Sponsorship of beloved non-profit organizations is a time honored marketing strategy. Here is how one local business sprayed it on....

They say that the “average” person is exposed to 3000+ advertising messages per day. With so many messages out there, how do you get a consumer to remember your company when they are ready to make a purchase?

There are two basic ways to remember things: rote memory (repeating something over and over again) and associative memory (tying two or more things together in your mind). Associative memory is more reliable, so don’t underestimate it's importance – it could mean the difference between being remembered and being forgotten.

It was a “once-in-a-lifetime event for Muggles…” according to the Forecaster, posing as the Daily Prophet for the first ever Mugglefest.

Last Friday Portland celebrated the release of the final Harry Potter book with a 12 hour event filled with marketing opportunities for non-profit and for-profit Maine organizations.

Ask your customers how they feel about your services and products.

Marketing is all about being on the top of your customer's mind. That is done by frequently "touching" your customers. A change in your business is a great reason to reach out and touch your customers.

I leaned a new word this week - Wikinomics. That doesn't mean I know exactly what it means...but I'm told it is synonymous with 'Crowdsourcing'. Does that help?

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to so-called marketing experts carry on about where to put your marketing dollars: TV? Radio? Print?

While these traditional forms of advertising can be effective, this broad reach can be very costly, and not always effective for small businesses.

Break through the clutter with Special Event Marketing

Special event marketing encompasses many things. Here are some out-of-the-box ideas that will combine your brand with an enjoyable experience:

Are you marketing to families with children?

Why not sponsor your town little league team or ask the cheerleading squad to toss embroidered baseball hats to the high school football crowd. Minor league or college sports teams are often looking for ways to add excitement to games. Promote your business by giving out custom printed sports towels, balloons, pom-poms or even team-spirit face paint to the first 500 people to enter the game.

Are you marketing to businesses?

Book yourself a speaking gig or sponsor a meeting that’s attended by your target audience. Give out useful swag with your contact information on it –functional items that your prospects will carry in their pockets, use at their desks or take with them when they travel.

Are you looking to increase traffic at your retail establishment?

Try a grand opening, grand re-opening, anniversary celebration or ‘neighborhood’ block party! Offer a raffle gift, an ice cream social and an opportunity for personal and professional networking. Decorate with balloons and offer one-day-only specials. Send out press releases, make posters or promote the event through other marketing channels.

Special event marketing creates buzz, builds loyalty and generates goodwill among your target audience – and because it’s non-traditional, it can be designed to work with your budget!

What business would not love an effective and free marketing method? Create a buzz by getting your customers to talk about you. There are two easy steps: earn their respect and recommendation and “be interesting or be invisible.”

In a firm I was involved with a few years ago, we tried very hard to analyze advertising expenditures. Was it effective? Should we do more Radio or Print or both? Should we increase the Ad budget? Reduce it? Spend more on direct mail? What is competition doing? It was a painful exercise.

We were almost paralyzed with indecision since we weren’t sure exactly what worked or not and were afraid to experiment with something so delicate. We kept asking ourselves the same question over and over – What influences a customer to come in and make a purchase?

A Return on Investment for Marketing (Marketing ROI) is a touchy subject for many business managers and owners. Can a Marketing ROI be negative?

The largest segment of the promotional products industry is corporate apparel (29.5%). Maybe it’s because when you give an employee logo apparel some great things happen: they feel appreciated, they look and feel like part of a team -- and they become walking, talking billboards for your brand!

While classic sales techniques push you to close the sale, patience pays.

Have you purchased or received any gift cards recently? With the holiday season here, chances are becoming more and more likely that your answer is yes. This is due to the growing popularity, convenience and use of gift cards. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Gift Card Survey, over two-thirds of consumers (79.7%) plan on purchasing at least one gift card this year. The average consumer will spend $116.51 on gifts cards in 2006.

'Tis the season to join together and prosper.

I nearly fell out of my chair last month when I heard that Google had paid $1.65 billion (that's billion with a B) for YouTube. I wondered how they'd ever see any return on that investment. But then I saw the demographic breakdown of YouTube users.

Has your company clearly defined its top 100, 150 or 250 (or more!) stakeholders, customers, clients or others for your business to be successful? Is there a high-touch marketing strategy or plan in place to develop and/or cultivate strong relationships with these key partners?

Although there’s nary a snowflake in sight, it’s coming. Sooner than you think. In fact, if you want to know exactly how many hours before Christmas, you can check here.

Although as a parent I have been warned in print, on the broadcast news and now through my town's community programs about the danger of myspace.com, as a marketer I adore the site.

Competitive advantage is something many organizations of all sizes and industries would point to as important in order for them to be successful. Having competitive advantage can be about having services, products or processes that separate your organization from the others who are trying to reach your target customers.

My last blog entry encouraged marketers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tell consumers of their efforts. A reader correctly cautioned marketers to beware of greenwashing.

What is greenwashing? It's when your claims of environmental-friendliness outstrip the reality of your environmental impact. It's selling the sizzle without the veggie burger.

Pulling together a strategic marketing plan for an organization and executing on it can be a real competitive advantage. If your organization hasn’t pulled together a strategic marketing plan, the good news is that it doesn’t have to require a huge amount of time or resources to provide a positive impact. In fact, some real basic strategic planning can be done in a fairly short amount of time. I’ve been involved in some very short (2 to 3 hour) planning sessions for organizations that hadn’t used any formal process in the past. These short sessions provided concrete feedback and direction that the organizations were able to apply to their business or strategy immediately.