If somebody had to say that the movie helped him understand the plot better, it would not be a surprise. It is now tested and accepted that the visual has the capacity to make a larger and deeper impact on the human brain. The marketers have been using this formula for quite some time and now the trends are moving faster.

The picture says it all: For a lot of brands, the visual branding has worked wonders. Be it soft drink giant Coke or automobile biggie Volkswagen. Their advertising campaigns over the ages have seen multi dimensional shift, but in all times they have kept the consumer talking about it.

Go the classy way: The feel of a bygone era is eternal. That is one reason why the fashion keeps bouncing back. The same goes with the visual. A lot of companies have utilized this trend by turning their ad campaigns into a black and white feel.

Take the most searched subject: For a business that needs to keep the consumer engaged. It is important to research on a subject which is live and trending. Participating in the most happening issue around and depicting it through the brand can grab the consumer’s interest.

Innovate and exercise: Exploring new options of visual marketing should be a welcome sign. Design arts have transformed the way the brands represented themselves. So, it is advised to join the bandwagon and practice something new.

Share a lot: Once the brand has the visual impact in its hand, it is time to move out and share. The brands online make it part of its campaigns, ads, banners, profiles to help attract traffic. The fans like to talk about it and share the idea further. This keeps the ball rolling.

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Radio is among the most economically viable mediums of mass communication. It is also regarded as a powerful medium as its reach is universal. However, in order to exploit radio’s true potential you must know how to use it effectively.

1.    Know Your Tools: A radio copywriter only has limited tools at his disposal like emphasis, tone, pitch and pace. Writing intended for radio can only be vivid and emotive by utilising these tools well. Variation in tone helps to break the monotony and animate the radio copy. The pitch must complement and illustrate the key message of the copy as retention value of radio is low.

2.    Opening and Closing act: For radio copy to be effective, the opening words must grab the attention and the closing words must have a lasting impression on the listener. As radio is a passive medium i.e. it does not commands full attention of a person, the writer must compensate for this shortcoming.

3.    Economy of Words: This principle applies to all writing but it is all the more critical for radio copy. A lengthy radio copy has little or almost no effect, as it not possible for the listener to remember long details by listening to them just once.

4.    Kindle Imagination: Radio is a medium which lacks visuals but that does not means that it cannot paint a visual picture. Creative use of sound effects and adjectives will grant a unique vividness to the radio copy.

5.    Humour:  Humour is something which if well used can establish a rapport with the listener and can effectively propagate the message. Humour also helps to augment the retention value of radio advertisement.

Writing for radio warrants a slightly different approach as you are writing for the ear not the eye. The aim is to influence the listener which can only be achieved by offering something interesting to listen.

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Blogging has become a fairly popular activity due to which thousands of new blogs surface every day. The challenge is how to stand out and build a genuine base of followers.

1.    Build Individuality:  A blog is something very personal and it must carry a personality otherwise it will just be another webpage. The Internet is saturated with generic content and people read blogs to break this monotony. Always accentuate your posts with a personal touch to make your blog essentially unique.

2.    Maintain Consistency: There is no substitute for posting regularly on blogs as it naturally generates a trail of followers. Posting consistently also ensures that your followers have minimal trouble following you blog. Greater content on your blog will also help your blog to rank better on search engines.

3.    Interact: Interaction is central to the very idea of a blog. You must respond to comments so that your audience feels involved with your blog. Techniques like polls can also be used to invite opinion and feedback from your followers.

4.    Talk to Them: A blog must talk to the readers not inform them. No matter what kind of information you share, your writing style must build a rapport with your audience. Know your audience and write accordingly. Wittiness and humour also helps to build a bond with your followers but it must be used with caution.

5.    Accentuate the Content: Your page should not look like a chronicle of information. Adding photographs and videos will enable your blog to cast a better impression on your readers. Your blog should also have a well defined structure, so that the reader can navigate through your blog easily.

An ideal blog is a unique, creative and personal webpage. It must project the individual personality of the author. There are no set rules that pertain to blogging. So, never be shy of doing something out of the box.

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Music only exists in digital form in the contemporary realm. The vogue of CDs and other recording formats is also waning as music is mostly bought though online stores. This phenomenon started in the early years of the 21^st century with the opening of iTunes store. Music is now available on the Internet in universal formats such as MP3 which can be easily accessed across all platforms.

