Homework before Planning a Marketing Campaign
A student researching on business slogan chanced upon 7 Famous Slogans of 20th Century at this blog. He was quite fascinated that the Maxwell Coffee’s slogan is already 100 years old. He left me an email inquiring where and how do I do my research on slogans.
There is no secret. I read hard copy books I borrowed from the library or browsed at Borders or Kinokuniya bookstores. I used the top search engines to reach the archives of advertising agencies, universities, reviews, interviews and even free-content encyclopedia. Many people’s first stop is Wikipaedia because of its massive text and graphical content. It is a great resource. Still, cross referencing of information is extremely crucial to ascertain content accuracy. This was repeatedly drove into my head by my history lecturer way back in the university. He took out a few books written by well known historians. One said President Sukarno rode to a rally in a pick-up, another said in a car. Though this is a very small detail, it amplified that history books can document events differently, and perhaps, wrongly too. “Always cross reference”, my professor bellowed. Don’t knock off Wikipaedia if you are happy with it, just cross reference using lesser known or newer sites such as Encyclopaedia.
This is critical when you are planning for a marketing campaign. Whether you are doing a site promotion selling your product or a simple advertisement pledging your service quality, always do sufficient research of the marketplace, your competitors and your target audience. You can read, research, cross reference, on-site survey, questionnaire, focus group, etc. And if you are writing the copy yourself, the more you have to read, research and cross reference. A search on “Internet Marketing” at Wikipaedia said “This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards.” Hmmm, wouldn’t you want to try out Encyclopaedia’s equivalent of “computer and internet”? I was researching for Hydrogen Water and was pleasantly surprised that “Water” was archived at Encyclopaedia’s “Religion & Faith” category. I wouldn’t have searched under that category. That is the power of search engine.
It takes lots of research and in-depth planning to transform an idea into an impactful message. Such unseen homework is usually the unsung hero of a successful marketing campaign.
Check out these recent popular posts:
Sales Copy That Is Too Good To Be True
London Olympics 2012 Logo worth £400,000?
No Big Deal if Your Logo is Similar to Another?
Why is Logo Design That Important
How Much Should You Pay for a Logo Design
Internet Marketing is All About People
Is Internet Marketing An Effective Marketing Tool? >
7 Famous Slogans of 20th Century
Or Get a Free Report on Successful Entrepreneurs
Free Report on Successful Entrepreneurs
[tags] market research[/tags]
(sponsored)
4 Replies to “Homework before Planning a Marketing Campaign”
Hello Vivienne!
I do some marketing work myself, and while I can’t claim to have written a slogan that’s lasted 100 years (how would I know!?) I did make an ad for a company that they’ve used successfully now for more than 10 years without a major change.
I helped them focus their attention on the one unique characteristic that makes them different from their competition and find a compelling way to communicate that difference with a simple graphic and a slogan. The whole exercise took less than an hour. (I should have spent weeks on it. I could have charged a lot more!)
Love your blog!
Wow! Great post!
I agree the preparation is very important. In fact, it is key. That’s not just true when you are creating slogans.
I can see that slogan research can be tricky. Personally, I’m just a copywriter and haven’t done any slogan work.
Good read!
Online Marketing is not a new phenomena now but its not really complex or mysterious. But it is important to be realistic. one cannot get rich quick overnight; and one should beware of the stories that tells so.
There are many online marketers who spoke volume about the easy money that flows in and omit mentioning the diligence they have to put in to attain that kind of results. This leads some people to have the wrong impression that it is an easy piece of cake to chomp down.