A couple of days ago I wrote about communications sans brand strategy and what a waste of marketing energy it can be. So get yourself a brand strategy. And once in place, then it’s time to start working the tactics. Social media is huge today. Advertising still holds it’s own. PR, promotion, direct response are all arrows in the marketing quiver. But I’d like to explain the difference between communications, a one-way or bi-directional exchange of information and stimulation, defined by Webster as: “To rouse to action or effort, as by encouragement or pressure; spur on; incite.”
Someone at the Ford Motor Company once said about advertising, it has to make you “feel something, then do something.” That advice is about stimulation — and it’s the best advice anyone can heed when creating marketing tactics. Feel and do.
I’ve written lots of marketing plans and often enough a goal is to change attitudes. Many brand planners are all “up in” changing attitudes. But the best marketing money can buy is not about communications, it’s about stimulations. Stim is in.
Peace.