Discover the best way to market your business in a recession

The irony of the current recession is that there has never been so many, many ways to market your business. The best of it is that the costs of advertising have made it possible for some of the smallest players in a market take on the bigger, more established ones. It's for this reason that so many well known household brands have been struggling.

With so many channels (e.g. email, direct mail, radio, press, outdoor, mobile, etc.) to choose from which one(s) is best for you? The options to market your business has never been so great. The problem now though, is deciding the most profitable one(s).

See the table below which shows how the modern consumer is influenced by many channels BEFORE they buy. For this reason I suggest any business who wants to ride out the recession, "Think multi-channel!!!!" because that is how your (potential) customers buy their goods and services.

With a co-ordinated, multi-channel route to market, you can find responses are raised by up to 40%. The ZiG advice is test and don't be afraid to make mistakes. You'll rarely find a successful business that has never made a mistake.  For the businesses who have tried and failed with a channel such as direct mail or email, I'd say think again because if you limit your channel usage, you could well be losing business. Let me know if you'd like to know more.

Not another Star Wars cop-out

Hi, Just having a (late) 'Friday afternoon rant' about lazy, expensive, and (more than likely?) ineffective marketing by 'The Big Boys' of advertising.
Unoriginally, yet another high profile company is using a Star Wars icon for their TV commercials.


You may have noticed Yoda spreading the 'force' for Vodafone. Yoda... Voda... get it? Mmmm exactly, a bit tenuous the link?
What gripes me is that only a month ago, PC World used Darth Vader to promote their in-store customer services and just prior to that a miniature Darth Vader appeared in a VW ad. Not only is it confusing to audiences but why go ahead with a campaign when the same idea is out there in the marketplace? What next, Chewbacca sunning himself on a P&O Cruise around the Med, defending the virtues of Princess Leia against the dark forces of the ships, amorous Italian, Captain Francesco Schettino?


Call me crazy, but I thought the whole point of marketing and advertising was to be unique, stand out from the crowd. Mission one: Grab attention... GET NOTICED!!!!


I imagine anyone who takes notice of these adverts (TV break = tea or twitter break?) would find it confusing. Though the mass media channel of TV has it's merits, I'm sure that the big budgets could be spent in a better, more direct, measurable way.
The only person who really benefits from these bland adverts is surely George Lucas.
Ah well, that's better. A rant shared is a rant halved!
Have a great weekend.