I
f you are a small to medium business, it is really hard to find a tactical and strategic agency affordable to use. WEBRAND addresses this problem with creative campaigns and marketing designed to engage your local market.
Apart from well designed printed tactical resources, WEBRAND also have a cutting edge on line marketing, building cost effective on line stores are just one of the resources WEBRAND can offer.
Having a on line presence which is in the face of every local customer in your market is where WEBRAND shine to engage your market.
Big business understands the power of constant brand awareness and use these tactical resources well, it should not just be the realm of the big player though.
With WEBRAND you are armed with as many resources as a large corporate, with creative thinking, local marketing solutions, and a full host of both tactical and strategic weapons designed for the small to medium business. With WEBRAND on your team, local success and a thorn in the side of the bigger players is the result.
Secrets to engaging a market are performing the marketing campaign so it is not wasted. How many times have you had a flyer thrust into your palm, only to drop it into the next bin?
A good marketing campaign has to have impact. Red Bull, do this well. You can see the Red Bull guys and girls, often around the Bondi Beach area in Sydney and here lies just one of their strategic successes. Value adding their marketing campaigns.
Value adding a campaign
Giving away a quality product before your own can lead your company down the path to huge brand awareness success. Value adding products, gift with sale solutions are just a part of our organic marketing solutions.
Please read on how the Australian market is growing up, and why you need promotional product marketing.
Many years ago I was involved in the marketing of a wholesale computer parts company, with the simple purchase of a few bags of toffees the campaign response was over 60% and netted a first month influx of 2.4 million in sales.
A simple sweet turned the market! Included in the marketing material was a quality sweet for the reader to chew while perusing the advertising material.
When we think of promotional products typically the visions of cheap caps and bad T-shirts come to mind, the pens that break and ghastly mugs. Without knocking the Australian marketing fraternity, it cannot be ignored that the industry as a whole has had to and is growing up. Since as long as I can remember Australia has what I call “Shout Marketing” Shout marketing is when advertising is loud, often obnoxious and lacks creativity.
For reasons I do not know many Australian businesses refuse to change or see that the “in your face marketing approach” does not work or has limited success.
If we look at a typical marketing approach by a Swiss brand in a television advertising campaign it will be targeted at brand loyalty. In many cases the creative angle taken by the brand leaves the viewer with a sense of enjoyment and respect for the brand, they are not trying to convince the viewer to purchase the product / brand rather to install a sense of this is why you use our brand.
This thinking is on the same lines as giving something away to your market place of value that installs a sense of respect for your brand. As I said the marketing in Australia is finally growing up, many are still left wondering why campaign after campaign fails, still the bargain shop plays the annoying man screaming at you; do they not see it is that screaming voice that is actually closing them down.
Value adding a product can and often is the crux behind a successful marketing campaign. Savvy marketing people are capitalising on this shift in the Australian market, but others are still slow to embrace that quality marketing value-adding products is a key to success. Maybe the cheap T-shirts and mugs of the past have burnt them, but this is not the case now here in OZ. For some of us it never did exist.
If we were to look at a broad term for promotional products it would encompass everything from pens to billboard posters, it is not just shirts and cups, point of sale merchandising systems are all under the banner of promotional products.
A recent survey has been conducted by the Australian Promotional Products Association (APPA) - this is the industry’s governing body here in Oz. Records kept by the APPA indicate sales of promotional products at $2.02bn, an increase of 45% in the past 5 years. Chief executive William Kestin form the APPA attributes this spike to the direct accountability of promotional products and the ever-increasing cost of traditional marketing.
With the ever-increasing costs of advertising more than ever before business is looking for value for their dollar, and more to that direct accountability or measuring of results. Cross promoting and finding new and innovative ways to get the brand out there is what business is looking and asking for.
Enter the gift with sale solution; if we are to implement a gift with purchase program for example we are directly able to measure results and effectiveness of the campaign.
As I said earlier when we think of promotional products caps, pens and mugs spring to mind, but these although still popular they make up a small percentage of total sales.
Australia is very lucky when it comes to the promotional products market this is due to demographics. Because Australia is situated next door to the manufacturing holy grounds Asia, a multitude of manufacturing options and products are at the disposal of Australian business.
Looking towards a big brand for inspiration.
Big brands can be masters at value adding products and purchasers and much can be learnt from the leaders within industries.
Seeing as I am talking the Australian market here, let us talk a brand close to every Aussies heart, the cool amber liquid of VB beer.
Now personally I would rather drink the sweat of a large working Sahara desert camel than drinking VB but a powerful and hugely popular brand she is.
David Boon “Boonie” with Boonie Dolls Enter the “Boonie Doll” a talking figurine of David Boon that turned into a marketing legend of success.
For a little information it was Accure in conjunction with George Patterson Y&R promotional product agency that conceived the “VB Boonanza” marketing campaign, that turned into one of the most talked about and awarded promotional campaigns in living marketing Australian history.
We are talking a major brand so the marketing plan was comprehensive in above and below the line marketing, using the Boonie Doll as the pivotal point to base all supporting media around this being, POS, with Television and radio support and was further aided by the sponsorship 2005 / 2006 VB cricket series.
Since the campaigns amazing success the Boonie doll has turned into a collectors item and is sort after on e-bay and other sources. Long after the campaign the brand awareness and building continues such is the power of value adding brand marketing.
Such is the success of the Boonie campaign now a new figurine has been introduced, England’s Ian Botham “Beefy Doll” Constant reinventing and paying close attention to feedback and received results help to keep the momentum of the campaign.
We should also be paying much attention to the quality of the promotional product. Times are changing and we see more corporate sectors choosing more fashionable uniforms and clothing and less intense branding.
How often have we seen non-breathing fabrics being used in hot climate countries for the clothing? This lack of caring and understanding has finally dawned on the business owners and marketers of Australia, more and more we see now smarter clothing options, cottons and such.
A product that shows true quality and is ether useful or provides the customer with perceived value will ultimately do many favours to the brand trying for greater awareness in the market place.
Many companies try the value-adding path only to choose low quality promotional products and become disheartened when the campaign fails. Often these business owners are burnt towards the entire promotions market. Too often people make decisions on what they think will be popular, guessing a market can be and often proves to by sudden death.
At this time some popular promotional products are Blue tooth devices, wireless devices, USB sticks, USB phone charges wireless mice and mouse pads. I cannot stress enough the importance of knowing how to merchandise promotional products and being able to target the correct product lines to market bases. Marketers need to practise some caution and much research before taking a client down the value adding solution.
As I mentioned before quality plays an important factor when deciding promotional products. Lets look at the general market, for the past 5 years or so we have seen a shift, from price point to quality.
As the Australian market place matures it seeks more quality, over other factors.
This can be witnessed both in the vendor and the consumer market place. Car manufacturing especially in Australia with the introduction of Lexus and other mid level quality price pointed products. In the shops people are leaning towards the quality purchase rather than the bargain basement product.
This core shift to quality versus price is a huge wake up call to the marketers out there.
Gone are the days of shops shouting at you, gone are the TV ads screaming savings at you. Every day we still see this ineffective crude marketing that finally has burnt so much of the market place that is finally dying.
Marketing should leave the viewer intrigued; a sense of pride for using the brand should be felt.
We know marketing strategic and tactical
The first known promotional products in the United States are commemorative buttons, tracing back to 1789, when George Washington was elected president. Dating back to the early and mid 1800s are advertising calendars, wooden specialities and the Farmers’ Almanac. But it was not until the latter part of the 19th century that an abundance of promotional products were developed and marketed, leading to the birth of the industry as it’s known today. Read more about the history of promotional products
