by Abe Cherian

By the time you’ve read this, you will have made a considerable amount of choices since you woke up this morning…

Have you ever actually thought about how many choices you’re required to make each day?

1. -Getting out of bed…
2. -Hitting snooze (just ONE more time, promise)…
3. -What to wear for the day…
4. -Going for a morning run vs getting right down to business…

…all decisions you can probably relate to, plus all the ones we’ve surely missed. And those are before you’ve even made it out of the door!

And while your own personal list may seem large on paper, most of these things happen so fast, so automatically, that it really doesn’t take long at all to run through them…

But consider this:

If we are able to make all those decisions quickly, why then does it take so long to take action when it comes to life-changing business or personal decisions?

The truth is, most people let fear and doubt get in their way…

I’ve had many action-worthy ideas that were never brought to fruition, all because I didn’t completely trust in the idea. I doubted my ability to execute them successfully.

In my opinion, those—fear and uncertainty—are the two biggest enemies when it comes to taking the next step in any type of business (or life in general).

You may not be able to control the economic uncertainty, but you can have control over your own situation by having faith in your ability to make decisions.

There are two important factors to making decisions that may work for you:

The first, is data driven.

This is the “commonsense” approach, for most people. The problem with this approach, is that getting tied up with every single detail and fact, can often lead to ‘analysis paralysis’ – thinking about something so much that you never take action.

The second, is instincts – your “gut feeling”.

Throughout your life, you’ve already made a ton of other decisions.

Some of them ended well, while others likely didn’t work out. The result of this, is an entire catalog of experiences that your subconscious is able to draw from. This is what allows you to make educated guesses when time is just not an option.

Some of our best decisions are made this way…

I think there should be a BALANCE between data-driven and instinctive decision making. But the most important thing is to trust your ability to make those decisions and act on them with conviction!

If you have data that gets your excited and gives you a gut feeling that you’d be successful, believe in it and go with it full force…

Here are a few additional resources you might enjoy:

Excellent Books:

Gut Feelings, by Gerd Gigerenzer

How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer

—————————————————————————————-

About the Author: Abe Cherian is an Internet Entrepreneur since 1999. As the founder of AdClickMedia.com, a pay-per-click advertising network, and the CEO of Multiple Stream Media, an online Advertising and Marketing firm, Abe and his team has helped tens of thousands of online advertisers reach ‘the right market’ at ‘the right time’, with the ‘right message’. To start advertising and driving traffic click here to open your free account: http://www.rent-a-list.com

—————————————————————————————-

Advertising, the lifeblood of our economy – or so the ad agencies would like you to believe. But is it really? My take on the subject: Advertising doesn’t really sell you anything, it just entertains you!

Let’s take a little step back in time. To something called ‘drive-ins’ – here I go dating myself again!

For the uninitiated, drive-ins were places you went to view movies in an outdoor setting, on a giant screen. A place to meet, greet and brag on a warm summer evening. Some were single screen, some multiple screen and you generally had a double feature.

Before the show and during the intermission they ran snack bar advertising – ‘…come get your hot dogs, popcorn, candy and soda pop, etc.’.

Now did those ads drive us to the snack bar – Most Assuredly Not! You went to the snack bar for two reasons. One was to answer natures call and the other was to check out the chicks – not necessarily in that order! (to be fair, the chicks were also checking out the guys)

The point being that advertising did not influence us to purchase anything. It only gave us an opportunity for – well you know – ummm, socializing.

Fast forward a bit to movies or shows which are one big advertisement:

*’Route 66′, about two guys having an adventurous time traveling the country. I am sure this television show helped the sales of one of America’s favorite cars – The Corvette.

*I have no doubt that with the advent of the ’77 Sunset Strip and Kookie’ television show, the sale of combs took a spike upward.

*And who didn’t lust after a Ford Mustang or a Dodge Charger (or Jacqueline Bisset) after seeing the 1968 movie Bullett (my brother has a restored Charger – he’s a solid Mopar guy).

Fast forward again, to today. Ever heard of the something called ‘The Super Bowl’? (yeah, yeah I know, who hasn’t)

Anyway, whether you admit it or not there only two reasons you watch the Super Bowl. One is for the game – of course – and the other is for – ‘The Commercials’, right?

Advertising is now entertainment! It won’t ‘sell’ me. It’s all about entertaining us, and the slim hope you will remember the advertiser when it comes time to buy whatever that ‘something’ is.

Look at all those vehicle ads. Great photography, great graphics, often exotic locations and even great stories on some. But if I am in the market for a vehicle my purchase decisions will be driven by past experiences, the experiences of people I know and research I will do. Likely on places such as Internet forums and not because I saw a some staged ad.

When I see the Budweiser Clydesdale’s, I admire that great team and wagon, and thank them for doing what they do, but it doesn’t make me want to run out and purchase a six pack of Bud!

In many cases advertising is a turn off. When I listen to the radio and the advertiser sounds like a carnival barker, I am gone. I equate hype with dishonesty I guess. Radio has a lot of hype type ads. I presume because it’s not a visual medium.

When my local tv station runs the same exact ad in a back-to-back fashion, I am gone. The advertiser may be [i']testing’ time slots or the station may have forgotten to insert the ad somewhere or they are just ‘filling time’ because they don’t have another ad, but I am gone. I feel I should never see an ad more than once in every half hour or hour.

What about those constant battles between the cable and phone company offers. Are you as tired of seeing them as I am?

So it’s safe to say that ‘Advertising’ has it pluses and minuses for all of us. Like everything else, it’s diversity that makes the world go round.

Then there is ‘Internet Marketing’ but that’s a story for another time…’

The copyright for this content entitled “Advertising Isn’t” has been specified by the contributor as:

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Details

This content may be copied, distributed, or modified as long as the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page. If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:

http://romar.qondio.com/

The economic recession has made all of us rethink our marketing
plans. What used to work without fail is now either working
poorly or not at all. Companies need to go back to the drawing
board and start again with the basic truths of marketing.

One of the most consistent and true basics of marketing is the
80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle. According to
Wikipedia, “The principle was suggested by management thinker
Joseph M. Juran. It was named after the Italian economist
Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was
received by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is
that most of the results in any situation are determined by a
small number of causes.”

When applied to business, the Pareto principle will show that
80% of income is generated from 20% of the customer base. Or it
could be stated that 20% of your efforts result in 80% of your
financial rewards. Of course, this is not true in every
instance, but it happens enough that business owners should take
a look at their marketing efforts for examples of the 80/20
rule.

Consumers Are Slow to Spend

Most businesses have the mindset of cheap kamagra looking for new customers to
bring in business: advertise in a journal, buy a list and send
out a direct mail campaign, or send out an email blast. But, the
problem is that in this economy, even though your message may be
received by the right audience, sales are dismal. Consumers are
slower to spend because they are already in debt and worried
about job security. They are only making essential purchases.

Rather than constantly looking for new customers, identify the
20% of your customers who are providing the 80% of your income.
Instead of putting a plan together to reach out to loyal
customers, put a plan together for the brand to be more loyal to
the customers.

Build the Brand and Drive the Purchase

A company’s marketing dollar needs to be spent on not only
building the brand, but it’s got to drive the purchase. Seth
Solomons, Global CMO of Digitas, had this to say in an interview
with Direct Marketing News, “We, as marketers, grew up on the
direct marketing side always thinking about getting the best
customers and asking, ‘How do we get them to be more loyal to
us?’ We believe that in today’s environment we need to be a
loyal brand vs. looking for loyal customers. Loyal brands are
those that deliver utility and value and listen harder and try
to serve consumers at every interaction. It goes back to every
dollar having to multitask.”

Relationship Marketing

One of the best ways to be a loyal brand is to practice
relationship marketing. Regularly demonstrate appreciation of
your customers at every interaction. Cara Wood, Editor in Chief
of DMNews, suggests, “entertaining content in marketing e-mails,
timely direct mail reminders, product recommendations in a
search, landing page or e-commerce site and call centers
equipped with ampicillin resistant purchase history and product availability
information.”

Reinforce the purchasing patterns of the 20% of your customers
who are bringing you the 80% of diet pill buy your business. Consider offering
that targeted group special offers along with regular
information about the brand and its products.

New Product Introduction

Brand loyal customers can be your best group to introduce a new
product or get their advice on a new product you are
considering. As an added benefit, they may identify a product
that you might have not even considered. One of my favorite
stories about this is a company that manufactured a popular
fishing tackle box in the 90′s. One of the company’s reps
discovered that the tackle box was also being used by girls for
earrings and hair accessories.

The company took this information and started manufacturing the
fishing tackle box in bright pinks, yellows, greens, and blues.
They renamed it and started marketing it to tweens and it became
an instant best seller, even more popular than the tackle box
product line.

This story illustrates the point that it pays to survey loyal
customers to get their opinion on what’s working and what’s not.
This group wants your company to succeed, so their ideas would
tend to be positive, rather than negative. Maybe they are using
your product in innovative ways that you never even considered.

Conclusion

In this economy, companies need to look at innovative ways to
market, along with clever ways to save money. Retaining your
customer base is key to surviving a recession, but even more
important is identifying those 20% brand loyal customers.
Partner with these customers to make sure that they are your
priority and not lost in the shuffle to generate sales with far
reaching campaigns. Consider setting up ongoing marketing
campaigns to brand loyal customers in addition to broad based
marketing campaigns to bring in new customers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright 2009 Michelle Howe

Michelle Howe, MBA, president of Internet Word Magic, an Internet
marketing and PR agency. Want to know how to easily write
articles that drive traffic to your website? Go to
http://www.InternetWordMagic.com for the FREE report “The
Five-Step Plan to Article Success.” You’ll also receive a FREE
chapter from Michelle Howe’s 2007 IPPY award winning book, “Turn
Browsers into Buyers: Secrets for Turning an Internet Profit.”