“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is
always ripe to do right.”

Nelson Mandela

If what you know to be true today turns out not to be true tomorrow, when would you want to know about it?

For the world of big brands, this means that many strategies used in marketing and advertising that were effective in the past, are just not as valid anymore.

For the individual and the world of small business, this also means that many traditional business models that worked well in the past, are not the best means for capitalizing on new business opportunity today.

Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” is about abundance marketing and becoming a screaming business success in impossible places. There is a revolution afoot and “Brand You” can be a player – on your own terms – based on your own vision.

The faster you can harness the dynamic of exiting commerce and the emerging new world order - the faster you can get on track with your own business – and lifestyle – agenda. We’ll say it again, speed is the currency of business and success loves speed.

The “My Affiliate Store” business system has just opened it’s doors for sale today. They will only sell 1000 systems and 200 were sold pre launch. The system is being heavily marketed by some of the internets’ top affiliate marketers who have massive email lists. It may already be sold out!

We bought a system pre-launch.
Our new store is called; www.sandboxsports.com

We’ll be open for business in a month and we’ll let you watch how it progresses from here. We’ll reveal what we’re doing in terms of marketing, SEO, market research, content and copy etc.

Check it out! Could this be for you – or your business?
Coach speak: “suit up – your starting!” Well, you can at least get in the game!

Shopping online is big business and getting bigger and bigger by the internet nanosecond. Can you say Amazon or eBay?

Marketing experts agree that the majority of all consumer and B2B shopping will be transacted via the web within the next decade – or sooner. The breadth and depth of available - and potential - products and services is boundless. Online order fulfillment continues to get faster, safer and more convenient.

The long tail phenomenon exists because of the web. If you’ve dreamt of success as an online affiliate marketer you must check out this opportunity. Time is of the essence! No kidding – it’s a very limited offer!

We could say more but the information sales letter will answer your questions. This is what you should expect;
1. Click the text link which will take you to an affiliate landing page.
2. Opt in with your name and email address.
3. This will take you to the sales page.
4. Spend some time; check out the videos and beta sites that are featured.
5. Get informed and make a decision that’s right for you.

This is the consummate, irresistible offer with a no risk guarantee. Going through the process is worth the effort just so you can evaluate and learn from an extremely well executed marketing strategy. You are also learning about an empowering new business model.

Speed is the currency of business and success loves speed. To you, good luck – the gravy train is at the station - but there isn’t room for everyone!

The marketing buzz phrase du jour is “web 2.0″. What web 2.0 is exactly is open to some interpretation but for certain, it’s a concept that describes the use of multimedia video and audio on the web. Harmonizing your website with next generation web-sites such as wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Jumpcut, blogging and so on, makes for a richer, more interactive experience for your sites’ visitors.

For advertisers, it has become a means of generating more traffic and more publicity. This means more sales opportunity and increased brand identity. As a good example, it’s worth revisiting the recent, viral advertising initiative brought to the world of web 2.0 by Frito-Lay Inc.

During October/10 and December/04 of 2006, Frito-Lay sponsored an online competition for its’ Doritos brand of tortilla chips. The competition was billed as the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl Contest”. Entrants were invited to create their own Doritos video commercial and submit it to a website to be judged. There were over 1000 Doritos commercials submitted.

This is from the contest site’s “How It Works” information:

Five Finalists will be chosen by our judges based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity - 40%, Adherence to Assignment and Regulations - 30%, Overall Appeal - 30%. America will choose the grand prize winner.

Prizes: Five (5) Finalist prizes: $10,000 US each and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl XLI viewing party. The Grand Prize winner’s submission will be aired during the Super Bowl XLI broadcast.

From concept to execution, the Doritos campaign ties in with our recent posts concerning “The Long Tail” and “What’s The Big Idea”. It’s a terrific example where the world of big brand advertising partners with the little guy empowered through the mechanisms of web 2.0.

The following video is the creation of Five Point Productions - the winning entrant. Their video is titled: “Live the Flavour” and it aired during the Super Bowl XLI television broadcast. How would that look on your resume?

