Why Your Business's Marketing Has to Evolve

Every business has to market themselves to some degree, whether they realize it or not. However, some businesses get stuck in a rut, sometimes a good rut, and stay there. Marketing has to change, it has to evolve.

Now, it can work to keep the same message, mascot, color schemes, branding, etc. But it does not work to keep the same platforms, techniques, and strategy. Very few businesses have succeeded because they kept with the same techniques & strategy.

Industries change. Consumers change. Interests change. You get the point. 

That's why a business's creative marketing has to evolve. If you don't evolve, you miss your market. Then you're like that owl wondering, "Where'd they go? Did we miss them? What happened?"

Industries change. Every industry in the world has likely changed in the way it operates over the last decade or two. For example, marketing. This industry has massively changed in the last five years, alone! Now there's a heavy emphasis on digital marketing and digital advertising; things like social media, YouTube, blogging, or search engine marketing have all become points of interest.

• Take a look at your industry, how has it changed? 

Consumers change. Every generation thinks differently than the last. Every demographic has its own interests. Every culture has its own way of doing things. If you haven't heard, Millennials are a big topic to talk about in marketing. So let's talk about them! They are vastly different than previous generations, Gen. X and much different than Baby Boomers. If your business targets a demographic like 20-30 year olds, your target market in 2015 is vastly different than your target market was in 1975. Even from year to year, consumers change; our minds change all the time.

• Take a look at how you shop, how has it changed? 

Interests change. As hinted in the last point, our minds change all the time. What seems like a good idea now might not be in a few months. Look at the K-Cup. At the beginning, people loved it because it was easy, personal, and no prep/cleanup. Now, it's one of the most hated ways of consuming coffee on the planet. Or, for us techies, look at how fast apps come and go in popularity. Draw Something? What's that? Maybe fashion is more your fancy; how often does fashion change?? There was a time when baggy jeans, K-Swiss shoes, and bull-cuts were popular. Now, it's skinny jeans, boots, & fades.

• Take a look at your interests, how have they changed?

The bottom line is that in business, especially marketing, if you stand still, you will be left behind. Don't stand still and become a static business! Hire Integraphix to help your business get going forward, not become irrelevant. 

5 Successful Rebranding Campaigns

Every company has branding, it's just part of the process to create and run a business. Whether you consciously created branding for your business or not, you created one. The concept of holding the same branding for the lifespan of your business is unheard of; at some point or another, there is reason to go through rebranding. There are several reasons to rebrand your business; it can be a scary decision because it means doing something new/different, you are taking your business into unchartered waters. What if it turns out to be a bad rebranding experience and ruins your company? What if it turns the company from a small fish into a big fish? You never know unless you try.

Here is a list of five brands that went through rebranding and what made them successful.

1. J.Crew. J.Crew is known to many as a high-end clothing brand that sees customers anywhere from high schoolers all the way to A-list celebrities. They are doing really well and are a coveted brand for fashion lovers. However, they were not always this beautiful in the eyes of the world. It wasn't until 2003 when they hired a new CEO. At that time, they were seeing deep declining sales; however, once they hired the new CEO, they rebranded themselves as a store that sold simple clothes made from quality fabrics. They utilized high-profile faces like the Obamas to wear their brand during the 2008 Presidential campaign; Michelle wore a J.Crew outfit on the Tonight Show. 
2. Pabst Blue Ribbon. In the past, PBR was known as a cheap, low quality beer that was only intriguing to hipsters and frat guys. This blue-collar lager is still not seen as a great beer in the US but in other countries like China, it is seen as premium stuff. They launched a product extension called Blue Ribbon 1844 and put it in some fancy packaging and now it sells for $44 in China, the world's largest beer market. 
3. Harley-Davidson. In the wonderful year of 1985, HD was a motorcycle that was one flat tire away from being wiped off the corporate map. Once they hired the new CEO, their fortune began to change. Harley knew they had to improve their product so they did just that; once they improved their bikes, they focused on being the name they claimed, which was a quality bike made for the road warrior. 
4. Target. Up until the late 90s, people saw Target as just another store, like Walmart and Kmart, that was for bulk purchases and rather low quality. However, Target realized they had to stand out from their competitors, which they did by offering pared down versions of goods from high profile designers, this decision saved Target. Still, Target is number two in the race, behind Wal-Mart, but they are seen as a higher quality store and their clientele is seen as more affluent than their competitors too. 
5. UPS. UPS was, and still is, in a huge battle with FedEx. UPS used to be well behind their competitor in the race, though. FedEx was mopping the floor with UPS with their decisions like overnight delivery. In the late 90s, UPS decided to rebrand and switch their slogan from, "Moving at the speed of business" to "What can brown do for you?" They then launched ads showing mailroom guys to CEOs using UPS and loving their experience. They showed their consumers that they are adapting and looking forward to constantly meet their consumers' needs. 

If you are looking for branding or rebranding needs, then contact Integraphix - a Chicago marketing agency. 

3 Big Marketing Mistakes

Marketing is a busy business and requires an intelligent and creative mind to really be successful. The reason is because marketers have to be creative enough to capture the attention of consumers and do things that have not been done before. It's important to be able to walk the fine line between doing what you want to do and still pleasing consumers Marketing involves a lot psychology as well because marketing requires marketers to think like a consumer and get into their minds to answer the questions about things like, "How can we get people to notice this product/service/idea?" Of course, there are some common mistakes that marketers make while trying to promote products/services/ideas.

The first common marketing mistake, especially with internet marketing is that marketers can forget to consider a target market's values, beliefs, etc. A big ploy in marketing is to tug at the values and beliefs of a target market; you want to play with pathos, ethos, and logos (feelings, credibility, and logic) but especially pathos. Persuasion is hard to accomplish but is often accomplished when you get your recipient of the persuasion, or marketing, to consider things they hold close to their heart. As a Chicago marketing agency , we have seen other marketing and advertising agencies accomplish this. For example, there was an ad in a magazine a couple years ago for Goodyear tires; the ad showed a baby smiling and playing with a toy and the copy read, "Because you care about what rides on your tires" and the point of the ad was to use pathos and get parents to consider their loved ones who ride in their cars and how they need top quality tires if they want to protect their family from harm in the cars. Unfortunately, there have been companies that decided to do what they wanted and ignored their target markets.

A second common marketing mistake is failing to excite. Some marketing agencies believe that they can get excitement generated for products by using clever buzz words or just by recycling an old marketing plan from a previous product. On the former, using clever buzz words can indeed generate excitement but having too many of them can overwhelm consumers who will then ignore the marketing efforts. On the ladder, recycling old marketing plans that were once successful can lead to mediocrity and failure. The reason for this is because what made the marketing plan great the first time was the customization to that particular product/idea/service but that customization is not there when it is recycled. The efforts are then mediocre and complacency sets in.

A third common mistake made by marketing firms is making a message too hard to move. What do I mean by this? If a marketing message is not something you remember easily and can communicate it quickly, like in under a minute, then people won't remember it or they just won't care to relay the information. Think of it this way, the message should be able to be relayed in an elevator speech; this is a speech that can be completed in 30 seconds or less.

These are common mistakes but you don't have to repeat history! Do your research and understand your target market.