08:48 AM PDT on Tuesday, June 6, 2006

By Terry Corbell

Successful marketing is like air warfare. You have to control the skies with advertising and public relations to soften the target before the sales infantry goes into action.

There are many ways to accomplish successful marketing. Reminiscent of a 1950’s Jack Benny TV show, product placements are in vogue on network television. TNS Media Intelligence reports each primetime hour consists of 35 percent marketing messages. That’s 17.5 minutes of commercials and nearly 3.25 minutes product placements every 60 minutes.

But that contributes to consumer overload and is a symptom of why marketing has become more difficult. Virtually all businesses have been searching for better ways to cut through the clutter of competition.

Change is problematic for marketers, too. You have to be able to adjust to competition and dynamic changes in the marketplace by repositioning your company. You also have to have a good sense of timing in knowing when to make changes and allow enough time to for the process to work. But you also need to connect to the past by maintaining your company’s legacy in your customers’ memory banks.

For years we’ve heard about various types of marketing research from segmentation to positioning. Our marketing vernacular has also included demand estimation, distribution channels, price elasticity, and tools for interactive technologies. Not to mention advertising and promotion.

Advertising reminds customers about the benefits of your products, enhance your image, and build sales. Companies have been searching for something new because the old ways of advertising and promotion need to be complemented with new tools in generating new customers.

So what’s the newest trend in marketing? It’s going back to the basics – word of mouth marketing. That’s the umbrella term for an infinite number of techniques to make sales. Basically, you need to establish a dialogue. So listen to customers and give them their due consideration, respect and recognition.

With the ever-increasing consumer overload, there’s more fragmentation. Fewer people are going to the movies.  Whether it’s a movie or a pizza, consumers are getting what they want, when they want, where they want, and how they want. And they tell their friends all about it.

Keller Fay Group, a word-of-mouth research and consulting firm, reports the average person will talk about products or famous personalities 56 times a week.

The most powerful tool is still face-to-face messages. Not to slight the power of the Internet, but you need to give consumers reasons to talk about you in the lunch room. After all, they spend more time at work than surfing online. But the Internet is helping to get people to communicate, especially the elusive 18-to-34-year-olds.

A published report quoted Banc of America Securities analyst John McDonald stating bank earnings will be flat. Home equity loans are down. So are deposits while unrealized securities losses are up, as are consumer bankruptcies. So banks are pursuing new opportunities. Many are chasing younger consumers.

Generation Y customers, 18-to-24-year-olds, aren’t flush with cash but they’re being targeted by such banks. Banks are hoping to attract young college students before they become highly paid professionals.

Financial institutions know they’re mobile and want fast, free services. They also heavily use the Internet; 82 percent did the past two years, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study.

Some 69 percent of young bank customers banked with the same institution after graduation, according to a survey by Synergistics Research.

To maximize your Internet potential, you need to recruit bloggers and centers of influence – people who can send business your way. So give such influential people special offers and super customer service. Encourage customers to tell their friends and family members and to blog online. Participate in the blogs and track results of the conversations.

Once you establish a conversation with customers you can co-create a buying decision with them. Along the way, your selling process will be made easier if you create a happy buying environment by encouraging customers to try-and-buy. But that’s not really a new concept. Why else do food companies give away products at Costco or why do car dealers love to give you a test drive.

A retail marketing services firm, Mass Connections, conducted a 140-page study last year. It concluded that more than 75 percent of consumers bought products after sampling them.

Online tutorials also result in consumers buying products. That’s another marketing trend that illustrates consumers want to try out products and not be an object of a sales pitch.

Sony is one company that’s selling products to consumers after they buy an online tutorial. In fact, online consumer education can generate almost 300 percent more ROI than traditional methods. Next Century Media sponsored by Powered surveyed 200,000 people, who showed that they’re 29 times more inclined to purchase products after taking such a course as opposed to traditional media promotions.

The key is control and not to allow a third party to conduct the training.

For the second of this year, GlobalSpec forecasts 56 percent of manufacturers will spend more on online marketing. Seven percent will cut online spending. More than a third will spend at least half their marketing budgets online.

From the Coach’s Corner, are you a marketing professional poised for peak performance?

Writer Suzanne Lowe has some dynamic thoughts for personal improvement in her article, “Five Goals of Effective Chief Marketing Officers.”

Here’s the link: http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/lowe1.asp.