About Affinity Marketing and Communications

	Click on a topic to read the entire article:
	Great Creative Solutions are the Product of Good Information	Say What You Do. Do What You Say. Part 1 - Say What You do.

	Three Ways to Leverage Your Marketing Budget	Say What You Do. Do What You Say. Part 2 - Do What You Say.

	How to Write a Good Press Release

Great Creative Solutions are the Product of Good Information

Effective creative solutions begin with a disciplined process of strategy development. Affinity uses a time-tested process that starts with a “Creative Work Plan.” It’s a one-page summary that clearly identifies the objective of the communication, defines the creative strategy and serves as a guide to develop a creative solution that’s on target.

Whether developing an advertisement, direct mail piece, brochure or other promotional piece, defining the following elements will ensure an effective communication.

1) The Objective

What do you want to accomplish? What do you want people to do after being exposed to your message?

Is it intended to get the phone to ring, build awareness, drive retail traffic or change an attitude? By defining the objective in terms that are measurable, you will be able to determine the effectiveness of the effort, adjusting it as needed in future communications.

2) The Audience

Who are they? What do we know about them? Try to define the audience as specifically as possible. The creative execution must be as relevant as possible to their personalities, concerns, attitudes and desires.

A broad definition such as “men, 35 – 55” is less effective than “married men, 35 – 55, college-educated, professionals, with household incomes in excess of $150,000, who travel 4-weeks per year and play golf.”

Although this demographic definition is helpful, it’s even better to learn about the target audience’s psychographic viewpoint. What is the psychological need that drives their purchasing decision? How do they behave? What are their needs, desires, fears and aspirations?

3) The Benefit

This is the main idea of the message. What is the key benefit or selling point of your marketing message? How will the product or service fulfill the prospect’s needs? Be careful, communicating too many features and benefits will water down the message and confuse the reader. Make it a one-sentence statement that focuses on the core value to the buyer, not a statement of what’s important to you. By making the benefit a defining point of difference, you’ll increase the effectiveness.

4) Supporting points

Establish why the product or service is able to fulfill the promise in the main benefit. This is the proof that the main idea is true. It must be believable whether it’s a verified claim or an emotion.

5) The Tone

This is the “feeling” or “mood” that the message should convey. Is it to be lighthearted, business-like, urgent, dramatic, or philosophical? The proper tone will strike an emotional chord with the target audience when it matches their attitude.

6) The Guidelines

Nearly every product or service will have some rules associated with its representation. It may have to do with colors, differentiation from the competition, disclaimers, logo requirements, etc. By defining those in the beginning, the creative execution can accommodate them properly, rather than be adjusted as an afterthought.

Everyone involved in approving the creative solution should sign-off on the creative work plan. Not only will this keep everyone focused; it will streamline the approval process. One only needs to evaluate whether the creative solution delivers the strategy according to the defined plan. And when it does, you can be confident that your marketing message will be effective.

Affinity Design Group likes to keep you involved in the creative process. There are many possible solutions, so we like to discuss ideas and concepts, show rough layouts and sketches to identify the most likely prospects for development. The bottom line is to generate results.

Three Ways to Leverage Your Marketing Budget

1) Cooperative Marketing & Strategic Alliances

In today’s world of prolific communication, there are many promotional messages competing for a prospect’s attention. Smart companies that are not in direct competition with each other, yet want to reach the same demographic and/or psychographic customer profiles, are finding ways to cooperate. There are significant savings to be gained from “partnering” with other companies to share the cost of delivering marketing messages to prospective customers:

Exchanging mailing lists

Sharing the cost of mailing to a combined list

Sharing the cost of an advertising campaign

Matching up interests: One company may wish to distribute product samples to build awareness and stimulate interest, while another wants to offer an incentive to close sales. This can work as a bonus incentive with a strong call-to-action, “Buy now and receive a free gift”, or a lead generating contest, “Enter to win a fabulous prize.”

2) Stimulate “Word-of-mouth” Advertising

Your customers are your best salespeople. How many times have you heard about a new restaurant, but have been reluctant to try it? Then, your attitude changes completely when a trusted friend tells you how wonderful their experience was. Now you can’t wait to try it out! People prefer to minimize their risk and can’t resist a sure thing. Find ways to encourage your customers to rave about your products and services.

Offer bonus incentives or rewards for referrals

Give or send a gift item that will impress your customer and become a “conversation” piece.

Keep in touch with your customer base to keep your products and services fresh in their minds.

Acknowledge the wisdom of those who choose to do business with your company – helping them to feel confident about their decision to do so. Note that advertising is not just about canvassing for new customers. It also provides a “belief” system for all your existing customers. Follow-up sales with a courtesy communication to ask about their satisfaction

Ask for testimonial statements and the permission to use them. Testimonials are next best thing to word-of-mouth, especially when accompanied by a believable photograph.

