Estimated Reading Time: 60 Seconds

Is your marketing stale?
To keep your brand communications fresh and working hard for you, read on!

60-Second Articles:

1. What is marketing and are you doing it?
2. Stubborn advertising: Can celebrities really save Gap...again?
3. Can't get a top position in Google? Let a blog help!
4. Your 99-day holiday shopping season alert
5. The 60-second close: Plan to change.

We welcome your newsletter feedback.  Share your thoughts with us and offer further commentary on our blog (www.axia.net/blog/).

1. The true meaning of marketing - are you doing it?

• Too many companies make the marketing plan development a complicated process. You can only impress your colleagues and bankers so much with jargon packaged neatly in a 100-page binder – with colored tabs, of course. Sometimes, these marketing plans can become intimidating and futile.
• The most simplified meaning of marketing? It’s the art of inviting. Do you have “invitations” in place that invite the right customers to your promotional events? Without an appealing “invitation” to a series of beneficial events or sales promotions, do you allow them to roam and shop your competition?

2. Stubborn advertising: Can celebrities really save Gap...again?

Once a darling of the boomer generation and Gen X, Gap has been experiencing a decline. Numerous CEOs have attempted to rejuvenate the brand and failed, even when the symptoms of this decline are obvious. Suffering from fashion malaise, Gap has turned off once loyal customers. Over the past years, Gap has used celebrity endorsements as its advertising strategy, hoping to “connect” with its target audience. That didn’t work. In a classic case of “try, try again,” Gap is now introducing yet another new army of 12 (yes 12!) celebrities featured in a black and white print campaign to help pull up sales. Lots of luck!

3. Can't get a top position in Google? Let a blog help you get there.

• One of the challenges that companies have in achieving a top position in Google’s directory is “arranging for” legitimate links to flow in and out from a Web site.
• Developing a simple blog using www.wordpress.com and linking to your Web site is an easy way to build what the Google spider is looking for. The potential result is that your Web site and blog have a better chance of being listed on Google’s first page.

4. Your 99-day alert to the holiday shopping season

It’s just a friendly reminder that your “planning machine” needs to get revved up. From sales events to holiday business get-togethers, don’t wait until the last minute. Now’s a great time to have your media plan in place and to negotiate the best rates.

5. The 60-Second Close: No dog days of summer here!

• In August, take a critical look at your business: where it is now; where you want it to be 99 days from now; and how you’re going to get it there.
• Do you have a plan in place? How do you reach your customers when they’re changing TV and reading habits? There are a thousand key marketing and operational areas to look at.
• Need help? We can help you get there … faster than ever.

Best wishes, Jason Mudd, APR AXIA (866) 999-AXIA

P.S. We welcome your newsletter feedback.  Share your thoughts with us and offer further commentary on our blog at www.axia.net/blog/.