Marketing Methods and Why They Matter (To You)

Hopes without a method to achieve them, will remain hopes. This is a quote posted on the door to my professor’s office, and it’s true in more ways than one. From a life perspective, you need a plan of action to achieve your goals, and the same is true for marketing.

To help you with this task, I’ll introduce you to the idea of Message Strategy Methods (MSM). This is a concept that helps connect a marketing or communication objective, with a way to achieve them.

Each stage of the marketing funnel has their own method(s) that help the message come across to consumers. The Marketing Funnel as defined in this blog is:?

• Awareness??
• Knowledge??
• Liking?
• Preference??
• Trial
• Purchase?

Awareness

The method for awareness is the repetition of brand elements. This is especially important for low involvement products. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Logos
• Colors
• Fonts
• Slogan
• Tagline
• Jingle

Knowledge

For the knowledge stage, the most important method is the repetition of the value proposition. Strive for an average of 10 exposures or repetitions to maximize a consumer’s purchase intention. Emotion is a potent tool for this stage of the funnel. Connecting a feeling to capture someone’s attention can be a great way to attract attention and trigger the problem recognition phase of the ?purchase-decision process.?

Liking

Some ways to achieve liking are:

• Feel good
• Humor
• Sex appeal
• Use of music
• Image promotion

Preference

This is the stage where persuasion comes into play. To be clear, the goal isn’t to trick someone into buying a product, but you do need to convince them that yours is superior to alternatives; usually for high involvement products. Essentially, you need to come up with reasons why a consumer should trust you. Some examples of preference MSM’s are:

• Reason-why content (“7 Great Reasons to Use Brand”)
• Hard-sell promo
• Info-only content
• Testimonials
• Demonstration content
• Advertorials
• Infomercials
• Comparison content
• Social Proof

I personally utilized social proof when it came to communicating the value of attending WWU Ice Hockey games. I did this by pushing content on our instagram that showed people at our games having a good time, to prove to others that:

1. People attend
2. People in attendance are enjoying themselves

Trial

The goal here is to invoke a direct response. These methods are commonly used by local retailers and direct marketers. The trial methods are:

• Urgency
• Click-through ads
• Shaping: Reducing Risk (sales promo, money back, warranty)
• Loyalty: Incentivize (reduce price to stimulate larger buy, BOGO, volume discount)

I also used several of these methods for my hockey games. We offered discounts for students, brought a friend and got in free deals, showed up on theme and got in free, etc.?

Like with everything else, there's a method to the madness. Having intention behind your decisions will not only make you a more effective marketer, but will give you credibility in the workplace as well (preference).

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