WHAT MARKETING IS AND IS NOT

Marketing is any contact that your business has with anyone who isn’t a part of your business. Marketing is also the truth made fascinating. Unfortunately, often it’s not the truth and it’s anything but fascinating. Marketing is the art of getting people to change their minds.

Many business owners think marketing is a bunch of things that it isn’t. Let’s examine the silliest of them:

Marketing is not advertising. Don’t think that because you’re advertising, you’re marketing. There are more than 200 forms of marketing. Advertising is one of them. If you’re advertising, you’re advertising. You’re doing only one half of 1 percent of what you can do.

Marketing is not direct mail. Some companies think they can get all the business they need with direct mail. Mail-order firms may be right about that. But most businesses need a plethora of other marketing weapons for their direct mail to succeed.

Marketing is not telemarketing. For business-to-business marketing, few weapons succeed as well as telemarketing. Telemarketing response can be improved by augmenting it with advertising. But don’t kid yourself. Marketing is not telemarketing alone.

Marketing is not brochures. Many companies rush to produce a brochure, then pat themselves on the back for the quality of the brochure. Is that brochure marketing? It’s an important part when mixed with 10 or 15 other very important parts, but by itself? Forget it.

Marketing is not the phonebook. Many companies run a phonebook ad and figure that takes care of their marketing. In 5 percent of the cases, that’s the truth. In the other 95 percent, it’s a disaster of marketing ignorance.

Marketing is not show business. There’s no business like show business, and that includes marketing. Think of marketing as sell business, as create-a-desire business, as motivation business. But don’t think of yourself as being in the entertainment business, because marketing is not supposed to entertain.

Marketing is not a stage for humor. If you use humor in your marketing, people will recall your funny joke, but not your compelling offer. If you use humor, it will be funny the first and maybe the second time. After that, it will be grating and will get in the way of what makes marketing work–repetition.

Marketing is not an invitation to be clever. If you fall into the cleverness trap, it’s because you don’t realize that people remember the cleverest part of the marketing even though it’s your offer they should remember. Cleverness is a marketing vampire, sucking attention away from your offer.

Marketing is not complicated. It becomes complicated for people who fail to grasp the simplicity of marketing, but marketing is user-friendly to guerrillas. They begin with a seven-sentence guerrilla marketing plan, then commit to that plan. Not too complicated.

Marketing is not a miracle worker. More money has been wasted by expecting miracles than by any other misconception of marketing. Marketing is the best investment you can make if you do it right, and doing it right requires patience and planning.

Marketing is not a website. And if you don’t know marketing in the first place, you’re going to lose a lot of money online. The web helps with the job, but it’s not the whole job.

Marketing is an opportunity for you to earn profits with your business, a chance to cooperate with other businesses in your community or your industry and a process of building lasting relationships.

Now, like the guerrilla, you know what marketing is and isn’t and you can make it work a lot harder for you.

Article by Jay Conrad

CMYK – COLOR MODEL

The CMYK color model is used in the printing process. To understand it, it is best to start with RGB color. The RGB color model (made up of red, green and blue) is used in your computer monitor, and is what you will view your projects in while still on screen. These colors, however, can only be viewed with natural or produced light, such as in the computer monitor, and not on a printed page. This is where CMYK comes in.

When two RGB colors are mixed equally they produce the colors of the CMYK model, known as subtractive primaries. Green and blue creates cyan (C), red and blue creates magenta (M), and red and green creates yellow (Y). Black is added to the model because it cannot be created with the 3 subtractive primaries (when combined they create a dark brown). The K, or “key,” stands for black.

CMYK in the Printing Process

The four-color printing process uses four printing plates; one for cyan, one for magenta, one for yellow and one for black. When the colors are combined on paper (they are actually printed as small dots), the human eye sees the final image.

