Use Marketing to Stay Strong in a Weak Economy
Shrewd business owners see opportunity in a down market.

Today’s companies face the challenge of marketing in an economic state of turbulence and uncertainty. The key to maintaining forward momentum in today’s market is to resolve to be competitive and shift to an opportunistic mind-set. Rather than focusing on the turbulence, your company should leverage the dynamics of a down market and become an even stronger competitor. A weak economy can actually serve as an opportunity to evaluate your marketing and public relations initiatives so you can make them more effective and efficient.

In good times, it’s easy to get into the proverbial marketing rut; some companies have been marketing themselves the same way for years, using the same old marketing plan year after year. But when you’re forced to scrutinize every expenditure, suddenly a new zest for change can emerge.

Let this weak economy empower your company to find fresh, creative ways to remain visible, stand out as a distinctive brand and be the leader in your category–even on a smaller marketing budget.

Content Continues Below
The key to competing strong in a weak economy is to remain visible and project an image of strength and stability. Customers have a heightened sensitivity to any sign of weakness, so resist the urge to dramatically reduce your marketing activities.
To flourish in challenging times, you’ll need to distill your marketing and public relations efforts into a powerful, concentrated mix that delivers a high level of visibility and impact on a limited budget. If your company is looking for ways to do more with less, taking the following 10 steps can help you compete strong:

Rethink your marketing strategy.
Rather than making random budget cuts to reduce your marketing costs, determine how much spending is feasible based on your current financial situation. Then create a new marketing strategy that optimizes every dollar and integrates your activities to gain the highest return for every effort. This approach will ensure you forge a cohesive, strategic plan that will enable you to remain visible and strongly compete on a reduced budget.

Evaluate your brand.
Now is the time to carefully evaluate your brand, the market and your competitors. You need to get a 360-degree view of your current situation and how your existing marketing activities align with the current market conditions. Review your marketing assets (such as your company’s brochures and website) to determine if they are relevant to today’s customers. Also look closely at your competitors to determine if your company stands out.

Target your marketing efforts.
When marketing on a limited budget, laser-focused targeting of your ideal customers is vital. Invest your time in creating a targeted customer database to use for direct marketing. You may not be able to afford broad advertising efforts, but that’s OK because direct marketing (snail mail and e-mail) allows you to directly reach your customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

Message strategically.
In a highly competitive market, you need to stand out with messages that are relevant to the times. Evaluate your messaging to ensure it connects with customers. Keep in mind that their wants, needs and interests may have shifted with the economy.
Update your core marketing materials.

If your brochures, website and other materials are not relevant to today’s customers, or if they blend in with those of competitors, make the investment to update your core materials. Many times, customers will visit your website or request information before calling your business. Be sure to make a good first impression to optimize every opportunity.

Integrate traditional methods with online tools.
Today’s communication model is a two-way dialogue. Integrating traditional marketing tactics with web-based tools and social media can boost your response rates by engaging customers at a deeper level. In many cases, boosting exposure through online social networking adds very little cost.

Direct marketing can be used to drive customers to microsites (small, three-to-five-page websites) that focus on generating leads. Empowering customer interaction with your company can add significant impact to your campaigns and boost exposure for those on limited budgets.

Generate media buzz.
Increase your media exposure by launching a public relations campaign. Distribute regular press releases to your industry or local media outlets. Submit applications to speak at events or conferences as a thought leader. If your advertising budget is limited, supplementing your media and industry exposure with public relations is a good idea.

Increase your network.
Network with other business owners and customers at industry or local events to increase awareness of your company and generate interest. Do not underestimate the power of word-of-mouth; it is a powerful, cost-effective marketing tool.

Forge partnerships.
Remember, people don’t have to work for your company to work with you, and your peers are in the same boat as you are. Many companies cannot afford to hire extensive staff or experts when times are tough. Strategically partnering with complementary companies can provide you with new leads and expand your network without adding costs. Look for win-win partnerships that can help your business move forward and help you achieve your goals.