This was Five Point Productions take on winning the contest:

Obviously, this is a true Cinderella story for us… WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

We’re hoping to break Super Bowl Ad records in the following ways:

-Smallest Budget (Total = $12.79)
-Smallest Crew (Cast/Crew = 5 people)
-Shortest Production Time (4 days… including concept development)
-Youngest Crew (age 22 and younger)

No pun intended but here’s some more (snack) food for thought;

Go ahead and watch all five finalist productions. To experience more of this campaigns’ creative interactivity go to snack strong productions. It may take a moment to load but it’s worth a peak.

To stimulate some fresh creativity for your own original productions check out this source of concept triggers from the thought provoking folks at AdCracker. Another interactive tool for Creative Directors, Copywriters, Art Directors - and all those who create, sell or teach persuasive communications. That should include you!

So the creative juices have been flowing and you feel confident that you can develop your winning idea into a small fortune!

People have great ideas practically every day and dream about the possibilities that could earn them millions in royalties. So what separates those who earn money exploiting their ideas from those who’ll never get past ground zero?

One clear answer is research. One of the most accessible – and best – market research systems for aspiring entrepreneurs, small business marketers and even multinational corporations is the “How To Double Your Business Power Pack”.

It is a revealing, systematic approach to surveying a marketplace that has been distilled and refined from years of big budget, real world, applied research. The complete system is in a modular format and is the creation of renowned research psychologist, Dr. Glenn Livingston.

A second source of information that can help you transform a fledgling business idea into a viable product or service comes from an audio book by author Harvey Reese. “How to License Your Million Dollar Idea” provides both information and motivation that can help you turn your ideas into money.

This is a totally revised and updated version that is currently available from our friends at Acoustic Bookworm. It’s now a second edition that covers the recent changes in patent law and discusses how the Internet has impacted modern licensing.

Both of these recommendations bring to you the information and the ideas that have been employed by big budget, successful marketing endeavours across a wide variety of markets. The information can teach you how to make – or save – alot of money. Go ahead and unwrap that brilliant business idea! Happy marketing!

Chris Anderson’s best selling “The Long Tail” has become a highly influential and widely referenced business essay that theorises about the future of modern commerce. At its core, The Long Tail is a dissertation about the economics of abundance.

The book provides a description of a business paradigm that has begun to show the power of seemingly unlimited selection of products and services across a broad spectrum of consumer markets. It provides a perspective about what Anderson claims are “the new truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it.“

“In short, though we still obsess over hits, “Anderson writes, ” they are not quite the economic force they once were. Where are those fickle consumers going instead? No single place. They are scattered to the winds as markets fragment into a thousand niches.”

The book explores a variety of contemporary business examples that include movies, books, and music. Technology and the Internet have made possible an empowered, new world of business marketing in which the combined value of modest sellers and obscure titles equals the sales of the top hits. His examples reveal intriguing possibilities that can be applied to other business models.

In fact, the book may mean more to small business marketers who are nimble and faster to market than slower moving big business. Speed is after all, the currency of business and success loves speed.

Acoustic Bookworm has just released an inexpensive audio version of The Long Tail that you can download right now. Once you download your copy, you can listen to it as an mp3 or go ahead and burn a CD or DVD and listen to it in your car. Very cool!

A high touch and consistent approach to sales management and training can significantly improve the selling skills and techniques needed by your organization’s sales professionals. A clear understanding of buyer/seller rapport, sales call planning, questioning and listening skills, presentation skills and closing strategies will drive the top line results for any business.

The goal is to achieve a solution driven sales approach to your customers most pressing needs. To find those pressing needs, go get some real marketing muscle.

To master the art of selling, the following three adverts are required viewing. They are brought to you by the very serious, big brand folks at IBM. Big Blue knows a thing or two about how to target the right customer. Watch each spot back to back - too funny. We all know a Bob Hooey or two in the real world of corporate sales. Did we mention that they’re too funny?

So, are you a farmer of a rancher? Now go sell something!

In case you were planning a test drive over the weekend, we thought we would post an excerpt direct from BMW promotional copy. Featured along side the copy, is a creative and interesting print advertisement.
The marketing copy and the print ad are both taken out of context but nonetheless, the brand messaging and the stated brand values are both part and parcel of BMW’s overall strategy for the positioning of their luxury brand identity.

Since its inception, the BMW brand has stood for one thing: sheer driving pleasure.