It truly is more expensive to acquire new customers than to keep loyal ones. Stimulating word-of-mouth advertising helps to accomplish both. These techniques work to spread the good word to prospective customers while spreading good will to existing customers.

3) Create Free Publicity

Sure, you can send out press releases about your new offerings, but nothing beats making news the old fashioned way – by doing something newsworthy. A publicity stunt or random act-of-kindness that creates a buzz in the media can be extremely valuable to your bottom line. It can buy awareness building exposure that you may not otherwise be able to afford… but you have to be willing to take some risk and be bold about it. Most companies are overly concerned with not offending anyone, and as a result, blend into the background noise. It is possible to be controversial yet still maintain an image of “good taste.” That’s the trick.

Brainstorm some big ideas and narrow it down to a short list.

Make it surprising and unusual

Tip-off the media in advance so they can compete for the “scoop.”

Affinity Design Group can help you to take advantage of these tactics to leverage your marketing budget. Call us for a consultation to identify specific opportunities and let’s put a plan together.

PR-101
What is a Press Release?

A press release is the universally accepted way to get information to the news media. To be sure an editor finds and reads it, follow some time-honored rules of the trade.

A press release should include who, what, where, when, why and how, written concisely in simple, straightforward language. Be sure to put the most important information in the first paragraph; in most cases, this is all they’ll use. Have a high-resolution image ready to complement the article if they ask for it.

Since the purpose of your article is to provide news to the media, a press release should never contain promotional verbiage or sensationalism. Stick to the facts.

In pre-email days, you would double-space the copy on your company letterhead, and mail or fax the release. These days, editors seem to prefer receiving your news in an email. They’ll see the first paragraph immediately if you paste the release in the body of your email rather than as an attachment. Put the name of the appropriate contact person at the very top of the release, along with your phone number, email and web address.

Interested reporters often need to ask questions or confirm facts; make your contact information easy to find. Be brief and try to keep the release under 400 words. If they think your news is of interest to their audience, they will contact you for more information, so it’s not necessary to put everything into the release.

Good, concise writing with proper spelling and grammar is paramount! If the first sentence doesn't grab them, or the release is riddled with spelling or grammatical errors, it is way too easy to ‘click-delete’.

Say What You Do. Do What You Say.
Part I – Say What You Do.

If your name says what you do, you are already ahead of the marketing game. With a name like, “Offshore Sailing School”, for instance, there is no guessing what is behind door number one. You know the deal, and if you are interested, and the school’s marketing efforts attract you (more on that in the second part), you contact the school and begin mentally preparing to set sail.

Another example that we humbly call your attention to is, “Affinity Marketing and Communications”. It is our name and is it our particular brand of marketing and communications. Our goals are to creatively and consistently build an affinity between our clients’ products and services and an ever-evolving dynamic consumer base. In some circles, this approach to marketing and communications is called, “attraction marketing”.

If your name does not say specifically what you do, all is not lost. Many successful companies have created a power slogan, a logo, a visual swoop, and exposed the buying public to them through print, broadcast, and internet marketing. Over the hills of time and through the woods of visual and audio media, you will eventually build a brand. Just remember that neither Rome nor Nike was built in a day. And they were not built in one 13-week ad campaign. But that’s another story.

How you say what you do, and the consideration you give to the journalistic owl’s who, what, why, where and when, will obviously make a huge difference in the success of your marketing and communications. Who you are is the substance of your platform legend and mission statement. What you do is your reason for being in the marketplace in the first place. Why you do what you do and offer what you offer should underwrite the emotional impact of your marketing messages. Where and when are the simple mapping and timing logistics of finding your products or services in the appropriate place at the appointed hour.

Did the words, “emotional impact”, give you pause? Good. You are invited into the inner sanctum of advertising. It is somewhat agreed that buyers buy emotionally first and then rationalize the buy. The more left-brain types are not so quick to admit to this fact. Facts are facts, you know. It is more universally agreed that we operate more on a subconscious level than consciously. Shhhh.

If your marketing copy contains the concrete facts that your running shoes come in red, blue or green, and sizes 4AAAA to Shaq-size, those are good solid pieces of information. If a particular consumer has a color preference, or a particularly large foot, they will experience a conscious emotional impact. On the other hand (or foot), if you use more poetic language, like, “Outrun The Mercurial God”, you will have enlisted a messenger who may elicit a more powerful emotional impact and subconscious response.

Check back for Part II – Do What You Say.

Say What You Do. Do What You Say.
Part 2– Do What You Say.