CMYK in Graphic Design

Graphic designers have to deal with the issue of seeing their work on screen in RGB, although their final printed piece will be in CMYK. Digital files should be converted to CMYK before sending to printers, unless otherwise specified. Because of this issue, it is important to use “swatches” when designing if exact color matching is important. Swatches provide a designer and client with a printed example of what a color will look like on paper. A selected swatch color can then be chosen in Photoshop (or a similar program) to insure the desired results. Even though the on-screen color won’t exactly match the swatch, you know what your final color will look like. You can also get a “proof” from a printer, which is an example of your printed piece provided before the entire job is run.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Make yourself and your team visible
“I don’t know about your company, but I don’t have anyone in my company named ‘admin,'” says Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends founder and one of 14 Dell-polled social media thought leaders. She recommends featuring names and photos of the people behind your social media and blog posts. But choose your team carefully, cautions social media strategist Lee Hopkins, because those who run your social media program “are company spokespeople with the power to ruin your hard-won reputation in just one tweet.”

Know your customers
“Know what jobs they’re trying to do, why they make the choices they make, what role your brand plays in their lives, how they experience your service and products,” says Empathy Lab’s Valeria Maltoni. Then follow the advice of social innovator Gaurav Mishra and use social media posts to “solve a problem or connect around a shared purpose. Or both.”

Be an active listener
“Think about how much time you invest listening and learning at an industry conference, for example, versus talking,” says Philip Sheldrake, author of “The Business of Influence.” “Now carry that ratio over to social media.”

Avoid branded content that looks like a glorified press release
Instead, aim for “creative and real-time content that is relevant, meaningful and tells a story,” says social media strategist Michael Brito, adding that all content “must add value to the conversation.” Effective use of social media “comes down to being human,” says “Likeonomics” author Rohit Bhargava, and gaining a “deeper understanding of customer questions and how you can answer them.”

Be more conversational
“Incivility needs to stop,” says author and Forbes columnist Shel Israel in a statement that gained widespread agreement among Dell-polled experts, including Ann Handley of MarketingProfs, who also wants to see the end of social spamming, including “friend spamming” and “robo-DMs.”

Give credit where credit is due
“One thing I’d like to see more of is organic linking and sourcing of material,” says Geoff Livingston, author of “Welcome to the Fifth Estate,” who goes on to say that “when something is an opinion, we should state that.”

Lay off the hashtag
When asked by Dell what one social media behavior needs to stop, Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, answers, “#just #stop #with #the #hashtagging #of #every #word” and quit using a hashtag “in places it wasn’t intended. Like on Facebook. Birthday cards. Or the specials chalkboard.”

Realize that fans and followers are overrated metrics
“Count shares, comments, downloads, RTs, subscriptions, lead generation, and anything else that prompts human beings to take action based upon the quality of something they’ve read or seen,” says technology journalist and author Paul Gillin. In other words, measure interactions more carefully than engagement alone. Toby Bloomberg of Cox Media Group goes one step further, urging analysis of fan comments, because “that’s where the gold nuggets are found.”

The consensus: In whatever amount of time you spend, be human. Be authentic. Be civil. Be relevant. Be useful and interactive. And share, don’t sell.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226891#ixzz2WXoDHLJ2

DEVELOPING A MARKETING CALENDAR

Marketing is complicated. To make effective use of its many strategies and components, you have to first plan them out, then stay organized and consistent in implementing your plan. A marketing calendar is the best way to organize your marketing activity; the calendar also serves as a working document you can revise and update throughout the plan year.

A marketing calendar doesn’t have to be fancy. I recommend a simple spreadsheet matrix. Across the top x-axis, I place column headings representing the months of the year. Down the y-axis, or the first left-hand column, I list each individual marketing initiative, event or activity I’ll use during the plan year.

For instance, if I’m going to do a press release every other month starting in February, I would put an X in the February, April, June, August, October and December columns. If I were going to issue a print newsletter once a month, each monthly column would have an X in it for that item.

How do you know which activities to include in your calendar? Brainstorm all the marketing ideas that make sense for your plan year but keep in mind that you can’t do everything. Balance your marketing workload with the other things you need to do for your business. Plan for what you can do completely, not halfway. Also plan what you feel comfortable with, emotionally and financially. Prioritize accordingly, then place your ideas in your matrix.