Sporting and dynamic performance combine with peerless design and exclusive quality, resulting in the unique appeal of BMW automobiles.

Experience the fascination of BMW.

What are BMW brand values?

The BMW brand is a blend of the company’s values, products, history, image and visions.
BMW brand values are:
• Joy
• Dynamic
• Cultured
• Challenging
They represent ’sheer driving pleasure’ in every model.
These are communicated to the customer through the end product.

With the print ad, we’re just wondering if BMW realizes that successful women like to own and drive upscale automobiles too. We doubt that this advert is the way win their business. A surprisingly bad taste ad!

The Ultimate Attraction

For an interesting analasis of another successful interactive marketing campaign from BMW marketing, check out Viral Marketing - Case Study - BMW Films

Our own informal marketing study has revealed that nine out of ten consumers surveyed, who are likely to own or lease a BMW are also likely to consume Lavazza Coffee

Google has announced that it is rolling out a new beta test that it has labelled as “pay-per-action” advertising. Under the new program, businesses using Adwords advertising, will define specific actions that they are willing to pay for such as, a visitor opt-in, a certain page view or an actual sale. They also define the amount that they are willing to pay based on the type of action.

When the advertisers’ ad is clicked by a visitor, Google will in turn, only bill the advertiser if the predetermined action is completed. An advertiser needs to establish a conversion tracking system and then, create the adverts. Ads are then displayed on the so called publisher websites that comprise the Google content network. Publishers will also be introduced to new ad units under this new pay-per-action model that can be featured on their sites.

In a nut shell, with this new Google proposition, advertisers only pay for desired results. And content publishers determine whether to run a specific type of ad or group of ads on their websites. Initially, this pay-per-action beta test is only available to advertisers in the United States.

From a publisher’s perspective, there is some risk reversal in featuring the new cost-per-click ads. There is no guarantee that the publisher will receive any payment for a given ad that gets clicked by a visitor from their site. From the advertiser point of view, they will no longer be charged for ads that are ineffective and the annoying risk of click fraud is going to be significantly reduced.

Along side this pay-per-action news, Google has also revealed that it will be adding click-to-play video ads to their line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats all being supported currently by it’s content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan and progressing to other global regions eventually.

According to Googles’ “Inside Adwords”, users will have total control of the ad viewing experience;

“Finally, unlike some intrusive advertising, users will have complete control. When a page loads, only a static image will be visible; the video will not start playing until the user initiates it. He or she will be able to advance the video, pause it, adjust the volume or click through to the advertiser’s site,…

But, you may say, video is only for big branding oriented advertisers. We beg to differ. This feature makes video ads much more accessible to all advertisers. Now, an owner of a small bed & breakfast in Lake Tahoe can put a video tour of his beautiful chalet right next to an article that talks about skiing the epic slopes of Squaw Valley.”

We’re not sure what part of the world C. Brand lives in but they were nice enough to send us an email responding to one of our recent posts “Ask And Ye Shall Receive”. We responded to their email and then asked for permission to post it here. They agreed and here it is in full:

I just had a few thoughts about your March/ 13 news article that I was wondering about. First it’s a good article but do you consider it ethical for businesses and marketers to take advantage of a persons problems when you wrote; “Tapping into the level of frustration and difficulty that your customers and prospects are experiencing in a given market is their problem and your opportunity.”? To me, this sounds predatory and cold.

I was also wondering about Dr. Livingston’s market research example and why would he use such an obscure example such as guinea pigs (that has to be such a small niche market), compared to what people really search for on the internet such as business information, travel information, automobile news or even anything like fitness and health related news.

I would also like to read more information about Point Of Difference Benefits vs. Price of Entry Benefits. Can you email me some more information about theses concepts?
Thanks
C. Brand

Our response went something like this:

Good marketers – the best marketers – understand their markets intimately. They collect great data and they understand how to correctly interpret that data. Success comes from knowing that a penetrating insight into your market is prerequisite to an academic understanding about the tactics of marketing. But it’s more than a complex analysis of all available metrics.

Understanding the frustrations and the depth of frustration that your potential customers are experiencing in a given area is imperative. Listen to your customer, understand what their most pressing needs are, create a quality solution to those needs and bundle your solution in an irresistible offer. This is an ethical pursuit of a win/win relationship.