Buy One, Not All

Advertising techniques for music has also undergone a major shift.  Unlike before, one has the option to purchase songs individually rather than the whole album. This not only proves to more economically viable but also more efficient. You can also rate the songs which helps other customers with their buying decisions. Most online music stores also feature songs that are most downloaded and top rated. These lists also play a critical role in influencing the decision of the buyers.

Listen Before You Buy

Music stores also offer the option of listening to the preview of the song before actually purchasing it. The preview of the song serves as the advertisement for the song itself. The major advantage of online music stores that they provide access to a humongous collection readily. The music is organised under genres which you can access as per your taste.

Get Recommendations to Get Music

Advertisements are also projected in the form of recommendations. Online stores generally keep a track of your purchases and recommend songs on that basis. Users can also post reviews for songs and share their views about any song, album or artist. Online stores also serve the function of social media as users can interact and share their interests and ideas.

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Social media has given advertisers a powerful tool to connect and influence the younger generation. Owing to the increasing penetration of Internet, social media has emerged as one of the most important elements in the advertising mix. However, conventional media like television still maintain their stronghold on the India subcontinent.

Ubiquity: Though, the pervasion of Internet has been remarkable at the least, it still cannot match the ubiquitousness of television. Television is something that is rudimentary to every household while internet is still somewhat accessorial.

The Reach: Television still continues to be the closest bet to a universal medium. While television connects with almost all demographics, social media can only reach the urban and semi urban population. Social media is still light-years away from reaching rural and backward areas.

Simplicity: Social media certainly cannot compete with the simplicity of the idiot box. Television can be operated and understood by most masses, even the illiterate. Social media requires its user to be internet savvy in order to exploit its potential.

Targeted Approach: Social media extends advertisers, the privilege to acquaint themselves with their audience. With social media, advertisers can adopt on a highly targeted approach and tap on niche markets.

Feedback and Analysis: Advertisers can never garner instant and accurate feedback for television advertisements. The number of views and popularity for a television advertisement can also be only ascertained. The feedback and statistics of any social media campaign is instant and accurate. Due to this unique advantage of social media, it has also emerged as a test platform for television advertising campaigns

The various facets of advertising have undergone many changes in the recent past. While television still continues to be the dominant medium, it is also apparent that social media poses a veritable threat to its dominance. From a long term perspective, advertisers cannot afford to ignore the potential and reach of social media.

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It would be just relevant to talk about SWOT at a time when brands are flooding in the digital space to leverage on the online customer base. For every business with its online presence, it is important that it is making the best use of the social media space. In case, if things are not looking up, then, it is time to sit back and do the SWOT analysis.

Strengths:

• Efficient media planning to work out the social media campaigns are in place. This allows the management to assess the situation and then go ahead with the launch.
• Deep market reach is crucial. The number of customers who are actively involved with the social media platform will help boost the business.
• Thorough understanding of the media tools and the metrics to measure the success of campaigns are acquired.

Weaknesses:

• The problem with not having the right resources which help build the analytics behind a campaign can be a major problem.
• Another hindrance could be with maintaining the effectiveness of the campaign on the networking site. If the right impact is not made, the campaign loses its grip.
• Not having the support of the collaborative team on the subject of social media campaign can be a hurdle too.

Opportunities:

• Moving out of the comfort zone and interacting more on the digital space is important. It acts like food for thought for business to connect on different platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin.
• Exploring the customer base is another option to go for. Promotional offers help grab attention and drive traffic to the source.
• It becomes absolutely essential to have partners for sponsorships or shared spaces on the digital medium. This gives campaign a broader coverage.

Threats:

• It is important to question the strategy before taking the plunge. Is the campaign going to benefit the existing company profile?
• Though trying to make a mark in the space, the unavoidable threat remains from an established player. So, check if you are better equipped to take on the counter attack?
• Campaign sustainability is a big issue. The slightest of fault in message strategy will take the toll on the brand.

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Reddit is a unique social news website that operates on a very simple concept. Owing to the exceedingly simple interface of Reddit, marketing on Reddit requires a slightly different approach.

1.    Work on the Title: Reddit is basically a bulletin board which lists titles of currently trending posts. Apparently, the title of the post play a major role in inviting clicks from other users and therefore also influences post’s ranking on Reddit.

2.    Tag it: SEO practices like adding tags can significantly augment the chances of your post being found by other users. However, don’t stuff the post with tags and only use relevant ones.

3.    Participate: Reddit is a social community that rewards participation. If you wish to solely promote your business on Reddit, then it probably would not favour you. The more you vote other articles up, the more followers you garner. With a large base of followers, the chances of your article being ranked higher also increases.

