Marketing Strategy

FormLetter

Is Your Marketing Like a Christmas Form Letter?

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The Coolest, Yet Hottest Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Firm Writes An IDC Christmas Marketing Letter to Santa

I never read Christmas form letters.

Besides the fact that a Christmas form letter is typically the only time I hear from the sender all year (if I have a relationship to the author, I should already know most of the stuff in the letter, right?), most of the reasons are summed up in this awesome and funny post, Every Christmas Letter Ever, by Tim Siedell (@badbanana).

Siedell’s post nails Christmas form letters because they are all about the author and how much better their wonderful life is from ours. Do they think we have been desperately waiting to hear about the lives that they were too busy to tell us about all year? They do not take into consideration how the audience must feel having to slog through the thing desperately looking for some connection to their own lives. Guess what? Stop looking. There is none.

This happens in my world all the time. And because I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about marketing, I can’t help where my brain goes. I see marketing messages all the time that don’t seem to have their audiences in mind. They talk about their company (me) and their great products (my big idea)—just like those awful Christmas form letters. We wrote a blog about this illustrating how to use the IDC brand affinity scorecard to score your message connection to the target audience. It works for Christmas form letters, too. Let’s see if we can use our scorecard to create a better Christmas form letter.

The typical Christmas form letter spot is reserved for the lowest ranking of “1”. It is about “You and Your Idea.” The audience is probably a distant second. A message that fits this spot typically is about how old your company is and how all the bells and whistles your product has, like this Colgate ad:

 

Now the form letter (and the message) can move up a few notches if it has the audience in mind. Maybe the reader somehow shares something the audience might want to know about…let’s say an awesome and easy Christmas punch recipe from Paula Dean. The letter gets elevated to “Others and Things.” Where “others” = Paula Dean and “things” = the punch. In the marketing world, this might look like “4 out of 5 dentists,” which may mean something to the audience and the score can get to 25 or higher.

What if the Christmas form letter was about the audience (people) and what they cared about (their loved ones)? It could include highlights of all the get-togethers the author had with friends and loved ones over the year. It might also contain lots of pictures and mention everyone the author cared about. Then the score jumps very high—it can get up to 100 if it is really about what people and the audience truly care about. A great example of this is an ad like this Apple FaceTime ad (I can see me in this ad…on a business trip seeing and talking to my beautiful wife and our kids back home):

So the question we need to ask is this: Is your marketing message like a typical Christmas form letter, or is your marketing message making a connection with the audience? I know one thing….if more Christmas form letters made me feel connected to the author, I would be reading them.

Do you need “outside-the-box” creative to help grow your brand? For help finding the creative to maximize your marketing investment, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is pretty much the smartest marketing agency in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

DearSanta

An IDC Christmas Marketing Letter to Santa

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The Hippest, Smartest and Oldest Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Firm Writes An IDC Christmas Marketing Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Team IDC has a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost, we have been good all year—took care of our clients and made some new friends looking for our brand of marketing help. We helped all those folks make money. For most of them, that means we helped grow market share, for some we helped define and position their brand, while others we helped launch into new segments. So I’m not asking for much this year. Here are a few things come to mind:

