Direct vs. Indirect Marketing

Direct Marketing actively takes sales to the customer where as Indirect Marketing draws the customer in to the business place.   Both strategies have advantages and disadvantages. 

Direct Marketing
       Advantages--
            -Fast Results
            - PPC brings in targeted markets
            - Reliable
       Disadvantages
           - PPC can be Expensive
           - Skills required to be effective
           - People are suspicious of online advertising

Indirect Marketing
      Advantages
             - Inexpensive
             - Builds relationships and trust
             - Easy to find target market with Social Media (facebook, twitter)
             - Increases web presence, influence, and brand awareness
         Disadvantages 
             - Takes longer then Direct
             - Requires continuous time (responding on facebook, twitter)
             - People not looking to buy when on Social Media


                                                                      DIRECT

Which is better for you??

Professional Movies

Do you ever see a coke or Pepsi can sitting on a desk during a movie?  Do you ever notice the brand of computer a person has in a movie? This happens all the time.  The company is paying to have their brand shown in movies.  This is away of indirect advertising. 

It is not an ad for the product but the product is featured in a high budget film.  Those watching the movie will notice the product and be more interested in buying it.  Individuals like the status of having something that was used in a movie.

This form of indirect marketing works for products that have the product/brand name on the item.  For example in the movie Bedtime Stories featuring Adam Sandler there is a scene in the movie that is taped "in" home depot.  Whether it is in Home Depot or not we don't know but a company is shown in the movie and that is advertising for the movie.  In the clip above, Home Depot is shown at the 1 minute 35 second spot.

Blog Reform

The only reason for me doing this blog is for class.  It has taken me awhile to get started and into the whole idea of blogging, and now that I am getting the hang of it (and slightly enjoying it) the class is getting ready to end.  The assignment was to come up with a topic within Digital Advertising and blog about it.  Until the last post, I kept my topic as Digital Advertising.  Today I am changing it to indirect digital advertising.

To me indirect digital advertising can be one of two things: 1) when individuals advertising for a company without getting paid to do it 2) when the advertisement is so subtle people dont even know it is an advertisement.  Today we are going to focus on the first of the two.

When individuals talk about, wear, drink, ect a product, the company/product is basically getting free advertising.  This can be done in blogs, on twitter or Facebook, in Youtube videos, and in peoples photos.  Often this well happen unintentionally but it is still advertising for a company.

Here are a few examples:
 From twitter:

ohyesitsashley Ashley Ripp

just like coke-a-cola, it's gonna be around forever.

rubybuttonss Paula Skladanowski

Coke > Pepsi :) RT @brandspanking A big round-of-applause for the marketer of the year: Coca-Cola bit.ly/u2zWpH

By Photos:

This is a picture of my cousins and I and the Great Wall of China.  We were having a great time and took pictures.  By me posting the picture it advertises a great place to visit.  It was not meant to be an advertisement for the Great Wall, just a a picture of my cousins.  In other words it was unintentional. 

Indiduals Blogging

Individuals like you and I create blogs for others to read.  Many of the blogs are a free advertising for whatever is being blogged about.  For example those who blog about traveling will often include hotels they stayed in, restaurants they ate at, and activities they did while on vacation.  It is free advertising for the restaurants, hotels, and activities.  People value real peoples experiences when deciding where and what they will do on vacation.

What got me thinking about this is my Christmas vacation to Grand Cayman Island.  Although we already know where we are staying, my family has been trying to decide where we would like to eat and some of the activities we would like to do while there.  While researching I came across this blog.  http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Cayman-Islands/Grand-Cayman/blog-465157.html  The lady writing the blog told all about the places they visited while there and how they enjoyed them. 

Real life experiences impact the decisions people make regarding the some things.  Although the advertising is not through the specific company, it is still advertising for them (good and bad)