MARKETING TIP #101
Q4: Exceeding expectations - Again!
Talk about non-stop! Q4 at North Star Marketing has been a whirlwind of activity: 2008 planning, finishing up 2007 projects, websites, interactive initiatives, collateral, awards, Public Relations placements...the list goes on and on. Let me tell you about a few of the cool things that occurred during the fourth quarter of 2007.
- For Cooper Industries, a Fortune 500 manufacturer of electric products, tools and hardware, we developed new sales collateral and helped launch their new Customer Service web-based program called C3. This ongoing campaign includes emails, collateral, letters, direct mail and P.R.
- Our market research team conducted market perception analysis for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, York County Convention and Visitor's Bureau, McClarin Plastics, Adelphia Seafood, Grafika Commercial Printing, Kinsey's Outdoors, Atlantic Coast Packaging and Wagman Construction. The analysis came in handy for their 2008 - and beyond - planning.
- We developed and implemented a P.R. plan for a leading snack foods company during their acquisition of another snack foods company.
- The P.R. Department has been working with industry publications to place Fenner Precision in Motion System Design magazine; Draper-DBS got "ink" in K+BB and KBDN; and Simon Design Engineering was asked to pen articles for Airport Revenue News and Healthcare Design. (There are some great consumer placements coming up too, but we can't tell you about them until they hit the books.) We were in NYC for a showroom opening and photo shoot. And, in between all of this, we launched a new online column, DesignSnap - North Star's view on home and lifestyle trends. Click here to sign-up; it's fun, feisty and informative.
- Growth was the word for our Interactive Unit. They continue to step out of the traditional media box to raise our clients' awareness.
- 56 HTML Emails went out
- 4 client videos were posted on YouTube
- 5 new strategic websites went under construction
- Our creative team developed some of Baldwin Hardware's new packaging and instruction manuals for domestic and international distribution.
- And, we won three MarCom awards - a Platinum, a Gold and an Honorable Mention - for work we did for StoudtAdvisors, Trion and Fenner Precision.
2008 is off to a running start; last week we celebrated 19 years of business with some of the same clients we began with and many new clients who've joined us along the way. Exceeding client expectations and out-of-the-box thinking is what continues to fuel the growth here at North Star. Bottom line, our clients see that our efforts and activity grow their brands and market penetration.
Survival in today's economic climate further reinforces the fact that marketing and branding is not a project but a process. Those of you who did not continuously market yourself are most likely feeling a sharper pain than those who have a continuous and consistent marketing effort. Give me a call, 717-392-6982, to discuss how North Star Marketing can strategically build your brand and your bottom line.
Best,
Bowen Smith
Executive Vice President
P.S. We've begun a series of teleconferences focusing on marketing and public relations for the three segments we serve: food, manufacturing and lifestyle products. The teleconferences will be held on the third Tuesday of every month; Food at 1:00p.m., Manufacturing at 2:30p.m., and Lifestyle at 4:00p.m. Eastern Time. For more information, click here.