Advertisement Ideas: Finding Your Why!!!

Advertising Ideas: Finding Your Why?

As I sat at lunch today (4/5/13) at The Progressive Black Men National Conference along with Clifford Townsend, a Mindset Coach and Speaker I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation by one of the alumni members about finding your why? As I listened to him speak about brotherhood and finding your why I thought what if a business could convey their why in advertising?

You can visit www.pbm1989.org to find out more information about Progressive Black Men and the work they are doing. You can even consider sponsoring them and having an opportunity to share your why. The key is to define your why.

In finding your why ask yourself why am I in this business? Ask why I opened my doors this morning? Ask why you are promoting what you are promoting. I have always stated that facts tell and stories sell. By having a why story you will resonate with people who can relate to you and thus want to do business with you. I am often asked JDOGG why do you do what you do? My answer is because I have a desire to help other people excel and I have learned if you help enough people get what they want you will get what you want. I also answer because I know that marketing works for people do business with those they know like and trust. By sharing your why with others they begin to know you, like you, and trust you. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Finding Your Why!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Capitalizing On UF, FGCU, UM And Heat!!!

Advertising Ideas: Capitalizing On UF, FGCU, UM, And Heat!!!

As this week unfolds the basketball world is a great place to turn to turn to see how you can drive business. Capitalizing on the success of UF, FGCU, UM, and The Heat seems to be a simple task as this is what many people are talking about. UF will play FGCU in a sweet 16 match up in The NCAA Tournament, UM advanced to the sweet 16 of The NCAA Tournament, and The Miami Heat are sitting at 26 victories in a row chasing the all time record of 33 in a row. The key is to find ways you can drive traffic with your advertising and create a buzz to strengthen your brand and build revenue. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Capitalizing On UF, FGCU, UM And Heat!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Let The Madness Begin!!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Let The Madness Begin!!!

Every March college basketball fans become very engaged with The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament filling out and charting the progress of their bracket picks. This had me thinking how are you as a business engaging your customers and keeping them engaged? One way to do this is to do a tie-in to March Madness in your advertising campaign. Have you thought about doing your own bracket contest, offering a special to those wearing their favorite college basketball jersey, or hosting a watch party. Today for example The University Of Miami Hurricanes will face University of Pacific and you could do a special promotion if The Hurricanes win or a contest to win Hurricanes Memorabilia. The possibilities are endless if you plan your marketing strategy, implement a marketing strategy, and then evaluate how well the strategy worked. Being proactive in the market place is the key to success. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Let The Madness Begin!!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Allstar Celebrity Apprentice Shows Value Of Contacts!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Allstar Celebrity Apprentice Shows Value of Contacts!!!

Trace Adkins and the other celebrities had been here before as they were past participants on The Celebrity Apprentice now it cam time to step it up for The Allstar Celebrity Apprentice. Trace was named a team captain and Brett Michaels was named a team captain and they chose sides. Trace I believe made the better choices as he knew the first task was going to be a fundraising task so he chose the people with the best money contacts. Trace’s team won the challenge and raised a record number of dollars for his charity, The American Red Cross. As trace began to call his Rolodex he also made a bold decision to not open the restaurant to the general public and make it exclusive to the celebrity contacts. Trace’s plan worked as a donation for T. Boone Pickens of $100,000 came in and many other donations came in totaling over $400,000. the other team did a great job raising over $200,000, however in the end Brett Michaels was fired. The lesson here is to leverage your contacts.

Advertisement Ideas: How To Leverage Your Contacts!!!

In watching The Allstar Celebrity Apprentice I learned that Donald Trump has a knack for leveraging his contacts. The question now is how do you leverage your contacts?

Are you using your phone to call upon customers/clients that maybe you haven’t seen in a while? Are you using the phone to follow up with someone you met at a networking event. By communicating with contacts you begin to build a network that can help you with your goals and objectives. This week make a list of 25 people who you will call to see how you can be of service and value to them. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Allstar Celebrity Apprentice Shows Value Of Contacts!!!

