Hard-Target Marketing Techniques

As you now understand, this paradigm is an integration of what we have learned from traditional brand advertising and direct mail, coupled with the awesome targeting and relationship-building powers unleashed by the digital revolution and the Internet.

Here are some HTM techniques that can improve our odds in a marketing environment filling with more clutter every day.

Market Vision

Timing is the sine qua non of success. Only a handful of lonely joggers pounded pavement before Jim Fixx. Prior to Steven Jobs, few could visualize the personal relevance of personal computers.

Our goal is to understand the prospect’s evolving perceptions, to learn about her pain, fears, frustrations, and goals. We study how she gathers opinions to guide decision making and her risk-taking style. We concern ourselves with macro-industry trends.

How do we become nosey neighbors? The ubiquitous Internet presents us with worldwide access to market and competitive information.

Another way is through surveys. An executive audit crystallizes perceptions of those closest to the market. I have discovered phenomenal insights by asking different executives from the same company to independently respond to similar survey questions about their products, customers and competition.

Finally, we must keep a wary eye on competition because competitive actions can devalue our product and lead quickly to obsolescence. The best way to spy on the enemy is to become customers of our competitors.

Segmentation

Won’t the world be a better place when we no longer receive mail offering us stuff we don’t need or want? That’s junk mail, and I believe most of it is going the way of typesetting service bureaus. Although I’ve asserted that marketing is getting tougher, segmentation is going to make our lives easier.

The more information we gather about customers, the more precise our targeting, and the greater our capacity to eliminate people who can’t or won’t become customers in the future.

Again, the Internet is opening doors to instantaneous opinion research, and it is enabling marketers to precisely measure purchase behavior.

To see brilliantly powerful segmentation in action, visit www.bizrate.com on the Internet. You’ll discover helpful consumer information to guide your own Internet purchases, and, when you peer incisively behind the curtains, you’ll discover a penetrating new model for building customer segments.

Multi-Media/Multi-Channels

To lead someone to a sale, we must construct multiple, positive "brand contacts" and deploy these integrated messages in a limited period. Consider a hypothetical decision-maker who is being sought by an audio-visual production company.

The executive becomes aware of the A-V firm’s services through a personal letter of introduction. During the same week, he notices the firm’s trade advertisement in a local magazine. Then he attends a fund-raising project sponsored by Junior Achievement, and he recognizes logo T-shirts worn by a camera crew. He reads the Sunday newspaper a few days later to see an article featuring the president of the A-V company.

During the following week, he receives a telephone call from one of the firm’s principals, who requests an appointment to review capabilities. An eye-catching PowerPoint presentation includes graphics and images similar to trade advertisements. A few days later, he receives a thank you card for his hospitality.

Marketing Integration

Fundamental to success with multi-media/multi-channel marketing is to integrate messages and graphics. The challenge is to develop a logo/communication theme that works flexibly when printed on a Mont Blanc pen, a self-mailer or a giant billboard.

Integration means that a direct mail flier reminds the reader of trade ads, and print advertising has the same look and feel of promotional merchandise. Press interviews include comments by a company principal that evoke a campaign theme. A Web site provides congruent details to further develop brand relationships.

Co-Promotion

Read the plethora of press releases sent over the Internet from PR Newswire, and you’ll see daily announcements for new strategic alliances. Companies are forging mutually beneficial partnerships to create a whole larger than the sum of the parts. They are pooling marketing resources to reach wider segments of potential customers and to generate favorable news. In the process, they are giving prospective customers greater value, while rewarding loyalty.

By bringing two or more brands together, we enhance visibility and perceived value of each participating sponsor. We also leverage two marketing budgets and achieve greater "share of voice."

Furthermore, consolidating budgets among two or several advertisers often introduces a synergy effect that attracts media attention. The novelty and excitement created by intelligently conceived cross promotions often fascinates the press and stimulates positive coverage.

A Time of Hard Decisions

As we begin a new millennium, it’s not enough to be savvy about direct response strategies. We must also understand brand building. Our advertising colleagues can’t be as successful if they seek creativity for its own sake while ignoring response tactics. The convergence of these disciplines, in concert with burgeoning digital personalization technologies, puts consumers in our crosshairs and helps us more successfully pull the response trigger.