57.7% of respondents “ideally” plan, and 56.3% “realistically” plan to include social media in their media plans next year. That finding is significant, because it shows the rapid speed with which social media, including social networks like Facebook, micro-blogging services such as Twitter, and other new and emerging formats connecting people to each other online have taken a precedent with both consumers and marketing and advertising industry professionals.

Now, if you ask these buyers why they want to add social media to the advertising mix, you won’t get much in the way of solid, credible support for getting on the social media bandwagon. They want to be there because it is all the rage. Hello, people! What happened to hard-nosed number-driven media planning?

I ran across this piece from ClickZ Columnist Sean Carton, who agrees with me that this trend is worrisome.  Says Carton,

Sure, plenty of clients (and prospects) I’ve spoken to in the past year or so made vague noises about viral video or being on Facebook or tweeting, but when I’ve pressed them for why they want those things, few can give me an answer.

They have been hypnotized by the steady media drumbeat extolling the virtues of social media. They, too, are probably being pressured by clients and organizational higher ups to add social media to the plan, strategy or not.  It is up to us to help determine whether social media makes sense for our organizations.  And if it does make sense, what should our approach be? Like every other media decision since time immemorial, your target audiences will direct you to the appropriate decision.

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Marketers waste a lot of time and money when they consider everyone a prospect. It requires research and a lot of thought, but for my money one of the most important elements to marketing success is clearly defining your audiences.

Geography allows you to target locations more finitely by country, state, city, neighborhood, and telephone number. You can target digital locations by knowing Internet service provider and email service information.

Demographics helps you define audiences by such elements as age, gender, marital status, race, employment status, industry, income, education, household size, market size, job function, intent to purchase, lifestyle-related habits and geographic location.

Once you have your geographic and demographic information, you can put your marketing on steroids by adding psychographic information such as personality and emotionally based behavior linked to purchase choices. Psychographic qualities you might consider include buying history, similar or related product and service interest, and activities, or hobbies.

Demographics help you identify people who might need your product or service, while psychographics help you identify those who need and desire it.

Having finely targeted your audiences in this fashion makes it easier for you to “clone” your best customers, and make the most of your limited marketing resources.

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What brought this to mind? A post to MarketingProfs Know How Exchange from a cruise line member who wants a new tagline. That was the extent of the information. Nothing about their business, what makes them different or who they are trying to reach.

Too often clients or prospects of ad agencies don’t want to do any of the lifting – heavy or otherwise. Not my clients, of course. But when you ask some clients or prospects about their business, target audience or uniqueness, they look at you in wide-eyed wonder.

If you want good work from your agency, you need to provide a solid audience definition, at the very least. The audience definition is never “all carbon-based units.” If you want to really make your marketing efforts pay off, try developing a positioning statement, or be willing to work with your agency to develop one.

Otherwise you’ll be like so many other lame businesses out there which wonder why their marketing efforts never pay off.

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First, we ask: why are we communicating? Do we need to launch a new product or revive an old one? Are we trying to raise brand awareness or sell widgets?

Then, we need to know who are we talking to. Is our audience in New York, North Carolina or nationwide? Are they 18 – 25 males, or 55-plus females? Are there any lifestyle attributes that would help us understand this audience better?

What do they currently think? Do they know about this at all? Do they have preconceived notions that we have to dispel?

Then, we ask: What would we like them to think?

In my opinion these next two questions are the most crucial to help creatives in developing your marketing material: What is the single most persuasive idea we can convey? Why should they believe it?

Finally, marketing material can only do so much. It is not a magic bullet. So, we need to ask: What do we realistically hope to accomplish?

What thoughts do you have about creative briefs? Do you use a different format? Join the conversation.

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Choose Partners Strategically. The Big Boys know how to find a partner who fits their needs. They search for partners whose market demographics and psychographics mesh. They find a partner who can bring something to the table they don’t currently have and then they develop programs that build their respective brands while also achieving sales goals. Take a look at this website that showcases a Ritz-Carlton and American Express partnership. Ritz-Carlton has beds. Am-Ex has card members with money and the propensity to travel. The communication in this site builds both brands. A marriage made in heaven. Who is your heavenly partner?

Consistency Rules. Your brand is built on every interaction a client has with you from customer service to your product to your website. I’m not just talking about ensuring that your logo, fonts and colors are used in a consistent manner – although they should be. The big job is aligning your message at all points of contact across the spectrum, including with your employees.

Even if you don’t have a Big Boy budget, you still can market like one of them

Big Boy Marketing – Part 1

Big Boy Marketing – Part 2

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Ask Your Customers. Big Boys do the necessary research. Customers will provide you with invaluable data, if you let them. From defining your positioning to advice on new products, every business has customers willing to wade into the discussion.