Advertisement Ideas: How To Be Perceived Positively In The Market Place?

Advertisement Ideas: How To Be Perceived Positively In The Market Place!!!

I recently goggled Peggy McColl after hearing her speak at The Superstar Summit in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I found many articles on the front page that called her a scam artist preying on the likes of aspiring authors.Other articles were written by her where she gave advice about becoming a best-selling author. I have never worked with her nor purchased any of her products thus I can not make a definitive judgement about her, however if I based my decisions on the articles I read I would have to think twice about giving her my money. This led me to the question of what are people saying about you? I also asked what is my reputation like? This then led me to give you tools for creating a positive image in the market place.

Advertisement Ideas: Tools To Create A Positive Image In The Market Place

1: Your greatest tool is yourself and how you interact with others. Maya Angelo wrote the following and I believe this tool can help you in creating a positive image in the market place.

2: Utilize your satisfied customers to tout you with written and video testimonials. If you click on the testimonials on this page you can see what people are saying about me.

3: Address the negative press immediately, For example when I was featured in the newspaper several years ago for a monopoly game that I was developing for The Coral Springs Jaycees that didn’t come out on time. I immediately addressed it and then when the game was produced and distributed a retraction was printed from the initial story. This issue taught me that you must be upfront and transparent especially when dealing with the press. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: How To Be Perceived Positively In The Market Place?

Advertisement Ideas: Stand Out By Honoring Commitments!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Stand Out By Honoring Commitments!!

The word commitment is defined as:

com·mit·ment

[ kə mítmənt ]

responsibility: something that takes up time or energy, especially an obligation
loyalty: devotion or dedication, e.g. to a cause, person, or relationship
previously planned engagement: a planned arrangement or activity that cannot be avoided

Synonyms: promise, pledge, vow, obligation, assurance, binder, word, guarantee, warrant

You may be asking yourself what does this have to do with advertising? The answer is simple as you should pledge to yourself to be committed to strengthening your brand through advertising. In many cases entrepreneurs and marketing directors wonder why their ad campaign is not working and the answer is simple they did not honor their commitment to build their brand. I have been selling advertising for many years and I have heard let me try it once and see how it works. This approach is not effective, you might as well just through your money into a public place with your business card attached because a one time ad may spike traffic or make your phone ring, however the key in advertising is frequency and consistency. The idea is to be fully committed to the campaign and find the proper venues to advertise in that will be synergistic with your message and reach your desired target audience.

When you make a commitment to promote your business you will see the positive results. I often visit my local Starbucks and have my business cards at the ready as you never know who you may meet and how you can be of service and value to each other. This is part of my commitment to promote who I am and what I do. Through this commitment to put myself out there I have picked up a few clients, secured announcing gigs, and strengthened my brand. Continue reading

Advertisement Ideas: Dominick’s Pizza: What Not To Do!!!

Those of you who read this blog know my affinity for Pizza and you also know my passion about promoting Pizza Restaurants that treat me right when I am asking for help with Relay For Life. Well this is an example of what not to do as illustrated by my recent trip to Dominick’s Pizza. It was about 1:15 PM in the afternoon on a Friday I was out collecting for The American Cancer Society Relay For Life of West Boca Raton and walked into Dominick’s Pizza and was promptly told “We are not interested,” to which I replied I guess you’re not interested in selling me 2 slices of pizza a garden salad and a unsweetened iced tea. I was told no and to leave the restaurant. I guess my purchase and the good will I would have brought to them wasn’t important. Each person I shared this with said the same thing oh Dominick’s their tough. So The lesson here is to realize everyone who walks through your doors is important and has the potential to be a customer and create new customers. Dominick’s gets a fail in this department and will not be receiving any of my business. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Dominick’s Pizza: What Not To Do!!!

