Marketing has the power to revolutionize companies everywhere and has become an essential part of the modern-day business. But it has changed the way we see consumers and the way that we interact with them. Today, every marketer is looking for the next big thing, the next great strategy, the next money maker. However, in order to refine our marketing strategies, we have to look at the greats and how they used marketing to attain greatness. Here are 16 Marketing tips from some of the sharpest marketing minds in modern history:
Marketing Influencers
Steve Jobs (Apple)
Steve Jobs’ winning marketing strategy was to tap into the emotions of his audience members. But he did this by taking his excellent products and building sleek minimalist marketing campaigns around them that matched the designs. Then he leveraged the success of these to launch unmissable product events that all worked together to build an untouchable customer experience.
Mary Kay Ash (Mary Kay)
Mary Kay Ash used network marketing and incorporated it into middle-class society by recruiting stay at home moms looking for a flexible source of income and also by creating products targeted toward middle-class women. They then tapped into the network of each individual representative that was selling their products.
Mary Kay Ash, late founder of Mary Kay Inc. (PRNewsFoto)
Michelle Obama (Becoming)
Michelle Obama is a dazzling television personality and recognizing this trait, used it to her advantage in the marketing of her book tour. In general, audiences prefer television to reading, so Michell Obama turned each of her book tour stops into an event resembling a concert, capitalizing of her best-selling point; her personality.
Peter Drucker (Consultant)
Peter Drucker was the founding father of management theory and often the person successful CEOs would go to for counseling. He believed that companies needed to know their customers so well that their products fit them perfectly and would, therefore, sell themselves.
Gary (Vee) Vaynerchuk (Vayner X)
Gary Vee had a huge impact on digital and social media when he identified the internet’s potential in the late 90s. He was an earlier mover, being one of the first people to move a business online and one of the first people to use Google Ads to advertise his company.
David Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather)
David Ogilvy’s marketing philosophy is centred around having a deep understanding of your target audience. Businesses should know that their customers are much smarter than they think. You can assume that your customers are researching you, so, you should be doing market research on them as well. Communicate with your target audience in a way that is both informative and clear while respecting your audience’s intelligence and time.
Ann Lewnes (Adobe)
Ann Lewnes lives by two values; cooperation and communication. She believes that the core of any good marketing campaign is creativity and data-driven results. As a result, she has recently been moving her focus toward the customer experience.
Foundational Marketers
Now let’s look at Marketing tips from some of biggest marketers of yesteryear:
Conrad Gessner (Physician and Naturalist)
Conrad Gessner was the first European to illustrate the tulip. The illustration was so popular that it created a mania that skyrocketed the value of tulip bulbs. Soon people were using them for dowry’s and to purchase homes. It is one of the first examples of viral marketing.
H.G. Wells (War of The Worlds)
In 1938, on October 30th around 8:00 pm, CBS radio interrupted its regularly scheduled radio programming, for a live performance of H.G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds, unbeknownst to its audience. This created mass hysteria as listeners believed that aliens had invaded the earth. When all was said and done the stunt was a great advertisement for Wells’ Mercury Theatre company.
Walt Disney (Walt Disney Company)
Walt Disney created a company that could provide magical experiences to people of all ages and demographics. His marketing plan included targeting a wide array of people with creative content that triggered their nostalgia and fostered a strong sense of customer loyalty. Walt Disney was also big on keeping consistency within his brand by upholding a standard of messaging and advertising that was warm and positive.
Julius Caesar (Dictator)
Julius Caesar was the first to create a recurring article that was sent back to Rome to bolster his public image. His political enemies were attempting to ruin his public image while he was away at battle, so, these articles served to remind the public of his victories and as a result, keep negative opinions at bay.
Henry Ford (Ford)
Henry Ford was one of the first people to design his products with his customers’ needs in mind. Before him, companies would just make whatever they wanted and sold them to whoever would buy. But Ford considered the wants and needs of his customers before he created a new product.
Frederick the Great (King)
Fredrick the Great marketed potatoes all throughout Prussia by making it exclusive. He wanted potatoes to be cultivated and eaten all throughout the country. So, to encourage people he had soldiers patrol the potato patches and citizens would sneak in and steal the potatoes to plant them for themselves.
Cecil Rhodes (DeBeers)
Diamonds weren’t always the expensive commodity that they are today until DeBeers and Cecile Rhodes used marketing to position them as valuable and desirable. When they were first discovered in South Africa they flooded the market but then Cecile Rhodes bought all of the diamond mining companies in South Africa and from there on out was able to control the supply and demand of diamonds. He created a false scarcity, therefore upping the market value.
P.T. Barnum (Showman)
P.T. Barnum owned a circus, which was one of the main forms of entertainment back in the 19th century. He paid attention to the interests of the public and tailored his show and his promotional efforts to suit.
New doesn’t always mean better. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but rather, you can stick to the tried and true methods that have proven themselves successful. Learn from the past to inform your future by using the Marketing tips above to start you on your path!
Check out this short video for more Marketing Tips!
