<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta name=Title content="ACTON, Ltd"> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>ACTON, Ltd</title> <style> <!-- h1 { page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Times; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } p.MsoCommentText, li.MsoCommentText, div.MsoCommentText { font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; } span.MsoCommentReference { font-size:8.0pt; } a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; } a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single } p { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black; } p.BalloonText, li.BalloonText, div.BalloonText { font-size:8.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; color:windowtext; } p.style4, li.style4, div.style4 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; color:windowtext; } p.style5, li.style5, div.style5 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } span.style71 { font-size:10.5pt; } p.unnamed1style4style7, li.unnamed1style4style7, div.unnamed1style4style7 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; } span.heading1 { font-size:8.5pt; color:red; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none; font-weight:bold; } span.boldheading1 { font-size:8.5pt; color:black; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none; font-weight:bold; } p.CommentSubject, li.CommentSubject, div.CommentSubject { font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } --> </style> </head> <body bgcolor=#FFFFFF lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><b>The Leading Online Newsletter for Marketing Education</b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:20.0pt;color:blue'><b><i>ACTON Marketing, LLC Update</i></b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;color:blue'><a href="http://www.actonfs.com/">www.actonfs.com</a></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>Volume 5, No. 4, Monday, January 28, 2008</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;Employ your time in improving yourself by other men&#8217;s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.&#8221; &#8212; Socrates</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Marketing Insights</i></b></span></p> <p>Want to save a ton of marketing dollars?</p> <p>Forget about relying on traditional advertising and get people talking about your product, service, or company.</p> <p>Put buzzmarketing to work for you.</p> <p>You can learn all about the power of buzzmarketing and how to do it by attending this year&#8217;s ACTON Marketing symposium on April 8-10 in Charleston, South Carolina [details are available at <a href="http://www.actonfs.com/symposium.php">http://www.actonfs.com/symposium.php</a>].</p> <p>Our keynote speaker is Mark Hughes, CEO of Buzzmarketing and the author of the book, <b><u>Buzzmarketing:&nbsp; Getting People to Talk About Your Stuff</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>.</span></p> <p>&#8220;Evading the Stampede&#8221; is his title for Chapter One.</p> <p>Hughes writes, &#8220;<b>When I worked in the corporate world</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> of big brands, I spent millions of dollars on conventional advertising.&nbsp; And guess what I got?&nbsp; </span></p> <p>&#8220;I got conventional results.</p> <p>&#8220;As a big swingin&#8217; marketer with a big swingin&#8217; budget, I didn&#8217;t incorporate much buzz into my marketing.&nbsp; I also didn&#8217;t achieve <i>breakaway growth</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.&nbsp; Yes, I won national awards and accolades, but a marketer with a big budget generally thinks he doesn&#8217;t need buzz and misses out on possibilities for the kind of growth that makes executives and stockholders smile.</span></p> <p>&#8220;Only later, in the unleashed, dazzling world of hot start-ups, did I experience the newfound power to reinvent the wheel.&nbsp; In place of a big-bucks marketing budget, I used my creative instincts and had a blast doing it.&nbsp; The start-up world put me on stage and in the spotlight.&nbsp; My creative brain went full tilt into action. &nbsp;It was a great feeling, one shared by many savvy folks in those days before the bubble burst.</p> <p>&#8220;In the world of big marketing budgets, the pressures simply aren&#8217;t the same.&nbsp; Sure, the marketing folks in a major company worry . . . but their worries have a different twist.&nbsp; Hey, there&#8217;s always another marketing budget <i>next</i><span style='font-style:normal'> year.&nbsp; In a start-up, everyone worries if there will </span><i>be</i><span style='font-style:normal'> a next year.&nbsp; In a start-up, fear is built into the company DNA.&nbsp; For months I would go to sleep scared and wake up scared.&nbsp; We had to out-think versus out-spend.