Personal Marketing: Promotion

The final post of the semester completes the 4-p approach to personal marketing by looking at the 'P' many regard as the most glamorous -- promotion. This is the component of the marketing mix which addresses what message you are conveying about yourself and where/how you will communicate that message. 

There are some logical steps you can take to develop a promotional 'campaign' for yourself in your career search. First, you must define the message you wish to communicate -- that is, what is the most important thing about you that you want employers to remember about you? This could be used in developing your objective on your resume. 

Once your message is clearly defined, then you can begin creating some promotional materials for yourself, such as a new resume, website, business card, etc.  Make all of these materials consistent; just like a commercial product, all promotional materials should reflect the brand in a uniform way. 

A good next step is to determine a 'media plan' for yourself. Where will you advertise yourself? How will you spread the message you are trying to communicate? Some obvious answers would be on networking sites such as Linked In, appearances at career fairs, and responding to specific job postings with a resume. But try to think of creative ways to get your brand out there -- perhaps you can utilize a PR strategy by participating in some impressive community service project, or by winning a professional award of some sort. We face the same problem that all brands face: how to break through all of the clutter (other eager job-seekers) and reach consumers (employers)? A creative promotional plan could help get you into your dream job. 

Personal Marketing: Place

To continue with the pre-graduation, job-prospecting, personal marketing theme of my last few blogs, today we'll look at how one might use "Place" in order to stand out among others when searching for "The Dream Job." So how does place relate to personal marketing? A recent article featured on Mashable provides some useful tips on how to apply the marketing mix to your personal brand. Check it out! 

At a very basic level, you can ask yourself where you want to work. Is there a specific geographic location at which you're determined to work? Personally, I want to work internationally, so I use this as a motivating factor in my job search, and I also try to emphasize this when interacting with potential employers. It's also important to know whether or not you are willing to travel in your job, and how much of your job you are willing to travel -- less than half, more, all? These are very important to know about yourself, and can help you narrow down types of positions you're willing to apply for.

Another way to apply place to your personal marketing is determining through which channels you will make yourself available to potential employers. That is, how will recruiters be able to find you -- word of mouth, professional organizations, university alumni associations, LinkedIn, dumb luck? If you have an ideal career in mind, or a specific company you're just dying to work for, you can use this part of the marketing mix to gain a competitive edge. Find out which "distribution channels" are most relevant and utilized by your employer of choice and then make yourself available on that platform. Join different organizations, use the connections you make here at MSU, add people on LinkedIn. Make yourself available through as many relevant channels as possible. At the same time, be careful not to waste your time gaining a presence on channels that will not be utilized by your target employer.

Use this in conjunction with the rest of the marketing mix in order to successfully reach your target market. Many people may consider how to promote themselves, but the wise job seeker will consider all four P's!

Personal Marketing: Price

The next 'P' in the marketing mix I'll be addressing is Price. This one is a bit more difficult to apply to personal marketing than others. It is extremely important, nonetheless. How can we use price as a way to market ourselves as the best candidate for a job?

The first thing you can do is stay informed. Know the industry standards for salaries of jobs you are interested
in. There are lots of resources on the web you can use to research different salaries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a good list of median salaries for most industries in the U.S. Another important consideration when determining a good price to set for yourself is cost of living differences, depending on where you plan to apply.

Another way to help ensure you are pricing yourself accurately is by spending a lot of time on your resume. Be sure it communicates how much experience you have in the field you hope to enter. Include relevant courses, volunteer activities, and club participation. In addition, seek out ways in which you can improve on your experience level - certifications, professional licenses, etc.

What's more, you must ensure that the price you're willing to accept is reasonable and competitive. How can this be done? An article on Forbes provides some very helpful tips in how one might accomplish a high starting salary. This could help to communicate a perception of your high value to the firm. Another way to go about this is to be very open to non-monetary forms of compensation. Be creative; think of something that wouldn't cost as much to employers than would a permanent pay raise but would have significant value to you.

Price is something that could distinguish you in the job market, so don't ignore it! Think of ways in which you could utilize this to market yourself as the best possible person for that dream job.

Personal Marketing

In my final four posts, I would like to focus on personal marketing, in hopes that some of the content will be helpful and applicable to those nearing graduation. So, I'd like to apply the marketing mix to personal marketing. Today's post will focus on "Product."

