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Based on experience, your search for a marketing resource should begin with questions like “How does this person think?”; “What does he know?”; “What is my investment if we work together?” …in other words, how do we become a team that benefits from each other’s strengths?
Let’s start with a free marketing lesson I call Monthly Marketing Morsels. Since 2013, I have been sharing advice on a broad range of marketing topics, and many of them are posted on this website for your review and evaluation. The latest lessons can be seen below.
Contact me if you want to sample a free personal consultation – phone, video chat, or face-to-face. Call Jack Cantwell 717-269-0288, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. At the very least, get into the database and start receiving Morsels each month.
'Tis the Season to Find a June Bride - June 2022
Marriage usually implies something personal, but for this Morsel, we are talking about the idea of a marriage between two businesses who collaborate to run a promotional-focused campaign.
The idea, which has a record of success, encourages you to think about a potential promotional partner who shares the same demographic you do and is in a non-competitive business. One partner’s product becomes the premium for the promotional campaign.
Let me take you back to 1975 when the idea took shape. McDonald’s was introducing breakfast as a daypart. And Gillette was introducing a new product, the Good News disposable razor. Both products shared the same target audience, men 18-34, and both were motivated to achieve product trial. The marriage worked. After a successful regional trial, the campaign rolled out nationally with sales of twenty-three million breakfast entrees, one razor per entrée…a lot of trial!
Marketing Effectively Without A Budget - May 2022
WARNING
This month’s marketing lesson contains bragging.
I had the privilege of helping run the PR campaign for Myerstown’s 250th Anniversary Celebration (which attained National attention). Sestercentennial excitement stimulated a group of volunteer community-minded citizens to build on the momentum. They started a non-profit 501 c-3 organization called The Myerstown Vitality Partnership in 2019. The MVP Board focuses on revitalizing their hometown, attracting and helping local businesses with tax breaks and other initiatives.
MVP’s first task – communicate their existence and educate the marketplace as to who they are, what they are trying to do, and to rally support for the mission, and gain financial and volunteer support in the process. Nice idea with one problem...no budget.
Read more: Marketing Effectively Without A Budget - May 2022
Roll with the Punches - Apr. 2022
When the world situation changes (think Covid, and now the terrible situation in Ukraine), among the first to adjust quickly are the marketing and advertising professionals.
The “go to” trade magazine ADAGE reports that Ukrainian-based ad agencies have stopped client work and jumped into the fray by helping the Ukraine government fight disinformation that they say has been spread by Russia. The rules have changed with social media – Google is blocking Russian internet ads and Facebook is blocked by Russia, so their people have lost access.
Our people are showing moral support of the Ukrainian people. The Metropolitan Opera opened their season with a performance of the Ukrainian National Anthem. We all seeing solidarity in other contexts.
With soaring gas prices, how is the travel industry responding? Suddenly electric automobiles are gaining traction on the marketplace.
Project Management… A Simple Example - Mar. 2022
A good marketing agent brings value to client service by taking responsibility for developing and managing details for an approved campaign. For our March Marketing Morsel, I am using an example – a Chicken BBQ Fundraiser on Saturday, May 14th at the American Legion Post 109 in Lickdale. The proceeds will benefit Compeer of Lebanon, a charity that helps local Veterans in need. So how do we make this fundraiser a success, and minimize the expense?
Here are some of the project elements. Use them as guidelines for your own fundraiser.
- Rule One – Match up every task with a responsible person (or small team) and attach dates to what they agree to do, Have occasional status meetings.
- A project manager takes responsibility for being the team leader and caretaker of deadlines. He or she must be the “squeaky wheel” that keeps everything moving.
- The Flyer – gives you all the details the public needs to know to support the promotion. It takes legwork, but get copies into the hands of organizations who will support the charity. The more bulletin boards the better.
For Auld Lang Syne - Jan. 2022
A young Advertising Agency guy named Jack got his start in a giant worldwide company named BBDO in the 1960’s, the Mad Men era of the advertising industry. Jack leaned a lot from top BBDO leaders. One of them, the CEO of all of BBDO, Charlie Brower, retired with a memo to all of us. “It would be ungracious to creep away without giving my friends a chance to ignore my advice.” He then shared “16 things I have learned in my 43 years in the adverting agency business.” I kept the memo and pass on Charlie’s wisdom this month. It is still timeless.
1. The expedient thing and the right thing are seldom the same thing.
2. The best way to get credit is to try to give it away.
3. You cannot sink someone else’s end of the boat and still keep your own afloat.
4. It is not important to come in early and work late. The important thing is why?
5. If you get a kick out of your job, others will get a kick out of working for you,
6. No one should knock research who has ever been helped by a road map.
The Care and Feeding of Your 2022 Brand - Dec. 2021
Time to wrap up 2021 in a nice bow, and file it away. Before you do, what did you learn from your marketing efforts that will help you focus your thinking for 2022? It must start with the idea of public perception of who you are and what you do. That, to me is the essence of being the gatekeeper of your Brand.
This is an exciting time to sit down with a checklist of “who am I and what to do about it”. The slate is clean when the bologna drops in Lebanon.
I recommend you get a planning checklist together to help you deal with this important basic issue. Here are some categories that work for me.
Read more: The Care and Feeding of Your 2022 Brand - Dec. 2021
Getting to Yes! - Nov. 2021
If you work on projects, much of the work is professional and useful to the intended audience, but occasionally, you look at your finished work and say “yes!”. It hits the mark and connects to the audience in an unusual and satisfying way.
EXAMPLE - Here’s a procedure I use that gives “yes!” a better chance. I write a monthly series of articles series for a local on-line resource, which profiles people in theater and the arts. The latest one hit over 275 likes on the subject’s Facebook page in the first days after publication.
- Prepare as a team exercise – Plan ahead. Give the interviewee “homework” by providing him/her with detailed questions that will spur reader interest.
- Sit down interview – Review the “homework” and collect other background.
- Collect related photos/videos – Visuals always enhance the article.
Worth another look - Oct. 2021
It's a fact: people don't mind scrolling to read an email, as long as it's relevant and interesting. Make sure your message follows through on the promise in your subject line, and use several short paragraphs if you have a lot to say. When in doubt, challenge yourself to write less and add links that support your topic.
Worth Another Look:
In the words of Dorothy, “Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.”
Neither are we. The pandemic took care of that. So, let us look ahead. In terms of marketing, where do we go from here? I would be very rich if I knew the exact answer to that one. But I can offer some simple advice, based on doing this for many years.
Follow your own yellow brick road…in other words, follow the trends that have risen to the top since we started the Covid-19 journey, and use this learning to help you plan your strategy for 2021.