Marketing can sometimes seem like a mind boggle but here we have found a few tips from the big corporations in business that you can apply today.
Marketing veteran Rob Schuham spends a lot of time encouraging big brands to act like small companies. Be nimble, he advises, be creative, be agile. Take a risk, he tells them, and act like a startup.
And when major clients on his roster at Boulder-based Match Action Marketing have listened to his counsel, they’ve backed some groundbreaking campaigns that are instructive not only for their Fortune 100 brethren, but to the little guys, as well.
“If you get a marketing program right, you can set a category on its head,” said Schuham, CEO of Match Action. “The big guys have scale, so they can be kind of a beta test for innovative marketing. Small companies can find useful data points and adapt some of those tactics for their own purposes.” The Match Action team created the Ford Fiesta Movement, a step out of the behemoth car maker’s comfort zone, blending digital and social media with live events. The experiential marketing program, launched four years ago, has become an annual event and a calling card for the agency and the brand. SEE ALSO: 7 Bootstrapping Tips for the Resourceful Small Business
“We didn’t want to overly commercialize it — we wanted it to be really accessible and engaging,” Schuham said. “At its heart, it’s about storytelling and building communities, and lots of startups took cues from that.” Forget about David vs. Goliath. Marketing mavens say small companies can and do learn valuable lessons from their muscular, deep-pocketed rivals. In conversations with Mashable, several executives pointed to experiential marketing, real-time marketing, brand building, storytelling and social sharing as tactics that startups are cribbing successfully from the big guys. Those that aren’t yet mimicking the A-list marketers like Apple, Nike, Starbucks andMercedes might want to take note of some best, most adaptable practices.
1. Go for the experience to bring the brand to life Major brands, in the past, have considered sponsorships and live events to be an important part of their marketing mix. The pendulum swung the other way in recent times, however, when some companies didn’t see enough perceived return for their high-dollar investments. But there’s a renaissance going on now, said Gaston Legorburu, worldwide chief creative officer for ad firm SapientNitro, because a well-executed event or stunt can make a huge impression via social media. “It’s important for small business to realize that they can compete in experiential marketing,” Legorburu said. “It’s not just about the splash, it’s about the ripples. If you connect with consumers emotionally, give them an experience they want to talk about and share, that can have significant impact. It’s not just the event itself, it’s the amplification.”
Read More Here: http://mashable.com/2014/07/14/marketing-small-business-big-brands/
