Your Ad Campaign: Don’t Blow It
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Catherine Moscarello were published in U.S. 1
Newspaper on July 26, 2000. All rights reserved.
Guerrilla Marketing On a Shoestring Budget
Even if they prefer sandals to platform heels or
Velcro-closed
running shoes to wingtips, marketing managers can always relate to
dealing with budgets on a shoestring. Whether a company’s budget is
small or ample, says Susan Caputo, president of New Technology
Horizons, the question remains “what can they use to get the most
mileage out of the marketing budget?”
That is the central question of the New Jersey Technology Council
program “Guerrilla Marketing on a Shoestring Budget” at
Middlesex
Community College, 2600 Woodbridge Avenue, Edison, on Tuesday, August
1, from 4 to 9 p.m. Cost: $40. Go to www.njtc.org or call
856-787-9700.
Caputo, the program moderator and a 1986 graduate of Rider University
with a major in communication, serves on a board at NJTC. Her company
provides marketing consulting services to growing businesses (E-mail:
“Even the biggest companies have tight budgets,” says Caputo.
Her panel will examine public relations components, the strategy and
tactics behind general marketing plans, and some creative aspects
of direct marketing.
Today’s marketing manager is in a constant struggle to stay ahead
of new technological developments while simultaneously being squeezed
by the mandate to do more with less. A guerrilla mindset will foster
“out-of-the-box thinking,” says Caputo, “which is critical
to call upon when an organization’s strained budget challenges even
the most creative individual. A survival-trained marketing manager
learns to search for that “one unique idea: that wasn’t thought
about before,” she says.
Panelists are Katherine Kish of Market Entry on George Davison
Road in Cranbury (medirect@aol.com), Dom Cilea of Springboard
Communications in Marlboro, and Dan Regan of Princeton Partners
on Research Way (www.princetonpartners.com).
Kish’s topic “Contradiction and Change: What a Marketer Needs
to Know” will deal with the “ambiguity and contradictions”
marketing managers are forced to confront daily. There’s an
ever-present
conflict as marketing professionals make decisions based somewhere
between the information covered in Marketing 101 and “how things
really are.” Confronting the “paradox between the demands
of high tech and high touch or the more human side of the marketing
piece” is an issue that needs to be examined, Kish says, and is
vital for effectiveness in making those decisions.
Regan focuses on the creative aspects of direct marketing plans using
list management and database development. Isn’t it an oxymoron to
mention lists, databases and creativity in the same breath? Not so,
Regan says. “It all boils down to concentrating efforts so that
we think about the kind of client we want and spend good energy
to make our business healthier and our clients happier.” Despite
over 17 years in sales and marketing, Regan says he is constantly
learning about the need to pare down huge contact lists so that the
list “fits the needs of the agency and the agency fits the needs
of the client.”
Cilea notes common mistakes that plague almost every public relations
campaign.
Failure to determine vital factors, such as “who isyour audience, which publication best represents that audience, andwho from the publication best represents the information beingpresented.”It’s critical to build good rapport and a working relationship withthe writers in targeted publications as well as to provide the writerwith good information.Failure to publish timely news information. “Don’tpublish just to publish.” Cilea recommends creating a calendarto launch the continuing thread of news items about products, researchand development, changes in company directions in a timely and orderlyfashion. “Every press release should be THIN,” says Cilea,”…timely, honest, informative and newsworthy.”While these are good marketing tips for general commerce, Cileasays there is a definite need for technology marketers to focus ondecoding the “techno-babble” for the average reader so that”young, growing, dot.com companies can get the press theyneed.”— Catherine MoscarelloTop Of PageYour Ad Campaign: Don’t Blow ItAt the time, Nova seemed to be such a great name fora great little car. Images of bright shooting stars, speedingfireballs,bursting with energy in the great reaches of the universe capturedthe imagination. Except in Spain. The car’s name translated roughlyas “doesn’t go,” not the best imagery for an automobile. Amore literal translation, however, alluded not to the performanceof the car but rather to the lack of performance of any male ownerof the car. Chevrolet had to shut down this car’s overseas advertisingquicker than Bob Dole can say “E.D.”There’s more than one way to unwittingly reverse soaring sales ofa product and Barry Cohen will share them at a Middlesex Chamberseminar entitled “10 Ways to Screw Up an Ad Campaign” onThursday,August 3, at 8 a.m. at the Clarion Hotel, Route 27, Edison. Cost:$30. Call 732-821-1700.Cohen is co-founder and a managing member of a three-year-old company,Ad Lab Media Communication LLC, in Clifton. A 1975 Kean Universitygraduate who majored in English with a speech and theater minor, Cohenstarted by selling ads for New Jersey and New York stations and evenmanaged a small station in Virginia. Ad Lab was created when hispartnerand co-founder wanted to start up an audio-video production company.It now focuses on the technology of advertising and how to help smallbusinesses plan and create successful ad campaigns.Besides avoiding the pitfalls of the infamous Nova story, Cohen saysthere is much to consider in planning an effective campaign, but thebasic idea is “to `out-advertise’ the competition, not outspendthem. It’s important to kick up the dust and get noticed,” Cohensays. There’s really no hocus-pocus to good advertising. Insteadthere’sa tangible formula that drives the results.In assessing good marketing practices, Cohen says, find out not justwhether the advertising measures up, but also whether the measurementyou use measures up: “You have to throw out the rules. Get downand dirty. Stop using cookie cutter formulas. You really can’t dowhat was done 40 years ago, especially since habits have changed somuch in society. Probably the last dad who came home from work, satdown in the living room and read the evening paper was WardCleaver.”Does that mean newspaper advertising is out? No, it just has to beup-to-date and used more effectively.People’s lives are compartmentalized with soccer practices, volunteercommitments, family, work, and so much more. “You’ve got to comeup with ways to keep up with the changes, exploit the strengths ofthe media you use, and create promotions that are larger than lifein order to spark your audience’s interest and make your campaigncome alive.”Cohen insists on saving 9 of his 10 actual tips for the seminar, buthe does offer mistake number one: Hiring your brother-in-law to doyour marketing.— Catherine MoscarelloTop Of PageWomen ScientistsThe Central Jersey chapter of the Association for Womenin Science, will meet on Thursday, August 3, at 6 p.m., at the WestWindsor Library, 333 North Post Road, for its annual mentoringsession,entitled “Guides and Guideposts.” The meeting is free; forinformation call Julia Heinrich at 732-235-5048 or JenniferSeamon at 732-235-5048 or E-mail: lczakja@umdnj.edu.Dues to this chapter are $10 for professionals and $5 for students,and members are not required to belong to the national organization(www.geocities.com/cjcawis)Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
