123 eGuides

123 eGuides. 3 Proven Steps, Just 3 Bucks.

123 eGuides are authoritative guides published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost. Every 123 eGuide is just 3 bucks or less ($2.99 to be exact).

123 eGuides are designed for today’s reader who wants information in a quick, convenient, easily readable format. Each 123 eGuide is intended to provide a functional overview rather than a detailed roadmap. Every 123 eGuide always includes additional resources if the reader wants to learn more.

Check the "Available 123 eGuides" link above to see what's available. 123 eGuides are available wherever eBooks are sold, including the Amazon Kindle store and in any eBook format at Smashwords.com.

1 Minute Advice: Here's What Shoppers Want from Advertisers

Alert to advertisers: Shoppers want something from your advertising when they're searching for common products. A survey of 1,000 adult shoppers, as reported by Marketing Charts, indicates that half of respondents (50 percent) want advertising that is "more relevant to my current needs," and more than half (47 percent) say they want relevant advertising to appear when they're researching products that address personal needs. It seems as if they also want advertising to be more proactive: 43 percent of respondents would like advertising to "guide me through a store to find the exact product I need."

Are you meeting shoppers' needs with your advertising?

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: Are You Forgetting This Audience?

Time and time again, marketers pick Millennials and younger generations over Boomers and older generations as the most attractive audience for advertising campaigns. When it comes to buying power, marketers are dead wrong. As Mark Bradbury writes for MediaPost, the age 50-plus audience outweighs younger generations in many key statistical areas, such as:

• Over 7 million more U.S. households are headed by those age 50 (HH 50+) and older than those below age 50.
• The share of total consumer spending among HH 50+ rose to over half (52 percent).
• HH 50+ spent $350 billion more than younger HH in 2017.
• HH 50+ generate $67 billion more income annually than younger HH.
• HH 50+ are 77 percent more likely to own homes than younger HH.
• Over the next five years, HH 50+ will grow at about twice the rate of younger HH.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: Beware the "Brandless Brands"

As much as anything, consumers will be seeking out value in 2020, and that means strong growth for "brandless brands," otherwise known as store brands or generics. Andrew Lipsman, a principal analyst for eMarketer, says "...today’s consumers are looking for value and aren’t necessarily attached to particular brands—or possess fondness for the retailer over the brands on the store shelves.”

In fact, retailers growing the most in terms of traditional stores tend to be those with their own store brands, generic brands or discount brands. In the first half of 2019, for example, the top two retailers in store openings were Dollar General and Dollar Tree, both discounters of merchandise not known for promoting any specific brands. Other examples include the growth and strength of retailer-specific brands: In the supermarket arena, for instance, such chains as Publix and Trader Joe's are heavily invested in their own private label brands. Other retailers, such as Target and Amazon, create their own unique brands that appear nowhere else and compete with traditional brands.

While "brandless brands" may not spell the end of traditional brands, brand marketers need to be aware of their growth and popularity with consumers.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: The New Digital Landscape for Brands

Brands need to compete in the new digital landscape, and sometimes that means pushing the boundaries beyond the ordinary. It isn't enough to simply utilize digital media, brands need to authentically connect with a consumer's digital life. In an insightful commentary for Forbes, Shannon Andrick details three novel, creative ways for brands to navigate the digital landscape:

1. "Reinventing the app as the new brand hub" - Shannon writes that "brands are designing the app experience around the needs of their best customers, increasing functionality and making the experience more personal and intuitive."
2. "Virtual personification helps reach the aspirational customer" - Shannon shares the fascinating example of Gucci, who recognized that younger consumers may not be able to afford Gucci clothing, so the company created a "digital clone" that can be "dressed" in Gucci instead.
3. "Gaming provides a new platform for advertising and marketing" - According to Shannon, "While game development may not be the best fit for most brands, you can capitalize on this trend through advertising, sponsorships and other partnership opportunities."

Read more here. 

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: Consumer as "Prosumer"

What has the sharing economy done to marketers? It has turned the consumer into something entirely different, according to  Wharton marketing professor Cait Lamberton: "Traditionally, you have a firm that provides a good or a service, and the consumer acquires it. In the sharing economy, the consumer is also a producer. There is this new term now in the lexicon, being a 'prosumer.' ... There is a balancing act between the different identities of the consumer in this space."

