THINKing

Top 5 Tips For Media Selection

Marketers have a wide variety of media at their disposal. Even in this digital age, many think first of the advertising troika of newspapers, magazines and TV. But there are a number of other options depending upon what you are trying to accomplish.

Check Please

Let me know if I’m off base here, OK? I got a check from my mother-in-law for my birthday. She has written it on her Wachovia checking account. The good news, I initially think, is that there is a Wachovia branch very close by.  So, I head over and pull into the drive-through.

The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same

As the marketing world morphs daily under the influence of new technology, we elders in the business sit back and marvel at how things have changed. Just last night I was talking with Dave Ruggerio and Randy Seeds of Synergy Studios about the pace of technological advance.  We all reminisced about how we used to do things in our first jobs.

Communicating In Tough Times

I didn’t need a new Nielsen study to tell me that a financial institution can improve customer confidence through advertising. It only makes sense. If the bank has the money to advertise, the perception will be, that it has the money to pull through hard times. Could be a totally false perception, but there it is.

Social Nets vs. Email

A new Nielsen study shows that social networks have overtaken email as the most popular online activity. Says a story in Adweek,

Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent. What’s more, the reach of social networking and blogging venues is growing at twice the rate of other large drivers of Internet use such as portals, e-mail and search.

How Touching

Test drive a car, put on some cologne, sample a grande mocha choka double soy half sugar non-fat latte. Seems like someone is always trying to place you in touch with their product. Did you ever wonder why?

Listening: Marketing’s Secret Weapon

Customers know you and your business better than you think, and often better than you. In the many strategic planning projects I’ve done over nearly 30 years in the business, the customer always gives me the nugget that frames a client’s positioning.

Top 10 Posts of 2008

THINKing’s top stories of the past year are listed below. Our blog tends to be an eclectic mix of advertising, PR and social media stories, and our top 10 posts reflect that. We might be on to something.

#10 – Know Your Media – Newspapers

A Question Of Trust

Forrester Research has a new study indicating consumers don’t trust corporate blogs. In fact, only 16 percent of respondents say they trust corporate blogs. According to a story in Online Media Daily,

More Cause

We talked about cause marketing recently, and I wanted to delve deeper into some of the findings of the Cone study we discussed.

Cone’s study not only shows that people say they will do more business with companies involved in a cause, but that they actually do more business with cause marketers.