Need To Promote An Important Event? Try A Calendar

These days it seems businesses of all types are jumping onto the social networking bandwagon to try to promote themselves -- especially to get out invites and updates to let potential customers know about significant upcoming events, promotions, or the like.

These tools certainly have a place, but you could always also try something a bit more low-tech, like a DRY ERASE CALENDAR. It almost seems too simple, too pedestrian. But a new website is selling large calendars, like a DRY ERASE CALENDAR, especially for the restaurant market.

Think about it: who better to market your wine tasting, televised sports event, fundraising night -- or other important occasion than the customers you already have? That's right. You could spend a lot of time trying new fancy ways to bring strangers in -- again, not discounting that -- but why not give attention to the customers who already come in and already have shown you some indication of business loyalty?

That's where a special, large calendar would come in, displayed prominently at your establishment to call attention for folks all of the things you want them to know. Give your customers a reason to come back again!

Click these links here to find out more about how a DRY ERASE CALENDAR could really help promote your business.

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Make Your Email Marketing More Than Spam

We all know that email marketing is an incredibly cheap marketing tool. We also know how email has been twisted into the spam that clogs in-boxes and causes great hate.

What if you could use an email marketing service that turned the potential for spam back into a productive marketing outlet? That's the promise of iContact, which is email marketing software that is used by small businesses, Fortune 500 firms and trusted by more than 100,000 users.

iContact says it has whitelist agreements with major Internet providers, and the third-party firm Pivotal Veracity, scores iContact's email deliverability rates between 98 percent -99 percent.

Also, you won't be sending spam like buckshot, you can track email you send and create professional-looking email newsletters.

With iContact, you email wisely and avoid becoming a spammer.

This post was brought to you by your friends at iContact.

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An Online Customer Loyalty Option

We all know how great credit card rewards programs are -- cash back and airline miles are just two such rewards loyal customers receive for using their cards for purchases and cash.

A company called webloyalty offers businesses a new avenue of customer savings and rewards as a thank you and an inducement for repeat business.

They will tailor a program for your e-commerce, travel or other fee-based business. Today, more than 2 million subscribers enjoy savings from Webloyalty’s services.

Visit the link in this post to read testimonials from other businesses who have seen built good will with their customers and increased revenue through Webloyalty programs.

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Use of Techniques From Neuroscience in Today's Marketing

Using knowledge from neurosciences to market to consumers is nothing new but scanning consumers' brains to gauge their response to commercials is gaining in popularity.

Esteban Ribero, senior strategic planner at Lapiz says there are dangers in looking for answers to consumer behaviors using these techniques but there is tremendous value in using them as part of the overall strategic planning process. In his presentation to account planners at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies 23rd Semi-Annual Conference, Ribero shared with an audience of account planners that opening the black box - the brain - is not the ultimate solution to effectively
market to consumers.

Account planners seek to understand the motivation behind consumer behavior and use insight and consumer perspective to provide the foundation for innovative concepts and creative execution. Borrowing the techniques and tools from neuroscientists to get to know the consumer better may offer some direction but it's not that easy, according to Ribero. "Scanning consumers' brainwaves while they watch ads and discuss concepts is a new fad and some are suggesting it is a way to bypass focus groups," Ribero says. "I want to open up the debate for account planners who are searching for the truth. I think there are huge dangers in basing our campaigns
solely on this type of information."

Ribero's presentation and interactive discussion with account planners from the Hispanic marketing industry was part of AHAA's skill-building workshops planned to challenge creative thinking and approaches. The conference was designed to spark ideas and debate, and maybe create a little controversy according to Jackie Bird, AHAA chairwoman and president of Wing Latino.

"It is imperative that we keep on top of trends that will continue to propel our industry forward," Bird says. "Our planners, and frankly all of the professionals in our business, need to understand new tools so they can use them effectively in delivering exceptional work to our clients. We can't rely on what's been done in the past to communicate with Latino consumers of today. It takes bold thinking and a willingness to listen to, and experiment with, new ideas to succeed as a professional, as a Latino agency and as an industry."

Ribero wants planners to be better informed about neuromarketing. Rather than asking consumers to identify the reasons for their behaviors, Ribero believes planners should infer that by studying humans and understanding why humans like certain things. "Humans behave the way they do but they don't know why," Ribero says. "And we won't get to the truth by asking them. By studying, reading and observing human behavior we will become better planners. As we become more strategic, our brands will become more connected with their consumers and not just sell stuff but fulfill
desires and needs that we can help them identify."

