April Marketing Brekky 2013

Marketing Brekky

Monthly/Quarterly I run the 'Marketing Breakfast Club' which includes a beautiful bunch of smart marketing professionals brought together by a fine breakfast spread at the Merchant on Beaufort St in Mount Lawley.

The breakfast has been running for over 2 years and started as a way of bringing together interesting people offering a forum to bounce ideas off each other and discuss the wonderful world of marketing. It’s a great opportunity to learn about many different industries and raise your marketing dilemmas. We’ve also made great contacts and friends from this too. 

APRIL 2013
This month we discussed all things marketing with a focus on charities, the difficulty of politics in marketing and being a diligent Marketing Manager and knowing your organisation inside and out!


In Detail:

o   Politics & Marketing: it is challenging as a Marketing Manager when politics get in the way of your role. An innovative person must work out the best way to promote their ideas, convince a tough audience and work with others to make things happen.

o   Undercover Marketer (Cross Training Program): paralleling the theme of Undercover Boss; it is ideal as a marketing/communications manager to know your organisation inside and out. The best way to do this is to really get in there and experience each role/department within the company and talk to key staff. That way they will also be more enrolled in the importance of your role, help you with marketing initiatives and be less resistant to change. One member literally worked in each department of the company to really learn what the company did at every level.

o   Ethics in Marketing: it is important to believe in what you are marketing otherwise you have a conflict. If clients are being deceived or the product is of low quality- no ethical marketer could continue on.

o   Maths & Marketing: many marketing brains hate the mention of maths but it is still a part of marketing. Your marketing initiatives needs to be forecasted and measured- using figures.

o   Finding an Agency: sometimes we cannot do everything ourselves and need to reach out to Agencies. The first step is deciding what the major focus or purpose is for outsourcing. Then you can match your need to the skills of the appropriate agency. E.g. there are PR agencies, graphic design focused agencies, digital agencies and marketing/advertising agencies.

o   Some Marketing/Branding Agencies are dying: Many branding/marketing agencies are not integrating their strategies with the web which is a big part of business today. Some even outsource their web/digital related work making it expensive for the client. It is important to do your research and choose the appropriate agency.

o   Charity Marketing:

·         Zero2 Hero has been branching out to different groups and offering camps.

·         Cupcakes for Cancer continues to go strong and looks at ways of branching out.

·         Exa Web Solutions is supporting an initiative by Goldman Sachs’ chairperson in protecting Dolphins, which will include a website that features Australia of the Year winners and several high profile celebrities to promote the cause.

·         One member has begun working to assist those affected by domestic violence and another is working with Radio Lollypop.

·         It is interesting to see just how much can be done for charities that have a limited marketing budget.

o   Cheap Outsourcing: several members have utilised crowd sourcing sites like 99 Design, freelance.com for cheap graphic design.

o   Event Marketing: one member gave the example of Russell Peters- how this is never marketed but is a sold out event, however when the Jackson’s came to Perth it was very undersold and under marketed and a failure.

o   Accident Publicity: discussion of the accident/emergency landing of the Cirque Du Soleil egg in Perth. Accident or PR genius? The event got free and widespread press.

o   Viral Marketing: e.g. Sh*t Perth People say by Meerkats went viral and generated great press for the company. 

Quote of the Day:

“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” ~Aristotle.
 

Well, that's it for this month and I'm looking forward to the next Marketing Breakfast Club. At this stage we are thinking Thursday 13th June.

 
Christina Marie Giuffré