Big Money Train

Why is it that some marketing campaigns take your products to near overnight success and others just fail to make even a passing grade? How is it that some companies with fairly average products can become household names, while companies with better products and even more appealing pricing might not even register as a blip on consumers’ radars?

On the surface, most marketing campaigns look alike. They rely mainly on the same advertising vehicles, involve the same types of messages and tend to cost a fair amount of money no matter what.

The difference that really matters, in most cases, comes down to the techniques used in the campaign, and how those techniques are combined to give a particular campaign its own unique edge.

Common techniques can and do make sales. This is why they have become common. They do not, however, break records or catapult products to the top of sales charts. These techniques are simply missing the edge that the right mix of the right techniques can provide.

If you want to see your business grow, the techniques you use in your marketing will matter. Go with standard, straightforward tactics and your business will likely see some good results. Think on a deeper, more creative level, however, and the impact of the right marketing techniques will likely blow away expectations.

Consider some of the world’s most successful companies and the products they have to offer. The biggest burger chains do not necessarily have the best burgers in the world. The greatest selling sneakers might not be the most comfortable. The hottest rock bands might hurt people’s ears. Despite these apparent flaws, the products they offer sell and they sell well.

So, how do they do it? The companies that flourish at the pinnacle of their own industries use marketing techniques that are subtly different. While their ads might seem only slightly slicker than others, there is more to their strategy than that.

Companies that succeed in their marketing efforts appeal to people through:

• Symbols – Their logos and advertising designs appeal to people through symbolism. Whether it is by conscious effort or simply by chance, the right logos reach out and touch people on a subconscious level. When they receive the right message, people respond.

• Inborn responses – People, just like all other animals, are born with natural responses to certain things. When marketing triggers innate programming, people notice. They will sometimes do so whether they want to or not.

• Emotions – When you appeal to people on an emotional level, they will be sold. When you trigger natural emotions through your marketing, people gravitate toward your product. When your marketing makes people believe a product will make their family happy, provide them personal satisfaction, deliver fun, smiles, sex appeal or what have you, sales will follow.

Tried and true marketing techniques can build up your company and its product sales in a modest way. When it is time to take your efforts to a new and better level, you must appeal to customers in a different way. When campaigns reach out to people’s emotions, their inborn wiring or even their trust of certain symbols, the sky is often the limit.