After the stage of doing your market research, the next step is to market your company and what it does, you need to consider how you are going to target potential customers and how much money are you willing to spend doing this.
Depending on your business here are the top five ways to market yourself.
1.) Word of mouth. Happy customers are happy to recommend you, and it’s free.
2.) Mail shots. Quite expensive on paper and postage, and consider three per cent successful sales a bonus. However, it does work, so long as you’ve carefully thought who to send the information to.
3.) Your own website. This is now very cheap and easy to do and gives you a presence on the internet, and it’s one more weapon in your marketing armoury.
4.) Press releases: A well-written press release can get free coverage in newspapers, TV and radio and can tell millions of potential customers about your product or service. Free give-aways are always very popular, especially at business events or shows, samples of your products of competitions and prizes are a great way to get mentioned and noticed.
5.) Be a media expert in your field. Local radio stations and papers are hungry to fill their airtime and pages. If you have an expertise, offer yourself as a pundit to the local media.
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2008 :: Filed under
MarketingTags ::
Advertising,
Branding,
Marketing,
Promotion
A Belfast retail marketing agency who specializes in shopping centres has won new contracts this week worth more than £3m. Spirit Marketing Group said it would help its new shopping centre clients — all located outside Northern Ireland — through this tough time of the credit crunch and in the lead up to the time of year where they are supposed to be at their most busy.
Its new business includes Gorey in Wexford, Gullivers in Ballymun in Dublin, Blackrock Shopping Centre in Co Dublin, Ashbourne in Meath, Southside in London, Kingsgate in Dunfermline and Cameron Toll in Edinburgh.
Spirit provides marketing services for more than a quarter of all retail space in Ireland, including Belfast’s Victoria Square, Craigavon’s Rushmere, Londonderry’s Foyleside and in the Republic, Liffey Valley, Whitewater and Mahon Point retail complexes. The company recently appointed Stephen Kelly, former chief executive of the Federation of Retail Licensed Trade in Northern Ireland, as its chief executive.
Mr Kelly said: “With the retail and leisure market now faced with the impact of harsh economic conditions, an increasing number of shopping centres are looking to Spirit because of our proven track record in delivering results in difficult environments.”
The marketing company have promised to deliver a innovative marketing approach and the main aspect of this is to help to build relationships with customers and deliver a product and service which adds value and help shopping centers to increase sales and benefit shop owners and retailers.
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2008 :: Filed under
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Advertising,
Marketing,
retail
Braveheart is a UK-based technology commercialization and investment management company and it has appointed Richard Nunneley as its director of marketing. This position is new for company Braveheart and has been created to help fulfill the group’s growth strategy outside Scotland. Nunneley will be based in Braveheart’s London office.
Nunneley has already had a successfull career and he worked for BZW training as a fund manager early on in his career and joined the army in 1974 and retired from the Black Watch in 1991, after this he returned to fund management, starting at Brown Shipley Stockbrokers and going on to become a director at Mercury Asset Management and Cazenove. He now joins Braveheart from Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander where he served as a director since 2006.
In addition, Braveheart’s legal counsel, Stephen Hart, who has been on secondment at Braveheart since April, has now joined the company permanently, he studied European & international trade law at the University of Leicester and then trained with Maclay Murray & Spens in London qualifying as an English solicitor in September 2001.
Posted by admin on November 13th, 2008 :: Filed under
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Investment,
Marketing
Due to the recent news about Jeremy Clarkson and his comment about truck drivers, a games developer has decided to take advantage over the situation and create a game called “Run Clarkson Run”. You basically control a cartoon version of Jeremy Clarkson and run through the streets avoiding angry truck drivers who try to run you over, you have to jump over them and collect as much cash as possible.
The managing director of the company that created the game stated that Jeremy is a loved character but he has stepped over the line this time. The game will give angry truck drivers a chance of getting some revenge.
The BBC have now received around 1,950 complaints about his comment during last week’s episode of Top Gear, he said that driving a truck must be a hard job. You’ve got so much to do such as “change gear, change gear, check mirrors, change gear, murder a prostitute, change gear, check mirrors, murder another prostitute, change gear…”
He did claim in his defence that he was referring to the Yorkshire Ripper and the Suffolk Strangler who were both truck drivers. The BBC stated that the number of complaints was mainly down to the media broadcasting his remarks opposed to people who actually saw the show. It was a similar effect that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand received.
