Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Dear Christeen,

Hmm. Of the options you've outlined above there are lots of tantalizing pieces of low hanging fruit in your main, bulleted list,
IF you are willing to think literally and laterally.

The key here is flexibility, specifically, yours.

However, were I in your shoes right now, I'd forget helping someone else with their research. The investment—the view—,
might not be worth the climb, or the sweat and toil, but it's really up to you. My two cents' worth? Now is the time for you, not to be in someone else's shadow.

So, here are a few modest suggestions based on two and a half decades of observation and general experience.

• Marketing strategy and innovation
Lumpy mail (3D mail) and its ability to command attention by becoming "A" pile mail. Its impacts on attention and action.
"Reason why" tactics. How giving people reasons to act creates rapid action.
"Becoming the 'go to' guru" You are either appointed as a guru or expert or it's turf you claim (if you've got the chops and the nuggets to pull it off).
• Consumer transformation
What the product can do for the consumer in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, and so on. Consider the dramatic transformations afforded by the P0-9X program from www.Beachbody.com/P90X. Here, in this specific category, social proof and peer comparison is incredibly powerful.
• Marketing orientation
Right message, right target audience, right offer.
What you're saying, who you're saying it to, how you're saying it, what it means, what impact it's having, and in what time frame.
• Use of information
Information products and their impact on sales through perceptions and aspirations.
• Services marketing
What services can do, who they can do it for, and how long it takes them to do it.
• Branding
Where does branding happen and what does it do? (Hint: branding does NOT take place in the store, on a letterhead, or simply by virtue of putting a logo in the top right hand corner). Branding is all about searing an impression into people's long term, associative memories (I really DO wish so many companies would NOT screw this up with all kinds of airy-fairly clap trap).
• Multi-cultural marketing and advertising
Specific messages relating to specific issues and problems faced by particular language speakers WITHIN specific groups that are then split into sub niches by: income, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, education, social and cultural interests and so on.
Very powerful mojo if done well and targeted appropriately and with the relevant degree of sensibility and discretion.

I hope this list gives you a few ideas that springboard you on to other, more productive ideas and, with luck, a few more successful outcomes.

Good luck to you!

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA