Know-How Exchange : Branding

The ideas are myriad... what kind of a thing are you promoting? And to whom? Ideas will differ if you need to sell cosmetics to young women versus fiber supplements to old men. We can be more helpful with a little more information about your situation :)

Publicity or media relations geared to outlets that your target audience(s) consumes is always a great alternative to advertising. Also, if your audiences are using social media, these outlets (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are great ways to increase brand awareness.

Dear lorecastroa,

Use PR, editorials, and word of mouth.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Definitely word of mouth marketing. But to gain referrals you have to be / do something noteworthy for your customers.

Some examples of effective WOM:

Zappos. Last year they decided to stop advertising and promoting free overnight shipping, but they didn't actually stop doing it. Why would Zappos do this? Because people are more likely to tell friends & family about Zappos surprising them with free overnight shipping, rather than if they just told them they qualified at checkout.

The 3/50 Project. This is a unique project designed to promote small, locally owned businesses. I point it out because Cinda Baxter, the creator, initially used social media (twitter/her blog, etc) to get the word out. It started to snow ball on twitter and in blog mentions, and now she's getting a lot of limelight from the traditional press who picked up the social media activity. While it's an altruistic project, it's also probably had the positive effect of helping her consulting business catering independent retailers - all without any advertising.

Hope you found those examples useful.
https://www.the350project.net/home.html
https://www.zappos.com/

Cheers,

Jesse