Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Dear Gemma,

Heart, here are several short answers to your question, so that you might fill in the gaps and learn from the process of research and using the library:

Specificity. Cost per acquisition. Salience. Message match. Reach.
Benefit to value perception. Brand anchoring. Think literally and laterally. Up and down. Inside the box and out. Turn things inside out. What do you see within the things you see?

Still stumped? All right my dear. Let us climb aboard out time machine. Let us press buttons and rotate dials and let us leap, gazelle like, 15 years into the future.

It is 2024. Suddenly, you are no longer domiciled in Kansas.

Congratulations. You are the marketing director of a multi-national, billion dollar company. You have underlings to cater to your every whim.
You have a sprawling house in the suburbs, a penthouse apartment in the city, an expensive car, a huge expense account, and an acre of corner office with floor to ceiling glass overlooking Central Park.

You are sharp.

Savvy.

Respected.

Feared, and talked of in hushed, whispered tones.

To many people, you are the darling child: everything you touch turns to gold. To others, you are a bitch on wheels. Welcome to the world of global marketing.

To roll out marketing for a new product and to brief a top Madison Avenue ad agency, you must make a solid distinction between your primary brand's target market and the audience of your largest competitor.

What distinctions do you come up with so that your ad agency can position YOUR company and YOUR brand in the best possible light?

And one other thing: darling child or not, your job is at risk if you screw this up ... and many, many people would love to see you crash and burn.

It's nothing personal my dear. It's just business.

So, the scene is set. Live it. Breathe it. Feel it. What do YOU do?

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA