5 posts tagged “marketing”

Are you thinking of effective designs to match your postcard marketing tricks? If you have the extra bucks, you might as well go find the service of the highest paid actors these days. Anyway, they wouldn’t attain that for no good reason, right?

We’ve all heard about the babes, it is Reese Witherspoon now who had dethroned Julia Roberts on top of the list. But what about the men? Are you wondering who the highest paid actors are these days? What was the last movie you’ve paid to watch? Maybe the leading man on that film is among the list.

Here are the top three for those of you who are interested to know who are making a mark and hitting it big in the world of Hollywood. Here are the top three earners as of this writing.

1.    The most hardworking actor in Hollywood definitely deserves to be in this position. Will Smith has an estimated $80 million earnings through the year. This man who will go from sci-fi, to drama, even comedy and action, never seem to lack the drive to try all the genres. This is one lucky guy, with his movies earning well in the box office, reason why he is being trusted to do what he has done and the projects still lined up for him to accomplish.

2.    Johnny Depp is on number two with $72 million already on his pocket for the year. He should thank his lucky stars that he is still being given good commercial projects like the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels while being part of artsy films every now and then. Such materials will definitely land him on the top earner’s list.

3.    Forget about Scary Spice. Eddie Murphy thrives on intrigues but he also earns well enough to be on number three with $55 million. Thanks to his versatility to do varied roles and do voices to unforgettable characters like Donkey on Shrek.

And tied with Mr. Murphy on number three is Shrek himself, Mike Myers with $55 million up his sleeves for this year. It really pays to have the talent even if you don’t look as good as Leo DiCaprio, who by the way follows on the list with $45 million earnings.

So there you go. That is the list of the actors whose films you may have watched in the past months or so. And they will continue their reign as long as there are people who are paying to watch as they do their best on their crafts.

Direct marketing may seem to be an easy task to begin with.

You start by formulating your marketing message and then you send it to your target audience in a form of a promotional brochure, a sleek postcard or a glossy catalog. It is relatively simple.

At first glance, building your brand through direct mail may seem easy to achieve, given you have the right resources. But when we say ‘the right resources’ one may fall into the confusion of overwhelming marketing strategies, dozens of direct marketing print providers offering rock bottom printing quotes and prices plus hundreds of direct marketing tips telling you what to do. It’s like everything you need is already thrown at you.

For most marketers and businesses, it is only logical and safe to rely with what is already proven. They seem to pick up the marketing tools at random and think that all the tools provide the same result. Direct marketing guarantees a good sales activity. Direct marketing increases ROI and so on and so on.

But I have noticed that most promotional postcards and catalogs that I received contain almost the same marketing message. I am starting to think that maybe marketers are not trying so hard anymore to make their print advertisements different.

I am not here to impart new marketing ideas for marketers. But as for the moment, mild critical knocks might save them from being stuck with the same repetitive marketing adage.

Here are some things I’ve noticed to some print advertisements that lack that ‘little something’:

1.    Some print advertisements echo the same message consumers already know. Yawn.
2.    Weak marketing taglines. Not too compelling.
3.    They all look the same.
4.    Poor copywriting. Just a mere jumble of words.
5.    No further function after reading the content.

There may be no exact formula to avoid these marketing deadfalls but what’s interesting about direct marketing is that possibilities are as wide as your imagination. Putting a good content to your print medium is not a wasted effort since you will certainly reap its advantageous results.

These past few days, I’ve done nothing but read on and on about marketing and the next big thing. Yeah, I did pick up a few things, but after a few days, you find out that everything is rehashed, recycled, and repackaged.

There maybe more than just a handful that have me at the edge of my seat listening, and then at midsentence, I catch on to a glaring mistake and realize I’ve been had by a cult like rhetoric. I am sucked in to the idea that markets are becoming so defragmented, diverse, and increasingly intelligent. That as a consumer, I have an angry voice I can use to shout out and shake my cage.

Mass marketing, mass production, mass media are all archaic. Offset printers should be thrown to flames and digital printing press with the capacity to print-one-to-one advertising is the fad. Everyone is all of a sudden talking about premium products, niche markets, and target marketing. Small business built on innovation will outlive the giants.

All the intellectual talk and big words had me going a little, but a quick trip to the grocery changed my mind. With all the brands and choices for a single product in a single shelf in a large grocery store, it’s unlikely that I’ll even pick my brain about it. It’s not like I’d bother looking up every product on the internet to be sure that each fits exactly to my taste.

One time, I was walking through the groceries cold storage section and found some crabsticks for Japanese food, as well as Salmon for Sashimi. There were so many choices it was mind boggling. I thought Japanese food was specific enough. I ended up not buying anything.

