The Subtle Market

The idea of marketing changes from business to business, each one has their own hooks and each one has their own resources. The larger business can afford team of crack shot marketers and thousands of dollars devoted on just getting their name around. Then for the smaller ones, the ones that have to track every expense to make sure they make ends meet who's marketing rarely expands outside of word of mouth.

The large business may have a large financial backing for their marketing campaign but the small businesses have an advantage as well. The smaller business can make great and very profitable use of Guerrilla Marketing. Guerrilla marketing plays off the word of mouth but it just gives the consumer more of a reason to talk. It can be a cheap inexpensive way of getting your name out their and with the right catch the advert could snowball and gain a few greater reach then intended.
It could be something as subtle as Colgate's toothbrush shaped Popsicle stick hidden with in ice cream to give a friendly reminder to brush your teeth.






It could be as bold as 3M Security Glass Challenge,
giving onlookers a chance to make a quick buck with the simple task of breaking the shatter resistant glass. The idea of Guerrilla Warfare isn't about being the loudest or being the most expensive its just about having a little controversy over a product warped seamlessly in your everyday life. The popular series of Game of Thrones ad sitting unexpectedly with in new papers.

The word of Mouth

I find it strange when it comes to customers and word of mouth and it's something I even find myself doing from time to time. Its stated across the internet and you can see it through your own habits, people generally trust and believe friends, family, and co-workers over any form of advertising. The problem with word of mouth is that it can spread bad advertising far faster than it can spread good advertising. There is really just a basic way to have a positive spread, by ending your customers experience on a good note.

         I've seen this through my own experiences, I've seen orders completely in shambles and a furious customer asking for a manger. I watch as there entire experience fall apart from some unforseen reason, like understaffed shifts and computer malfunctions so by the end of it I'd be given at most 2 minutes to come up with some way to make it up to the patron. But if I'm able to size up the customer and articulate the right words to them I'd have a good possibility to end there night in good light.    If the managment team I are able to do what they are needed to do to keep a customer then the chance of seeming them in the establishment again is far greater and even with many more because at the end of there bad experience they saw that they were cared about, that they were given undivided attention by the people who have the entire business to run.

       I see that word of mouth is one of the most powerful advertising tools in the hands of the business but its not controlled by a monthly payment or a contract but by hard work dedication and a very caring and we'll trained staff.

Hard fact vs. Gut feelings

                 In marketing and business management it seems to be a toss up between a gut feeling and hard evidence. When looking at data driven marketing you see an out cry for what people want but that must be taken with a grain of salt for it can be skewed by the "norm" of everyday life and has some accountable room for error, but as a whole can give you a more definite answer.The thing with a gut feeling, it helps stay ahead of the game from competitors. 

                   Microsoft is now setting up for their release of the "HoloLens" but why? Sony attempted a similar product in the late 90's wouldn't the same response come from the public now as it did then? I can speak for others, a more immersed world with technology would be amazing and I for one am more than behind this product. With that said, the same issues would still arise, sickness and a loss of bearings. Microsoft took a feeling for a need for such a product aside from the past upheaval with it and gained such a backing for it, I personally don't see how it could fail.

A more personal advertising

       When I think about marketing and advertising for businesses when it come to large international ones and small family owned businesses I think marketing would be wildly different.When I picture it I think of large scale businesses being cold and disconnected from their audience and the was a time where that was the case but as things change and progress, the personal connections and the services within that are growing to be more one on one with customers. That's not the case the more I research and the more I learn, all company are just trying to get that more personal with their target audience. I see large scale businesses like Coca-Cola starting the "share a coke" campaign making personal to the point in giving you drinks with yours, your friends, 

or a loved ones name. This marketing campaign has grabbed a hold of a lot of people, I've seen friends stop and buy a coke not for the drink buy for the name on it. I've also seen smaller companies 

How far can trust really get you?

My employer allows me to do really anything i'd like to do in her business. I say that with an understatement, she trusts me enough to take care of her restaurant as she would. I came in to her restaurant on a whim because a friend of mine didn't believe i'd accept a job offer. I mean yeah it was just a busing job, cleaning tables and filling drinks not much but it led to more than I expected. I came in early for every shift, worked my hardest till my shift ended, and when the owner would mention needing something done I would always jump on it. I became reliable to the owner, I was her right hand guy doing anything and everything she asks. I'll be honest to everyone but my employer, I had no idea what I was doing. She'd ask me if I could fix something and I'd say of course! I do that kind of stuff for fun and in reality I was clueless. I would spend hours learning, and tinkering with what ever she needed and I surprisingly did the exact thing she wanted and more. The time I have worked there I grew this trust with my coworkers, the owner and to my surprise even the customers. I built this trust to a point where at the time I was 17 and the owner trusted me enough to handle anything and everything with out a single question to my actions or my reasons. The trust has grown since then to start allowing my to take care of her other businesses. I still find it so crazy to how far you can get off of hard work and a little bit of trust.

What small joke can grow to become

 The photo to the left is the first of the now soon to be three Ninjas Japanese Restaurants. We are located in a Shopping Plaza so you could understand there is little room for expansion.

Luckily!  We have a vacant spot right next door (to the right) to our little slice of business. It is roughly the same size of our current restaurant. I have jokingly brought this idea up to the owner for the past few years I have worked along side her. The time now more than ever seems prevalent to expand.

The business is growing from what I can tell form the number of customers we have from a day to day basis to the sales we have consecutively beaten from the ones from the previous years. I have yet to work the logistics of the proposal for the owner to show her how the expansion would benefit for the better and pull more of a profit for the establishment. The past few time I have spoken to her about an expansion she has seemed to grow more eager and willing to ponder the idea!

The Idea of Marketing?

   These Photo's show a recently built electronic billboard. it does a 10 second interval for each business that purchased a time slot.

       I am currently the manager of Ninjas Japanese sushi and Steakhouse, I worked on gaining a spot on this specific billboard and while I approached the owner with this idea she didn't feel like it was worth the money. The selling point I made was that on such a busy part of Hwy 31 it seemed like the most beneficial to the business for we are located on the entire opposite side of town. She believes in word of mouth for business but that can only get you so far.

       It showed me that some business owners just don't believe in advertisement. I guess its due to the fact they can not see a direct impact of profit or sales when spending revenue on such a static object, even though it has been tried and proven for many years.