  1. Economy, economy, economy. You are going to need a very big bag, Santa. Maybe even a few extra reindeer to keep this economy chugging along.
  2. A new hole punch. Santa, do you see the magic? It punches holes in office papers AND makes guitar picks. Very useful.
  3. More awesome clients for IDC. Santa, thanks for the current roster, my man. I owe you big time. This past year was the most fun I’ve had in my entire career. Think you can try to out-awesome yourself again this year? No worries if you can’t. But please consider dropping a Ronco™ Client Cloner DX200® down the IDC chimney. That would be a cool second choice.
  4. Keep the amazing creative coming. Santa…dude. Whatever you have been doing, please fill our stockings with it again. Our cup floweth over but I know it can’t be in the water. We have that brought in. The last person that drank from the tap in this old building grew an extra toe. Turns out, that’s not as cool as it sounds.
  5. Torque up the funny. I know you think we have too much fun, Santa, but we’d love to see a few more YouTube ultimate fail videos. BTW: sorry about the “jalepeño & Tabasco-laced-cookie-icing” trick we pulled last year. Not funny. We understand.
  6. An app for that. Love apps, Santa. Surprise me with something cool on the big day. From Quickalytics to Angry Birds, you gotta love the innovation, functionality and pure fun of it all. We have a few in development so we’re giving back too!
  7. Get home safe for Christmas. From one road warrior to another, we need to work together here, Santa. If you can’t get me coach seats next to people smaller than me, at least let’s try to make the plane be on time.
  8. Also, are as many people really texting/Tweeting/Facebooking/emoticon-ing while driving as I hear in the news? Please remove their thumbs. Not just Keyboard-iTarfor me, but for all our loved ones and friends. No one needs to get hurt because some Snookie-loving dummy is texting her new BFF LOL, OMG, GMTA, and KMA while drinking a *$.
  9. KeyboardiTar. Does this thing exist, Santa? No one will rock that powerpoint like the dude that’s jamming the KeyboardiTar. I wonder if it comes with a hands-free microphone?
  10. Cookies. Santa, somehow these things seem to be multiplying in the office. I think we might want to stock up so we can wean ourselves slowly off the sugar and calories through the first few weeks of 2020.

Do you need creative copywriting to help grow your brand? For help finding the right words to maximize your marketing investment, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is pretty much the undisputed best advertising agency in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

photography

Marketing Tips: Brand Photography & Video

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Lafayette’s Oldest, Biggest and Highest-Rated Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your business

Marketing Tips: Brand Photography & Video

Brand Photography and Video: Good photography can provoke powerful emotions. Instagram is filled with big and small brands that are doing some magnificent work building and connecting with their core audience through branded photography. We cannot stress enough the importance of maintaining a photo budget in your annual marketing plan so that you can partner with an art director who understands your brand requirements and a professional photographer with a full studio.

Buzzfeed’s Tasty food videos have fed the desire of foodies to learn new recipes, and these videos are a huge contributing factor in the explosion in popularity of branded food videos proliferating on all social media feeds from YouTube and Facebook to Instagram and Snapchat. Much depends on you presenting an excellent visual for your brand. Work with idc marketing to cultivate and hire great talent to produce your food videos.

Do you need photography or video to help grow your brand? From hiring the perfect phot or video pro for your project to organizing and managing the shoot to maximize your investment, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is the highest rated, smartest and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

package

Marketing Tips: Brand Packaging

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The Coolest, Oldest, and Biggest Lafayette Indiana Marketing Firm Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing Tips: Brand Packaging

Packaging: When shoppers are at the store looking at products, they’re not necessarily making rational decisions. According to a 2016 Journal of Applied Packaging Research study, which is discussed at length in Chapter 9, consumers spend only about three to five seconds examining products on the shelves before purchase. This study also found that even though consumers have generally decided beforehand what kinds of products they want, 28 percent of them make their final decision— brand selection—in the store. Furthermore, the study indicated that 1 out of 10 purchasers may change their brand preferences inside the store.

Instead of thinking their way to the checkout, consumer purchases tend to be instinctive and reactive. They are purchasing instinctively by color, shape, and familiarity of location.

Effective packaging should encompass the entirety of your brand identity so that consumers can see at a glance what the product is and why it’s relevant to them. The product must deliver its brand promise each time, which fosters repeat purchases and encourages brand loyalty.

Do you need consumer brand packaging to help grow your brand? From developing a new branded product package for the Walmart shelf to refreshing a package for growth we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is the coolest, biggest and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

campaign

Marketing Tips: Brand Marketing Campaign

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The Most Versatile, Oldest, and Biggest Lafayette Indiana Marketing Firm Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing Tips: Brand Marketing Campaign

Brand Marketing Campaign: By definition, a marketing campaign is a specific and defined series of activities used in marketing a new or changed product or a series of events launched in new marketing channels and methods. These channels include various digital marketing channels and social media, as well as traditional marketing channels such as print and broadcast media. While your company’s mission, message, and visual identity are likely to remain relatively constant over time, lasting up to a decade or longer, the marketing campaigns you develop should be less permanent. Your campaigns should be considered as annual or even seasonal methods of establishing, maintaining, and increasing consumer brand awareness.

