Archive for the ‘Branding & Positioning’ Category
Pepsi Passes on This Year’s Super Bowl For Social Media
The big game is more than a month away but a winner has already been announced – social media marketing has claimed a victory over traditional advertising with Pepsi’s decision not to run any ads in this year’s Super Bowl. It is the first time in 23 years Pepsi will not run a television commercial on the Super Bowl. The company will spend $20 million on a social media campaign called the Pepsi Refresh Project instead.
Pepsi, headquartered in Purchase, N.Y., spent $33 million last year advertising their products like Pepsi, Doritos and Gatorade on the Super Bowl and was one of the game’s biggest advertisers. Only Anheuser-Busch spent more money. The St. Louis brewer says it will have 5 minutes worth of advertising in the 2010 Super Bowl.
A New Playbook
This is a major shift in marketing strategy. Pepsi’s relationship with the Super Bowl is legendary. Pepsi ads have been some of the most creative in history and the company has always pulled out the stops for the Super Bowl. It makes their move to social media that much more newsworthy.
The Pepsi Refresh Project
The company will launch the Pepsi Refresh Project beginning January 13th. Users will submit their ideas to Pepsi on ways to “refresh” their communities and thereby making them a better place. Each month for 10 months there will be up to 32 potential Pepsi Refresh Grant recipients selected and up to $1.3 million will be awarded. There will be 2 grants at the $250,000 level, 10 grants at the $50,000 level, 10 grants at the $25,000 level and 10 grants at the $5,000 level.
Pepsi will be looking for ideas from individuals, non-profit organiztions and pro-social businesses that can make a positive impact in the community. Ideas should be feasible and completed 12 months from the date users receive the first funds. Pepsi anticipates spending around $20 million to fund thousands of projects.
Play-by-Play
Larry D. Woodard, President of New York ad agency – Vigilante – explains, “Pepsi represents one of the stalwarts, not just of the Super Bowl advertiser lineup, but of broadcast TV in general. In 2006, spending on brand, Pepsi was at about $150 million. Although brand spending has been decreasing in recent years, Pepsi has continued to spend tens of millions on TV. And the Super Bowl annually has the largest audience of any TV show.
Woodard continues, “As television viewership has gone down, internet usage, particularly social media interaction, has increased. The 2009 Super Bowl attracted an impressive 95.4 million viewers (approximately 42.1 percent of U.S. TV homes) and many of those watch the commercials as attentively as the football game. By contrast, in the important 18-34 demographic, a whopping 85 percent use social media texting, blogging or social networking – and the phenomenal growth of social media has the attention of every major company. This holiday season, Toys “R” Us developed a Facebook page that grew at the astounding rate of between 40,000 and 95,000 fans per day after its late November launch.”
Fumble or Touchdown?
This is a giant move for Pepsi, especially because they still spend millions of their yearly advertising budget on television. The fact that they are not spending a dime on traditional advertising to even promote the Refresh Project says a lot for a company like this.
In our opinion – it is a win-win situation. Even if they drop the ball like Procter & Gamble did earlier this year with their self-serving Tide detergent “Loads of Hope” campaign, they will still help communities throughout the country and that’s a good thing. We think the user involvement and voting will help make this a social media success and Pepsi will reap the rewards of a buzz-generating ad campaign.
The Pepsi Refresh Project itself is big news. Pepsi sitting on the sidelines at Super Bowl XLIV? That is headline news.
Sofia Sapojnikova
Vesta Digital
http://www.vestadigital.com
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/pepsi-passes-on-this-years-super-bowl-for-social-media-1635690.html
Become An Expert In A Niche You Know Nothing About Quickly And Easily With PLR Articles
You’ve heard it over and over again, “You must brand yourself as an expert in your niche” … but how do you do that if you want to break into a niche that you know virtually nothing about?
The answer is easy – PLR Articles!
Yep, not only do these little gems allow you to get great content for your website at a reasonable price, but you can also actually read them yourself and gain all the knowledge you need to become an expert in the niche.
Of course, there is one caveat to this – you have to buy good quality PLR articles that are written by someone who knows what they are talking about. Otherwise, you will get substandard information or uninformative articles that are filled with useless fluff.
How To Find High Quality PLR Articles
There are lots of sites out there that offer PLR content, but unfortunately, there are only a few of these sites that offer content of good quality. One way to tell is actually by the price – in the case of PLR, you really do get what you pay for. The sites that offer 1000 articles for $9.99 will most likely be a waste of your money! A realistic price for good quality niche PLR is $1 or more per article.