Optimize your existing customers.
Many companies spend all their energy trying to win over new customers when existing customers may be the quickest way to increase business. It is critical to maintain strong customer relationships to retain customers. Look for opportunities to upgrade and cross-sell to your existing customers since you already have a relationship with them.

Resolve to become a fierce competitor to win more of the business that’s out there. It is possible to leapfrog the larger competitors in your line of business–not by spending more, but instead by shrewd opportunism. Take a look around–if your competitors have cut back on their marketing or gone dormant, you might have an unprecedented chance to overtake them. Make every marketing move strategic and calculated. Strong marketers will prevail.

Tami Hernandez is president and founder of Martopia®, an award-winning branding, marketing and public relations firm located in Chicago, Ill. For more than 20 years, she has provided strategic branding and marketing consultation to a broad range of businesses, from emerging companies to Fortune 500 corporations. Tami is author of The Compete Strong Playbook.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/findingcustomers/article204946.html

Today Martopia announced it has named Matt Sommerfield as Jr. Graphic Designer. Sommerfield brings a range of talent and expertise to Martopia including graphic design, production and new media abilities that promise to create new opportunities for Martopia’s clients. Before joining Martopia’s creative team, Sommerfield gained several years of expertise as a media and design specialist for one of the world’s largest product video companies, with a variety of both creative and media management responsibilities.

Sommerfield will be responsible for supporting Martopia’s creative department with creative concept and design, along with expanding integrated campaigns across a variety of new media and communication vehicles. He will be based out of Martopia’s Chicago area campus.

“Martopia’s dynamic talent with creative messaging ranging from clean and traditional to edgy and unexpected really got my attention,” said Sommerfield. “It takes a unique team and mindset to capture companies’ personalities and make them stand out the way Martopia does – and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

In the crowded and ever-changing healthcare technology marketplace, Martopia helps its clients stand apart from their competitors and show their unique value with new and creative ways to communicate.

“There are a lot of companies competing for attention in the healthcare marketplace today – and a lot of their brands look and sound similar,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “We focus on building the unique character of our clients’ brands and highlighting what their products and services mean to their customers. It’s imperative that companies achieve this kind of brand distinction to stand out and make meaningful connections in the healthcare marketplace and everywhere else – and we’ll be reminding them of this at HIMSS10.”

In addition to exhibiting, Martopia is hosting several media conferences and events for its public relations clients at HIMSS10 to launch important news to the healthcare industry. “Martopia specializes in healthcare technology marketing and public relations, so we have a strong presence at tradeshows like HIMSS every year. The media events Martopia hosts at HIMSS are always an incredible opportunity for our healthcare clients to demonstrate their expertise, innovation and leadership to both the media and potential customers. In addition to our booth, Martopia has a Vendor Suite on the Exhibit Hall floor to enable us to provide a comfortable, private space for our clients to meet with the media. We help our clients maximize media opportunities at HIMSS by proactively scheduling appointments with leading editors and reporters, plus hosting round tables with the most respected and coveted media outlets in healthcare,” concludes Hernandez.

Attendees and exhibitors can visit Martopia at HIMSS10, booth #4923 for more information. Prior to the show, interested parties can call 866.587.9944 to schedule an introductory appointment at HIMSS10.

Martopia, a growth catalyst firm™ that provides a unique blend of branding, marketing, public relations and interactive expertise to help businesses achieve their growth goals, today announced it has named Megan Wagner as Account Executive.

Wagner comes from a broad background of project management and strategic execution. Prior to joining Martopia, she managed marketing communications and national event planning for a Fortune 500 corporation. Her responsibilities included the execution of comprehensive branding, marketing and public relations programs.

Wagner will be responsible for managing integrated marketing and public relations programs, working closely with Martopia clients on a broad range of communication strategies to maximize results. She will be based out of Martopia’s Chicago area campus.

“Martopia’s progressive mindset toward communications strategies along with its exceptional focus on client service was a great fit,” said Wagner. “I’ve long been aware of Martopia’s continued growth and reputation for outstanding work, and I am proud to join such a strong organization.”