&nbsp; We had no choice.&nbsp; The only way we could grow profitably was with buzzmarketing.</span></p> <p>&#8220;Translation:&nbsp; Our marketing had to start conversations.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing on earth.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; Firms like Euro RSCG have documented the impact of word of mouth: ten times more effective than TV or print advertising.&nbsp; <i>Ten times</i><span style='font-style: normal'> more effective.&nbsp; Yet many have no earthy idea how to trigger it.</span></p> <p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t, at first.&nbsp; Only by experiencing the two extremes of marketing budgets &#8211; big brands with big budgets, and start-ups with minibudgets &#8211; did I come to appreciate the value of buzz, and how it magnifies every marketing dollar.&nbsp; I saw firsthand how millions can be wasted by treading the path of conventional marketing, and I saw how marketing dollars can be stretched and multiplied by following the out-of-the-box route called buzzmarketing.</p> <p>&#8220;A big-time consulting firm might charge you $500,000 for a glimpse into the secrets of buzzmarketing.&nbsp; But you don&#8217;t have to pay a ridiculous sum for someone else to get buzz going for your product or service.&nbsp; You can do it yourself.&nbsp; Keep reading.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;What Is Buzzmarketing?</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;Definition:&nbsp; Buzzmarketing captures the attention of consumers and the media to the point where talking about your brand or company becomes entertaining, fascinating, and newsworthy.</p> <p>&#8220;To put it simply:&nbsp; Buzz starts conversations.</p> <p>&#8220;In the traditional marketing model, the corporate marketer sits in the middle and spends money to send messages to targeted prospects.&nbsp; The marketing team creates a message, purchases media, and sees the message delivered to the customer &#8211; whether business customer or consumer.&nbsp; End of story.</p> <p>&#8220;Buzzmarketing begins the same way: sending messages to consumers.&nbsp; Then it goes further.&nbsp; In the buzzmarketing model, the consumer tells two friends, those two tell two friends, and so on, and so on.&nbsp; Creating buzzzzzzz.</p> <p>&#8220;People tell others because you&#8217;ve given them something to talk about.</p> <p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the essence, the key.&nbsp; If you haven&#8217;t given people something clever, amusing, catchy, remarkable . . . if you haven&#8217;t given them something they&#8217;ll enjoy sharing with others to entertain, to sound smart or clever, to sound <i>with it</i><span style='font-style:normal'> &#8211; forget it.&nbsp; You ain&#8217;t got buzz.</span></p> <p>&#8220;You like to be around people who talk about stuff that&#8217;s entertaining.&nbsp; Stuff that&#8217;s fascinating.&nbsp; Stuff that&#8217;s newsworthy.&nbsp; Giving people something to talk about is the only way buzzmarketing works.</p> <p>&#8220;Make no mistake, this takes creativity.&nbsp; But it&#8217;s a creativity you can master, based on the principles in these pages.&nbsp; Buzzmarketing will propel your entire business and give it <i>staying power</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;Can You Afford Not to Be a Buzzmarketer?</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;Hoping to get noticed in the marketplace?&nbsp; The odds are dead set against you.</p> <p>&#8220;More than twenty-three thousand new products are introduced each year in America.&nbsp; Twenty-three thousand marketers and brand managers are competing for the same level of attention and the same purchaser&#8217;s dollar.&nbsp; They all want to grow.&nbsp; They all want to achieve breakaway sales.</p> <p>&#8220;And those are just the <i>new</i><span style='font-style:normal'> products.</span></p> <p>&#8220;What about brand products, and companies that already exist?</p> <p>&#8220;Take Motorola, Microsoft, McDonald&#8217;s, Mentos, MasterCard, Mazda, Minolta, M&amp;M&#8217;s, Mercedes, Merrill Lynch, Michelob, Maybelline, Mitsubishi, Marlboro, Maxwell House, Mobil, Merck, MCI, MTV, Mizuno, Morgan Stanley, Marriott, Mattel, Milky Way, Maxim, Minute Maid, Maytag.&nbsp; What do they have in common?</p> <p>&#8220;All of these are fighting for attention &#8211; and that&#8217;s just a list of <i>some</i><span style='font-style:normal'> of the ones beginning with </span><i>M!</i></p> <p>&#8220;Of every product introduced each year in the consumer packaged goods industry, 70 percent fail.&nbsp; Of all small businesses started in America, 80 percent fail within the first five years.&nbsp; Statistically, the odds are against you.&nbsp; But you&#8217;re going to be the exception, because if you&#8217;re reading this book, you&#8217;re ready to listen, learn, and get buzz.