Effective advertising makes relevant connections with its target audience. To be successful you must understand, respect and embrace the diversity that exists in our wonderful country.

Young or old. Black or white. Sick or healthy. Whatever group you are targeting, remember these things when marketing to them.

Look at the whole person, not one demographic characteristic. Not everyone in your demo will make the same amount of money, live in the same area or have the same values and attitudes. Psychographics can never be stereotyped.

Avoid stereotypes. It seems like a no-brainer but it happens all the time. Mainly because the advertiser fails to put himself in the customer’s shoes. Account Planners in large agencies bridge this gap but many of us out there need to think this way on our own. Remember there are also positive stereotypes. e.g. Not all Asian Americans are good at math.

Laugh with them. Humor does have a place if it doesn’t rely on stereotypes. If you’re too serious, it looks like you’re trying to be safe – as if it’s a different type of advertising category. It’s all just advertising.

Make relevant ties to their personal causes. Suggest to your client that they donate a portion of sales to causes that are important to them.

And at the end of it all, test, test, test. Test your marketing on members of the target audience.

People love to be recognized as experts. This means you should tap the expertise of your customers. Ask them their opinions and reward them for it. They’ll appreciate you for realizing that they are experts and they’ll be free with their words of wisdom for you. Not only will you win another sale, you’ll increase the chances of them engaging in word of mouth marketing for you.

Many marketers offer incentives in order to gain ambassadors. By asking and appreciating their opinions, they’ll do the work for you on their own. By trusting in them, they’ll show their gratitude by buying more and recommending your products or services on the street and online.

In today’s world the talk is all about Social Media Marketing. It is very often confused as Social Marketing. They aren’t even close. I hear professionals continue to use the term incorrectly and it drives me nuts since they are both so important in their own ways.

We all know and have heard us talk about Social Media a lot, so I’d like to just clear up the Social Marketing side of things.

Social Marketing is for the good. For nonprofits, cause, health and other organizations working toward health or social change. In the early 70′s, ad agencies started using marketing techniques to promote the adoption of healthy pro-social behaviors. To change individual behaviors to improve their own health or well-being, or to help society for the greater good.

Today it has evolved and has added the online component as a new medium – the same as any other brand or industry. This is where the confusion in terms may have started. The most famous campaign of all may be the “Truth” campaign orchestrated by one of the best agencies in the biz. We’ve been exposed to Social marketing for years and we just didn’t know what it was. “Stop, Change, Quit.” If you see or hear that in the copy, chances are it’s for a damn good reason and probably pretty informative.

While writing this, I began to think and realized how many Social Marketing clients I have had the pleasure of serving over the years. At this very moment we are in the throws of a campaign to protect and preserve the Chesapeake Bay. And you know what? We’re going to use Social “Media” to help us do it.

We’re in the advertising industry, so of course, we have an office full of creative minds. While our design and account staff is highly imaginative, creativity isn’t ALL our business is about. In advertising, we’re actually in the people business. Before a brand dives into any kind of creative campaign, this underlying question must be resolved: “what is going to make a consumer buy this product or service?”

Cue The Cyphers Agency.

Here, we’re all about getting in the minds of consumers. It’s critical to know how consumers behave throughout the entire process of making purchases to satisfy their needs. More specifically, their wants. Lets get real, in today’s society the line between need and want is pretty darn blurry.

We do research to figure out what these “wants” are. We research what they buy, when they buy and (most importantly) why they buy. There’s already some decent research out there about what and when people make purchases. Figuring out why…now that is the tricky part. And if you ask people, many really don’t know why they buy. Consumers make purchases because of subconscious elements of behavior. Brand names are deep rooted into our psyche, and  “keepin’ up with the Jones’” is a daily task. We’re competitors who vie for the latest and greatest. And how do we do this? Read on.

Lifestyle research is another major component of getting in the mind of the audience. Everything from our opinions, to where we eat, to what we wear and who we hang out with makes us part of who we are (or want to be). These traits also divide us into segmented target audiences.  By delving into the activities, interests and opinions of different audiences, we can narrowly define a target audience.

Once all the toiling, researching, surveying and observing is done, we have a clear visualization of the type of people who comprise the target audience. It’s not until we have that narrowly defined audience that we get our real creative juices flowin’. And when stellar research into the minds of a target audience combines with awesome creative work…great things happen.

The decision of where to place your marketing message used to be a no-brainer. Your choices included broadcast, print or in store media placements. It was simple and the media was simple. As the use of the “world-wide-web” became mainstream, online advertising was born. Marketers were able to add banner ads, email marketing campaigns and more to their arsenal of media options. Then just as marketers became comfortable with the options in online advertising, we have seen the emergence of Social Media and Mobile Marketing. And these platforms are evolving at pace never seen before.

It is more important then ever to understand your target audience and where they are spending their time consuming media. It is becoming more and more about the user experience everyday.

First Changes

Mobile marketing in its simplest form appears as SMS messaging: the user sends a text message to a short code and receives a pre-programmed response from the advertiser. Advertisers have seen the marketing benefits of Mobile Marketing at the point-of-sale influencing purchasing decisions, building consumer relationships, and providing increased consumer intelligence. It is pretty obvious why technology is evolving at such a rapid pace.

Evolution

Already, Mobile Marketing has evolved from standard SMS messaging techniques to Image Recognition technology. We are also quickly seeing the potential of Augmented Reality in the consumer experience. Take for instance Stella Artois’ Le Bar Guide, where using augmented reality allows a mobile application to overlay the profile of bars surrounding your current location. The recent launch of Apple’s iPad has even further exposed potential Mobile Marketing and its effects on how we look at the very definition of “mobile”, and how advertisers choose to spend marketing dollars. Time, Inc. recently released this video demonstration of how tablets are changing their advertising model.

Mix It Up

And while the world of marketing is ever changing, traditional methods still have a place (Apple’s iPad is advertised on the back cover of my latest issue of National Geographic, after all). Traditional marketing still has relevancy, but it might sit next to some new, technologically savvy neighbors in your annual marketing plan. Proper use and integration of new technologies with older ones will be the key to success.