Advertisement Ideas: KISS Delivers Important Message About Building Your Brand!!!

Advertisement Ideas: KISS Delivers Important Message About Building Your Brand!!!!

I remember when I was younger and my younger brother Joshua was a big KISS fan and we would listen to this song. Today as I listened to the lyrics I thought the message is to SHOUT OUT About who you are, what you do, and give people a reason to use your product or services. I started to think why do people buy NIKE Products when there are other brands that are just as good? The answer is because NIKE Shouts the loudest and is constantly on the top of the mind of the consumer. Every where you look during a sporting event NIKE Has some type of presence. NIKE has also aligned itself with very well-known celebrities and athletes to build credibility.

You may be thinking but I don’t have a NIKE type budget. I am here to tell you yes it would be nice to have a NIKE type budget, however you can shout it out loud with your budget. I visit with many smaller businesses on a regular basis and the biggest excuse I hear when it comes to advertising is I don’t have a budget for that. I then ask do you have a marketing and advertising budget and yes there is a difference marketing is about building a brand so that when someone is ready to purchase your product or service they will choose you first. Advertising is promoting offers to drive traffic so you see a return on your investment. Many times I am told no. This is one of my pet peeves as I ask in mind how do you open a business and stay in business without setting aside some money to reach your desired target audience? I have encountered many people who don’t know who their target audience and I then ask them to give me a profile of who their customer is and they say everyone to which I reply your target audience can not be everyone for this is to broad of a spectrum to tackle. One must have a budget and know who their target audience is of they are to be successful. I ask businesses all the time how are you marketing and advertising and they tell me word of mouth. Word of mouth is okay however it must be augmented with other strategies because not everyone who needs your product or service is going to know your current customers. In order to shout it out loud you must have a strategic plan and you must find what your potential clients/customers are reading, watching, listening to, visiting on-line, and what they desire. A great way to shout it out loud is to answer the question of what problem do I solve in my clients/customers lives? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: KISS Delivers Important Message About Building Your Brand!!!

Advertisement Ideas: What’s Your Problem?

As you begin to develop you advertising program you must recognize your problem and understand how a properly planned and implemented advertising program will solve the problem. When I approach people to advertise with the many avenues that I represent like www.labonitakidz.com, www.miamifuryfootball.com, or www.spicemiami.com, I hear I am not interested or that type of marketing and advertising won’t work for me. That is a part of the problem as your lack of interest may have just cost you the potential to reach new people and thus strengthen your brand or you may have decided that it won’t work for you and lost out on an opportunity to work with someone who can make it work for you. I hear I can’t afford to ad more advertising at this time to which I say what if you were to cut what you are doing with someone else in half for example instead of a full-page ad with them runs a 1/2 page with them and run a 1/4 page with me and then you can run 1/4 page somewhere else thus giving you more exposure in the market place. I hear things are slow and I can’t afford to advertise. To this I say advertising should be done when it is slow and when it is busy as the consumer perceives that a business that is advertising is a strong business. So now what is your problem? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: What’s Your Problem?

Advertisement Ideas: What Does Trump Have That You Don’t?

Advertisement Ideas:What Does Trump Have That You Don’t?

I think of Donald Trump and I see the living example of branding. Trump knew that if he was going to be successful he had to brand himself and create a buzz about who he was and what he did. This got me to thinking what does Trump have that you don’t? The answer was a following created by using public relations effectively and marketing savvy. Trump is in the news nearly everyday as he has become the man who media people go to for opinions on almost everything. He speaks his mind and makes a spectacle of himself on many occasion however he has built a brand that is synonymous with wealth and royalty. He did this over many years by continually promoting. He also built relationships with those that could be of service and value to him while also providing service and value. Donald Trump has also surrounded himself with other successful people who he can go to for help when he needs to. He may come across as brash and arrogant but who would you go to to invest with? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: What Does Trump Have That You Don’t?