Nostalgia Marketing

Nostalgia Marketing

Nostalgia marketing has been a trending technique in the world of event marketing recently. Nostalgia marketing invokes the warm feelings about how good life was “back in the day”. Brands are quickly jumping in on 90s-themed events, connecting consumers emotionally with the products that they fell in love with many years ago.

              Crystal Pepsi was a product launched in 1992 that consumers went wild for. 25 years later they went wild for it again at Crystal Pepsi Summer of ’92, an event that Pepsi put on to re-launch their iconic soda. There was many activities for fans to do that brought them back to their 90s roots. They were able to get their hair crimped and cut and then hit the “Recess”-themed playground. There were pogo sticks and Skip It to challenge your friends to see who was the REAL 90s kid. If Crystal Pepsi wasn’t your kryptonite, no worries 90s kids! There are plenty of events out there for you to go back in time. If you remember “Total Request Live” on MTV MTV set up a TRL obstacle course that doubled as voting registration to get more young adults involved with the election.

              Are you thinking of the fun games and good times you had growing up with your friends? Then the nostalgia marketing is appealing to you, as it is with all of your 90s buds! The 90s were really all that and a bag of chips, and the companies capitalizing on this marketing technique are raising profits AND raising the roof!

Eau Claire Regional Conference

Pursue Your Path

Another Regional Conference for the books! A huge thank you to UW-Eau Claire for hosting a successful, fun-filled day! The morning started with a career fair, which gave us a chance to network with a number of different companies. Later that morning, we attended two keynote speaker presentations from Impact and Royal Credit Union. The afternoon consisted of four breakout sessions with representatives from Royal Credit Union, T-Mobile, Country Jam, and Elsevier Clinical Solutions who answered questions about a career in sales. Two former UW-Eau Claire students were also there to offer tips for transitioning into the real world after graduation.

Four competitions were held throughout the course of the day, including Perfect Pitch, Marketing Strategies, Cold Call, and Mock Interview. UW-Whitewater placed 2^nd and 3^rd in Perfect Pitch, 3^rd in Marketing Strategies, 1^st and two 2^nd places in Mock Interview, and 1^st – 6^th in Cold Call. Great job to everyone to participated and represented Whitewater!

Sales

When is the last time you sold something? You think you might not have ever even sold anything to anyone, but in reality, you have. When you ask your parents for gas money, or if you can throw that package of cookies in the shopping cart, you are selling.

Now think, have you been an effective salesperson? If yes, keep it up. If no, an article from Entrepreneur has a few tips to improve. First, lead with a question. This will allow you to figure out answers that might be necessary to what you want to know. Second, do not think that selling is a negative aspect in life, or a bad job. Sales is what you make of it, and it can be a way to help others. Finally, always look to solve a problem. This will allow you to not give up, and to find an opportunity to make either your life, or someone else’s, better.

What do you think you find yourself selling the most?

How do you think you can improve your selling tactics?

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270738 ​

Segmentation

Psychographic Segmentation

Although there are plenty of ways to segment your target market easily on the basis of demographics, it is important to remember to keep in mind the use of psychographics, or lifestyle segmentation. 

Demographics such as age, gender, and income are tested methods of segmenting to find your target market, however they lack an essential aspect of the buying process. Why are people buying?  You may know that somebody is 40 years old with a baby, and they are in the market for diapers, however what this information doesn’t include is the fact that the family might require a specific feature to accommodate their needs.  This can be a tricky way to segment however, due to the unavailability of this information.  However, this vital information can be found through focus groups, in-depth surveys, and can be used to help develop a brand identity that appeals to the needs of your specific audience.  These methods, although generally more costly, will provide you with vital information as to why the consumer is willing to buy your product over the competitor.

Overall, it is important to segment your marketing towards your target demographic, however by integrating psychographics into the mix, you will be reaching the proper audiences who are looking to buy your product with the most success.

http://www.marketing91.com/psychographic-segmentation/

Green Marketing

The importance of Green Marketing

In the cutthroat world of marketing, businesses and marketing professionals are constantly looking for a competitive edge that will put them at the top in the eyes of the consumer. Green Marketing can be a cheap, yet effective way to do just that.  With more and more consumers becoming more environmentally conscious, appealing to this sense can make your product or company stand out from the competition.  Green Marketing comes in a variety of different techniques including, but not limited to, using renewable energies, creating more environmentally friendly products and packaging, and also voicing your stance to the consumers.

Many large corporations and small businesses have begin to make the switch to more sustainable practices and reaped the benefits of being seen as more ethical and environmentally considerate, often times at a reduced cost on their energy bill to top it off.  However being sustainable should not be limited to only role in the supply chain.  It is widely considered that in order for your green marketing strategy to be as effective as possible, vertical integration of eco friendly practices should be encouraged throughout all aspects of marketing, ranging from product development to customer communication.  Green Marketing also extends even after your product leaves your possession and should be effectively communicated to the consumer.  By encouraging the end customer to carry on the practice of sustainability by different methods such as recycling or reusing, your brand will stand out from the competition, and be seen as environmentally sustainable.

There are countless different Green Marketing strategies, which can range from slight changes to complete manufacturing overhauls, but regardless of how you do it, Green Marketing is becoming a serious force in a rapidly expanding eco friendly society and should not be taken lightly.

 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140818142207-41390803-the-importance-of-green-marketing

Entrepreneurship

Being young business professionals, some of us begin to think as entrepreneurs. We often find ourselves talking to our friends about that “million-dollar start-up idea”. This idea could be something you thought about randomly in the shower, maybe a new product or a service, maybe a new app or an idea for a new patent.  It is good for us to maintain a creative entrepreneurial mindset and way of thinking. But before we get too carried away with our “million-dollar idea”, it is important to do our research.

Did you know that 9 out of 10 new start-up businesses fail?  Out of that 90 percent, 42 percent fail because they failed to create a product or service people actually wanted. No matter how good you think your idea may be, you must make sure there is a market out there that will be interested in your new product or service.

In this article author, Ray Beharry says that “researching your idea is just as critical as having it to begin with.” He also provides 4 Phases of Marketing Research to Ensure Success.

1. Identify the problem you’re solving. How will this product help solve the problems of consumer’s life?

2.  If you think you’re idea is a good one, can it answer the question   “ can I actually build a product/service people want?” Obviously, it is very important to make sure your target audience has a want for the product or service, and is willing to pay for it.  You should gather both qualitative and quantitative information about your target audience and think of as many alternatives, and problems you and your start up might face.

3. Adjust according to customer taste. By doing this you will make consumers loyal customers. It’s very important to continue to adapt to the customers wants and needs, don’t stop asking for feedback and continue to try to improve.

4. Turn traction into momentum. Nearly 70% o startups fail due to premature expansion. Stay focused on your business model, and don’t try to expand too soon.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/281815

Marketing Research

Gaining the Most Out of Your Marketing Research: A Marketers Almanac

 One of the most important things marketers need to do when conducting their marketing research is to fully capitalize on your researching resources. This article (credited below) is a great synopsis of seventeen different tools and resources us Marketers can utilize when conducting research.  There are dozens and dozens of other valuable resources marketers can utilize, but for the sake of simplicity we will summarize a few.

The first six resources on Miss Oetting’s top seventeen are FREE resources that marketers can use to gain valuable and concise data for our research. Examples of these resources include: Google Almanac, American Fact Finder, Country Business Patterns and more! These are valuable for segmenting your target market and can help you understand the direction you may want to focus on. 

Resources six through ten, had a free standard option (with limited capabilities), as well as upgradable versions users could buy at a relatively low cost. These are some common resources we have been exposed too such as Survey Monkey, Survata, and Qualtrics.  These types of resources are valuable in the simple form. But if you chose to invest in the small fee, it can take your research from good to GREAT!

Article Reference from:   https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/market-research-tools-resources#sm.00001i9jdoa99rde0ttnjr2wq3dkk

Retail Marketing

For many in sales, the year to year goal is to always improve on the previous years’ number. With that being said, what should a sales person do when they fail? Per Colin Nanka, the best course of action is to embrace the failure. Colin cites his experience with the market downturn of 2008 and 2009. After taking a vacation to clear his mind he came up with a few tips to help other salespeople recover from a down year.

The first tip is to own failure. Just because someone fails doesn’t make them a failure, learning to recover is crucial. People need to fail to fully understand their strengths. Being able to fail shows that a sales person has grit. Having grit is the ability to go the extra mile when someone feels that they have nothing left. Being able to put in this extra work is imperative to being successful. It teaches someone to not quit but also to go the extra mile when possible. Furthermore, it is important to accept difficulty. If anything in life was easy everyone would do it. To have success, one must be able to accept and embrace the challenging aspects of the job. Lastly, it is important to invest in yourself. Find out what your strengths are, and train to improve your weaknesses, nobody improves without improving themselves. 

 https://www.salesforce.com/quotable/articles/rebound-from-bad-sales-year/

Integrated Marketing Communications

Why use an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) Strategy?

The marketing world is rapidly changing with the emergence of new social media platforms, mobile applications, and new ways to reach consumers, so we must find new ways to fulfill these needs.  Not only is it important to create a new and creative marketing strategies, it must be consistent throughout all selling and advertising platforms to be effective; this is the idea behind IMC.  When paired with successful and cohesive branding, IMC will allow customers to receive the same message across all social media platforms, experience a convenient and smooth shopping experience regardless of if they are shopping in store, on a laptop, or using a smart phone, and an overall fulfillment of the consumers need of a hassle free experience. 

Nike is a great example of a successful IMC program.  Since the inception of the slogan, “Just Do It” in 1988, the company has successfully brought together its vast number of media platforms under this one concept.  In the competitive world of sporting goods, Nike has been able to hold its market share without having to consistently change or revamp its marketing efforts due to the integration of its brand and marketing strategies.

In conclusion, by using a well-structured IMC strategy, you can ensure that customers will get the right experience regardless of the medium that they use.  Additionally, you will find that IMC provides competitive advantages including financial rewards, and the ability to perform at a higher level with the cohesiveness that comes from IMC.

http://www.stephenzoeller.com/why-use-integrated-marketing-communications-approach/