At Omni, we like to refer to clients’ marketing programs as their ‘tool box’. There are many tools you can use, but just as you would not use a hammer when a screwdriver is needed, neither do all marketing tools work for all clients or all situation.

You have to determine what each tool is used for and what result you want from it. And you have to understand how the tools work – there is passive marketing and aggressive marketing. Some marketing simply creates under the radar buzz (a poster in your store’s window), some marketing efforts shout at you (TV or Radio Ads), some just want to be friends (Facebook).

Know what you want to achieve, what is possible with the media you have chosen to deliver the message, and how you want your target audience to react. But then there is that measurement issue… senior decision makers want to know if the dollars going out translate into dollars coming in to the company – ROI.

With a specific time-sensitive event, such as a clearance sale this weekend only, you can measure the effectiveness of your advertising by how many people visit your store and asking them how they heard about the sale. That is an easy way to measure, although not 100% accurate – many times it is the layering effect of multiple media channels and the one that is recalled may just have been the last one seen. Most marketers would cringe to hear the reason a customer came in was because of the giant inflatable monster at the store entrance!

But social media is different. First you have to accept social media is not a direct means to simply sell – it is designed to create a conversation and become a brand builder for your organization. It is an ideal way to show your service to customers. Ultimately, those actions will reap benefits, much like the top-notch greeter or receptionist who makes every visitor feel like royalty. Those are marketing moments you can build on that are part of the toolbox, but they are not the only tool.

Social media is not the same as traditional forms of marketing; the process for engagement and contact is different. But, it still is highly valuable in how it can develop new opportunities and new loyal customers, it just takes time.

If you use social media with the expectation of making a sale or generating a qualified direct lead, it can seem counter-productive. However, if you understand how to fold social media into a marketing toolbox and use this tool for the specific purpose of creating a connection with your customers, it will build your foundation and your brand.

Everyone is waiting, watching, wondering anxiously when the next shoe will fall, or even if it will fall. We have seen some businesses pull up the welcome mat and huddle behind their walls waiting out the storm. We have watched others take advantage of the recession and see the glass as half full.

While we do not subscribe to the philosophy of overspending wildly on marketing, (yes, you heard it from a marketing firm!), history tells us that those who continue to spend strategically on their marketing efforts will not just stay in the game, but be far ahead of their competitors when the economic pendulum swings back.

But that is the key concept: Spend Strategically. Don’t waste a good recession on doing the same old things the same old way; work with people who can give you a fresh perspective on targeting your customers.

Basically, all the things you ignore when you are too busy in the good times are things you can and should do now – upgrade software, revamp your website, overhaul your internal processes, conduct research about your industry and your target markets.

Take advantage of the downturn and make use of these extraordinary times to become an extraordinary business!

Omni has been a huge part of our business success.  We are entering our third year of business and are expanding again.

Mike Heren, President

Kathy Wheeler, director of media services at Omni Communications Group, agreed with this approach.  Omni uses social media – Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube – as a way to build relationships, generate interest and educate readers, not necessarily to directly promote its company.

Springfield Business Journal, from Local companies find social media to be winning move

I am among those who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. (Sorry sports fans.) I am usually under-whelmed, and this year is no exception. The hype and dollars spent just don’t live up to the reality. What I found was an overwhelming percentage of spots devoid of any real creativity and meaningful marketing messages, instead giving in to stereotypes of men, women, and generally stupid behavior. Don’t even get me started on the bipolarity of Anheuser Busch doing ads about partying once Budweiser pops into the picture, and then flashing a tiny “drink responsibly” tagline on the screen at the end.  There were a few bright spots, namely the Google “Parisian Love” search ad; it told a great story while demonstrating its functionality and benefits of the product (brilliant marketing!).

Makes me long for the days of Apple computer’s unveiling of the Mac computer. That was ground-breaking, trend-setting, interesting, and actually made the audience seem a little higher up on the intelligence scale than ‘beer=party=stupid’.  And while I initially found the Doritos’s dog bark collar spot funny, it still ultimately poked fun at a stereotypical jerky guy getting his comeuppance after teasing a dog. The beaver ad for Monster.com was funny and cute, but don’t we always see ads with humanized critters? Nothing new here.

I’m not sure if it’s the large billion-dollar clients calling the shots and directing financially at-risk advertising agencies to do these commercials, or just a total dearth of real intelligent marketing by these firms.  But I have hope that a continuously challenging economy will actually make people turn away from cheap stereotypical advertising and do something smart and interesting. Like Google did. There’s always Super Bowl 45, right?

Case in point. A small midwestern town known for its from-the-heartland beef and potatoes fare, ventures out on the culinary highway to open a Sushi Bar. By all accounts, this is food liked by many folks regardless of geography. But let’s face it, those new to it may be just a little bit wary, right? So why would one choose to put this image on their window to promote sushi? A marketing moment that makes you go “hmmmmmmm, what were they thinking?”!

I read an interesting article this past week by Matthew Boyle in Business Week (“The Accidental Hero“) about a Subway franchise stumbling upon a great sales idea and the process they undertook to take the idea to upper management for use in a national launch.

The intriguing aspect was the guerilla-style marketing approach of the franchisee to handle the challenge of a sagging economy and slow sales by simply reducing their footlong sub cost to $5…  For his insight, he and other franchisees who followed suit achieved record sales, increased profits, productive staff. Sounds good, right? An easy sell? For the public, yes. Long lines at the stores to get the sandwich.

It took a little more convincing of the franchise leadership before being rolled out nationally. Certainly the process defied many standard marketing protocols – no research to back up the program rationale, advertising campaigns that came after the launch of the sales promotion in many locations, not one that coincided with them. And yet, it has propelled the chains’ sales into the stratosphere. Partly because the franchisee was willing to take a risk, and while he did not conduct exhaustive studies first, he did comply with the first golden rule of marketing – KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. He knew that an inexpensive sandwich you could share with a friend or save half for dinner later was a novel but realistic way that consumers are saving money in a slumping economy.

Sometimes a good idea is just that – a good idea. While I am the first to promote marketing as a tool to grow business, and spending time making a strategy, you have to have a good product AND a good strategy to make it work. And no amount of scientific analysis will make a bad product sellable. No amount of creative, ground-breaking advertising will make a bad product succeed over time, especially if the ad concept is more intriguing than the product. (Think of most Superbowl ads — memorable ads, but what were they selling again?)

Kudos to Subway for coming up with a winner, despite the novel approach to getting there. And uber-kudos to the franchise owner (Stuart Frankel of Florida) who followed his marketing instincts without all the hoopla.