Do you know the difference between tweens and teens? And can you imagine their influence on companies marketing campaigns?
By reading two different articles dealing with this topic, the importance of this target group appears even bigger than thought before.

Who are tweens and teens?

Tweens, aged from 8 to 12, represent children who are no longer little kids, and not yet teens. Consequently, teens are defined up to the age of 12.
In her article, Anastasia Goodstein, the author of “Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are really doing online”, broke some secrets concerning this Generation Y. According to her, teens are multitaskers, prefer really short messages and want to participate.

Kids want to have a say – and even some ownership – in the products and content they use. And the more opportunities they have to personalize these things, the more engaged they’ll be.

It is important to retain that young adults can not only considerably be influenced by marketing and advertising campaigns, but that they have themselves a huge impact on companies strategies.

How to reach this young target efficiently?

You want to know how you can target the youth efficiently? So have a look to the second part of the article of Anastasia Goodstein where she listed marketing tips that can be helpful for dealing with this challenge. Here are three of them:

- Enlist teens to manage your social media – As Penguin Books did it by hiring kids for their new teen Web site
- Know your audience – Whether boys and girls or tweens and teens, every group uses the Internet differently.
- Don’t sweat the design – Less is more: if you want to be attractive for your target, don’t exaggerate colors, banners and co, but offer them a place to talk about topics they’re interested in.

Smart marketing or predatory instrument?

But not everyone supports marketers in targeting tweens and teens. For instance, I found a blog called “The responsible Marketing Blog”. The editor of this blog wrote an article about marketing to tweens and teens with a more critical point of view. He gave examples of distribution of samples during cheerleading competitions for underlining their impact on young children.
Even if he just asked certain questions without giving real answers, the author communicate the impression that he runs it down.

And I think it is important to respect both sides in order to deal with them and to find an appropriated compromise: Neither overcharge young adults with marketing or advertising, nor ignore them totally… they are the future generation of consumers!

The best way to discover teen trends is also the most obvious -just ask them.

Last week, we discussed in our marketing course about several marketing tools and strategies, among others about the jingle as an „acoustic logo”. Of course, the jingle is a very important part of a successful marketing campaign whether for a product or for the whole brand, but it is not the only instrument to become memorable.

What is an advertising slogan?

Quite often, the marketers combine commercials or promotions not only with a jingle, but also with an advertising slogan. And nowadays, so in times of difficult economical circumstances, I think it is even more important to communicate with the slogan above all a positive message for the future.
According to Business Dictionaries, an advertising slogan is defined as

“a sentence or phrase used consistently to describe and sell a company’s products or philosophy”.

In general, marketing slogans are short and memorable phrases in order to influence the consumer. Marketers want to create the best slogan for their product or brand, so that the consumer always knows of which company you talk by telling him the strapline.

How being effective as slogan?

For being effective and therefore successful, it would be advisable to create an advertising slogan that includes at least some of the following criteria, as I found it on Economy-point.org:

• advantages, which the product or the mark for the buyer has.
• difference between the product and competition products.
• simple, direct, concise, knackige and appropriate statement.
• funny, if the product fits.
• something personal and special actually.
• reliable and descriptive impression of the product.
• a good feeling to the consumer.
• feel a desire or a need.
• it embodies itself in the memory – hard to forget
• sounds good

The main aim of a slogan is to create for the consumer a desire for this particular product. You want to entice him to buy it, again and again. That’s the basic issue of every marketing work!

Great examples – Do you remember them?

For sure, everyone has its own favorite slogan. Personally, I prefer sayings which are really short, but at the same time very meaningful. Therefore, I created a short list with some wonderful examples of great, effective and funny slogans, in English as well as in German.

• Nike: Just do it.
• Volkswagen: Das Auto
• L’Oréal: Because I’m worth it.
• Haribo: Haribo macht Kinder froh und Erwachsene ebenso.
• Toyota: Nothing is impossible
• IKEA: Wohnst du noch oder lebst du schon?

Do you agree with me concerning these slogans? Or do you know others which are even better? Don’t hesitate to comment on this post and to give me further details or examples of slogans.