A Labour Party MP, Chris Mole stated that Jeremy Clarkson should be dismissed. He was the MP that represents the constituency of the Wright murders (Suffolk Strangler) and they were horrendous and dreadful events. For him to make light comments such as this will have a serious effect on many people so should be dismissed without any thought.
Has Jeremy Clarkson stepped over the line or has the epidemic of complaints just over the top?
Posted by admin on November 7th, 2008 :: Filed under
Interactive,
Latest News,
MarketingTags ::
Computer Games
A North-East SMS and mobile marketing firm landed a contract to run the text messaging service for Hillary Clinton’s Democrat nomination campaign and the company may have played a major role in the outcome of the US election. Mrs. Clinton made reference to the success of the service in her first speech on the campaign trial, and this led Barack Obama to employ text messaging during his successful presidential election campaign.
Colin Stewart is the UK account director for Interlinked Media and has said the contract came about when the company had opened an office in Dallas and met members of the Clinton campaign team. Colin has said “Having seen what we had achieved in the UK, we had some backing because mobile marketing wasn’t widespread in the States at that time, and with our previous track record we were able to negotiate the contract, we got a lot of positive feedback and it had an effect on the Obama campaign because they had seen it was so successful and started their own text marketing”
Mobile phone marketing is a major method and not just a form of communication, but it is perfect for marketing to the public as it is communicating to the public through a device that people have in their pocket 24/7 and is always switched on. 95% of text messages are read, and only 25% of e-mails are always red.
As campaigns were sent overnight, the team managed and analyzed responses during UK working hours and subsequently provided the Clinton camp with real time reports at the start of their working day. “Winning the pitch for the Hillary Clinton election campaign was a massive coup for our business.
Posted by admin on November 7th, 2008 :: Filed under
Business & Finance,
MarketingTags ::
Barack Obama,
Hillary Clinton,
Media,
Text Messaging
Jerry Yang, Yahoo! SEO has stated that a partnership with Microsoft may be coming up as Google knocked them back in an advertising deal. The reason the Yahoo! Google partnership didn’t happen is because it received notice from the US Department of Justice stating they would be filing an antitrust lawsuit if they went any further.
This is because they account for number 1 and 2 in their market so merging together would result in them holding over 90% of the market share making it almost impossible for any competition to rise and prevent any from starting up.
Based on that, Jerry Yang stated that he would be happy selling the company to Microsoft if they were interested. He refused the bid from Microsoft about a year ago as they wanted to buy the company last May so this may have an effect on the current deal.
Microsoft offered $31 per share last year which has been dramatically reduced to $13.92 per share. Yahoo! stated that they still believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed in Google for refusing it opposed to trying to defend it in court.
They did try to negotiate with the US Department of Justice by reducing the minimum length from 10 years to 2 years and by having it possible for Google advertisers to opt out from appearing in Yahoo! if they wished. They also suggested a cap of 25% of revenue that could be accumulated from Google.
David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president stated that they were disappointed that this deal will not go any further but they feel it’s better to opt out than have what could be a lengthy legal battle which could take the focus off of their own plans.
Posted by admin on November 6th, 2008 :: Filed under
Advertising,
Marketing,
Power BrandsTags ::
google,
Yahoo!
The recent credit crunch has forced Marks & Spencer’s to review their marketing budget for next year as they are taking a plunge in their profit levels. It has been said that their £144 million marketing budget will be slashed by up to 20% in the year 2009 to account for the loss of profits. This budget reduction could mean that the top models currently in their campaigns such as Erin O’Connor and Twiggy could be dropped.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the profits levels have fallen by a huge 44% taking them to £307.8 million per year for the high street chain. It has not been finalised that the drop in marketing costs will result in high profile models being dropped first, Steven Sharp, the executive director of marketing stated that they have a lot of options which need consideration.
Over the last 6 month period the overall local sales actually rose by 0.8% and rose 23.9% for international sales although other areas of their trade took a massive plummet. On a like for like basis general merchandise and food sales fell 6.2% and 5.3% respectively.
Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, Stuart Rose said that the current economic situation is making retailer’s face the hardest time they’ve seen since the early 1990’s. He also stated that he has no concerns for the long term growth of M&S as they have a number of ideas in development, including the improvement of international sales.
In related news is what reported that the retailer Primark has been on a constant rise since the credit crunch and have stated a profit rise of 17% taking it to £223 million per year. This is probably due to the fact people are beginning to be weary of their spend and are choosing the cheaper brands to save money.