Without an adequate understanding of your customer, your approach is myopic – even blind - because you’re going to your market based on your business’s agenda and not your target customer’s. This approach relies on sales gimmicks, marketing hype, publicity stunts and various tactics that are geared at pushing product – and not necessarily solving problems.

Marketing a product without really knowing if it solves your customer’s problems can turn out to be a costly mistake for your business. Even if you know that you have a great product, your customer just may not want to buy – or worse, they buy and return for a refund. A great marketing strategy will always prevail over great marketing tactics and the best strategies begin with an intimate understanding of your target market.

So what about the guinea pig example?
Best to read our post: The Story of The Guinea Piggy Bank!

Concerning “Point Of Difference Benefits vs. Price of Entry Benefits,” the best thing to do is to learn about these concepts direct from the man who has provided approximately FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS in consulting services to a who’s who list of Fortune 500 companies that include:

A T & T, American Express, Astra Zeneca, Bausch & Lomb, Burger King, Chase, Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, Grey Advtg, Hallmark, Hunt Wesson, J & J, JJill, Exxon, Flagship Banks, Ford Motor Company, General Mills, Gore, J Walter Thompson, Kodak, Kraft, Lipton, M & M/Mars, Master Card, Merck, Nextel, Novartis/Ciba, Ortho McNeil P & G, Pfizer, Pharmacia, Pillsbury, Roche, Sara Lee Unilever, Warner Lambert,

Just visit Real Marketing Muscle to get informed. It’s free to opt in and the information could be priceless to your business enterprise. Good Luck!

This is the true story by marketing psychologist, Dr. Glenn Livingston, about making money starting out with an information product on Guinea Pigs.

How I Fired All My Corporate Clients And Went From $ZERO To $28,462 per-month in PASSIVE INCOME - Starting With a $9.99 E-Book On Guinea Pigs!

Here’s the story!

The decision to move out of the corporate consulting sector was a radical career change for me. I fired all of my Fortune 500 clients with the intention of creating new businesses that would provide totally passive income … with no headaches, no client “emergencies”, no ridiculous work hours and no time away from my family.

But There Was One Major Problem!

I had a relatively crazy idea to re-engineer my market research methods (systems for which I’d already been paid millions by clients in the corporate sector) - to work in any area of business, including both established small businesses, and simple niche marketing on the internet. I had targeted the online media as a kind of latecomer to the e-book craze, … but I knew almost nothing about Internet marketing.

Now honestly, I was pretty scared, and I wasn’t sure if it was doable. After all, there’s a big difference in the advertising & distribution methods available to companies like American Express, Whirlpool, Nextel, Lipton and G.E., and those available to ‘the little guy’, - but I had to make this workable for EVERY business.

Well, what happened next was - quite frankly - stunning.

Here’s how it all went down. Much to my parent’s dismay (they had been SO happy to tell all their friends about “my son the doctor”), the first product that I selected for my new “online empire” was a $10 e-book about guinea pigs. No kidding! Don’t ask why – it’s a long story that goes back to my childhood. But it’s also the perfect example of just how powerful this system is.

You see, using just my research system and nothing else - no purchased opt-in lists, no backend products, no SEO, no affiliates and no JV deals - simply buying my own traffic, I was able to start banking $2,000 a month with my guinea pig book.

I quickly tested and duplicated this success in other markets, and within six months after launching my ‘piggy project’ – I had worked up to $6,300 a month in passive income.

It Gets Better

I went back and made some tweaks to this system, and was able to DOUBLE my business in approximately 6 months.

Six months later I DOUBLED IT AGAIN.

And what’s really interesting is that during this time, my web sites attracted a boatload of competitors – yet my numbers kept going up and up (I discovered that when you fully apply the system and make sure you’re really delivering what the market wants, you can make MORE money when you have more competition!)

And … something even more interesting … I’ve used this virtually fool-proof formula to launch site after site after site. Now to be honest, some of these sites are more successful than others. But to date, I’ve not lost ANY money when I followed the formula in full.

Not bad for a crazy idea, huh?