Excited at the prospect of landing a new account, the ad agency creative team stirred up their usual frenetic brainstorm – out of which would come a unique campaign for a retail chain of inexpensive “dollar-store” toys. They poured over (OK, they glanced at) the account executive’s client meeting notes, threw out headlines and slogans, and taped large sheets of paper with rough drawings all over the walls. There was magic in the air!

Soon, the art director, copywriter and creative director proudly presented their fresh and lively campaign to the account executive. She loved it, and she was sure the client would be very pleased with their efforts. In her enthusiasm, she invited the creative director to take part in the client presentation, and the appointment was made.

Before we peek in on the upcoming presentation, let’s review the building of the new ad campaign. The creative team came up with a slightly plumb grandmotherly fairy who would use her magic wand to “bling bling” special toys and prices. They would overlay the animated fairy in the proposed television ads, and she would serve as a branding icon for the stores in all of their advertising. The slogan: “Wilson Dollar Stores…Where There’s a Little Magic in the Air.”

When the agency account executive and creative director arrived at the stores’ headquarters, the creative director couldn’t help but notice that the place was dirty, disheveled and dark. He thought to himself, “There’s certainly no magic here, but I’m sure the stores will be different.”

Turns out, the general manager, who was supposed to meet the agency at headquarters had zipped off to one of the stores without bothering to call the agency account executive. So she called him and they arranged to meet at one of the stores. The store was in worse shape than the headquarters, and within two minutes of walking through the store, the creative director grabbed the presentation boards and adamantly refused to present this particular campaign to the prospective client.

The agency ultimately opted out of handling the account. The moral of the story is that it’s important to do what you say, and be what you are, in your advertising. Slogans are easy. Integrity takes care and thoughtfulness.

Another quick example before ending on a positive note. Have you ever shopped at a store where the cashier says, “thkufoshokmahavnda”? If you listened carefully, you would have heard, “Thank you for shopping at ______, have a nice day.” Of course, she was already looking at the next person in line as she nonchalantly tossed your bag somewhere near your grasp and mumbled the unintelligible string of words that she was taught to say to each customer.

If you have front-line customer contact employees, check back often to be sure that they are following the spirit of your customer service guidelines, and not just the letter of the law. A while ago, a national store that was notoriously guilty of this watched their sales plummet and ended up in Chapter 11. Wonder how much this little faux pas had to do with their fate?

Finally, have you ever eaten at a restaurant or shopped at a store and come away delighted with the experience, based in great part on the gracious manner in which you were treated, as well as the quality of the product or service? Did you go back again? Did you tell other people about your pleasant experience? Of course you did. So does everyone in your “target market”. This is just a gentle reminder to say what you do, and do what you say. It’s good business.

