Saturday, October 10, 2009

Marketing Mix for Dummies

I can remember quite vividly when I was starting out in my career at one of the larger NY advertising agencies, attending in-house seminars on the inherent characteristics, benefits and drawbacks of the different media. Basically, within advertising, it came down to just six different types: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, cable TV, and outdoor. There was something comforting about applying one’s best creative thinking towards the development of media plans that incorporated these six elements.

Flash forward, and now there is a seemingly endless array of traditional as well as non-traditional (i.e., internet) mediums that potentially could be utilized in an advertising campaign. Augment this with the myriad of non-advertising tools such as public relations, direct marketing, SEO, and everything from personal networking to getting a page on Facebook, it’s no wonder that law firms have a difficult time when it comes to creating marketing plans that make sense.

With this in mind, the following offers a handy-dandy, nuts and bolts, “Marketing Mix for Dummies” chart on the positives and negatives of the marketing tools most often utilized by law firms. With apologies to skywriting, bathroom advertising, and in-video game product placement, it should provide law firms with a pretty good checklist of activities to consider (and/or to consider rejecting). No doubt, it will have failed to cite every possible use of every potential tool, nor will it accurately describe every inherent benefit of failing of each type of vehicle. But it’s a place to begin, a place to house all potential approaches under one roof, and an opportunity to examine how different tools can work together to create an effective, integrated marketing program.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you regarding anything I’ve missed or any refinements you might suggest.