And for further information, I would recommend to go to Marketing for Success. It is an interesting page and talks not only about slogans. Enjoy it!

What is the Promotional Gift Award?

Since 6 years, the WA Publishing in Cologne, Germany, annually arranged an international competition of novel promotion, called the Promotional Gift Award. Relaunched in 2008 with among other things a new logo, this prize is now a unique and established distinction of the industry.
The jury of this initiative has the purpose to find the best companies concerning their know-how to promote their products in an innovative, even pioneering and unique way. That’s the reason why the Promotional Gift Award 2009 is once again under the motto “Create the difference”.

Why an award for good promotion and communication ideas?

In times where there is an oversupply of products, the promotion, marketing and communication aspects play a more and more important role. You need to be unique for being successful. You have to attract the attention of the consumer for enticing him to buy YOUR product.
The aim of the Promotional Gift Award is to encourage everybody to “create the difference” with their innovation in the field of promotion. The following citation underlines once more why good and appropriated marketing campaigns are indispensable nowadays:

“Promotional products have an exceptional advantage under such market conditions due to their representational attributes.”

The criteria and the jury

During a non public selection procedure, a competent jury, consisted of five jurors, decides via several criteria the winners of the award.
Not only is the submitted product information sheet important for the evaluation of the products. Different criteria such as design, additional functions, packaging or attractiveness flow into the analysis.

And the winners of 2008 are …

Just for giving you an overall impression of the innovative dimensions of the award, you can see on the picture one of the winners of the last year. It is an organic t-shirt, packed as a tomato, of the category “communicative product”. `
The winners of this year will be presented and honored at the Promotional World in Hanover in April 2009.

Isn’t it just fascinating what you could create with a little bit imagination?

Imagine the following situation: Monday morning, 9 o’clock, you just arrived at the office, ready for a new working week and then you noticed that you forgot your mobile phone at home. It is too late to move back home for getting it, so you have no choice: You have to survive the day without your handset! A nightmare becomes reality!
Isn’t it sounds crazy to characterize it as a nightmare? But in truth, it would probably be a horrible imagination for the majority of us to pass a day without being reachable, without SMS, MMS or just the quick connection with the internet. Oh yes, nowadays, almost everyone has at least one mobile phone and just a teeny minority use these technical innovation only for calling.

2009: The year of mobile

As future marketer and event-manager, I think it is important to be up to date every time. That’s why I searched on the web for news from the virtual world of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketers can hope that 2009 really, really will turn out to be the year of mobile. (promomagzine.com)

Is it really necessary to add something to this citation? Well, I don’t think so. It hit the nail on the head in order to express the increasing domain of mobile marketing.
The Pew study shows that more than 75% of the interviewed internet experts, analysts and enthusiasts suppose that “by 2010 the mobile phone is the primary connection tool for most people in the world to get to the internet”. And what do YOU think?

The secrets of success of mobile marketing

There are thousand ways to do marketing, but not every tool is appropriated to each product. Some advantages of mobile marketing are listed below, according to the SWOT analysis of Mickey Alam Khan.
As we already knew, more and more people can’t live without their cell phone anymore. With mobile marketing, you get the opportunity to address your ads directly to the target audience. Powerful loyalty and increasing sales of phones with internet capability are further strengths.
The analysis is completed by some weaknesses and threats like a lack of standards across platforms and carriers, but more opportunities such as more SMS text marketing.

You’ve got a message: from Barack Obama

We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion to this campaign. All of this happened because of you. Thanks, Barack.

Did you know that the new president of the United States, Barack Obama, also used mobile marketing for his election campaign? Well, for me it was new, but it shows how effective it could be…!
Other examples are exclusive mobile clips from “The Simpsons” or the promotion of the new single from Christina Aguilera.

Prognosis for mobile marketing

In my opinion, the consumer is ready to dialogue on mobile nowadays, so that it would be advisable for every company to attune their marketing strategy to the new trend. In spite of certain improvement, it will be THE technology par excellence.
For any news concerning mobile marketing read the articles on MobileMarketer.com.

Looking at the picture , you think seeing a normal soup can of Campbell Soup, but in truth you see a great example for incentives addressed to the consumers.

