_Become a Marketer. The 4 P's of Marketing Plus.
     Throughout my volunteer service to the industry's association, many people have made comments about the demographics of our practitioners.  When you look out over a promotional products trade show floor, you may be struck by the lack of diversity, by the balance of attendance by gender, and by the relative aging of the people in the industry.  That is not to say that we have no young people.  I'm excited about the crop of new, young energy entering our ranks and stepping up into leadership roles.  But the fact remains that for the most part, a good number of us have celebrated at least one birthday where our more cruel friends have brought black balloons and "over the hill" pins. 
     I've always pointed out that for a large number of people, our industry was not their first career.  Among our ranks you'll find retired military, parents returning to the workforce, former bankers, former teachers and former corporate ladder climbers.  All of whom have discovered our wild, wacky, crazily creative, frighteningly frustrating, ultimately rewarding and addictive world of stuff!  So for many of us, marketing may be a new discipline and advertising something we paid attention to only during one big football game per year.  (Go Giants, Go Patriots - I don't have dog in this year's fight).  I think this is why my CAS-required courses, Advertising and Marketing Overview Parts 1 and 2 are so wildly popular (and being required also helps!). 
     In classic marketing curriculum, four critical elements are identified as being components of marketing:
Product:  There must be a product or service for marketing to take place.  We may take it for granted that our product is our ability to source products for our clients.  What is it that you are offering? A product, service or offering must meet a need in the marketplace.  How much time have you spent really digging into defining what need you are filling in the marketplace?  What problem do you solve?  Why are you the best solution to that problem?  What pain do you take away for your clients?  Why are you the best pain reliever?  Find the Pain.  Be the Aspirin (or Tylenol, or Advil, or Morphine)!  If you can solve problems and take away pain, you have a viable product.  If you can solve problems and take away pain for clients, they will never shop you, will be loyal to you and will view you as an indispensible member of their team.
Price:  Every marketer must have a pricing strategy.  For Wal-Mart, this strategy is lowest price, always.  For Nordstrom, it is never discount except for two and only two sales per year.  For credit card companies it may be 0% interest for the first year (and then 25% thereafter, lol).  What is your pricing strategy? I contend that just as product sourcing is not a good product, the lowest price is not a good pricing strategy. Having the lowest price is a race to the bottom and a zero sum game.  Zero sum game is a fancy business writer phrase meaning there are no winners.  (Now if I can somehow work in paradigm into this article, I'll have a MBA-speak bonus blog!).  Define your pricing strategy understanding that it is not how much that you sell that matters.  It's how much you can keep.  Profit is the life blood of your business.  But profit must be earned.  You must be solving problems and adding value.  See "product" above. Instead of a discount strategy where you reduce the perceived value of your offerings, you could try a value-added strategy.  A value-added strategy always gives a little more — whether that more is service, product, measurement, publicity, or other support you can offer to solve problems and relieve pain.
Place: Traditionally, our "Place" has been in our buyers' offices or maybe a showroom.  Today, many buyers prefer the place be on their computer screens.  How have you adapted to that shift?  How is your "place" defined?  How do you set it apart from anything your buyers have ever seen before?  Rain Forest Cafe, took a restaurant and turned it into a jungle adventure experience. Is there a way you can turn your showroom into an experience?  Distinguishing yourself with ultra creative open houses, with a trade show experience in a parallel target industry, with a web experience that makes your clients' jobs easier are a few ideas of how you can work on your third "P" and make Place a competitive advantage.  Even your visits to your clients can be a Place Experience if you focus on how you can bring positivity, creativity, innovation and smiles into their offices every time you visit. 
Promotion:  How are you making your clients' and prospects aware of the powerful solutions that you offer?  You are in the promotion business.  Hopefully, you are not just in the products business.  As a promotion expert, your work on your own promotion marketing should be communicating constantly that you know what you're doing.  If you can market yourself creatively, your prospects will see what you can do, will recognize how you caught their attention and will want you to do for them what you do for yourself.  If you want to sell more trade show traffic building solutions, put on a trade show or participate in one and show your clients what you've got.  If you want to sell more direct mail campaigns incorporating creative products, put together a direct mail campaign for your distributorship.  If you want to sell loyalty programs, put together a loyalty program to reward your best customers.  If you want your clients to have a promotion budget and spend it, have yourself a promotion budget and spend it.
     These are the classic four 'P's of Marketing.  I like to add People, Purpose and Passion for a total of seven.  When you get very clear about the first four and engage your people around your vision and give them something more than business like a Purpose or Meaning to their daily efforts, you can inspire a Passion that will drive your business to new levels of success.

