Marketing

"You" were selected as Time magazine's person of the year. Every industry expert has beaten to death this decade's marketing catchphrase, "The consumer is in control." Teens, tweens and digitally savvy adults have made it abundantly clear that they will not be marketed to in the traditional manner. The question marketers now wait to have answered is: What are people going to do with their newfound control? What must marketers do to stay relevant in the world of consumer control?

Despite significant growth in retail markets, salespeople in the electronics industry are expected to benefit little from this growth during the coming decade. The number of people employed in retail sales now tops 4.5 million and employment in this sector is expected to grow 12% in the coming decade, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2006 Labor Statistics. In fact, retail sales is projected to be one of the leading work categories providing the new jobs – approximately 557,000 – between 2006 and 2016 but salespeople in the electronics industry will reap few benefits from the increase.

When Saatchi & Saatchi came up with the great concept of Lovemarks they described them as brands that inspire loyalty beyond reason.

I liked the concept and have used it many times in my marketing endeavors.

There are many positives to the concept and I have learned quite a lot from looking at how Lovemarks behave.

But no mass influence yet for text marketing

Text messaging is especially popular with US adults ages 18 to 34, according to Universal McCann's 2008 "Media in Mind" study. Respondents from that age group sent an average of 13 text messages every week.

A strong brand is one of the most powerful assets a company can have. The brand functions as an effective and efficient link between the consumer’s needs and the organization’s value proposition, because it represents the functional and emotional advantages of the concept, which capitalize on the ambitions and aspirations of the consumer. The more successful the brand is in doing so, the greater the chance that a meaningful relationship will develop.

Word of mouth, or buzz, simply refers to consumers talking about brands. It is one of the most important factors influencing consumers’ decisions to purchase products or services. New technologies like the internet have increased the speed at which buzz spreads, and the distance it travels, often in a public and trackable manner.

New research from MTV Networks (MTVN) and Harris Interactive, reveals a critical companion metric to measuring audience size, pioneering a new way for advertising brands to target the most engaged and valuable audiences. This research study finds that not all programming viewers are created equal and that the value of television advertising grows as viewers connect with marketing messages across screens.