But what is the aim of this kind of marketing? And why incentives could be the key of success for the future?

What are incentives?

The world of incentives can be a big domain. According to the Business Dictionary, incentives are defined as “inducement or supplemental reward that serves as a motivational device for a desired action or behavior”. In other words, incentives are any kind of means for motivating or encouraging somebody to do something.

Two dimensions of incentives

In general, you can distinguish two different types of incentives.
On the one hand, there are the incentives concerning the motivation of your employees for getting the better or even the best results. Many companies used in the past financial rewards as explained in the article by Alex Palmer. But as mentioned at the beginning, the current economical circumstances require alternatives to cash bonuses. Therefore, plans of businesses to adjust their incentives programs to the given conditions arise and become more and more important.

“Are we using non-cash incentives as much as we can?”

This statement of the article, given by Greg Stoskopf, a director with Deloitte Consulting’s Human Capital practice, is the relevant question nowadays. Not only money can motivate employees. Many agencies are specialized in non-cash incentives such as travel coupons or merchandise presents, so that there already are alternatives to financial bonuses.

On the other hand, incentives can also have the objective to entice consumers buying your product. For giving you a better impression of this field, I searched a little bit on the web and found the following example, published on promomagazine.com.

Example: Campbell Soup

The picture above represents the product of Campbell Soup, a company acting in the food industry. They use on-pack codes on their box as inducement to buy their tomato soup. As described in the short comment of promomagazin.com, the consumer has the chance to win something by buying these cans. Different prizes, including the first prize of a Caribbean cruise, attract costumer’s attention to the product.
Aside from these on-pack codes, Campbell Soup combines this campaign with the Universal Pictures film “The Tale of Despereaux”, which is a great deal for both of them.

To sum up, we can say that incentives were, are and will always be very important whether inside of your company for motivating your staff or outside on the market for enticing the consumers.
In times of the economical and financial crises, incentives play an important role, not only for the employees, but also for the consumers. To find the good combination of both is nowadays the challenge for each company and would probably be the right answer during these tough times.

A day in the life – Event Planner

First of all, have a look at the video above which I found on youtube.com. I think it is really smart, because it is short, clear and explains in less than two minutes what it means to be an event planner. As everybody can imagine, the position of an event planner requires much more than being from 9 to 5 in the office. Often, you don’t have the possibility to enjoy your leisure-time

Stress and last minute crises

Imagine the following situation: Late evening of Thursday, almost 6 p.m. and you are ready to go home to your family, but just at that moment the telephone rings: A client with an urgent demand for the coming weekend! He asks you to organize a professional seminar with about 100 participants, including food, drinks and some nice activities for the free-time between the meetings! Now, you have to act quickly in order to satisfy your client…a big challenge to deal with it!
And in a situation like this, you can’t leave off work as you do in other businesses. That’s why working as an event planner includes ALWAYS stress and last minute crises as you can see in the film.

So why doing this stressful job?

But this work has also lots of advantages: It offers to you to work in different domains such like the tourism, the sales and incentives field or as a freelancer. It doesn’t matter whether you choose the one or the other business… the important thing is that you do it with power, engagement and passion! That’s the way how you can guarantee to create anytime a unique event for satisfying your client and his individual desires.

Further information

If this short comment aroused your interest for the fascinating field of event management, I can advise you another video on youtube.com. Heather Cott shot this film for showing you “How to be an event coordinator”. It is a nice way to communicate that being an event planner means not only being organized and creative but also being able to control, calculate and coordinate the operations.

My major sport is definitely SWIMMING. I love to move in the water… You feel free, well I feel free there.
Since my childhood, I prefer the water than any other type of sport. I practiced it a lot, during a certain period even in an association where we got the opportunity to participate in small competition. I like to swim against others, because in that way, you can see if you are good, better or just in the middle-class of swimmers. But there are also some other reasons why I am so inspired by swimming…With swimming, I can forget for a certain period of time everything around me. At this moment – being in the water, looking for a free place or fighting sometimes even for it – all my power will be focused on the swimming lane and my objective to do at least 3.000 meter of laps.