Using a marketing calendar allows you to do four things with your marketing:

1. It organizes, categorizes and prioritizes your marketing initiatives and activities.
2. It allows you to spot “bunches” in your marketing activity. Too many X’s close together might indicate the need to spread out your activity. It’s generally accepted, though, that there are natural bunches that occur as a result of seasonality in your business and your customers’ buying habits. Many retail operations market heavily in the third quarter, for instance, and bunch up marketing activity in anticipation for the fourth-quarter holiday season.
3. It offers a way for you to spot gaps in your marketing activity. Too much time in between the X’s in your activities leaves customers and prospects untouched. Your goal with marketing is to achieve top-of-mind awareness. Consistency is key here, as is repetition. Don’t have gaps in your marketing.
4. It allows you to more easily evaluate your marketing. At the end of the year, the quarter or any other period of time you specify, grade the individual activity and initiative items. You can use a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being spectacular, or you can use a simple A, B or C grading system. If your particular initiative worked, grade it high. If it was moderately successful, give it a midlevel grade, and if it didn’t work, give it a low rating. Now here’s the real value of this activity: When you plan the next period’s marketing, repeat what worked or what you graded highly. Fix, modify or tweak the marketing that kind of worked or that was graded at a midlevel, and eliminate the marketing that didn’t work at all.

That’s all there really is to planning your marketing with a marketing calendar. Do what works for your business. Plan it quarterly if that’s easier for you than doing it monthly. Once you establish your marketing plan, keep it up on a regular basis, just like paying your bills. Consistent marketing wins out. Planned consistent marketing with effective implementation wins out even more. And if you didn’t start back when you launched your business, start now.

Article by Al Lautenslager

THE HUMAN STORY

THE HUMAN STORY – GENOGRAPHIC PROJECT

Working together, we are unveiling the story of the greatest journey ever told: how our ancestors migrated from their African homeland to populate the Earth tens of thousands of years ago.

Together we can chart a more complete map of the early stages of human history by carefully comparing the DNA from world populations that have been genetically, and geographically, stable for hundreds or thousands of years.

Picture of people in a busy Tokyo street

How many migrations out of Africa were there? What role did the Silk Road, with its caravans and bazaars, play in dispersing genetic lineages across Eurasia? What can our genes tell us about the origins of languages? How did the great empires of history leave their genetic marks on our DNA? And if we all share such a recent common ancestry, why do we all look so different?

These are just some of the important questions the Genographic Project is asking. And through your participation, you will play a valuable role in helping answer them.

Welcome to the expedition of a lifetime.

VARIOUS GUERRILLA MARKETING

Various Guerrilla Marketing often used as a descriptor for non-traditional media, such as:

• Reverse Graffiti — clean pavement adverts
• Viral Marketing— through social networks
• Presence marketing — having presence on sites, subliminally encouraging its users
• Grassroots marketing — tapping into the collective efforts of brand enthusiasts
• Wild Posting Campaigns
• Alternative marketing
• Forehead advertising— placement of temporary or permanent tattoos on foreheads
• Buzz Marketing— word of mouth marketing
• Undercover Marketing— subtle product placement
• Astroturfing— disguising company messaging as an authentic grassroots movement
• Experiential Marketing— interaction with product
• Tissue-pack Marketing— hand-to-hand marketing
• Live-in Marketing— real life product placement – see related article or Hostival Connect
• Wait marketing— when and where consumers are waiting (such as medical offices and gas pumps) and receptive to communications

UPDATED SHOW-REEL !!

Hi Friends,
In my previous post, i was mentioning about Rex Vijayan, from then i was kinda curious about the music and wanted to sync my new show-reel with his track, ‘Oru naalam kaanathe’.
I Had to hit hard to get the right edit mix but the music kept me going. Hope it worked !!

So, Finally my edit is complete. Hope you don’t mind watching the fresh and updated show reel of mine. Kindly watch them in HD and post your valuable comments.