How do we market ourselves as a product? The resume is a clearly important tool in helping to do this, but what can we do to improve our chances in "driving purchases," which in this case would be getting hired. I came across a great article in Businessweek about how we can better prepare for interviews and what recruiters find to be the most valuable qualities in an employee: read it!

Read this article!

Networking is something that I've heard about many, many times throughout my time at MSU. It is something we all should be thinking about as we prepare to graduate. Start making those connections and solidify them by adding them to your LinkedIn accounts. Rob Irizarry emphasized this when he came and spoke to our class, as did Jeanne Callahan last week.

Another tip listed in the article which I found to be very important is to "Relentlessly Develop your Skills." I know that we are all anxious to wrap up the semester and be done with school, but it's so important to keep finding ways to improve. Someone recently gave me some advice with regard to how to do this: set a professional goal for yourself for the next year, and then determine specific ways to accomplish this. For example, if your goal is just to be promoted in one year of getting hired, determine how you mind differentiate yourself as a viable candidate for that next position. Then identify workshops, extra responsibilities, volunteer committees, etc., that might help you do that. In a recent interview I asked my interviewer what advice he would give himself if he were in my position (that is, just entering the professional workforce), and he said "be the first person to volunteer for the job that no one wants to do." I found that extremely helpful.

There are many articles out there that give great advice on how to distinguish yourself as a candidate for employment or grad school. I challenge all readers to set one specific goal for professional development that extends beyond graduation. Good luck!

Promotions at their Best!

The purpose of this post is mainly to entertain, but also to get the creative juices flowing as we near the end of the semester and (ideally) head out into our new and exciting marketing careers -- or the summer jobs that will lead to those careers. Promotions can exist in all different forms; think about it the next time you're casually strolling down the street: what hasn't been used as advertising space yet? The following are some of my favorite recent examples of creative and innovative brand promotion.

1. Cupcake ATM: No longer only exists in your dreams!



Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like: an ATM machine that dispenses cupcakes. This idea came to fruition in New York City, where it has become the center of news spots on many of the mainstream news sources such as CNN and ABC. David Letterman even featured a bit listing the "Top Ten Things Overheard in Line for the Cupcake ATM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDtxHurxNpw)."

The cupcake ATM could be seen as a new form of distribution for baked goods, but more than that I would classify this as a guerrilla marketing tactic. The point of guerrilla marketing is to generate lots of buzz and create a more authentic brand interaction than other forms of advertising. I'd say this did just that.

2. The McDrive Surprise

In celebration of April Fool's Day, McDonald's implemented an elaborate prank across several countries for visitors of the fast food chain's drive through windows. The video below gives some amusing examples of the pranks. It's rather long, but very entertaining:



Although I think McDonald's has done well in advertising in general, this is the first example I've found where the brand steps a bit outside of its comfort zone. It's interesting to think about which pranks would go over well in certain countries, while in another might be found to be extremely offensive. For example, in one of the pranks a a couple of employees are making out instead of helping the customers at the window; where might this be OK and where might it be considered going too far? I'm sure the company considered this when planning its April Fool's stunt, but it's not hard to see how this could have backfired if less cultural consideration was given to the execution.

3. Selsun Blue Makes the Most of Harsh Winter

We've all heard about how this winter has been one of the most severe in recent memory. In a display of creativity, a Canadian ad agency helped Selsun Blue stand out and make people smile through the winter wonderland by creating outdoor ads that made the snow look like dandruff piled up on people's heads (see photo). This is another great example of creative guerrilla marketing. By simply installing some platforms to collect snow above these billboards, attention paid to the ad increases dramatically. It's much more difficult than it might sound to think of a guerrilla marketing execution that specifically pertains to a given product and attracts attention as this one does.

I'd encourage everyone to think of a creative promotion for their respective final projects. It's becoming an increasingly important component of successful marketing campaigns. As the clutter of ads grows, we as marketers need to continually search for ways to stand out and not only grab the attention of consumers, but also offer some entertainment as a reward for that attention.

Creative Discounting

As we have learned in class, pricing can be a key way to reach customers. The price of a product or service can communicate a lot of things about a brand, but particularly, it suggests value. So what are some creative ways companies have played with pricing in order to send a message to consumers? Today's post looks at a few innovative discounts that help communicate value, engage customers, and break through all of that advertising clutter.