For you, campaigns are an opportunity to deliver the essence of your brand message to consumers using different hooks that appeal to their behaviors and preferences at specific moments in time. Campaigns function as ways to invite consumer trial, unveil product innovations, promote deals, and highlight seasonal relevance. And, while marketing campaigns might come and go, they should always be carefully researched, well-executed, time-sensitive, and goal-oriented. Effective campaigns are often what separates growing companies from those with stagnant sales and no growth. Plus, as we heard from buyers in Chapter 3, they want you to help drive your products towards sales. Effective campaigns do that.

Do you need help in creating a brand marketing campaign to grow your brand? From working within your budget to driving the plan and reporting ROI, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Launched in 1972, idc-marketing is the most versatile, most prominent and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

trend

Marketing Tips: Changes in Marketing Trends

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The Most Prominent, Young-At-Heart, and Oldest Lafayette Indiana Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing Tips: Changes in Marketing Trends

Marketing Trends: You’d have to live under a rock not to see the changes in the marketing landscape.  However, did you know analysis has suggested that trends in marketing practices have changed in a way that favors smaller and local companies?

Traditional advertising is becoming increasingly irrelevant to consumers, particularly millennials. At the same time, social media is gaining in relevance as a marketing method, a fact that large companies have often failed to use to their advantage.

Social media marketing programs are vital, and they are built into the marketing plans of many smaller companies as they move away from traditional and more expensive marketing methods. Social media is also something that, like the growth of many a small company, is grassroots in nature because it begins at the peer level.

Do you need to take advantage of these marketing trends to grow your brand? From coaching your team on the best social media strageties to developing a full marketing program, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Born in 1972, idc-marketing is the most young-at-heart, most prominent and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

Logo

Marketing Tips: Brand & Logo Design

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Lafayette’s Oldest, Biggest and Smartest Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing Tip: Brand & Logo Design

Brand & logo design, as defined by the American Marketing Association, is a graphic design that is used as a continuing symbol for a company, organization, or brand. Typically, a logo can be a mark, flag, symbol, or signature that is designed for use across various media. The attributes of an effective logo are much like the aspects of a powerful brand promise. They are …

Unique to your brand. Your logo should be easily identifiable against the competition.

Simple and memorable. Your logo should be easily recognizable. Also, if it’s simple, then it’s easily remembered. Think of the logo for General Mills or Apple. Both are minimalist, but still, possess strong
recognition with consumers. The challenge is that a logo should feature unique characteristics without being overly flashy.

Adaptable. A logo should work in every medium and application. To elaborate, will this logo be effective if it’s printed in a single color, or if it’s as small as a postage stamp or as large as a billboard.

Relevant. Is your logo consistent with your brand? Should you use fun, silly colors, and fonts? Or, should it be more severe and clean-cut? Making a logo compatible with your company aids in brand messaging for consumers and employees.

Sustainable. It’s helpful to design a logo that can endure for years or even decades. If your company ever expands, there’s a good chance your logo will need to evolve. For example, Coca-Cola has retained its
logo for almost a century and a half. Meanwhile, Pepsi has undergone frequent logo changes and iterations. The creation of a timeless logo encourages a nostalgic connection with long-time users and is therefore priceless.

Positioning your logo and determining how much room to leave in the area surrounding it may seem trivial. Still, a logo’s importance illustrates the exactitude and consistency needed during the creation of your brand’s visual identity. Positioning and spacing are essential guidelines to have written out so that designers know exactly how creative they can get, both initially and during brand development.

Are you considering a brand & logo design? From developing a new brand logo to launching a new company, we are always interested in helping you grow!

First introduced in 1972, idc-marketing is the smartest, biggest, and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

MvBvA-Marketing

Marketing vs. Branding vs. Advertising #1: Marketing

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The Most Helpful, Biggest and Oldest Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Firm Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing vs. Branding vs. Advertising

Let’s all get on the same page about the meaning of – and relationship – between marketing, branding, and advertising. Because these three terms are all related to the sales side of your company’s operation, they can be intermingled and confused with each other. However, each performs its distinct functions toward the same goals and fall under the marketing umbrella.

Advertising and branding are both critical elements of your company’s marketing process, working in unison to establish, enhance, and build equity to your company’s reputation and increase sales.