I am kinda jobless now, so keep me posted if you or your friends are in need of a visual media artist to shoot/photograph the events/films/short series or documentaries.

CHEERS !!

GUERRILLA MARKETING

WHAT IS GUERRILLA MARKETING? 

Guerrilla Marketing is an advertising strategy that focuses on low-cost unconventional marketing tactics that yield maximum results. The original term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book ‘Guerrilla Advertising’.

The term guerrilla marketing was inspired by guerrilla warfare which is a form of irregular warfare and relates to the small tactic strategies used by armed civilians. Many of these tactics includes ambushes, sabotage, raids and elements of surprise. Much like guerrilla warfare, guerrilla marketing uses the same sort of tactics in the marketing industry. This alternative advertising style relies heavily on unconventional marketing strategy, high energy and imagination. Guerrilla Marketing is about taking the consumer by surprise, make an indelible impression and create copious amounts of social buzz. Guerrilla marketing is said to make a far more valuable impression with consumers in comparison to more traditional forms of advertising and marketing. This is due to the fact that most guerrilla marketing campaigns aim to strike the consumer at a more personal and memorable level.

Guerrilla marketing is often ideal for small businesses that need to reach a large audience without breaking the bank. It also is used by big companies in grassroots campaigns to compliment on-going mass media campaigns. Individuals have also adopted this marketing style as a way to find a job or more work.

Article by Ryan Lum

MULTICULTURALISM

In 1971, Canada was the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism as an official policy. By so doing, Canada affirmed the value and dignity of all Canadian citizens regardless of their racial or ethnic origins, their language, or their religious affiliation. The 1971 Multiculturalism Policy of Canada also confirmed the rights of Aboriginal peoples and the status of Canada’s two official languages.

Canadian multiculturalism is fundamental to our belief that all citizens are equal. Multiculturalism ensures that all citizens can keep their identities, can take pride in their ancestry and have a sense of belonging. Acceptance gives Canadians a feeling of security and self-confidence, making them more open to, and accepting of, diverse cultures. The Canadian experience has shown that multiculturalism encourages racial and ethnic harmony and cross-cultural understanding.

Through multiculturalism, Canada recognizes the potential of all Canadians, encouraging them to integrate into their society and take an active part in its social, cultural, economic and political affairs.

7 Myths of Film Distribution

Myth #1: Filmmakers focus on making good films.

The producer looks after marketing and distribution. Filmmaker’s don’t need to get too involved with the producer’s job.

Myth #2: A distributor is excited – they’ve asked for a screener

Distributors read the trade papers and the production reports searching for new product. If your producer was smart enough to get listed in the trade papers, chances are you will get calls from prospective distributors. But is this good news?

Myth #3: I’ve been accepted into Cannes – I have it made!

The top 3 film festivals in the world are Toronto, Sundance and Cannes. Getting accepted into one of these film festivals, or to Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam or Karlovay Vary are the dreams of nearly every filmmaker. Getting your film selected by one of these film festivals will certainly get you noticed. But will it get you the distribution deals you crave?

Myth #4: I’m getting lots of festival invites – it’s just a matter of time

Having your film a bunch of film festival is the ultimate ego trip. films I have produced have been in over 50 top film festivals around the world. Attending with your film, doing Q&A sessions, presenting workshops and partying til you drop is all part of the scene. Will all this glamour lead to a deal?

Myth #5: I can self distribute

Anyone who creates content, be it a book, song or movie can self distribute. In the publishing industry this is called vanity publishing – a dirty word until some recent bestseller successes.

Myth #6: DVD is dead

One reads about the closure of DVD stores and the birth of online distribution channels like Distrify, Blinkbox and Netflix. Does this mean the glory days of DVD are over?

Myth #7: I’m a filmmaker. I don’t need to know about the internet

There are two types of filmmakers out there right now: Those who loathe and abhor social media and wouldn’t be caught dead with a Twitter account, and those who love and embrace it.

Article by Elliot Grove