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See I Gotcha! I would be willing to bet that you are reading this article primarily because of the first word in the title: free. Yes I decided to use the most powerful word in marketing, in a good economy and without question the strongest in a bad economy, to promote my article. I did this to prove a point and to illustrate it's marketing magic. Many marketing managers and business owners today are actually afraid of the word free as it is not often equated with making profits which, of course, is the life blood of any business. This fear is well founded in that many companies don't use the marketing concept of free correctly and it actually hurts their businesses. However, I intend to discuss how this most powerful marketing tool can be used to advance your sales and branding efforts. If you are not taking advantage of what I call the free phenomena that exists in all of us you are truly handicapping your business. Like my uncle Mike's motto clearly states: "if it's free, it's for me". That little rime or in uncle Mike's case creed is deeply ingrained in all of us. Everyone likes to get something for free. Today more than ever this is true and has caused the free marketing phenomena to be even more potent and effective as it has become so rare in our economy in the last few decades. I am a middle aged person who can remember growing up with free television and being able to drink tap water from a fountain for free, without risking getting poisoned, or going to a public beach for free as a child growing up in Long Island. The absence of these and other free parts of our daily lives have only caused us to appreciate the free phenomena of our popular culture even more. With this heightened human desire and appreciation for what I call the free marketing phenomena, businesses need to understand and appeal as well as harness this strong human desire in order to use it to strengthen their brand. There is,however, a key to using free to work better for your company. It is this strategy that we will examine next. OK you say Marc, how can you make free work for me? Before I answer this question I want to tell you one important way not to use free in your company's branding and marketing efforts and that is: giving your product or service away for free in a promotion. You might say Marc that is not true, just look at all the situations even recently where certain fast food companies gave their product away in a promotion resulting in thousands of people standing on line at these restaurants waiting for their free meals. What a great promotion. What a great successes right? No, this is not promoting but rather destroying a brand. But you say look at all those people waiting on line for a free meal, weren't they all made aware of that company's products and services? Yes, but only for a short time and at a great cost not only financially but to the brand itself. These kind of promotions are almost always done out of stupidity and or some marketing manager or CEO who is being pressured to increase sales in the short run. It is the worst kind of promotion or demotion as I would put it for a brand as it screams out to the consumer, even though they may be waiting on line to get a free product, that the product or service is really not worth paying the regular price the company normally charges. The brand is diminished when a company's products are given away for free. Yes, there might be a quick bump up in brand awareness but this is short lived.
More importantly it has destroyed the value of the brand when the consumer sees that it was given away for free. I don't care who it is when you have been given a product for free you think twice about paying the regular price for that item the next time. This is not promoting a brand in the mind of the consumer but rather training them to view your product or service as being worth less in their minds. This is the dark side of using the free concept. A better alternative is to still use the power of the free concept in marketing but to address it in a more positive and durable way with promotional product promotions. With this strategy you are getting all the benefits and marketing power of the free marketing phenomena with the consumer but you will not be directing any downside impressions to your brand that comes with giving your product or service away. In fact, your customer will be elated at getting something for free and direct their gratefulness towards your company but you will still retain the integrity and worth in your brand that you as a business owner or marketing manager have worked so hard to build through the years. It is that warm and fuzzy feeling your customer gets from getting the gift that is so powerful and lasting. In fact, it has been proven in many industry survey studies of people who have been given custom promotional products that they not only keep the products but also remember the company who gave it to them sometimes years later. I need only think back to my mom telling me from time time through the years about certain appliances and gifts she received from some banks for opening savings accounts there. Even more amazingly she remembered the names of the banks who gave them to her. My mom is 84 years old. Now, that's the kind of marketing I am talking about. Of course what my mom received at the banks was a gift with purchase commonly known in our industry as a premium which is a subject unto itself and a topic for another article. But until then remember to take advantage and embrace the great potential marketing opportunity in all of us as best expressed by my uncle Mike: "if it's free, it's for me".
Marc Berkow is a veteran of more than nineteen years in the promotional product industry. His company Metro Promotions & Printing offers free ongoing consultation for all companies as well as providing a free on line catalog of more than 850,000 promotional products including custom screen printed and embroidered apparel.You can view the on line catalog on Metro Promotions & Printing web site at: http://www.metpromos.com You can contact Marc Berkow at 862-216-0064.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marc_Berkow
==== ==== This is your chance to get involved in a pre launch for free! That's no money from you ever and it
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