4.    Submit Quality Content: In order to rank your posts higher, you must only submit quality links and content which may be of some use to other users.

5.    Track the Trend: An analysis of Reddit’s top link section can offer a deep insight into the trending topics on Reddit. It is viable to create posts based upon the trending topics on Reddit.

6.    Be Consistent: Posting prolifically and regularly will help you to build your reputation in the Reddit community.

7.    Network: Your friends have a ready access to all your posts. By making more friends on Reddit you can market your business much more efficiently on Reddit.

8.    Add Visuals: Visuals always go a long way in making your posts look more attractive and appealing.

Reddit attracts a more than 35 million visitors every month. Though, Reddit is not as popular as other mainstream social media sites, marketers cannot afford to ignore the rich potential it offers.

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Advertisers and marketers have absolutely no qualms testing with a new idea. Places don’t matter till the time it is sure to reach out to the audience intended. Thus, marketers landed on to the coffee cup. After all, it is a tool which is there in the prospective consumer’s hand while the coffee lasts. This gives the latter enough time to read out the brand message written on the cup and the work of the marketer is almost done. Here’s how the purpose is achieved:

Penetrating the segment: The marketer gets to penetrate a larger segment of the population with coffee cup advertising. Being present on the coffee cups for a fortnight can give enough coverage than it would through any other form of visual marketing.

Covering more venues: A marketer can cover more spots in a city or across a region by collaborating with a chain of coffee outlets. There have been successful media and technology campaigns over such collaborations. This has benefitted both the parties equally.

More visual impact: There is no doubt that the business advertising on the coffee cup would result in a deeper impact. The coffee cup is carried by individuals to workplaces, meeting halls, conferences, which are all business hubs and turn potential consumers.

Saving on cost: A company saves a lot on taking the move for advertising on coffee cups. Playing on a strip around the coffee cup costs less while done in bulk. However, it would not fail in putting out a strong message.

In totality, taking on the move to be present on the coffee cup may sound like a frugal idea. But at the same time it also pushes the brand into more exposure and that is all that they need.

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It is said that some of the greatest ideas for a business plan are found scribbled at the back of a tissue paper. And, so I wonder about the stock (of tissues) that someone with an outstanding business plan might have.

Take a look at the points below and you will realize that writing a business plan is no rocket science.

a)      Understanding the Business: The first and the most challenging task for writing a business plan is understanding the type of industry/business that you are writing the plan for. Having done this, ascertain the tone of the plan that has to be inked.

b)      Preparing a Summary: Even though this is something that comes at the last, its importance is only next to “understanding business”. Since it is the summary that most investors read, it has to be informative, concise, extremely well written and thought provoking.

c)      Segregating the Heads: With business plans, organization is really important. Therefore work on the index before framing the main content. Take a book-writing like approach and begin with deciding the head as well as sub-heads of the plan.

d)      Understanding the Tone: A business plan is always, always written in a formal language. An organized structure, smooth transitions and a professional language is the right mix for a business plan.

Ascertaining the audience is also important to frame the content for a business plan. Last but not the lease, persuasive content makes the business sell.

Image courtesy eHow

A business plan with a dream to take on the world by storm sounds mighty but it is totally accomplishable, if we have to say so. All we need to do is to get the basics right. The practice and success will always lie with the initiator.

Can’t do without it: There are some bare minimums of everything in this world. So, it is with a brand. The brand offering a product or service must connect with the consumer on the very bottom-line of ‘need’. If the consumer cannot do without this product, it is launched right.

The cherry on the cake: Everyone loves the cake but it is always nicer with a dressing. The consumer likes to see the added ‘value’ with the product. If the brand has to survive, it needs to keep exploring on the benefits apart from the offerings of the product.

Engage and shoot: Not literally. But don’t lose the sight. The consumer is a tricky being. If the business would not engage and talk, the former tends to move. So, keep them kicking with campaigns offline and online.

Change is the only constant: It is better to adapt than be late and forgotten. In the age where people are rushing in with their labels, it is good to keep the brand updated every once in a while. This can be done by product innovation, advance strategy of advertising and promotions.

Miles to go: The consumer–brand relationship should be fostered keeping in mind that a satisfied consumer always talks in favor of the brand and help build more. Social networking sites are turning out to be the best platform for consumer interaction spot. It is also working as the grievance redress cell.

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