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;Debunking the Myths</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;<i>Buzz</i><span style='font-style:normal'> has become a buzz word.&nbsp; And as happens with many buzz words, a cloud of confusion surrounds it.&nbsp; Let&#8217;s set the record straight.</span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>&#8220;Buzzmarketing Is Not a <i>Means</i></span></p> <p>&#8220;It is not akin to TV, or direct mail, or radio.&nbsp; Those are means.&nbsp; Those are vehicles.&nbsp; Buzzmarketing is about <i>ends</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.&nbsp; Remember our buzzmarketing model schematic &#8211; you still have to send messages out to consumers.&nbsp; Those messages can be sent through a variety of methods.&nbsp; Nothing is off the table.</span></p> <p><img border=0 width=432 height=234 src="Emailnewsletter5012808A_files/image002.jpg" alt=" &#13;f&#13;&iquest;$&#13;X$&#13;&iquest;k&#13;(l&#13;l&#13;@&ordm;([0[&#8706;@&yuml;([0[&#8721;@&Ugrave;([0[&ordf;@)[0[&ordm;&#711;&#711;@,)[0[&#8486;" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"></p> <p>&#8220;It might be solely word-of-mouth marketing; it might be complemented with TV, it might be complemented with radio, it might be complemented with a variety of media that could combine the traditional and the nontraditional.&nbsp; But the goal of a buzzmarketer with every dollar spent is:&nbsp; Spark further word of mouth.&nbsp; The real goal is to start conversations beyond the obvious message.&nbsp; It&#8217;s all about getting people talking and the media writing about your brand.&nbsp; That must be the end you concentrate on.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;Buzzmarketing Is Not &#8216;Guerrilla Marketing&#8217;</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;Guerrilla marketing may be a series of stunts (stickering, people dressed up in costume in major cities, etc.).&nbsp; It can be one of the means you utilize to send your message.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;Buzzmarketing is something else: a way to get people talking and the media writing about your brand.&nbsp; Remember, buzzmarketing is all about the <i>ends</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p>&#8220;Sometimes buzzmarketing incorporates guerrilla marketing. &nbsp;But guerrilla marketing is one tool.&nbsp; You don&#8217;t have to have it to get buzz.&nbsp; Britney Spears gets buzz &#8211; she uses zero guerrilla marketing.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t confuse the two.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;Companies like Procter &amp; Gamble Do <i>Real</i></b></span><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b> Marketing</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;Sure, it&#8217;s tough to get over the logical notion that the giant firms, the companies that have been around for eons and own a humongous share of their market, must have the right answers about marketing.&nbsp; Stay with me.&nbsp; I&#8217;ll have you convinced by the time you finish reading.</p> <p>&#8220;I can tell you that throughout my career I have been told, &#8216;You can&#8217;t do it that way.&#8217;&nbsp; And every time I prove them wrong.&nbsp; Buzzmarketing makes things possible.&nbsp; At Half.com, a well-heeled analyst from Chase Bank&#8217;s capital group insisted that I couldn&#8217;t grow Half.com to our target of 813,000 registered users in the first year.&nbsp; And he was right &#8211; I grew it to in excess of one million registered users in the first year.&nbsp; And over eight million in less than three years.</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve also had people tell me to learn the basics &#8211; to retake Marketing 101.&nbsp; I&#8217;m used to it by now.&nbsp; Interestingly, the best marketers get it.&nbsp; One key supporter of buzz, a man who helped inspire this book, was the chief marketer at a company that has been a marketing legend for one of the most famous brands in the world, one of America&#8217;s leading soda companies.</p> <p>&#8220;He told me that thirty some-odd years ago he had the good luck to hang out with senior marketing execs at his previous company, Procter &amp; Gamble.&nbsp; One day a senior exec told him what the two keys to success would be for him.</p> <p>&#8220;First, &#8216;Ninety percent of your time will be wasted on stuff that doesn&#8217;t matter, so do two or three colossal things really well each year.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Second, &#8216;If you can ever figure out the secrets to word-of-mouth marketing, you&#8217;ve got it made.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Despite the naysayers, there are many people who get it, and not surprisingly they also happen to be way more successful than the naysayers.