Take Advantage of the Halo Effect
Apple’s great success in selling iPods created a halo around its other products like laptops and desktops, helping Apple gain significant market share.
See Creating The Brand Halo Effect by Branding Strategy Insider

Create a great experience around a product
From the time a customer walks into an Apple retail store to opening the product packaging to Genius Bar support, every step is a planned experience that aligns closely with the brand of elegant design and simplicity.

What other lessons can marketers learn from Apple?

Also see the Marketing Apple blog by Steve Chazin

I think a company that really understands the new digital marketing landscape is Best Buy. The CMO has a blog and twitter (@bestbuycmo) where he talks and learns from customers. Greg Verdino discusses engaging consumers with digital media and how Best Buy is building credibility for social media marketing.

The importance of listening, and engaging with customers directly in an open and honest way. The growing importance of the mobile web and the ways it can empower consumers throughout the buying process. The fact that everything is going digital and what this means for the products and services companies offer. The realizations that a great customer experience is the best marketing money can’t buy, and that brands are inherently social.

Heard it all before? Of course. But somehow it sounds more credible when spoken by the CMO of a large corporation, even more so when that CMO works for a company that actually practices what he preaches.

Check out this video of Best Buy CMO Barry Judge, talking about the future of marketing. Judge offers a nice overview of how Best Buy’s marketing approach has evolved from old school tell-n-sell, where it is now, and where it’s headed tomorrow.

This article was originally posted at Greg Verdino’s Blog, and is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 license.

• There are 31 billion Google searches executed every month. In 2006, this number was 2.7 billion (1).

• The number of text messages sent per day exceeds the world population (1).

• Today 4 billion people in the world have mobile phones (2).

• Nokia predicts that by 2012, 25% of entertainment will be created and consumed within peer circles (3).

• About 34 percent of American households use a DVR of some sort to record shows for viewing later (4).

What this means, is that shouting at the consumer will no longer work. A one way dialog will no longer work. Companies will need to really communicate, which means a two way conversation. Do you embrace new marketing tools such as search engine optimization, blogs, social networks, and Twitter? Or are you sticking to what has worked in the past and believing that it will still get you enough business so that you won’t have to change your marketing? Remember, Charles Darwin said “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”.

1 Did You Know 3.0 Video
2. Marketing Over Coffee Podcast Episode 3/25/09
3. Nokia Press Release
4. DVR Fallout: More People Delaying Season Premiere Watching The Tampa Tribune, March 12, 2009

Photo by Mark j Sebastian

This article was reposted with permission from The Executive Marketing Blog

Matt is a guy who made a video of himself doing a goofy dance in several interesting locations all over the world. It became a viral hit on You Tube and Stride sponsored him to do a encore tour. The second edition of the video came out 2 months ago and already has over 9 million views! Stride is smart because they have acquired the attention of millions with their “ad”, and probably spent less than it would have cost for a traditional ad. They have also created good will by sponsoring something that has entertained and inspired people everywhere.