More than 30 Ways to Use QR Codes
        My newest presentation, 30 Ways to Use QR Codes shows you how to create codes, where to find readers, where to find generators and over thirty powerful applications so that you can becme the expert for your clients.  (Ask your Regional Association or Principal to schedule it). 
          QR Codes and their Microsoft-owned cousins, MS Tags, can be added to nearly promotional product with a large enough imprint area.  They bring new relevance to lots of old media and they provide an exciting way to create unique consumer experiences.  There are a few guidelines that should be followed however to ensure successful usage.
1)  There should be a call to action!  You need to give the consumer a reason to interact and engage.
2)  You need to be adding value — free downloads, an entertaining video, a coupon, a free admission, a free gift (a promotional product, of course), how-to demos.
3)  Make sure the content that the code is driving to has been optimized for mobile usage. 
4)  TEST.  Test with different phones (Android, iPhone, etc). Test with different Readers.  Make sure the experience is right!
5)  Train.  Your own people need to become familiar with this new technology so they can service what you sell.  Your clients' people need to be trained to respond to questions from their customers, and they need to be aware of the promotion.
6) Use a URL shortener to simplify your code and to make it easier and faster to read!  (I personally like bit.ly)
7) Make sure it's large enough to scan and has enough white space around it.
8) Tell the audience how to use them and what to expect.  This is new technology to many people and you can help educate and train.

More On QR Codes
       By Christmas 2011, one in two Americans will have smart phones.  This means that QR Codes and Microsoft Tags will continue to take off.  Over the past month there has been a 1600% increase in the number of scans per day according to Scanbuy.  Last month, we introduced this subject and suggested more than a dozen uses that will help promotional products distributors create unique coded promotions for clients.  (Email me if you missed it and I'll resend you a copy).  
     Because up to thirty percent of the code's data can be missing or obstructed and still be scanned, you can add graphics, can add logos, can get creative with the codes.  They do not need to be the black and white blob like I'm demonstrating here.  You can add color, soften edges, draw outside the box and create unique pieces of QR Code art.  Here are some additional creative uses.
     The New York Times Magazine took a photo of a QR code made entirely of balloons.  The code drove users to their mobile webpage promoting their 10th Annual Year in Ideas issue.  At the Smithonian Natural History Neanderthal exhibit, a Code opens a mobile page that allows you to take a picture of a family member and it shows what the person would look like as a Neanderthal 50,000 years ago.  
   Here are three helpful tips:
1)  Learn about codes so that you can explain them to your customers and so that you can explain them to the end users.  This is still a new technology, so explain how they can get the software and what they will get by scanning the codes.  
2)  Make sure that the code promotion actually creates value for their trouble.  It should enhance the experience, generate a discount or coupon, give them something extra that they can't get anywhere else.  Or link them to my LinkedIn page (just kidding).
3.  Simply the URL before creating the code.  Long URL addresses create difficult to read codes.  Use a URL shortener such as bit.ly which both shortens a long URL and automatically generates the code, www.tinyurl.com is another one.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Promotion and Our Industry, but were afraid to ask!  (also known as CAS-Required:  Advertising/Marketing Parts 1 and 2)
A New Presentation(s) by Paul Kiewiet!


To steal another industry’s line, “There’s No Business Like Advertising Business!”  Aren’t we the luckiest people in the world?  When you’re in the ad business you never have to grow up!  Yes, the promotional products business is the Advertising Business which is the Marketing Business and in one day — you get to learn about the ups, the downs, the ins and outs of advertising and marketing.

This lively, enlightening, entertaining presentation covers a lot of territory.  You will become a better marketer of your own business, a better professional consultant to your clients and you’ll score higher on your CAS Exam too!

In Advertising and Marketing – the original Part 1 and the exciting sequel Part 2 – we will cover the Four P’s of Marketing and what I believe is the new emerging Fifth P (not to be confused with the Black-Eyed Peas).  We will define marketing, advertising, branding and distinguish between the various disciplines.  We will also explore what goes into effective marketing planning. 

Did you know there are at least ten different types of marketing?  You will after this session!  We’ll talk about old advertising like newspapers and outdoor and new forms like internet and mobile advertising.  I’ll even throw in some good news about promotional products as an advertising media.  All this in just the first session.  Hold on!  Part Deux gets even more exciting!

Here comes the Old Spice Guy!  Yep.  We’re going to look at what makes a successful advertising campaign.  You’re going to learn the three “R’s” of Advertising and I’m not talkin’ about readin’, ritin’ and rithmetic!  We’ll discover just how important Cost Per Impression is for effective return on investment.  All of the background material laid out in Part 1 becomes an “Ah-Ha!” moment as we review other marketing media and just how they relate to promotional products.  We’ll get a brief overview of the new discipline called Integrated Marketing Communications and why it is more good news for promotional products.  You’ll understand why trade shows should be spelled “O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y”. 

There are three levels of selling and you’ll learn the advantages of each.  Plus, as always, I have my own thoughts on this and believe there are actually four levels.  So I’ll tell you about that theory too.  Then it’s on to my favorite of all subjects and one that I believe passionately about:  The Power of Promotional Products!  I’ll briefly review how to get the most out of your database, your website and how to become a social marketer.   We will also review the keys to more profitability in this business and any business, in this economy and any economy.

Whether you’re working on your certification or whether your looking to improve your skills, you will enjoy this in-depth exploration of Advertising and Marketing!

Paul will be presenting this on March 9 at the OPPA Big Show in Cleveland, OH.  To register, visit http://www.oppagroup.com