The New Breed of Marketing Professional...

As in any industry, marketing and advertising has evolved greatly over the past 30 years and continues to evolve at a unbelievable pace especially with the power of the internet and online marketing such as.....well this blog i am currently typing on.

Marketing professionals now must possess the knowledge of a history of advertising, knowledge about a variety of brands, as well as understanding how customers of various backgrounds and beliefs will react to your ad. With the sheer influence the media has on our society, the littlest mistake in the advertising culture will be elevated to one of grave consequences. Not only does the marketer need to possess the ability to attract readers and influence them to purchase a various product depending upon that ad but it is imperative for them to maintain the company image and understand the reaction this ad will cause as a result.

With the current economic state and companies wanting to ensure they are receiving the most for their money, the pressure on the marketing professional has never been more important. With every consumer dollar being so important and possibly determining the success of the organization, marketers need to determine the best course of action in advertising while maintaining their budgetary limits.

Marketers need to be a psychologist, sociologist, accountants, salespeople, and most of all graphic designers. Companies are beginning to demand their marketing professionals have the ability to not only visualize the advertisement to reach the intended target, but now they are required to be able to create it using various graphic design software. This puts added pressure onto the marketing professional because for over 50 years, marketing professionals always had a graphic designer to make their visions a reality. Graphic designers are now required to have the ability to not only make the advertisement come to life, but also be able to create a campaign from scratch. Marketers are required to understand what is the best possible campaign to reach customers through countless avenues such as direct mail, print, online, social media, and blog just to name a few. They are required to create a campaign that shows not only success in terms of revenue, but one which must possess a failure rate of "zero."

Pressure??? Not at all! This is what makes marketing and advertising one of the greatest fields to be employed. Evolution is the name of the game and if you are standing still, you are behind. But possibly we should change our titles from marketing professionals to MarkPsychoSocSalesCountDesigner .

Largest American Motorcycle Manufacter

Today in my hometown, the largest American manufacturer of motorcycles who i will remain nameless to protect myself from possible suits, announced they will not close one of their facilities. Excellent news for the state and county in which i live and for the countless number of friends who i have working at this location. But now i will deem into some not so good things regarding this organization.

First of all, given the current economic condition, something as novelty as a motorcycle will always suffer as the amount of disposable income of the general consumers decreases. it is just commonplace for individuals to tighten their wallets when pressed with tough times regarding how their bills will get paid. Given this current situation, these "novelty manufacturers" need to utilize their existing customer base to continue to drive the interest of their product. Similiar to what Microsoft utilizes with their "I'm a PC" advertisements and the newly developed "Windows 7 is my idea ads." If you convince the "target market" that a majority of customers are still loyal to your product, it creates a sense of security in those who are "on the fence" regarding making a "novelty" purchase and one that will require a substantial output from their wallet. What the problem is that this American manufacturer possesses the highest loyalty of almost any industry. Major issue is that they do not utilize this customer base in order to continue to build their brand.

Social networking is just the newest piece of the puzzle. If this manufacturer would utilize some intimate marketing tools such as incentive based marketing or even direct marketing endeavors, this would instill some semblance of confidence in their customer base and more importantly....their product.

Problem is that this manufacturer did what most American manufacturers did and that is become complacent and feel as if their brand "will stand the test of time" with no realization of the importance it takes to keep their customers at the top of their focus at all times. It is this complacentness that causes lapses in confidence which ultimately leads to a decrease in sales. scary part is that if they would have utilized aforementioned efforts in order to keep the confidence level to a high, then they would actually continue to build their market share and therefore not be in the financial trouble that is surrounding them and their business...

Hello and Welcome....

With the prevalence of such powerful marketing tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs and given the current economic state, it is more important then ever for companies to utilize these low cost tools in their marketing strategy.

However, more times then not, these organizations which consider the "tech savvy" demographic as their immediate focal point, miss out on opportunities to extend marketing endeavors to press the hot button of this targeted demographic.

Case in point is Black Friday 2009. This year has been one of the toughest on records and the importance of doing more with less is never been more prevalent. Given the sheer amount of consumers looking to technology to determine the "best possible deal," this leaves a tremendous opportunity for organizations to take their creative marketing endeavors to the next level.

With the media blitz that is Black Friday, consumers are flooded with a myriad of retailers claiming to have the best deal and these consumers are willing to wait in line for up to 24 hours just to save their money which has recently become "a higher commodity" then in previous years. It is more important then ever to develop a relationship with that consumer in order to ensure their confidence in your brand. A wonderful way to achieve this relationship is to make them feel they are receiving a deal exclusive to them. This is where the social networking aspect can come into play. Never has marketing had such ability to connect so directly with their consumer. As the recent survey stated, 1 in every 10 consumers is on twitter. More then that are on Facebook and with the constant increase in numbers of social networkers, never has the pipeline directly to the consumer been so open.

With that being said, this blog is dedicated to the Triumphs and Shortcomings made by those organizations in their attempt to capture the ever valuable dollar and more importantly, market share. Why do some companies always succeed, and why do some companies seem to be spinning their wheels?