First Up: Marketing
Marketing is a process that involves all the strategies, tactics, and activities your company utilizes to build awareness and facilitate the sales of its products and services. Marketing acts as an umbrella that encompasses brand, advertising. Marketing is anything that brings your products and services together with your consumers. This includes websites, social media interactions, printed materials, television and radio promotions, public interactions, and customer service.

To emphasize the importance of marketing as it encompasses branding and advertising, let’s look at Tried and Tasted: The Ultimate Shopping List, a BBC Channel four television show hosted by Chef Michel Roux Jr. In each episode, a small panel of food experts blind-taste test Britain’s favorite foods, ranging from meat and cheese to crackers to soda and beer, and then they declare taste-test winners. When stripped of their strategically branded packaging, often, the most expensive products do not win. Do you think Pringles would win in a blind-taste test against every chip on the market?

The blind-taste testing on Tried and Tested is the ultimate testimony to the dazzling sophistication and psychological impact that the marketing of food brands has on our affinity, loyalty, and associations to some brands.

The best illustration of this, of course, is a recent update to the famous blind-taste test that compared Coke and Pepsi. In the blind taste test, people chose Pepsi over Coke. However, when showed the cans, those same people said they preferred Coke. This is what Barry Smith, Professor of Philosophy at London University, had to say in his updated study of the tests, “That’s because they prefer the Coca-Cola brand. There were neuroimaging versions of this test showing that we get pleasure from the brand, activating our pleasure centers. These can influence how we perceive taste and flavor.”

That’s a pretty good argument for the Kellogg’s famous 2.7 billion dollar purchase of the Pringles brand—a chip that will probably never win a taste test—and proof that marketing is everything.

Are you looking for a marketing team to get sales rolling? From marketing to branding to advertising, we are always interested in helping you grow!

First introduced in 1972, idc-marketing is the most helpful, most prominent, and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

Growth-idcBlog

Marketing Tip: Marketing Process – Start. Don’t Stop

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The Best, Oldest, and Biggest Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing Tip: Marketing Process – Start. Don’t Stop

Marketing is a process. No one I know produces a YouTube spot, print or internet banner ad, billboard, or any other communication tool and then runs it only once.

In fact, you must give a lot of strategic thought about your target audience, what your company wants the audience to know or do, and when the audience should encounter the communication. Then, the metrics are measured for effectiveness, perhaps tweaked in some way, and launched again.

The same goes for marketing on social media. With a larger strategic marketing plan in place, your social media program should support and enhance your brand and campaign messaging.

Have you got business growth questions? From digital to traditional marketing, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is the oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

IDCBlog-2SimpleWays

2 Simple Ways to Get More Leads Online

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The Coolest, Boldest, and Oldest Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Need to Get More Leads Online?

Wouldn’t it be nice if your website worked harder in growing your business by providing leads with sales potential?

If that is a goal of yours, we suggest two simple ways you can help get that process up and running.

1. Think About Function First; Aesthetics Second

Don’t go for the pretty website that says nothing. 

Some of the ugliest websites are the most successful:

  • Craigslist.org—24 billion views per month
  • PlentyofFish.com—3 billion views per month
  • DrudgeReport.com—250 million views per month.

One thing they all have in common? They deliver exactly what people are looking for.

It’s never that simple. It’s really one of the hardest things. From knowing and competing for the keywords within your specialty to developing helpful, branded copy that draws visitors to your site.

So, if your company is able to fully understand why anyone would visit your website, you should be able to first give them what they are searching for. Then . . .

2. Give Your Visitors Something of Value

If you know why your visitors are arriving at your website, it pays to give them something for their efforts. From something as simple as a helpful blog to something as meaty as an eBook, give your visitors a reason to receive what they came looking for.

You can use newsletters, checklists, engaging videos, infographics and webinars to engage the visitors and help give them what they’re seeking.

The better the content, the easier—and more logical—it will be to ask for a little something in return . . . like an email address. When this happens, you have just added a lead.

If your goal is to grow your business, one way is setting up your website to get more leads online. If this is the case, it makes sense to reach out to a firm like idc . . . one that specializes in writing strategic websites that offer specialty-specific content.

Are you looking to grow leads online? From e-commerce to digital strategies to social media marketing we are always interested in helping you grow!

First introduced in 1972, idc-marketing is the most helpful, most prominent, and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

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