When you do find a site that looks to be a winner, you want to check out a writing sample, most of them do have one. You will be able to tell right away from the sample what type of quality you will get in your article pack. Also, you want to be sure that the articles sold on the site are exclusive to that site – that means you will be getting something that not everyone else has.
Another thing to consider is if the packs are of limited distribution. It’s best to buy limited PLR because you can be assured that only a few other people will be using the same articles that you are using. Even if the pack is limited to a distribution of 100, remember that only 5% of the people that buy it will actually take action and do something with them!
What To Do With Your PLR Articles
There are lots of things you can do with PLR content. Although a lot of people advocate rewriting them, this is not necessary since there is no duplicate content penalty so you can put them on your site as – is.
However, it can be a good practice to add your own personality to the articles by giving them a little tweak.
As mentioned above, take the time to read them. Absorb the information. By doing this you will learn a lot and actually become quite knowledgeable in your niche. The articles will give you the knowledge you need to write a ton of other articles based on what you have learned.
You can then, put them on your website or blog, add them to your autoresponder, compliel them into a short report for your list or rework them to submit to article directories.
With PLR articles, you are not only getting great content, but, if you buy good quality PLR, you are also getting the research that goes into writing these articles. That research can save you many hours and help you become an expert in your niche in no time at all!
Next, get high quality limited edition PLR articles at http://www.nicheplrarticlepacks.com
Brand Design is Much More Than Just Design
A lot of times when asked what brand design means people would say that it is the design of the logo. The icon that represents what the brand is all about. While this definition is right, it would be wrong to just stop there. Your brand’s design encompasses a lot of things. Of course your brand’s logo means a lot as this is the first impression that will enthrall or turn off your consumers but it is always better to go beyond that.
As you conceptualize your brand’s design think deep and get to know who or what your brand really is. If compared to a person your brand’s design would be the very core of who you are that pulsates life into your being – your heart. Without it, you would not be alive. Without the brand’s design your brand will be dead.
Challenging as it may seem, having a design that works is not that hard to achieve. As the brand’s owner, as mentioned, you must look deep. Listen to how your brand is beating – for whom does it beat? The answer to that would be easy, your target market is for whom your brand is for. If it is for them, then how can you communicate your brand to them? What are the language they speak? What are the places where they frequent? Your marketing strategies will rely heavily on the answers to these questions. You really need to know who you are targeting so that you get to know what weapons you need to have in your arsenal to make your brand work.
The answers to these questions do not come easily. You need to spend time to look for answers to these questions. Some of the things you must understand is your brand itself. Where do you plan to take your brand? What are your visions and your goals? It would be better to set different phases in your goals. There must be long term goals, medium term and short term goals as well. You may wonder what these points have to do with your brand, it does. The answers to these questions matter because unless you don’t know what you want to be, you will never get to the point when you can say that you have arrived. Knowing the answers to these questions will complete the picture of what your brand’s design is.
Ideally, you must have at least somebody who will act as your sounding board. Somebody whom you can trust to tell you honestly what he or she thinks about your plans and your brand’s design. Preferably this person must have an idea of how to go about designing for brands as well. This way he will know what to look for and how to better help you come up with something that works.If you don’t have a person who can do this for you then go to a brand agency who can help you with your ” title=”Brand design”>brand design.
We are obsessive about creating brands that evoke powerful emotional connections with customers, at defining differentiated and compelling market positions for Brand Strategy,Brand Agency,Brand Design,Graphic Design Melbourne,Corporate image Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/brand-design-is-much-more-than-just-design-1314602.html
The Fear of Writing Grips Many Marketers
Any time a new adventure is taken, there are many anxieties that our minds play out. You may have experienced some or many of these.
These are a few fears of new marketers:
- Failure
- Cost Prohibitive
- The Unknown
- Creating Content
- How to start marketing
- Success
The Fear of Starting: Creating Content
The fear of creating content is one of the larger fears that most combat. Beginning marketers are excited to start due to the prospect of making massive income. At least that is what they were told to sign them up, but now it is time to go to work in order for that to occur. And oh my, I have to write!?!