It’s not that I don’t like having a choice it’s that too much choices limits my choice. It’s hard to have to second guess every purchase.

I guess what mass marketing does is simply give you the reassurance that somewhere out there, people are buying the same product. It may not be the best item brand in the entire shelf, but its good enough. You buy it and you forget about it. If it tastes funny, you try to remember not to buy it again and move on to the next most familiar brand on the shelf.

Maybe I don’t get it, or perhaps, I am one of those ignorant consumers sold out and brainwashed by mass media. Well, so what if I am? I have more important decisions to use my brain power on.   

Postcards have a 3% success rate, while others claim they have 2%. It may be a small number, but when you consider the long term brand image they create, and the aggregate sales they influence, it can be a bigger number.
 
The first time I received a promotional postcard, I felt like a VIP. It was sent from a dermatological clinic during my 13th birthday with a special discount offer for one of their services. My mom used took me to there my skin problems. And although the clinic had some popularity, it was still a small clinic then.

Fast forward to a decade later, (I outgrew my skin problems) the clinic has expanded to several other franchises. It is known to have treated many celebrities and is the premiere dermatologist.

It’s hard to tell if her success can be attributed to the postcards printing or her personalized service, but I know it made me feel special and mature. Although even with the postcard, I didn’t go back to the clinic though because I had a bad experience with the pricking part of the facial.

But my guess says it was the cornerstone of her success. Their service isn’t particularly good. I remember the doctor simply asked me less then ten questions, looked at my face and gave me a prescription, talked a little with my mom, and then turned me over to another woman. I found out later on that my brother has the same prescription.

I hear postcards are a great marketing material. When used to advertise to a referred client, it can give you as much as 25% response rate.

From one business blog, I read about a small business that tripled their sales using postcards for their marketing campaign. They placed a folded postcard on a gold envelope. In it was a simple message that thanked the customer for their patronage, and is giving them a gift check, and they specified what they can buy from the amount stated from the gift check.

Of course, it’s dubious whether the 300% sales increase will last more than a month or is only for the duration of the promo. 3% average after all is a far cry from 300%, but of course, even for a one time deal, it is a stunning result nonetheless.

It makes me wonder though, will postcards have the same results once we get saturated with all that advertisements?
 

If you have been a couch potato at one point in your life or another, you would have watched too many television shopping spiels on air. I say this because you may find yourself accompanying your mother or grandmother to trade shows where they showcase many new and exciting house hold items that are just quite life-changing. Oh, aren’t you just brimming with excitement?

Of course, you cannot just leave Ma or Granny to do the shopping. I mean, with the many times you’ve “accidentally” come across shopping networks, you would know better to identify the real deal from the cheap knock-offs or imitations that may be lurking in other trade show booths.

Why is this a sudden concern for me? Well, trade shows for the uninitiated and for those who have a knack for buying things off the bat are under the mercy of really persuasive sellers. You have got to have a strong disposition. And well, heck, hard earned money is still money. You have got to put it to good use.

Besides, if you’ve watched too many television shopping networks like your truly, sometimes it is worth to pay that product a visit in the trade show.

Trade shows are like candy stores. There are so many lights and bright, vivid, trade show posters that call your attention left and right. Now, there are plenty of tradeshows out there. There are  ones for apparel, antiques, fishing, jewelry trade shows, car expos, sporting goods and so many other. There are even trade shows for printing companies who do talk about trade shows and trade show poster printing displays. Talk about redundancy huh?

Anyway, to see is to believe. This is the motto of trade shows. If you want to do a little shopping on the must-have items right now, this is the place to be because they have got lots of freebies. Other than this, if you are planning on buying some heavy-machinery, like the king of all kings of barbeque grills, well, a trade show is a nice place to look into.

It is nice to see successful products that literally swipe the grime and dirt off the floor. With one clean sweep, lipstick, soil, baby food and so many other staining objects are polished off. However, this does not leave me too impressed to make me want to go clean up my room everyday.

I have also seen not just mops that make cleaning easy, but gadgets that just says you are just plain lazy. I mean, c’mon, why would you buy an electric can opener anyway? Is it that darn difficult or you’re just opening so many cans a day?

Kitchen products are fun. Knives that can cut through leather and tiles are the closest thing you can get to testing out Ma’s knives. If you do that in real life, you’d be in for a lotta trouble. Anyway, you get to see, smell and taste food. The latter is the best one there is.

Other than that, there are lots of items that can pique your curiosity but then again you don’t need. Watch where your money goes.