Life Is Boring Without Marketing

If It Wasn’t For Marketing – This Blog Would Be Blank

You may not notice in your daily morning routine, but from the minute you wake up to grab your favorite cup of coffee, to the clothes you wear and the car you drive, or the phone you use to call a friend – It’s because the power and influence of marketing. Yet, why is it that so many companies are first to cut the marketing division and not always consider it as an imperative part of the organization? Marketing makes something stand out on its own and makes people want more. It certainly should be credited for stimulating the economy, rather than creating an unwarranted expense. It taps into one’s emotions, beliefs and may make one feel good today, tomorrow, or in the moment. It creates an image, feeling, or derives a sense of belonging to a certain crowd.

Marketing Adds Personality

The world would be a boring place without creative marketing professionals considering the attributes of a product and/or service, and evaluate how the audience would react. Although there are some new social media tools to experiment for free, a level of investment and time is necessary to be successful with an integrated marketing message using different channels to reach and listen to the audience.

Marketers can help identify a need, or create a want in the marketplace to target a specific demographic. It’s all because of marketing that with color, copy, music, design, price, partnerships and packaging adds a new dimension to make something special. All of these pieces come together with the product and technological development. The support of sales, distribution and customer service that collectively creates a valuable experience for the consumer.

Marketing Makes It Memorable

Marketing professionals offer expertise to make your product, attract people, and promote your business to  stand out. Recall that you would not “Just Do It” without the influence of marketing. – Life would be boring without marketing.

Thousands of people are drawn on a regular basis to its innovation and clever simplicity that Apple creates -Life would be boring without marketing.

Jennifer Aniston's Smart Water Video

Jennifer Aniston’s new SmartWater video campaign was one of the most popular hits the last few weeks mimicking the popular online videos of the past that turned into a phenomenon - Life would be boring without marketing.

Seven, Citizens, True Religion jeans a few popular jeans worth over $100 retail for a pair despite they are all cut from the same cloth - Life would be boring without marketing.

Celebrity Megan Fox Spotted in True Religion

Gucci, Gucci goo for you, or is Guess more your style? Marketing is what makes things unique, creates desire and can seduce you with its sex appeal.

Marketing Is Worth The Long-Term Investment

Professionals in finance are provided competitive compensation for their time to conduct analysis for the company. Why do marketers tend to be laid off first when cutbacks are necessary and it’s hard to justify the expense? Sales professionals are praised for bringing revenue into the business. Yet, if it wasn’t for the proper marketing and how the product is perceived in one’s mind vs. another, people may not be interested to buy it.

A good marketing professional needs to be equipped with the proper talent and tools to get the job done. It’s important for marketers to be current and resourceful for purposes of creating something on the spot. People in the marketing profession struggle to get the proper designers, web producers and other support staff for the execution and production of projects. Yet, there are those companies that embrace marketing to create the vision for the strategic direction and help guide the entire organization with new insights.

Marketing Allows You To Listen, React and Create

The new media allows YOU to market, but it still takes skill, education and experience to handle the job well. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and other mediums, it provides access to information to enable individuals to give and take control of their brands. Yet, some companies still think it should be an inexpensive process. Soon after experimenting on their own, they realize it takes the proper team and allocated investment to implement. At the end of the day, one must have a keen sense to listen attentively to respond to consumers, analyze metrics to evaluate behaviors, while have a unique talent to generate ideas that gets the job done.

From One Character To Another. One Tweet At A Time.

Hoot, Hoot…Tweet, Tweet…

I attended the 140 Character Conference in Boston making a few stops across the country teaching, tweeting and teaming up people who have embrace social media. People are using the 140 characters of Twitter, and other new media platforms to improve the exposure of their business or cause, share an experience, and make new connections.

I had the opportunity to mix and mingle with a few familiar friends and new characters face-to-face, while others tweeted back and forth their insights. Today, the New Twitter hatched with a new interface that incorporates the opportunity to share video and photos. They also collaborated with partners including DailyBooth, deviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube. Say that 10 times fast! The new Twitter will also include information about the author and provide a page that’s much easier to navigate. This will improving the level of engagement and hopefully the adopters of this technology tool. From delivering news to people about what’s going on in the world, or influencing someone else with one tweet at a time.