Command Performance And COMPETE STRONG Campaigns Demonstrate
Effectiveness Of Creativity And Strategic Marketing

Widely respected as one of the most stringently evaluated creative competitions, the W3 Awards is administered and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts to honor creative excellence on the Web. The W3 is the first major competition to match the smallest firms against the largest agencies with everything in between to recognize the creative and marketing professionals whose ideas and hard work provide the Web’s best sites, videos and marketing.
Martopia won awards for two separate projects at this year’s W3 competition. One of the W3’s highest honors, the W3 Gold Award, was awarded to Martopia’s Command Performance video. Martopia developed the video for a client’s integrated Personalized URL (PURL) marketing campaign that included branding, microsites, direct mail and e-mail marketing.
“The high level of execution required for the development of the Command Performance video is a prime example of Martopia’s interactive expertise,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez.
Martopia also received W3’s 2009 Silver Award for its COMPETE STRONG video, part of the agency’s self-promotional COMPETE STRONG campaign. Already honored with multiple creative awards, Martopia’s COMPETE STRONG campaign is a self-branded initiative that also features integrated PURL marketing. The video can be viewed at Martopia.com on the Home page under the COMPETE STRONG title.
“COMPETE STRONG is how Martopia leads by example,” says Hernandez. “Our COMPETE STRONG campaign has delivered the power of strong creative and strategic messaging for our clients’ businesses and has also helped contribute to Martopia’s continued growth and success.”

Martopia today announced it has advanced its design team with the promotion of Scott Nielsen to Art Director and the addition of Matthew Aldis as Graphic Designer. The changes come in response to Martopia’s continued growth in spite of slow market conditions and represent the resource and talent of a premier creative team to companies ramping up marketing efforts as the economy recovers.

Nielsen has spent nearly half a decade climbing the ranks of Martopia’s design team. His promotion to Art Director is largely due to his unwavering excellence and the continued advancement of his creative abilities. His talent has repeatedly delivered exceptional, award-winning marketing and communications for Martopia’s clients.

Aldis comes to Martopia’s creative department from a storied history in a variety of fast-paced creative environments. Prior to joining Martopia, Aldis worked as a Graphic Designer for a large Chicagoland organization, creating a spectrum of graphics and print material to meet weekly deadlines. Before that Aldis worked at a Chicagoland firm creating branded visuals as part of fully integrated, traditional and online campaigns and a Chicago marketing and publishing agency, overseeing projects from concept to press for a variety of national brands.

“We’ve always been proud of the level of talent in our creative department and spend significant time and resources ensuring we have both the imagination and expertise to help make our clients stand out,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “This promotion and addition represent our commitment to not only maintain the remarkable results we’ve provided for our clients thus far, but to take our work to the next level to continue to deliver even more.”

I recently read an article in Inc Magazine by John Kotter regarding having a sense of urgency during a recession. The article was interesting because Kotter pointed out the difference between productive and unproductive urgency for businesses during a downturn. He points out that unproductive urgency is often driven by the “fear of losing” instead of the “gut-level determination to win.”

Many companies have spent quite a bit of energy in the past months reacting to fear – even stopping all go-forward momentum to simply remain safe. This is understandable, but the companies that are able to rise above the fear are already crafting strategies to transform their companies and come out stronger. They will be ready to capitalize on the “new market” immediately when the economic turnaround gains momentum.

The world as we know it has changed during the past year, but how we react to that change will sort out the strong companies from the weaker ones. Companies that instill a productive sense of urgency and maintain their determination to win will emerge stronger.

One way your company can emerge stronger is to take this time to evaluate who you are and clearly define your BRAND. You might be very different from the company you were a year ago – and your customers are probably very different in their mindsets and buying habits.

Be sure to visit www.competestrong.com and register for Martopia’s BOLD BRAND MOVES Webinar. There has never been a better time to create a distinctive, powerful brand strategy that can take your company into the future. Martopia is offering a MASTERING BRAND PERFORMANCE white paper to those who attend the Webinar. This interesting white paper offers a 13-step process for Brand Exploration that you can use at your company to get discussions started.