</p> <p>&#8220;Conventional experts will tell you that you&#8217;ll need big ad budgets in order to experience breakaway sales growth.&nbsp; Bigger ad budgets equals bigger sales growth.&nbsp; Makes sense, right?&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;Nope.&nbsp; The key is to outthink yourself, not outspend yourself.&nbsp; Outthink, not outspend.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>&#8220;Buzzmarketing Is Too Random</span></p> <p>&#8220;I never found buzz to be too random because the trick is to follow the structured, methodical approach to get people talking about your brand and to get the media writing about it.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;Buzz is not a fad diet &#8211; it&#8217;s a lifestyle change.&#8221;</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;About This Book</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to tackle buzz with you in two steps.</p> <p>&#8220;First, I&#8217;m going to open your eyes to the power of buzzmarketing by sharing dramatic examples of the best of the best.&nbsp; (Including, I modestly add, my own.)&nbsp; We&#8217;ll also examine some cases in which successful products were not intrinsically different from the competition but enjoyed breakaway growth built on buzz.</p> <p>&#8220;Then I&#8217;ll show you how to master the techniques these marketing powerhouses used and that I have used myself.&nbsp; You&#8217;ll learn the Six Secrets that are the critical building blocks to creating killer buzz.</p> <p>&#8220;The Six Secrets are:</p> <p><b>&#8220;BUZZ BASICS</b></p> <p>&#8220;The First Secret &#8211; Push the Six Buttons of Buzz</p> <p>&#8220;The Second Secret &#8211; Capture Media</p> <p>&#8220;The Third Secret &#8211; Advertise for Attention</p> <p><b>&#8220;BUZZ LEADERSHIP</b></p> <p>&#8220;The Fourth Secret &#8211; Climb Buzz Everest</p> <p>&#8220;The Fifth Secret &#8211; Discover Creativity</p> <p>&#8220;The Sixth Secret &#8211; Police Your Product</p> <p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what this book is about:&nbsp; How <i>they</i><span style='font-style: normal'> got buzz.&nbsp; How</span><i> I</i><span style='font-style:normal'> got buzz.&nbsp; And how </span><i>you</i><span style='font-style:normal'> can get buzz.</span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>&#8220;Building a Brand on Buzz</b></span></p> <p>&#8220;Some brands, by all expectations, should have been creamed by competitors or, at very best, just muddled along.&nbsp; And yet they still managed breakaway growth.&nbsp; All the odds were against them &#8211; yet they came out of nowhere and shot ahead of the pack.</p> <p>&#8220;How did they do it, and how did I do it?</p> <p>&#8220;Read on.&#8221;</p> <p>If you haven&#8217;t already acquired Hughes&#8217; book, <b><u>Buzzmarketing:&nbsp; Getting People to Talk About Your Stuff</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, you can buy it new, in hardcover for $16.29 at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">www.amazon.com</a>.&nbsp; Used copies are also available.&nbsp; </span></p> <p>Reading it before the symposium is an excellent way to get more out of Mark Hughes keynote presentation at the ACTON Marketing symposium in Charleston on April 8.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Past Issues of the Newsletter</i></b></span></p> <p>All past issues of the ACTON Marketing, LLC newsletter are available free online at <a href="http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php">http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php</a>.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>ALL CONTENTS OF THIS E-LETTER ARE COPYRIGHT 2008 BY ACTON MARKETING, LLC.&nbsp; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&nbsp; REPRODUCING ANY PART OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF ACTON MARKETING, LLC.</p> <p>Protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319):&nbsp; Infringements can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>Please note:&nbsp; We sent this e-mail to you because you are a valued ACTON client.&nbsp; If you wish to unsubscribe to future email newsletters, click the link at the end of the email.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>You may contact ACTON Marketing, LLC by calling 402-470-2909, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (CT).&nbsp; Or write to us at:</p> <p>ACTON Marketing, LLC</p> <p>3401 N.W. 39<sup>th</sup> Street</p> <p>Lincoln, NE&nbsp; 68524</p> <p>If you wish to <u>unsubscribe</u> from ACTON Marketing&#8217;s newsletter, please send an email to:&nbsp; <a href="mailto:newsletter_unsubscribe@actonfs.com">newsletter_unsubscribe@actonfs.com</a>, placing the word &#8220;remove&#8221; in the subject line.</p> </div> </body> </html>