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Corporate Marketing

A corporate marketing strategy is a broad marketing plan that creates guidelines to be used throughout the company. This includes company branding and logos that are used consistently to create an instantly recognisable brand (brand awareness). These corporate guidelines must always be taken into consideration when launching a new product or service.

A corporate marketing strategy can also refer to the different mediums used to market the company/product such as print advertising and materials, television, radio and online marketing.

Aditude can assist in creating a strong brand that consumers will become familiar with thanks to consistent design that is harmonised through the use of logo, slogans, font, colours, imagery and style.

If you use an advertising agency to change something – for example, a business card – then it is imperative that they also filter this change throughout all your materials and advertising to ensure that your identity is maintained. Using the same agency for all your marketing needs also strengthens your brand as they will be familiar with your corporate marketing strategy, can stick to it, improve upon it and enhance it.

Design Consistency

Keeping a consistent look and feel across your marketing and advertising materials is important for building a memorable and professional identity as an organisation’s visual identity externally reflects it style and character - and its traditions, strengths and values. Consistency means using the same font type, the same colour palette, the same type of paper for stationary, the same printer where possible (to ensure a consistent quality) and the same style and language of wording. At the very least, it is essential to have coordinating company stationary - letter heads, envelopes, compliment’s slips - etc, and to use your logo and slogan on all materials.

The Power of a Good Slogan

Advertising slogans are short phrases used in advertising campaigns to draw attention to unique selling points or positive aspects of a product or brand. A good slogan is memorable and stays in the mind of the consumer long after they have seen the advertisement. Slogans should not be complicated or over the top, they should be short, simple, direct and clever (or witty) - summing up the main benefits of the product or brand for the potential user or buyer. The best slogans are hard to forget, and when they are coupled with mnemonic devices such as images and music, this is when they can become iconic.

The Internet as a Marketing Tool

Sales via the web are increasing as more and more people have access to the internet and are learning how to use it, but is it a suitable marketing tool for you and your brand? The advantages include: a growing audience, world-wide presence, equal exposure for big and small business’ and a reasonable marketing cost. Disadvantages include: huge competition from all over the world, getting potential customers to actually visit the site and the continual need to refresh and update the site. The main thing to keep in mind is that a website or web banner advertising alone will not guarantee an increase in sales as it is only one of the marketing tools available to business’. Going down the internet route can be a very useful medium for creating brand awareness, increasing sales and as a marketing and lead development tool, but to really succeed, it needs to be used in conjunction with other methods of promotion too.

Advertising During Recession

A common perception is that during a recession, advertising budgets should be cut to save money, but this is actually the time when you should be advertising in order to make the money later on. A survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Research on U.S. recessions from 1980-1985 found that the businesses that continued to advertise during the 1981-1982 recession hit a 256% growth by 1985 over their non-advertising competitors. Research by American Business Press during the economic downturn of 1974 and 1975 found that companies that advertised in those years saw the highest growth in sales and net income during the recession and the two years that followed. The conclusion is that advertising during a recession is a sound investment for the future of your business.

The Importance of a Good Logo

An effective logo is one of the most important elements a company needs to cement its brand identity. Whilst it may seem like a small, simple design, a great deal of thought and time goes into the creation of a logo that will instantly sum up what a business is and that will be instantly recognisable and memorable. A logo is also an investment in your brand and is money well spent for something that is going to be synonymous with your product or services for the long-term foreseeable future. If you get the logo right, the rest will follow...

Sales Promotions

We are often asked what sales promotions - also referred to as ‘below the line’ - are and what their purpose is. A sales promotion differs from an advertisement; an advertisement is designed to be informative, whereas a sales promotion is designed to stimulate customers to buy through a mixture of methods such as point-of-sale displays (stands at supermarkets etc), price promotions (discount coupons or free gifts), competitions and other promotions - as well as advertising campaigns. The aim is to ‘pull’ the customer to your brand or product, which is why sales promotions are very important, even if you are already advertising within the press.

The Importance of Christmas Marketing

There are two times in the year when business slows down across the island - summer and late November to January - but rather than slow down on your marketing, the Christmas period is crucial for setting up success in the new year and should be approached with planning, preparation and a strong presence.

The Christmas period presents lots of great opportunities for promotion and brand awareness, and is a good time for cementing relations with your customers and business associates by ‘getting in touch’ with them through Christmas greetings and gifts. A good Christmas card will make you stand out from the crowd and remain in people’s minds, and whereas sending corporate gifts throughout the year to influence may be seen as out of place, it is welcomed during this period. Your target audience is also in a festive mood, which means they are more receptive to promotions - especially those that capture the Christmas spirit, so grab the opportunity.

Christmas is also a time where people take time to reflect and plan for the future and from January things pick up, which is why mid to late December is perfect for advertising your services and offers to increase your chances for the coming year.