Wednesday, October 31, 2012

How Different Businesses Can Gain From Online Animation

Motion graphics, as the name suggests, is graphical communication of a piece of information. It involves communication with the use of sounds, music, graphs, designs and texts. They are extensively used in online animation, which results in quick and easy advertisement of a product or services provided by a company.

Motion graphics communicates the information graphically making viewers doesn't feel the pressure of going through a commercial. Users, on the other hand, get the same feel as they would get after watching a live video.

How the usage of movement of graphics in online animation can help different sectors:

Education

Graphical representation of information can help education sector immensely. Large or complex subjects such as medicine and astrology can be taught well with the help of animation. For example, if pupils have to be told about our milky way or the anatomy of a human body animation can show a subject matter in varying proportion or highlight it to show its effect clearly to viewers and learners.

Real estate

Construction sectors can also look to gain from online animation. They can through moving graphics show their prospective clients what is yet to be constructed or which is still under construction. Viewers can, with animated graphics, get the same feel of a project as they would after visiting it in real. This means that viewers can virtually see what is otherwise not possible in reality and thus can go for a project after making an informed decision.

Training

Through motion graphics giving training to trainees becomes much easy. Animated cartoon characters can actually show the best way of doing or learning a course. For example, if trainees are to be told about a yoga session, an animated video can show the perfect way of taking a class. Similarly, if swimming is to be taught through video tutorials, animated characters can very well help trainees in this regard by showing the movement of their body in water.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Popular Advertising, Promotions and Marketing Tasks and Trends Today

Advertising, promotions and marketing tasks and trends have undergone a lot of change over the past few years. For example, while print newspaper publishing has seen a decline, one major trend today is more towards electronic media. Thus print ads are rapidly been replaced with digital advertisements.

"Advertising, promotions, and marketing will continue to be essential for organizations as they look to maintain and expand their share of the market". (BLS.GOV)

What Are Other Popular Advertising, Promotions and Marketing Tasks & Trends Today?

What's else is going on today in the world of marketing? Here are some trends and tasks performed in the industry:

1) A popular trend today is to target existing and potential customers using social media networks and other similar mediums. This helps establishments reach their targeted audience easily.

2) Today's advertisements need to be planned by the marketing managers so that they are able to reach their intended target. New strategies need to be developed based on the specific requirements of the product or service that is marketed.

3) Factors like market characteristics, cost and mode of media for advertising need to be identified so that it becomes easy for promotional activities to reach a wider audience. It is also advisable to develop a pricing strategy for the products that are been marketed.

4) Marketing campaigns can create interest among the customers using websites, social media and live chats. These promotional activities encourage existing and potential customers to open a channel of communication with the organization.

5) Multiple channels of communication that are opened with customers can help marketing mangers monitor trends for new products and services. This helps in determining the specific needs of the customer and ensures that the advertising strategy is successful.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Product/Service Distribution Channel Strategies in Marketing

Whether you're selling a service or a product, you need to figure out a way to get it to the customer. Sure, you need to first determine where the customer is and which distribution channel to follow, but after that comes the decision about your 'distribution strategy'.

"Isn't it odd that you don't address the strategy before everything else?"

Not really, because the strategy only pertains to the distribution channel.

Here are three options for you:

Intensive distribution

Aim - make it convenient for the masses to buy your stuff.

Place your good/service in as many places as possible so they are readily accessible. Fast moving consumer goods, like:
  • Bubblegum - to chew and stick in your sister's hair
  • Pencils - for gardening in your petite lawn
  • Milk - to compensate for the country-wide cow strike
  • Eggs - to splatter all over your kitchen floor so you can enjoy cleaning it with detergent
  • Detergent - to clean up the eggs, and
  • Toothpastes - if you're into hygiene and all.
Selective distribution

Aim - make it convenient for a smaller group of people to buy your stuff.

Based on the optimal profitability of each outlet, you select a handful of retail outlets or merchandisers to sell your good/service. For certain commodities, it is simply not economical to sell them at every store round the corner. Examples of these include:
  • Electronic appliances
  • Clothes
  • Shoes
  • Sports goods, etc.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Problems of Traditional Event Marketing and Finding Alternative Solutions

Traditional event marketing methods have taken a backseat. Organizations using traditional event marketing strategies are left behind in terms of products sale and acquiring new customers. In spite of spending millions of dollars on advertising, companies are not being able to generate effective leads as expected or converting them into loyal consumers.

Problems Faced Due to Traditional Event Marketing

Time Consuming

You need to have timelines in place to plan and design campaigns on how to market your products and services via newspapers, magazines, on television, and radio. Online marketing also takes some planning time; however, in comparison to traditional means, it is much less.

Quite Costly

Newspapers adverts are quiet an expensive investment and often you need to buy such ad space in bulk in order to get competitive rates. Television ad space is another high-priced domain; only the very best of organizations generating significant returns on investment choose to go with this medium. No Customization Option

You cannot suddenly customize an event campaign on a newspaper or magazine once it is printed. The only option you have is to write fresh and updated content and submit it to the newspaper agency to get it printed on the next issue.

The Solution

Online marketing methods are becoming increasingly popular day by day simply because they are much more user-friendly that allows you to promote events and activities within a shorter time span. Let's look at the benefits of online event marketing.

Takes Less Publication Time

You want to display an event campaign on Facebook within an hour. You can actually do it in minutes! You create the campaign and post it on your Facebook profile page and also on the relevant "Groups" pages if you feel like. The campaign gets live instantly and millions of people can view it anytime once they start browsing the site.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Print Media or Promotional Gifts?