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When Taking a Long Time is Seen as a Good Thing

Consumers often use the length of time a service takes as a measure of its quality. The longer a session lasts, the better the value. Indeed, a new study shows that this holds true even when judging something primarily by its duration can backfire – for example when a longer exercise program is actually less effective than a shorter regimen or for a lock-picking service. In a series of real-world and lab studies, the researchers reveal how consumers misjudge situations in which longer isn’t necessarily better.

“This research demonstrates that consumers tend to use the duration of a service as a basis for their evaluation of the service,” write Catherine W. M. Yeung (University of Singapore) and Dilip Soman (University of Toronto). “Although consumers may understand that the duration of the service in itself does not determine its value, they tend to believe in a positive correlation between the two.”

For example, in a real-world study with surprising results, the researchers found that consumers evaluated the price of a lock-picking service as a better value when the service took longer than when the lock was picked faster. When paired with price information, longer service periods were viewed more favorably than shorter service periods – even if duration should have nothing to do with quality or if faster service might be considered more efficient.

“We propose that consumers rely on the duration heuristic [judgment based on time] because it simplifies the evaluation process,” Yeung and Soman explain. “In particular, the duration heuristic is most likely to be seen when the duration of the service experience is evaluable relative to other features and when duration is considered in relation to price.”

Crucially, when no price information is given, time is not a factor in consumer evaluations, the researchers found. A consumer who does not know what to expect from a 60-minute physical training program will be unlikely to judge the program based on its duration. However, introducing a dollar amount allows consumers to make a price-per-minute assessment – and leads many consumers to prefer the longer session, even when there is no benefit to taking more time.

“Our position is that in general, the use of heuristics should not be regarded as irrational. . . . Human beings use heuristics because they are smart – they come up with shortcuts to simplify decisions that are less important so that they can spend more resources on decisions that are more important,” the researchers write.

They continue: “Marketers who plan to improve the efficiency of their services should, therefore, make it very explicit to their customers that the shorter duration of their services is an effort to improve the efficiency of their services.”

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Martin Worldwide Will Get You Lists That Get Results

Whether you need a consumer list, a business list, ethnic list or other specialized list, consider Martin Worldwide as your Telemarketing Lists Broker.

Martin Worldwide delivers the freshest, most relevant marketing lists for small business and Fortune 1000 customers alike, they offer more than a decade of seasoned experience.

Their database contains more than 290 million consumers and 14 million U.S. businesses, so let Martin Worldwide use this vast amount of information to target your best prospects like a laser beam.

Go online now for a free quote or call Martin Worldwide at (888) 694-5478 for a free, no-obligation consultation. If you do decide to go online, you could talk with one of Martin Worldwide's live list specialists.

Martin Worldwide is so confident you will be satisfied, they will offer you a written guarantee.

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Capella Faculty Member Awarded Fulbright

An adjunct faculty member from capella university has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to lecture on U.S. marketing practices at universities in Denmark.

Patrick Blessinger will lecture at EUC Nordvestsjaelland and Salendia Colleges in Denmark during the 2007 fall term.

"I'm incredibly honored to have this opportunity," Blessinger says. "This will allow me to gain valuable international teaching experience and to share this experience with my students."

Established in 1946 by legislation introduced by the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Scholar Program to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other nations. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

Capella University is an accredited online university that serves more than 19,000 students from all 50 states and 56 countries through 82 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 16 certificate programs.

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Outsourcing to Biotechs Is the Answer for Many Pharma Companies' Development

Small, mid-sized and large pharmaceutical companies are turning to outsourcing to free up cash for more early-stage marketing endeavors, according to a new study from Cutting Edge Information.

Early-stage development and commercialization resources can be hard to come by, as most pharmaceutical executives can attest to. Cutting Edge Information's study found that companies that focus their limited early-stage resources on commercialization have a distinct advantage once their products reach the market.

"Uniting R&D and Marketing for Integrated Early-Stage Market Preparation" is Cutting Edge Information's latest study. The report reveals that pharmaceutical companies are looking towards the biotech sector to outsource development of new drugs. In doing so, the company can free up resources to market drugs currently in their pipelines.

"It is no secret that the top pharmaceutical products each year are backed by hundreds of millions in marketing dollars," says Elio Evangelista, research team leader at Cutting Edge Information."Pharma-biotech partnerships have become a more popular method for pharmaceutical companies to outsource drug development and fill pipeline gaps."

One profiled company is in favor of shrinking business unit departments and creating small internal teams to handle deals with small biotechs to outsource most of the early-stage pre-clinical work. The idea is based on the biotech industry's capability to develop innovative products morequickly than slow-moving, large pharmaceutical companies. The company invests almost as much in early-stage research as it would for an in-house compound, but it outsources the work to smaller, faster-moving biotechs, which assume some of the risk that the company would otherwise retain.

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Banner Ads Work -- Even If You Don't Notice Them at All

The majority of advertising exposure occurs when the audience’s attention is focused elsewhere, such as while flipping through a magazine or browsing a web site. However, a new study reveals that even this incidental exposure to advertising may have a positive effect on consumer attitudes. Forthcoming in the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, the study revises existing theories of exposure advertising, specifically repeated views of web-based banner ads.

"Effects of mere exposure are expected to grow in a marketplace where consumers’ attention is often focused elsewhere," write Xiang Fang (Oklahoma State University), Surendra Singh (University of Kansas), and Rohini Ahluwalia (University of Minnesota). "Regardless of measured click-through rates, banner ads may still create a favorable attitude toward the ad due to repeated exposure."

The researchers investigated whether "mere exposure effect," a condition in which people develop a positive perception of stimuli not presented to them on a noticeable level, was also applicable to incidental advertising. In a series of experiments, the researchers discovered that even if people could not recall the content of the ad, repeated exposure led to familiarity, which then led to positive feelings.

"Our research could have important theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it enhances our understanding of the process underlying the mere exposure effect. Practically, it provides some useful guidelines for advertisers to develop more accurate measures of banner ad effectiveness," the authors write.

Participants had more positive evaluations toward the target banner ad as exposure frequency increased. Surprisingly, participants also showed high levels of tolerance for banner ads on which they were not directly focused. According to the researchers, even after twenty exposures, common wear-out effects were not apparent.

"Our results suggest that the fluency resulting from frequent passive exposure and the consequent spontaneous affective reaction provide a crucial link between exposure and positive impressions," write the authors. "Such spontaneous affect influenced evaluative judgments through a more complex process, likely by coloring the interpretation of the fluency experience and the nature of resulting metacognitions relating fluency with liking."

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Find The Leads That Land Sales

You need to find the right customers to make your sales. So you need the right leads.

Turn to Mailing Lists from Martin Worldwide and their ResponseCom product.

ResponseCom is a unique mix of U.S. response and U.S consumer databases, creating a database that offers extreme versatility and over 100 demographic and psychographic selects. The special synthesis of compiled and response data has created an unparalleled, powerful database that accurately identifies prospects with the most active, responsive, and impulsive buying history.

“ResponseCom is the result of decades of tracking, compiling, and optimizing data merged into one vast database of proven direct mail responders. As a result, our clients have experienced higher response rates, profitability, and new business opportunities.” says Chip Matthews, Client Relationship Manager for Martin Worldwide.

Client Gifts International says, "It's hard to find a list company that you can trust. I know. I've tried them all and as a relatively small company, I don't have too much to spend on the list I purchase for my campaigns. Martin Worldwide has always been the most reasonable in terms of price, and they have great service, too. I'd recommend them to one of my friends or family members."

For more information on Martin Worldwide and its direct marketing products and services, please call (888)- 267-3545.

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Researchers Find Ceiling Height Can Affect How a Person Thinks, Feels, Acts

For years contractors, real estate agents and event planners have said that whether building, buying or planning an event, a higher or vaulted ceiling is always better. Are they right? Until now there has been no real evidence that ceiling height has any influence or advantage with consumers.

But recent research by Joan Meyers-Levy, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, suggests that the way people think and act is affected by ceiling height. Meyers-Levy and co-author Rui (Juliet) Zhu, assistant professor of marketing at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia and a Carlson doctoral alum, found that, depending on the situation, ceiling height will benefit or impair consumer responses.

The paper “The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use,” will be published in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

“When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, they will tend to think more freely, more abstractly,” says Meyers-Levy. “They might process more abstract connections between objects in a room, whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics.”

The research demonstrates that variations in ceiling height can evoke concepts that, in turn, affect how consumers process information. The authors theorized that when reasonably salient, a higher versus a lower ceiling can stimulate the concepts of freedom versus confinement, respectively. This causes people to engage in either more free-form, abstract thinking or more detail-specific thought. Thus, depending on what the task at hand requires, the consequences of the ceiling could be positive or negative.

“Depending on the activity or the desired outcome, ceiling height can make a big difference in how the consumer processes the information presented,” says Meyers-Levy.

This work has important implications for retailers of all types who are faced with consumers whose thought processes might influence what products they buy, how they process point-of-purchase information and even sales persuasion strategies, the researchers say. Careful attention to this important design aspect of retail spaces can pay off for those with one eye on the ceiling and the other on the bottom line, they add.

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