Well, that’s the story of how I first applied my system outside the ‘big brand’ world, and how I started refining it to get it to do what it does today. (I’ve become kind of obsessed with making it better every month!)

Luck is not chance – It’s toil – Fortunes’ expensive smile is earned.

– Emily Dickinson

What to earn fortune’s expensive smile? Smart marketers are using Real Marketing Muscle to unfair advantage !

Tapping into the level of frustration and difficulty that your customers and prospects are experiencing in a given market is their problem and your opportunity. They have a thorn in their paw and your business proposition is just the solution that will effectively relieve their angst.

When you can discover issues that are your target audiences’ most pressing problems – issues that are not being satisfied anywhere else - you can position your business offering as the go to solution. Your customers will shout “Hey, they’ve got exactly what I’ve been looking for - and I couldn’t find it anywhere else!”

The best approach to unearthing pressing customer concerns is to survey them. And to discover the potential nuggets of gold from within your survey data, you’ll want to focus on the distinction between Point Of Difference Benefits vs. Price of Entry Benefits.

“Most people that take the time to survey their market really haven’t a clue how to use the information they gather and in fact, they allow their surveys to throw them way off the mark.” So says marketing research expert, Dr. Glenn Livingston.

Dr. Livingston is a certified psychologist who earns a nice living as a quantitative marketing research expert. He has completed highly successful studies for an impressive list of corporate brand names such as Bausch & Lomb, Whirlpool, and Nabisco. His cutting edge information is now available to small business marketers as well.

Too often, the data results of a survey can mislead a marketer because they interpret the frequency of a given response to be essentially the same thing as the importance of response. But these concepts are not created equally.

“For example” says Dr. Livingston, “if you do a survey of guinea pig searchers online, you’ll find people very frequently ask about how long a guinea pig lives. In fact, this will probably be the most common question you’ll get.

Now if you go out and design a product all about how long guinea pigs live, you’re gonna be out of luck pretty quickly because what you’ve discovered is not a purchase motivating benefit – it’s a ‘price of entry’ benefit.”

A price of entry benefit is a benefit that all products in a given market must have in order to even be considered by a purchaser. A point of difference benefit is something that “consumers perceive as hard to find answers to their pressing problems - these are where the real market gaps are - where you’ll find the best opportunities to shine” according to Livingston.

Continuing with the guinea pig market example, a more important question for someone marketing a book on guinea pigs might be how to determine the gender of a guinea pig before its two weeks old.

This information may not be seen as often in your survey responses, but its marked as a lot harder to find. The objective is to put enough of these tidbits together and you wind up being THE source to solve your clients’ most difficult problems. Solutions that they can’t find anywhere else.

And getting some Real Marketing Muscle might just be the solution to your own businesses’ most pressing problems. Solutions that your competitors don’t know about yet!

Stand Upright, speak thy thoughts,
declare the truth thou hast,
that all may share; Be bold,
proclaim it everywhere:
They only live who dare.

Lewis Morris

And those who dare have real marketing muscle!

Learn how to double - even triple - your current business results!

Learn how to successfully enter new markets with virtually no risk using step by step, laser-precise, virtually fail-proof market research!”

Visit RealMarketingMuscle.com now to get your free MP3s with Perry
Marshall, Jonathan Mizel, Fred Gleeck, David Bullock, Russel Wright, & Dr.Glenn Livingston.

The FREE audios at RealMarketingMuscle.com will instantly begin showing you
a very solid and secure way to GET MORE CUSTOMERS at a LOWER COST, how
to SELL MORE to them, and how to MINIMIZE YOUR COMPETITION
so you can dominate your market.

Glenn Livingston has billed companies like Bausch & Lomb, Whirlpool, and Nabisco
$100,000 - $500,000 PER PROJECT for time-tested, proven marketing research
systems that virtually eliminate risk, guesswork and uncertainty …

And now YOU can learn how to use market research to dramatically
MULTIPLY EXISTING PROFITS — AND –how to save ridiculous amounts of
time & money ENTERING NEW MARKETS by finding out exactly where the
“bulls eye” is BEFORE you invest your marketing dollars, and even before you
ever develop a product!

Just go to RealMarketingMuscle.com and fill out the form to get started
right away! (Free audio offer subject to removal without notice)