Why Twitter Users Are Better Marketeers

Aside from being a great social media tool to gain up-to-date information in your industry, Twitter has many undisclosed utilities to marketing experts.

• You can study the impact of a message, copywriters, this one is for you! Look at the twitter replies and traffic generated to links, study the top tweets - you can get a good idea on what triggers the public's interest; a good lesson on how to formulate your slogans. 

• You know the reach of every user, you can study his impact as well. Use tools like klout. Who is a thought leader, and why? If you can identify them online, it would be easier to identify them in the real world.

• You can measure the frequency of every tweet, and how long it takes to generate an action... and this to me, is the most important point. We all get dragged by following trending hashtags and discussions, we all end up clicking that link that keeps getting retweeted. The question is, what frequency does it take?

I would say all three factors play a role. It takes a credible source (tweep), an intriguing tweet, and a certain frequency to incite people for action. 

All eyes on Twitter, watch and learn!

The Timeliness of Profit

"Profit is a function of time" as simple as this phrase may sound, it holds inbound wisdom. Profit, like everything else in a business, is calculated periodically. While the balance sheet gives you a snapshot of your state of affairs, this image might be misguiding you.

Expenses, per say, are incurred directly, even if their benefits are to be depreciated over a long time. This does not appear in your "snapshot" as the costs will be directly registered and the income statement might display a loss for the period at hand.
Had you been talking about inventory, the "just-in-time" policy success might be credited to this profit and time relationship. Yet it only simplifies the process of monitoring losses. In reality, had you been a retailer, buying a bulk of items at once can significantly reduce costs. Yet it makes your balance sheet look like a total disaster, as expenses will certainly outweigh sales for that period of time.

Marketing is no different. Had you understood the advantage of investing at once to procure long-term sales as opposed to instant gratification, you would realize the advantages of big integrated marketing campaigns. Keep in mind that marketing goes under "expenses" in the income statement and that the profits will only be accrued in the future.

Buying inventory progressively, might well be a safe bet, but it makes you lose your bargaining edge and increases your costs. You would indeed be making profits, but you would not be operating with your full potential as initial costs of goods would be high. Likewise, investing in marketing progressively gets you "some" sales, yet you lose the crescendo effect of an integrated campaign.

My point? The same marketing expenses invested at once would generate much more sales than the same amount invested progressively. Take the plunge, even if in your periodical business management reasoning, it looks bad. In the long run, it will appear to be sound judgment.

Retail Magic

I am ecstatic lately. For once, I am at the receiving end of the marketing effect. With a great concept and minimal advertising, I stand to witness the remuneration in terms of sales and customer visits. I now am convinced that marketing is deadly.
We just inaugurated a small shop for gifts for men, Captain & Captain. The new shop is based on a new concept, for the first time in the country, shopping by personality. We offer a solution for men gifts hunting, with great ideas rarely found in the same place.
That said, advertising was limited to an advertising page and 1 press release in one single magazine, a few leaflets distributed in the neighborhood, and a third of a billboard double sided, shared with neighboring stores. In addition a PR opening event with around 500 visitors. Finally, a facebook campaign with small ads, a facebook group and an application allowing its users to discover there personality type and inciting them to get a matching gift.
A small survey was set along with the invoicing of all customers coming into the store, allowing us to find out the magnitude of the effect of our endeavors.
We soon realized that advertising in itself had a visible effect, but what's more is that word of mouth was spreading like wilde fire; and it's all about efficient marketing.
The reason? the campaign as well as the shop opening were set in the beginning of December, right before Christmas, thus answering a latent customer need to find suitable gifts. Moreover, the maverick concept came with another rare finding in the market, a shop completely dedicated to men. It was not hard to figure out that our main customers will actually be females buying gifts to their male friends/ lovers/ family members as most shopping is actually done by women. However, what we did not expect was males offering themselves presents and indulging in our offerings.
Add to these factors, a detailed attention to the packaging and presentation, as well as, salespeople acting mainly as a guide to help support and explain the products benefits to the customers.
A promising entrepreneurship initiative.

The Creative Work's Effect on Ads

Mike Bendixen, in a research entitled "Advertising effects and effectiveness", argues that the creative work has no effect on the magnitude of an advertising campaign; as the latter is only affected by the frequency of use of the medium in question.

As I stop to assimilate his research findings, I cannot help but pause thoughtfully. If indeed creativity does not in any way compensate on frequency; how can smaller campaigns, at times, get better response?

I would have to disagree in parts to the way the finding is presented. "Magnitude" by definition refers to the size. Thus obviously we are talking about frequency and reach. However, the way I see it, good creative work helps support the campaign in magnitude too, and is not merely a tool that dictates the efficiency of the campaign, as Bendixen seems to put it.

How? A good creative work stimulates the brain. It can be humor, it can be shock, simply beauty or even creativity. Whatever it is, it increases the magnitude exponentially as it is bound to create word of mouth.

Thus, I would not go against what has been stated by Bendixen. The magnitude within the medium in question is not affected by the creative work. Yes. The same medium will not multiply simply because the work is good. However, the medium will shift to incorporate other mediums which consequently would create a greater magnitude.

There, lies the beauty of marketing, the art of efficiently allocating budgets to maximize return by juggling not only the financials but also the qualitative.

*food for thought*