How do marketers deal with this new reality? Lamberton says, "...in some ways, we have to get out of our own way and listen to consumers talk about their experience instead of trying to impose the roles that we expect should govern their behavior."

Read more from Lamberton, or listen to her being interviewed on Knowledge@Wharton's podcast: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/sharing-economy-marketing-strategy/?

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: Most Valuable Brands in the U.S.

BrandZ has issued its annual report on the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the U.S. These are the top ten, according to the report:

1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Google
4. Microsoft
5. VISA
6. Facebook
7. McDonald's
8. MasterCard
9. AT&T
10. Verizon

The top ten account for almost $2 trillion in brand value -- slightly more than half the total value of the top 100 most valuable brands.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: The Revival of Defunct Retail Brands

It's an interesting phenomenon: A retail brand goes bankrupt and disappears for a while -- only to be resurrected anew at a later date. "What's old is new again." Here are four interesting examples, as reported by Tucson.com:

Children's clothing brand Gymboree went bankrupt and was purchased by its former rival, The Children's Place, in March 2019. The Children's Place plans to reinstate the Gymboree brand as a "shop-in-a-shop" in more than 200 of its stores, as well as bring the brand back online.

The ill-fated Toys R Us is being revived by Tru Kids Brands as a more contemporary, smaller experience-oriented venue. Two new stores, in New Jersey and Texas, will pilot the concept in stores that will be a mere 6,500 square feet compared with the former Toys R Us footprint of 20,000 to as much as 50,000 square feet. The new stores will feature toy brands in "interactive and playground-like environments."

The renowned New York toy store, FAO Schwartz, graced Fifth Avenue for decades until it went bust in 2015. The ThreeSixty Group snapped up the remains and reopened a store in New York's Rockefeller Center in 2018. Expansion into airports is planned for the revived brand.

American Apparel had nearly 200 stores when it filed for bankruptcy in 2016. New owner Gildan Activewear purchased the company's trademark, opened an LA store in 2018 and sells the brand online.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the new book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

 

Half-Price Holiday Sale Through Jan. 1, 2020!

From Dec. 26 through Jan. 1, you can get every 123 eGuide at half-price -- just $1.50 each! Simply click on any of the eGuides below. The links will take you to a page where you can order your eGuide in any eBook format. When you check out, include the code SEY50 to get your eGuide at half-price.

Low Cost / No Cost Marketing 123
3 Steps to Effective Marketing with Little or No Money

B2B Marketing 123
A 3 Step Approach for Marketing to Businesses

Branding 123
Building a Breakthrough Brand in 3 Proven Steps
Second Edition

Product Launch 123
Launch a Product or Service in 3 Proven Steps

Sales Leads 123
Generating, Qualifying, and Converting Sales Leads in 3 Proven Steps

On Your Own 123
Launch a 1-Person Business in 3 Proven Steps

1 Minute Advice: Pros See Social Media Ad Costs Going Up

Social media platforms will continue to push ad costs higher in 2020, according to professionals who analyze the social media space. According to Social Media Examiner, "Facebook advertising is going to get much more expensive" (Charlie Lawrance) and "LinkedIn advertising costs are currently high" (AJ Wilcox).

Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, says, "Facebook has more than 7 million advertisers and shrinking available inventory. The ever-increasing costs of ads across every major social platform will encourage marketers to dust off their content marketing playbooks. Smart marketers are making investments in high-value video content that’s super-useful to future customers. We’ll see increased use of IGTV and YouTube content in social marketing. And yes, that YouTube content will be promoted using Facebook!"

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the forthcoming book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!

1 Minute Advice: Smartphones Dominate Digital Media

This should come as no surprise to marketers, but it's important to know: In the U.S., smartphones now account for 70 percent of the total time spent with digital media, according to Comscore, as reported by Marketing Charts. When combined with tablets, mobile devices account for more than three-quarters (77 percent) of time spent with digital media as of June 2019, a significant jump of 11 percent over June 2017. Desktop computer usage accounts for just 23 percent of time spent with digital media.

The highest concentration of smartphone time with digital media is spent with apps, accounting for almost two-thirds (63 percent) of the time spent with digital media. Another interesting data point: U.S. smartphone owners now exceed the number of users with home broadband.

This post is brought to you by 123eGuides.com. 123 eGuides are a series of authoritative guides about branding, marketing and small business published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost.

Check out the forthcoming book featuring 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!