	Great Creative Solutions are the Product of Good Information Effective creative solutions begin with a disciplined process of strategy development. Affinity uses a time-tested process that starts with a “Creative Work Plan.” It’s a one-page summary that clearly identifies the objective of the communication, defines the creative strategy and serves as a guide to develop a creative solution that’s on target. Whether developing an advertisement, direct mail piece, brochure or other promotional piece, defining the following elements will ensure an effective communication. 1) The Objective What do you want to accomplish? What do you want people to do after being exposed to your message? Is it intended to get the phone to ring, build awareness, drive retail traffic or change an attitude? By defining the objective in terms that are measurable, you will be able to determine the effectiveness of the effort, adjusting it as needed in future communications. 2) The Audience Who are they? What do we know about them? Try to define the audience as specifically as possible. The creative execution must be as relevant as possible to their personalities, concerns, attitudes and desires. A broad definition such as “men, 35 – 55” is less effective than “married men, 35 – 55, college-educated, professionals, with household incomes in excess of $150,000, who travel 4-weeks per year and play golf.” Although this demographic definition is helpful, it’s even better to learn about the target audience’s psychographic viewpoint. What is the psychological need that drives their purchasing decision? How do they behave? What are their needs, desires, fears and aspirations? 3) The Benefit This is the main idea of the message. What is the key benefit or selling point of your marketing message? How will the product or service fulfill the prospect’s needs? Be careful, communicating too many features and benefits will water down the message and confuse the reader. Make it a one-sentence statement that focuses on the core value to the buyer, not a statement of what’s important to you. By making the benefit a defining point of difference, you’ll increase the effectiveness. 4) Supporting points Establish why the product or service is able to fulfill the promise in the main benefit. This is the proof that the main idea is true. It must be believable whether it’s a verified claim or an emotion. 5) The Tone This is the “feeling” or “mood” that the message should convey. Is it to be lighthearted, business-like, urgent, dramatic, or philosophical? The proper tone will strike an emotional chord with the target audience when it matches their attitude. 6) The Guidelines Nearly every product or service will have some rules associated with its representation. It may have to do with colors, differentiation from the competition, disclaimers, logo requirements, etc. By defining those in the beginning, the creative execution can accommodate them properly, rather than be adjusted as an afterthought. Everyone involved in approving the creative solution should sign-off on the creative work plan. Not only will this keep everyone focused; it will streamline the approval process. One only needs to evaluate whether the creative solution delivers the strategy according to the defined plan. And when it does, you can be confident that your marketing message will be effective. Affinity Design Group likes to keep you involved in the creative process. There are many possible solutions, so we like to discuss ideas and concepts, show rough layouts and sketches to identify the most likely prospects for development. The bottom line is to generate results.
	Three Ways to Leverage Your Marketing Budget 1) Cooperative Marketing & Strategic Alliances In today’s world of prolific communication, there are many promotional messages competing for a prospect’s attention. Smart companies that are not in direct competition with each other, yet want to reach the same demographic and/or psychographic customer profiles, are finding ways to cooperate. There are significant savings to be gained from “partnering” with other companies to share the cost of delivering marketing messages to prospective customers: Exchanging mailing lists Sharing the cost of mailing to a combined list Sharing the cost of an advertising campaign Matching up interests: One company may wish to distribute product samples to build awareness and stimulate interest, while another wants to offer an incentive to close sales. This can work as a bonus incentive with a strong call-to-action, “Buy now and receive a free gift”, or a lead generating contest, “Enter to win a fabulous prize.” 2) Stimulate “Word-of-mouth” Advertising Your customers are your best salespeople. How many times have you heard about a new restaurant, but have been reluctant to try it? Then, your attitude changes completely when a trusted friend tells you how wonderful their experience was. Now you can’t wait to try it out! People prefer to minimize their risk and can’t resist a sure thing. Find ways to encourage your customers to rave about your products and services. Offer bonus incentives or rewards for referrals Give or send a gift item that will impress your customer and become a “conversation” piece. Keep in touch with your customer base to keep your products and services fresh in their minds. Acknowledge the wisdom of those who choose to do business with your company – helping them to feel confident about their decision to do so. Note that advertising is not just about canvassing for new customers. It also provides a “belief” system for all your existing customers. Follow-up sales with a courtesy communication to ask about their satisfaction Ask for testimonial statements and the permission to use them. Testimonials are next best thing to word-of-mouth, especially when accompanied by a believable photograph. It truly is more expensive to acquire new customers than to keep loyal ones. Stimulating word-of-mouth advertising helps to accomplish both. These techniques work to spread the good word to prospective customers while spreading good will to existing customers. 3) Create Free Publicity Sure, you can send out press releases about your new offerings, but nothing beats making news the old fashioned way – by doing something newsworthy. A publicity stunt or random act-of-kindness that creates a buzz in the media can be extremely valuable to your bottom line. It can buy awareness building exposure that you may not otherwise be able to afford… but you have to be willing to take some risk and be bold about it. Most companies are overly concerned with not offending anyone, and as a result, blend into the background noise. It is possible to be controversial yet still maintain an image of “good taste.” That’s the trick. Brainstorm some big ideas and narrow it down to a short list. Make it surprising and unusual Tip-off the media in advance so they can compete for the “scoop.” Affinity Design Group can help you to take advantage of these tactics to leverage your marketing budget. Call us for a consultation to identify specific opportunities and let’s put a plan together.
	PR-101 What is a Press Release? A press release is the universally accepted way to get information to the news media. To be sure an editor finds and reads it, follow some time-honored rules of the trade. A press release should include who, what, where, when, why and how, written concisely in simple, straightforward language. Be sure to put the most important information in the first paragraph; in most cases, this is all they’ll use. Have a high-resolution image ready to complement the article if they ask for it. Since the purpose of your article is to provide news to the media, a press release should never contain promotional verbiage or sensationalism. Stick to the facts. In pre-email days, you would double-space the copy on your company letterhead, and mail or fax the release. These days, editors seem to prefer receiving your news in an email. They’ll see the first paragraph immediately if you paste the release in the body of your email rather than as an attachment. Put the name of the appropriate contact person at the very top of the release, along with your phone number, email and web address. Interested reporters often need to ask questions or confirm facts; make your contact information easy to find. Be brief and try to keep the release under 400 words. If they think your news is of interest to their audience, they will contact you for more information, so it’s not necessary to put everything into the release. Good, concise writing with proper spelling and grammar is paramount! If the first sentence doesn't grab them, or the release is riddled with spelling or grammatical errors, it is way too easy to ‘click-delete’.
	Say What You Do. Do What You Say. Part I – Say What You Do. If your name says what you do, you are already ahead of the marketing game. With a name like, “Offshore Sailing School”, for instance, there is no guessing what is behind door number one. You know the deal, and if you are interested, and the school’s marketing efforts attract you (more on that in the second part), you contact the school and begin mentally preparing to set sail. