is real. Hallmark has been able to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Company strengths and weaknesses are studied as part of the planning process. Hallmark consistently takes advantage of the firm’s primary strength: a high quality image that appeals to both customers and retailers. As a result, Hallmark has been able to build on a strong past and work toward a more lucrative future, even as competitive pressures intensify.