In this information age, we all know how hard it has become to survive any business. Companies all around the world face an initial trouble of reaching their potential customers and make their business visible to more and more potential customers. So, the solution that comes above all of this trouble of reaching to potential customers is "advertisement and marketing" through various sources of advertisement and marketing. At early ages, when we talk about marketing, print media and billboards come prior to every possible unit of marketing, but do you think that this method of advertising is effective anymore in this information age? The answer would be NO!

Marketing through print media and billboards has become a very old and useless source of marketing. It is useless and ineffective in many ways. Let's take consider print media as your source of marketing for your product, company or brand. Following are a few things that highlight the ineffectiveness of advertising with through this old marketing source.

1. Not reaching the targeted customers

2. Limited advertisement

3. Huge budget

4. Outsourced marketing campaign

5. Less attraction

Not Reaching The Targeted Audience

Do the marketing and advertisement agencies that provide print media marketing solutions, offers you a guarantee that your advertisement would only be displayed to any particular group of people? Does your advertisement offer something different for every possible potential customer to you according to their area of interest? All these questions are answered by this simple sentence, "print media marketing campaign doesn't offer you a guarantee of reaching your targeted audience or potential customers".

Limited Advertisement

When you decide marketing your brand with print media, you queued up in a group of people ready to spend twice the budget of your whole business just to get priority among all other people queued up alongside you. However, your advertising budget is good to go and your print media advertisement is live on different sources of entertainment. But, the display time of your advertisement leaves a big question mark to your promotional marketing campaign. Do you think that in an ocean of entertainment world and competitors paying, your advertisement is good enough to distract attention of your potential customers towards you? Yes! You are right, the answer would be NO.

Huge Budget

The most important thing to consider for a success of any business is utilizing the "Capital" in such a manner the holds back your ROI above all. But, when you go through print media marketing, it really costs you a fortune. Most of the times the required budget of any print media advertisement is equivalent to the whole budget of any business, so spending that much on marketing and resulting a complete failure cannot allow any business to survive longer.

Outsourced Marketing Campaign

No one cares about your business any more than you by yourself, but you cannot go with a print media marketing strategy on your own. It would take you hiring a huge staff with a very decent amount of salaries and demands for your print media advertisement to kicked off and paying them won't be sufficient enough, Now you have to pay another print big amount to the media solutions providing agency which for sure takes your business another source of making money, no matter you do or you don't.

Less Attraction

The Nitty-Gritty of your advertisement is undoubtedly covered by then and left behind by the glittering models and their stardom. The viewers you are targeting are not attracted towards your products, brand or your name but are attracted towards the celebrity touch that you think can drive more attraction towards your business which for real is a big question mark.

Now! What is that you can do to promote your business and achieve those five important aspects of success to any business? Following are the five important parts that should consider prior to starting any marketing campaign.

1. Inexpensive and effective marketing

2. Reach the targeted audience

3. Advertisement under your supervision

4. Attractive marketing tool

Over the last decade we have seen various tricks and methods of marketing and advertisements, but what really stands out above all is giving away "promotional gifts". Companies all around the world use this simple and cost effective form of marketing but many of them results a failure by not choosing the right promotional gift for this information age. Using pen and mugs for promotion is far too old for advertisement and gaining attraction towards you and your product. Customers with this information age look for something different in you to get attracted and pick you out of millions of others trying to get their attention. You need to present yourself in such a manner that reflects an image of technically enhanced and up to date company and for this, nothing can favor you any better than USB memory sticks.

USB memory sticks which are commonly referred as Flash drives are small storage devices that can store tons of data and can be moved very easily in your pockets in a form of key chain and many other forms. USB memory sticks can be used very efficiently to advertise your brand in the form of branded USB, branded USB allows you to engrave, print and customize a Flash drive according to your product and niche of business and it helps you achieve the above 4 aspects of a successful marketing campaign.

Inexpensive and Effective Marketing

We all know that how easily these storage devices can be obtained from anywhere, and when bought in a bulk quantity it really affects your marketing budget not more than a bee sting and it really is an effective marketing tool. You can use it as a free giveaway in your press events and launch events so that the people and your potential customers would remember your event and company for a long time after leaving that venue. When you giveaway a branded USB as a promotional gift, it delivers an image that presents you and your company as an updated and technically enhanced company. It advertises your name in many ways, the most important and above all advertisement is your logo that has been engraved on the Flash drive. Whenever the recipient of the giveaway plugs in that media, your logo glows and flashes again and again and due to its tiny size it stays in front of your potential customers every time and we cannot underestimate the usefulness of Flash drives.

Targeted Audience

Considering the targeted audience is another important part of the advertisement and success of any marketing campaign. If you don't know your potential customer for you are unable to attract them by giving them something of their interest, then you cannot consider your advertisement as a successful campaign to drive more sales. Customizing USB memory sticks allow you to give something special to every group of your potential customers, let's consider how useful it could be given a football shaped Flash drive to a member of the football fan club. Customizing these Flash drives allows you to target every group of people according to there are of interest.

Advertisement Under own Supervision

Advertising through branded USB doesn't require any team of professional or any advertising agency that cost you a very huge budget. With branded USB you just have to give it away in your events which are commonly organized after every few months, so in that way now you are free of outsourcing your marketing campaign and save more and more money and focus on improving services with your saved money.