Now the Big Boys have the budgets to do every kind of research imaginable. No matter what your budget, there are a number of inexpensive things you can do to get actionable data.

Surveys. These are easy to mount with the advent of online applications like SurveyMonkey, and plug-in polling applications for blogs and websites. Or, just do simple survey cards that can be handed out at your location and dropped into customer mailings.

Focus groups. You do not have to be a research specialist to run a focus group. You just need to understand that whatever you get from the focus group is directional, not projectable.

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Photo By mshades (Flickr)

In working with our Fortune 1000 clients I have come to see that we all can learn a few things from these Big Boys. They may miss the boat on some things, but they get a lot right. Let’s review.

Strategy Before Tactics. Big Boys figure it out upfront and then develop a tactical plan to achieve their goals. First, they figure out the brand’s positioning. A positioning statement helps you chart your path to success because it lets all your audiences – internal and external – know where your organization stands in the battle for your consumers’ minds.

A positioning statement expresses how you wish to be perceived. It is the core message you want to deliver in every medium. Your positioning statement will be found where three items intersect:

• your business acumen/aspirations
• your market
• what truly differentiates you

Do this first and the tactics will naturally follow.

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“If your goal is to grow a small business online, and you had time for only one social networking / social media site, which would you choose and why?”

Two gave the correct answer. Oh, does that sound a little arrogant of me? Here’s what Jonathan Fields and Tamar Weinberg said. Let’s see if you agree with arrogant me:

Jonathan Fields, Awake at the Wheel – “It depends on the nature of your business and the reason you are joining. Each hub has it’s own culture and preferred content type, so I would familiarize myself with the major ones, learn what drives each (content sharing, casual friending, business networking), then devote your energies to the hub that aligns best with the nature of your business and your reason for wanting access.”

Tamar Weinberg, Techipedia — “This is a really tough question to answer. Some social media sites cater to certain audiences whereas others cater to an entirely different demographic. Some sites have strict rules for allowable content and others give the submitter free reign and then let the members decide on whether the content will be promoted to a larger audience. The answer really depends on your own small business’s goals: are you aiming for brand awareness? Conversions? Dialogue? All of these factors and clearly-defined goals need to be considered before you can settle on a single social network, as some are better performers than others.”

Here’s why they are correct. Just as with any other marketing tactic, strategy must drive it. What’s your business about? What networks do your customers and prospects utilize? What are your business objectives? Too many marketers and business owners latch on to a tactic that is cool just because it is cool. Do the heavy lifting up front and the tactics you select will sort themselves out.

Well, am I arrogant or dead-on?

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Body builders do it, marketers should too. OK, all body builders have to do is lift and take steroids to get well defined, so their job is a little simpler. Let’s take a moment to see how marketers can better define their audiences.

Organizations typically have a primary audience with which they must communicate. In order to know how best to reach this audience and what to say to it, we need to define it in a number of different ways. Demographics and psychographics are the scientific methods we employ to get a clear understanding of our audiences.

Demography, says Webster, is “the statistical study of human population, especially with reference to size and density, distribution, and vital statistics.” Webster has no definition yet for psychographics. I say, “demographics studies which people buy, psychographics studies why people buy.”

Let’s take a look at how we use these tools to our best marketing advantage.

Demographic attributes we use to understand our audience might include age, gender, culture, employment status, industry, income level, marital status, job title, sales cycle, and geographic location.

These attributes help us determine specifically who buys from you. Do the work to uncover your best buyers. Don’t attempt to market to all carbon-based life forms. You don’t have enough money to reach them all through communications. Even if you have a diverse market, find out who buys the most or most often from you and focus on them. Determining this core demographic will improve your marketing efforts drastically.

If you want to put your marketing on steroids, add psychographics, the emotional and behavioral qualities of your target market. These attributes may include the emotion, reasoning, psychology, logic, and thought processes behind buying decisions. Here, you’ll want to delve into your buyer’s interests, hobbies, professional associations, previous purchases, and related products purchased.

The Survey Says…
Your current customers hold the key to both the demographic and psychographic attributes of your key audience. Survey them to find out:

• Why did your clients buy your product?
• Why did they buy from you and not a competitor?
• What made them buy from you at a specific point in time?
• Was it an impulse decision or did they ponder it?
• What do they like the most/least about your product?
• What is the benefit of the product?
• Are they willing to refer others to your product?

Once you have a clear understanding of both the demographics and psychographics of your audience, you can craft better messages and place them in the most effective venues.

Who is your primary audience? Tell us about their demographics and psychographics.

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