(#1) Starbucks Early Bird App

Starbucks has done a lot of things right when it comes to branding and customer engagement. One of the company's newer innovations has been the Early Bird App. The following video explains the way the app works (if you don't have time to watch, don't worry, I will give a basic run down below):

Starbucks EarIy Bird from Mate Nagy on Vimeo.

 So, the idea is for you to use the app as your alarm clock each morning (which means you're engaging with the Starbucks brand at least twice per day). When the alarm sounds, you can choose whether you "Wake Up" or "Snooze." If you decide to wake up, you are given a reward, which you can save and stock up on or use each morning. You have to visit your local Starbucks store within one hour of pressing the Wake Up button in order to receive the discount (which provides extra incentive for customers to go to the stores). And the age-old saying stands true with this app: if you snooze, you lose. That is, if you decide not to wake up and hit the Snooze button, you do not receive the discount, but you can try again the next day; and of course, you can still hit up Starbucks on your way to work and pay full price. In all, this app encourages you to get out of bed and seize the day with a cup of Starbucks coffee, by helping you break bad habits and providing an enhancement to the tool we are already using every day, the alarm clock on our smartphones. What's more, by encouraging customers to go to S-Bucks within an hour of waking up, the company essentially creates a happy hour effect, bringing more people in at a time when store traffic is low, and thus reducing the pressure during morning coffee rush hour. Another fun fact about this app: it was created by students!

(#2) BIOMAT Pop-up Restaurant

This idea was executed in order to motivate other restaurants to adopt a more sustainable model. The pop up restaurant popped up in Austria as part of Vienna Design Week 2013. Its unique discount model involved a meal discount proportionate to the weight of bio-waste donated by patrons; one kilogram equals one euro off the bill. The restaurant's kitchen used biofuel made from the biogas emitted from the bio-waste as its energy source. The result is a win-win-win situation: customers win by receiving a discount on environmentally-conscious food (and get to pat themselves on the back by contributing to sustainable energy), the restaurant wins by receiving a free energy source, and the environment wins by receiving less waste in landfills and having less fossil fuels burned into the atmosphere. Whether you value green business practices or not, I think we can all agree that this is a clever way to incorporate discounts that benefit both the customer and the company.

(#3) Troop ID

This discount service is aimed directly at those who serve or have served in the military. I found this one interesting because service members and veterans are a segment not often targeted; yes they are often celebrate in advertising, but I haven't seen many products specifically for them. In addition, having many friends and family who have served in the military, I've always been somewhat bothered by the awkwardness caused when one of them had to ask if a certain establishment offered a military discount. Well, Troop ID offers a clever solution to this problem. It provides a way for military members to verify their military IDs online and then be notified of the various discounts and exclusive offers available to them. The video below offers a nice explanation of the service. While the company's logo could use some work (yikes!), I found the idea to be a viable solution to a problem faced by veterans and military members.

There were a lot more creative uses of discounts I encountered when researching for this post, but I will keep it somewhat short. What I hope to have made more obvious, though, is the importance of incorporating discounts in a marketing plan. Who doesn't love the feeling of getting a deal?

Quizzes as a Marketing Tool

I have noticed lately that many of my Facebook friends are taking lots of quizzes: What State do you Belong in? What Zombie Apocalypse Character are You? How Would you Die in Game of Thrones? The trend, popularized by Buzzfeed, consists of quizzes determining -- well, anything you'd want to know. I'm not exaggerating, either; some of my personal favorites are What Arbitrary Thing are You?, Which Famous Turtle are You?, and of course, How Big of a Dick are You?. Seriously, check them out -- there is no limit to the level of ridiculousness they can attain!

These quizzes are seen as fun and entertaining, but do our FB friends realize this is a form of marketing? At least it can be, and Game of Thrones has capitalized on this opportunity by working with Buzzfeed to make a branded quiz for the show. Think about it: it's shareable content (a must for modern, integrated brands), it features the brand name in the title while trending on everyone's news feeds, it engages all sorts of social media users with the brand, AND it provides the marketing firm with lots of valuable consumer information. What's more, we as users provide this information willingly, without even realizing we're doing so! AND -- we enjoy doing it!

As a recent Marketplace podcast mentions (which by the way, I recommend listening/subscribing to; its a great way to keep up with business news) , the quiz fad will likely die out in little time. So, what will be the next new, creative way for brands to interact with us through social media?