Immediately the thought of professional writer or author springs into these new marketers minds. Get over this idea right now. Even the best writers don’t know how to market. It is a different mindset altogether. Your focus when creating any written promotion, review or blog content needs one major element and several lesser ones to be successful.
No matter what product or service your marketing, the most important fact to keep in the forefront of your mind is this: the content you prepare is a reflection of you!
What is meant by that statement?
Write with your personality, your flare but be accurate. If you wouldn’t use certain words in normal conversations, why use them in your writings? People purchase products from those that they have trust in. understanding this going into the writings you are going to produce will help you. Everything that you write from this point further should reflect you to build up this trust.
Steps to Create Your Best Seller
- Research
- Organization of thoughts, subjects, ideas
- Plan the layout of each point
- Write it
- Review and rewrite
- Read it out loud
- Finalize the chapters
- Sell it
Ok, that is simple right? The internet provides tremendous amounts of information and if you’re somewhat knowledgeable about your subject, organizing the information can be a simple process.
Researching helps you determine what people will be searching for on the internet so that they can find your solutions. You want to know what questions or problems people are having within your topic so you can provide them a solution. Provide clear answers and they are more inclined to trust your recommendations.
Your Research Writes It
Research will also provide the necessary information that writes your document. The more thorough the research, the text writes itself. The knowledge base you also have finalizes the product and placing your personality within completes the process.
Review your text for grammatical and spelling and if you write it out in a word document, this is generally done for you. A nice little amenity. Do your best to be clear on your points and don’t repeat excessively. You aren’t telling, you’re assisting.
The Vocal Review
One more review and you’ve completed it. Read it out loud. By reading out , you may find words to complete the thought differently and verify that you’re saying things the way you had intended. This works wonders for any written text because hearing and comprehending your words provides the living entity.
Incorporating your personality into what you write over and over establishes your style. As more and more read your work, this becomes apparent. You will begin to develop “fans” and increase your traffic, and credibility.
When Rodin stated this, it hit home with me;
“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely”.
Creativity is our trait which we own. Find yours and then show it to the world.
Tim Adami is currently marketing online and believes there are others where marketing fears inhibit their potential. There is a series on the fears of marketing currently running on our blog. Feel free to find additional information that may work for you there. We would enjoy your feed back as well. Visit us at:
www.EagleFlightMrkg.com/blog/
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/the-fear-of-writing-grips-many-marketers-1209657.html
Website Visibility: 7 Ways to Get Your Website Noticed
Dear StartupNation : I’ve built a darned nice website for my new business that cost us a few bucks. But sometimes I still feel like we’re almost invisible. How can I pull more traffic and prospects? I’d like to see better results from our internet investment!
For a new business – heck, for any business – visibility is vital. If prospects don’t know who or where you are, you’re sunk. A well-done website offers great potential for boosting your business visibility. But with a zillion sites vying for clicks, it’s easy to get whooped in the website visibility derby.
Search engines are your secret weapon and a key to internet success. Every day, millions of people use search engines by typing in words or phrases to describe what they want. If your name pops up in the results list at Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask or any of dozens more like them, the benefits are golden.
The art of making that happen is called search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is all about increasing your online website visibility by creating just the right keywords to describe what you offer, organizing your site to capture search engine attention and building good links to your site from reputable sources. You can do much of this yourself, or seek help from one of the SEO services catering to small business.
Seven website visibility-boosting tips
- Use descriptive and informative text on each page of your website, choosing words that relate directly to your product, service or industry.
- Highlight and feature your most important content first, in a clear, uncluttered fashion.
- Ask other relevant sites to link to yours. One measure search engines now use to measure your site’s importance is the quality, and, to a lesser extent, volume of outside sites that refer to your own.
- Be sure to create distinct titles for each of the pages on your website, and use your keywords in the titles.
- Write descriptions that are clear, factual and free of excessive superlatives (best, cheapest, biggest). People prefer sites that are more factual and less “sales talk.”
- If your geographic location is relevant, use it in your site and make it part of your list of keywords.
- Don’t expect all search engines and online directories to find you. Many directories, such as the Yahoo! directory and the Open Directory project, offer paid submission options – take advantage of them.
Our Bottom Line
Having a website is great, but without traffic and website visibility, it’s not going to do a heck of a lot for your small business or startup – take some initial steps to boost your visibility with search engines, and watch your traffic and sales grow!
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/website-visibility-7-ways-to-get-your-website-noticed-1085747.html
