The importance of a clear and concise brief

Marketing is most successful when there is a clearly established client brief. Starting out on a vaguely defined project such as "we need a web site", or "we need a new brochure" is to court disappointment. It is the planning and research that goes into developing a brief that helps ensure that the resulting collateral is on target. That is why starting with a Marketing Plan is such a good idea, because individual projects will themselves be components within an agreed framework. Of course this takes work and effort in the first place, but the value of a marketing plan that can be shared with the rest of the company is realised during the year as individual campaigns, projects and material is rolled out. The rationale for that new web site or brochure will have been determined, objectives set, target audiences and target markets known and budget allocated. But it is still important to have a clear, concise brief that a designer can work to. Each element in a campaign that itself is part of an overall plan needs to be detailed and the usual format for this is a Design Brief.

The Design Brief should allow the designer to be creative, but focussed into delivering a piece of work that positively promotes and communicates your marketing message. Without a brief there is the risk the designer will allow creative imagination to dominate and run riot rather than deliver a message that hits the target. And it is important to use a professionally trained creative rather than having assembled all the information be tempted to carry on and do the brochure yourself. The reason is your time does actually cost money and however pleased you are with achieving the task, your customers will notice the difference between professional work and sub consciously this will be a judgement on your company, your products and services. 

Race for Life - supporting Natalie

David's daughter Natalie is running in support of Cancer Research. Donations can be made online.

Natalie writes,

"5K on Sunday 6th June 2010 at Campbell Park in Milton Keynes. Start 10.45hrs.

For anyone who doesn't know, all the money raised will go to cancer research. 

I will be running in memory of 'Bill Fisher', my father in law who sadly lost his battle with cancer in 2006.

Please can you help me reach my target of £50 (anything more will be a bonus). If there are any of you local please feel free to come along and support me.

I have set up my own site for the race, and you can sponsor me on there. Please follow this link http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/nataliefisher2 

Please do NOT forget to tick the Gift Aid box when donating.

Thank you in advance for all your support 

 

Nat x"

Small businesses need marketing too

According to the Office of National Statistics there are 2.16 million businesses registered for VAT and PAYE in the UK. Of these just 0.4% employ more than 250 people, 98.1% employ less than 50 and 89% less than 10. Adding in those below the VAT threshold and one man businesses it is clear that in terms of numbers, most UK companies are very small businesses. Look at another statistic 17.4% are less than 2 years old and 32.6% under 4 years old. A large number of small businesses that could benefit from marketing in growing their business. You might expect that the demand for marketing services would be strong from the large group of small, new businesses but small new enterprises typically have little to invest in marketing.

The reality is that it is the established companies that recognise the value of marketing most and allow some budget for the purpose. Many of these are classified as SMEs and are cautious in adopting new ideas so put most of their marketing investment into traditional communications such as directories, trade magazines and literature. As a broad statement both small new businesses and established businesses are slow to fully leverage online marketing methods that are both affordable and effective. For the price of a couple of full page display advertisements in a trade journal, a company could have a Virtual News Office up and running. Add in a press release or two each month and you have an on-going campaign that publicises the business and thanks to in-bound links from the press release archive, improves search engine ranking too - all for a fraction of a print based display advertising campaign. The news stories can additionally be fed into social media campaigns too. If an affordable marketing campaign seems like a good investment, the get in touch with Technical Marketing who can help you achieve this.

 

Advertising business to business

The term advertising is often confused with the whole marketing process itself. Our use of the word is confined to ‘paid for’ media space. In business-to-business communication this is mainly the trade press and  web sites. Advertising has been described as the persuasive force that utilises mass communications to make changes in customer attitudes, behaviour and actions towards products and services in a direction favourable to the advertiser. 

Advertising is cost effective in reaching large groups of customers and prospects with a shared defined profile, hence the proliferation of special interest and industry specific magazines that can deliver an audience relevant to the needs of the advertiser. Media selection must therefore seek to match your target audience and readership profiles. Advertising’s key aims are to progress the target audience through a series of stages by first turning possible unawareness of the product, into awareness, a comprehension of the proposition, a conviction that the product is both relevant and of benefit and finally a ‘call to action’ to convert the prospect into a potential customer. As individuals we are subjected to hundreds of advertising messages each day, so to arrest attention the advertisement has to stand out from the others. This may be by use of compelling images, headlines or a combination of both, that stops the browser just long enough to take in the proposition.  Once ‘hooked’ a few telling words must explain the benefits of the proposition succinctly, then offer a ‘call to action’ where the prospect can find more detail. Today typically a web site, but the ‘call to action’ could be incentivised by the promise of a useful or attractive offer to enhance response rates. Advertising is a key marketing tool, to raise awareness, build brand recognition and communicate a simple or top-level message, but needs repetition to ensure that message is seen and acted upon. Other communication means such as PR and direct marketing will be called into play for a fully integrated campaign. 

Should companies do essential market research?

Surprisingly few b-2-b companies conduct any sort of market research. In  my experience over many years in marketing,  it is rare to be presented with any of market research results by clients at the start of a project. 

Of course formal and rigorous primary market research can run into tens of thousands - a big investment for SMEs. Yet often, much larger sums are invested in product development and marketing communications without the valuable, indeed essential insight into the market. However there is secondary research data available that can provide useful information in more general terms about an industry and markets. Starting a marketing project or campaign with only the client's view of the market, which may lack the objectivity of a third party and result in loading a product with features users do not see as benefits, or setting the wrong tone or delivering an off target message for a campaign. A simple market appraisal conducted by calling a few people in the target market can yield vital information which may prompt the need for further research. For example, one client had given us a brief to launch a new product that would be sold through electrical wholesalers. But speaking to just 10 or 12 wholesalers brought up a serious issue which was related to non deliveries of the company's products in general and until these issues were resolved no new products would be ordered. So a campaign without rectifying this problem would have been a poor investment. More frequently market appraisals tend to confirm a client brief but may help clarify and re-order priorities.

Armed with some fundamental market research campaigns can then be planned with better awareness of the target market's views.