We the People, For the People
The People Have Spoken

Could this new Twitter launch turn out to be a new form of Facebook, my iGoogle page, or transform altogether social media and make it a community search engine as a place for the people, by the people?

Don’t be shy, say HI! In this new social media revolution, everyone has a voice. Use it! Whether you were once in prison for 27 years and decide to do some good to create Youthturns.org that helps families of prisoners to get back on their feet and find the support with positive influences. Or, if you’re Erik Proulx, who after being laid-off multiple times by ad agencies, decided to pool together people using his contacts and Twitter to interview others that had lost their jobs to discover how to make profit in his new documentary LemonadeMovie.com. These are just two examples of people who have turned around their lives one tweet at a time to make a change, help others, and advise the crowd at the conference that 140 characters is the start to make 140 steps towards a new direction.

Steps To Be A Social Changemaker

• Create a goal and go after it
• Follow, listen, share what others have said and take a stand
• Connect with people next door and far away
• Always make media
• Engage your community
• Ask others for help
• Create a grassroots effort around a cause
• Volunteer

Good Resources to Review:

http://www.nextbillion.net/

http://www.socialedge.org/

http://ashoka.org/

You Go Girl! Harvard Celebrates Dynamic Women In Business

Women from across the country attended Harvard’s 19th annual Dynamic Women in Business conference which featured some of the brightest and talented women that have made strides in their professional careers. Sitting side-by-side with others attending the event were people about to graduate, new to a career, women seeking work, or individuals that wanted to hear from some powerful people in business. Both young and old came to learn and network with one another in hopes to secure that next job opportunity, make a new friend, or find a mentor to inspire one to reach for her goals. Top women executives from companies such as Staples, lululemon athletica, Keds (Stride Rite / Collective Brands), Coca- Cola, NBC Universal, Showtime, Time Warner Cable, Estee Lauder, Google, Highland Capital Partners, FedEx, Mavens & Mogels, Communispace, and many more came together in one place to share their experiences in different aspects of business.

Make Your Movement Possible

The event kicked off with Ann Simonds, President of General Mills Baking Products Division, where her comment, “there are learning points in your life and leading points in your life,” rang true to many women throughout different stages of their career development. We all have had transitions in our lives where we take a step back to improve upon our weaknesses, or took the necessary time to research for ourselves what would help us to move forward. Ann shared in her presentation a copy of a check from a few years back for $38.00 her mother contributed to help a women’s professional organization.  Today, Ann stood on the spotlight of the stage before hundreds of impressionable women, as her mother sat in the audience to cheer her daughter as a true leader in business. Not only was that a great story, but the conference was inspirational to many in the audience. It was nice to see women bonding together with a sense of empowerment as they listened to the personal stories of the executives on the panels who offered their solutions for facing the day-to-day business challenges to find success.

Turning Buzz to Biz

Whether you are pitching a product, trying to sell yourself to a prospective buyer/recruiter, or meet someone new, it’s all about creating that buzz, developing your network, and influencing others in hopes for one to see the value you offer. Check out the book Now Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. Many women recommended it as a good resource to help define your core strengths and how you can gain results in the workplace.

The various panels of women discussed areas in sales, marketing, entrepreneurship, retail, consulting, finance and more, offered examples to improve your business, your role, but also where all of us can look inside ourselves to put our best foot forward in many situations.

• Make sure to ask for what you want
• Listen
• Focus on the outcome
• Surround yourself with the best talent
• Don’t allow yourself to be put down
• Seek opportunities to prove your strategic direction
• Share the results: Show Don’t Tell
• Build an organization around a strategy
• What brand asset do you have?
• Identify the touch points and keep them engaging to influence the audience or your peers
• Improve the overall experience for the customer making it memorable
• Find a mentor to cheer you on when you are doing something well, and offer advice when you are doing something wrong

So get out there…..YOU GO GIRL!

What are some things that you live by to get ahead? Share your story below and let others know.