Earlier this year, Martopia launched a Compete Strong direct marketing campaign that integrated with a personalized URL (PURL) microsite. The original campaign focused on the concept of competing strong in a weak economy. Martopia developed a 120-page COMPETE STRONG PLAYBOOK to provide strategies that would help companies achieve more results with less budget. This book was extremely well received and has helped many companies to rework their marketing strategies during the past several months. (We still have a few Playbooks left if anyone is interested in receiving a copy - just email us at info@martopia.com.)

Now that the economy is beginning to show signs of a turnaround, it is time to make bold brand moves. The latest Compete Strong campaign (2.0) recognizes companies must have a strong brand strategy and move with strategic confidence. Compete Strong 2.0 focuses on how companies can create distinctive and charismatic brands that stand out in today’s competitive marketplace. Many brands are vanilla and stay within the “norms” of their categories. Compete Strong 2.0 discusses how to get out of the box and elevate your brand’s performance.

Martopia is offering a new BOLD BRAND MOVES WEBINAR to help companies prepare for the economic turnaround ahead. You can learn more and register for the Webinar at www.competestrong.com. In addition, people who attend the webinar will receive Martopia’s new publication called, Mastering Brand Performance.

Awards Mark Martopia’s Second Competition Win This Month

Administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, the Hermes Creative Awards receives thousands of entries from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms and more from around the world. The mission of the organization is to set standards and recognize excellence in creative professionals for concept, writing and design and it has been honoring outstanding achievement and service to the communication profession since 1995.

Two Martopia projects were recognized with awards in this year’s competition. The first was Hermes’ Platinum Award for Martopia’s own Brand Book. The Brand Book was created to explain Martopia’s proprietary brand development process in a creative and interesting way. Traditionally, branding firms utilize diagrams and charts to illustrate their processes. Martopia developed the Brand Book to represent its brand development steps as part of a scenic road trip.

“Martopia’s Brand Book reads similarly to a coffee table book, filled with large colorful images and creative copy that takes our clients through the brand development journey. It provides interesting, light reading that brings the process to life - complete with landmarks and famous branding quotes sprinkled throughout,” says Erin Gerber, Martopia’s Vice President of Agency Services.

Martopia also took home the Hermes Gold Award for the Martopia COMPETE STRONG Campaign in the Communications Campaign category. COMPETE STRONG is an integrated campaign that includes personalized postcards, brochures and e-mails that drive recipients to dynamic Personalized URLs (PURLS) at www.competestrong.com. The campaign is a call for companies to refine their marketing and public relations strategies to achieve more with less. The campaign focuses on the imperative to compete strong in a weak economy through strategic use of budget dollars for the highest impact.

“We are extremely proud to be recognized for achievement in creativity and development that has impact across a wide range of mediums - from print to integrated campaigns,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “Our world class creative marketers and strategists constantly push themselves to lead the edge of design and communications technologies and we are honored to have our work so highly regarded by our peers.”

Branding And Creativity Recognized Out Of Entries Worldwide

The Summit Creative Awards are organized by Summit International Awards and were created to recognize and celebrate the creative achievements of both small and medium-sized advertising agencies and other creative firms worldwide. The organization has a 15 year history of distinguishing companies and individuals creating exceptional marketing, advertising, design and interactive communications and has earned a reputation as a premier arbiter of creative and marketing excellence. This year’s competition included thousands of entries from 26 countries around the globe.

Martopia’s own Brand Book was awarded Summit International’s Bronze Award in this year’s Self-Promotion Brochure/Mailer category. The Martopia Brand Book was product of a desire to introduce the agency to clients in a non-traditional way - communicating brand-building expertise by showing, rather than telling. Charts, graphs and statistics are replaced by an image-rich story that takes readers through the “journey” of building a strong brand.

“Our brand book has been extremely well-received by current and prospective clients and has played an integral role in the branding that has helped Martopia continue to grow. We’re proud to be recognized for the kind of creativity and strategy we deliver for our clients on a daily basis,” says Martopia President Tami Hernandez. “Our world class team of creative marketers and strategists
works hard to create impact and results across a wide range of mediums - from print to integrated campaigns and more - and we’re glad it continues to show.”