Is it Marketing, Promotion or Advertising?
In the years I've been in business I realize that people are using words without understanding what they mean. In some instances, it's not understanding what they need. Case in point is what are marketing, promotion and advertising? If you're a business, it's different ways to communicate that you have something to sell. If you're a nonprofit, it's the means to let people know you offer a social service.
Advertising is a message placed in the media that you paid for. You know that people listen, read or watch a particular TV show, blog, radio station or website. So you pay to air an infomercial or buy the front inside page of a magazine. You say eveyone knows that but not true. Some people confuse advertsing with marketing. This may happen because there are elements of marketing in the bought space. Marketing is anything used to induce a sale or reward a sale.
Marketing is keeping your office clean; it's offering refreshments to your customer while she decides on a hairstyle and it's giving a rebate for buying a big-ticket item now rather than later. Marketing communication is the skillful use of words to conjure images and bring out emotions. Some marketing communication is worn from overuse. For example, "I'm not trying to rush you; it's just that I'm walking to the closet now and can bring the shoes back with me." I tried this trick at a bazaar. I kept asking this woman, "Put the dress in the bag?" She was pleased that the dresses were only twenty dollars. I had placed three dresses in the bag after the chief vendor had bagged the first dress.
Promotion, or public relations, is visibility and brand recognition through FREE message placement in the media. The key to placement is news worthiness or notoriety. Nonprofits have an easier time with placement than businesses because they are offering a free or low cost needed service. The trouble is many nonprofits don't submit press releases. Businesses are sweating for PR; it's free advertising. I was approached by a diamond jeweler to get a story in a newspaper about his beautiful rings. After some questioning to find a plausible news angle, I had to tell him that the newspaper in question would want the jeweler to buy advertising space. The jeweler was frustrated by this because he knew of another business that had a story in the newspaper. I pointed out that the other business did community service and held a free business class. These activities were seen as newsworthy. After all, the media stays in existence through advertising. Advertising is bought because many people like a type of story.
The ideal situation is finding the right balance between advertising, marketing and promotion to keep the sales coming. Advertising is necessary. There's no getting around it. If you can develop good will from marketing--offering a discount, doing free delivery--do it.
There are people who still say that what I've written is stale. I say that there are too many people who don't know or haven't got the terms straight in their minds.
Labels: advertising, marcom, marketing, media, promotion, radio, Web 2.0
Getting Too Social on Social Media
This column has extolled the democratization of news, opinion and commerce through social media; i.e., everyone has a chance to sell their product and give a piece of their mind.
One,
Save Darfur,
Just 8 Bucks and
Current TV have been featured because of their taking-the-message-to-the-street approach. They take the message to the streets and ask the people to construct and launch the plan.
Current TV is the place to upload your news program, drama or music video, as is
YouTube.
MySpace is another social media. Many poets, musicians and singers use it to develop a fan base. Even dancers and health and fitness professionals are using it to showcase their practice. People get very creative with the photo galleries, music videos and wallpaper that dress their space. The issue there’s a lot of flirting happening that can lead to trouble.
MySpace is helps people find people. The search tool has a variety of demographic criteria to choose from—two being one’s marital status and sexual orientation-- and a user indicates whether she’s looking for friends, romance, networking or business opportunities. Some
MySpace pages are actually recruiting halls for prostitutes. They may explain that they seek dancers, models or extras for music videos. The true purpose is securing new faces, new bodies. Similar to flyers, newspaper and magazine ads, people have to be careful about what they respond to. This columnist has a
MySpace page and occasionally gets requests to be “Friends” with men who seek romance or friendship. My profile explains I seek to network.
The online world is very interesting because it offers boundless possibilities for immense good in the world. Petitions are sent around the world to stem hunger, poverty, disease and torture. Small donations from thousands of people have covered the cost of full-page ads in the world’s major newspapers. Using the words of a sergeant in Hill Street Blues, “Let’s be careful out there.”
Labels: DYI, MySpace, prostitution, social media, Web 2.0
Dateline NBC: Talk About High Tailing It
By the year 2007, most Americans with email accounts have received at least one emailed letter from a foreign banker, lawyer or relative of a deceased Third World ruler that requests your assistance in moving a huge sum of money. Sometimes the letter asks that the money be moved into your account; others request that you assist in moving the sum to another account. Most of us delete these messages but there are the hopeful few—and greedy—that believe that this message is their ticket to riches. Maybe it’s the belief that this person from the Third World is just so unsophisticated, trusting or desperate that this must be a genuine cry for help. Don’t believe that an African mailing address spells s-t-u-p-i-d. These email scammers are banking on the buckshot theory that they’ll connect with some greedy or naïve person from the thousands of emails they send weekly.
This column covered this subject four years ago. Apparently, there are so many Americans getting swindled that
Dateline NBC had to cover it. The August 12, 2007 Sunday edition featured a segment called
to catch_a con man. Chris Hansen was the investigative reporter and TV presenter. The segment included copies of emailed request, interviews with FBI agents and undercover filming of emailing scam cyber centers.
In classic
60 Minutes style,
Dateline NBC showed meetings with three email scammers wherein the scammers are told the truth about the meetings; the reporter reveals his true identity and the camera crew comes out of hiding. In one instance, the exposed scammer literally
high tails it from the meeting place. Imagine a grown man running down the street despite the fact that his face has been filmed. The other two men maintained some semblance of dignity by returning the money and walking from the meeting place.
This particular type of email scam has become the specialty of certain Nigerian men to a point that the FBI calls them “Nigerian scams.” Africa receives minimal coverage in American media. Interested people must use a search engine to find the websites that contain news stories from and about the African continent. When the continent makes network news it tends to be about civil unrest or famine. Maybe there should an email campaign from America directed at these men to consider national (Nigeria) and ethnic (African / African American) pride and quit the scamming.
Joking aside, the scam is financially hurting people. There are online resources for those who’ve been scammed and for those who want to avoid being scammed.
Looks Too Good To Be True,
http://www.lookstogoodtobetrue.com/ gives basic advice for avoiding online predators. The site also has a Fraud Risk test. The FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center collaborate to operate the
Internet Crime Complaint website,
http://www.ic3.gov/. Besides describing the various scams existing on websites and email, this website is the place to file a complaint.
Labels: 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, email scams, FBI, greed, money transfer, Nigerian scams