Posted by admin on November 5th, 2008 :: Filed under
Marketing,
Media,
Power BrandsTags ::
Profit Loss
With the recent credit crunch the housing market has taken a huge impact which could lead to over 3 million homeowners (more than a fifth of households) facing negative equity as their outstanding mortgage will be higher than the value of their property.
The statistics given by Bank of England stated that the people facing negative equity would rise from the half a million (at present) to over 1.5 million in just a few years. Many professionals have stated these are way too optimistic as previous research has shown that people valuing their own properties tend inaccurately value their home and add around 20% on average on to the real value. They also understate their debts by up to 15% in the worse case scenarios which would throw their estimates way off.
It was Michael Saunders from the Citigroup who has calculated that between 2.5 – 3 million will be facing the negative equity which will peak the previous record of 1.8 million back in the early 90’s.
Prices of property have actually dropped around 3.9% since last month according to the estate agent, Knight Frank. This was based in London but other areas are in similar predicaments as no one wants to buy property with the current market as it is.
For the very few people that have not been financially struggling throughout this credit crisis they will be able to pick up property at good prices. Banks or building societies will be expecting a larger deposit which is deterring many people from buying, this will then reduce the demand forcing people into more negative equity if people are desperate to sell their property.
Companies such as Marks and Spencer’s and British Airways have also released figures showing they have been hit by the financial crisis in the UK.
Posted by admin on November 3rd, 2008 :: Filed under
Business & Finance,
Latest NewsTags ::
House Market
In the recent post about Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand performing prank calls to Andrew Sachs, Russell Brand has now quit his radio show last night. There has not been any news on what will happen to Jonathan Ross as there will be a meeting between senior executives and the BBC trust today to arrange the outcome.
The complaints, which have now reached a staggering 27,000 forced the BBC to suspend the pair and wait for further information. Jonathan Ross published an apology to everyone about his immature behaviour about what he shouted about Andrew Sachs granddaughter. He said he didn’t do it earlier because he didn’t intend to apologise to all of the people that complained until he realised the amount that were offended.
The reason why Russell has quit doing his radio show was because the main purpose of it was to make people laugh, with everything that has happened has gave him the only option to stop the show from being broadcasted and move onto something else.
He also accepted full responsibility for his actions and stated he got caught up in the moment when he was singing songs about his granddaughter and never meant to offend the former actor Andrew Sachs or any member of his family.
Booking agencies have began opening bets to where Russell Brand will appear next, the most favoured is XFM followed by returning to MTV with bets of 7/4 and 5/2 respectively.
A recent online survey of 193 people revealed that 38.30% believed Russell Brand should be sacked, 33.70% said that it was a harmless joke that should be ignored while 28% said that it should be the BBC taking reasonability for allowing it to be broadcasted.
What do you think the outcome should be for this pair, did they really go too far?
Posted by admin on October 30th, 2008 :: Filed under
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RadioTags ::
Radio
A recent prank call involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand leaving a number of messages on the actor Andrew Sachs (former Faulty Towers Manuel) answer machine has been described as offensive and inappropriate by the Prime Minister after having over 18,000 complaints being made by listeners.
Ofcom are currently investigating the situation which could involve a fine and an on-air apology by the two. Ofcom has fined Kiss FM £175,000 in the past for similar actions involving releasing prank calls without having the victim’s permission.
The messages revolved around the idea that Russell Brand had slept with the actor’s granddaughter and gave suggestion that Andrew Sachs would want to commit suicide after finding out. These were then aired on national radio without his permission which has escalated the seriousness as they were approved by BBC’s senior producers.
Andrew Sachs granddaughter, Georgina Baillie has been interviewed by the Sun newspaper where she stated they are considering a formal complaint to the police. She then goes onto stating back in 2006 she was introduced to Russell Brand via a mutual friend and she did actually sleep with Russell Brand three times.
Georgina said that the two responsible should be fired immediately for trying to humiliate an old man that would never hurt anyone.
The BBC are doing an internal investigation to find out what will happen to Brand and Ross, Jonathan Ross has actually received the highest three year contract with the BBC being £18 million. Russell Brand gets paid £200,000 a year for his weekly radio show so they both have a great deal to lose.
Along with the complaints there has been a lot of controversy about whether these two should get fired or not, you can be sure that a great deal of people are awaiting the outcome to be stated.
Posted by admin on October 29th, 2008 :: Filed under
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New Media,
RadioTags ::
Radio