MARKETING MUSINGS
An occasional column featuring advice, lessons learned and professional experiences of today’s AMA members
MARKETING MOTTOS TO LIVE BY.
Robert Myers, AMA Member
Business Director, Haematologic Technologies, Inc.
“The motto I live by is `utilize your stakeholders for advertising and promotion support to keep internal spending down.’ I work for a very small (<25 employees) biologicals manufacturer that operates in a very niche market. As such, our marketing budget is measured in tens of thousands, not millions. Additionally, a good portion of our target market is overseas, which is expensive to reach. Between catalog distribution, tradeshow participation and advertising, a sub-$100,000 budget can get eaten up very quickly. Just one international tradeshow can cost a small company $15,000-$20,000. To combat this we rely heavily on international distributors to promote our products on their dime.
Not only do our distributors do their typical promotional activities for us, but I have been successful in convincing them to pay for the printing, shipping and distribution of thousands of catalogs and promotional flyers to potential customers throughout Europe and Asia. Our distributors pay for, and distribute, more promotional material than we do ourselves! In addition, many of our international distributors have paid for tradeshow booths specific to our company, and attend international tradeshows on our behalf. The only cost to us is the plane ticket to the show. The results have been amazing. Not only have we increased our international sales by seven-fold over the past 4-5 years, but we have done so spending no additional money of our own.”
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Do you have some career advice you’d like to pass on? Lessons learned? A favorite marketing moment? A big success? A memorable first job or a marketing dream job you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about it!
Submit your story (please include your name and current job title) along with a photo of yourself (optional) to npekala@ama.org. Please include the words Marketer Musings in the subject line.