Swimming: More than flounder about in the water

Swimming is a sport which can be much diversified. There are at least four different strokes: the breaststroke, the freestyle, the backstroke and finally the butterfly. Each stroke has its positive and negative points, but which one would be the best four you depends on your objective. Why do you want to swim? Just for the pleasure or on a professional level? In my opinion, for those who want rather do some sport the breaststroke would be the best style. But if you want to do it more seriously, all four strokes are possible.

Personally, I especially prefer the freestyle as swimming style. It is definitely my favorite… I think it is a good way for moving fast – as a sprinter – but also for having a good endurance for longer distances – as an endurance swimmer.

Water sports on the web

As I searched a little bit on the web, I found a blog of someone who seems to be also a passionate swimmer as I am. That’s why I chose his article about “Distance vs. Sprinting” for giving you a deeper impression of this domain.

Even if probably the majority think that there are lots of differences between a distance swimmer and a sprinter, the author of this article doesn’t see it so. According to him there is no such a big difference… with remarks like “both need a large amount of time commitment and dedication”, “no one type is easier than the other” and “they require the same amount of training at the same amount of difficulty”, he underlines this opinion. But in the following, the reader learns some details of each stroke, so that it is clear that they are finally different…and that concerns not only the time of being in the water. For getting further information, don’t hesitate to read on your own the article on the following website:

http://esawka.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/distance-vs-sprinting/

Live the element of water

To sum up, we can say that swimming is a hard sport, but if you do it with passion and dedication it can be a real way of life. Personally, after having done my lanes, I am happy and proud of me with the good feeling of having done something, so that I can’t wait for the next time for being wet like a fish…

And if this little comment on swimming inspired you, go on the following link for getting the news of the wet world:

http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/6571

For me, TEAMWORK is one of the main points for becoming professional. During my studies, I had many opportunities to work in a team for different projecst, most of the time in a mulitcultural team with French and German people. Working in teams allows you to be creative, to contribute your own ideas in order to find the best solution for a problem and cash in on the synergies of the team because of the different kinds of thinking.

Well, I think there are a lot of different answers to this question and we will see what I did during my studies for becoming professional…

After having graduated the High School with a double High School diploma (Franco-German), my next destination was Paris where I spent a total of 9 months working at Disneyland Resort Paris as salesperson (2004: 3 months, 2005: 6 months). This was a wonderful experience, on the professional, but also on the personal level. I had the opportunity to perfect my French language skills and to meet people from all around the world as well as to gain work experience.

During my first stay in France, I reflected on my near future and thought about my character traits and where I can use them… Creative, organized and teamwork oriented: these three words probably describe the most important part of my personality, in the private as well as the professional life. But furthermore, I am also an open mind person who really likes the direct contact with other people, to speak and to discuss with them in order to find the ideal solution. In my opinion, these points are really important for working in the event-management sector. And my passion for organizing finally pushed me to check out this domain.

Therefore, in the meantime of the two stays in Paris, I did an internship for 3 months in a tiny event-planning agency in Berlin, called “Kleiner Festsaal” and situated in the “Hackesche Höfe”,a popular Berlin quarter. It is a small location in Jugendstil. My work there included the presentation of the premises, the customer service and the organization of the different events like marriages or promotional events in close cooperation with my superior. This experience and the impression of this field were the main reasons for my choice to work later in the event-management, after having finished my studies.

In 2005, I started the Franco-German studies at the FHW-Berlin and will be graduated in 2009 with a double diploma (Franco-German). I chose these studies, because the bilingual orientation gave me the opportunity to maintain my “Franco-German way” as well as to live out my passion for going abroad.

During these studies, I interned in a small French agency of communication, called “Ailleurs Communication”, and worked there for 5 months. Additionally to my daily tasks, so the treatment of customer briefs, I organized a seminar in cooperation with the project manager and developed accessorily a new product for the company. By this work, I improved not only my language skills in general, but I learned also a lot of the communication and event-management business.

Since my decision to delight everyone with an innovative and individual event, so to work in the event-management field, I never regretted this choice and will continue on my way after my studies…whether in Germany or abroad.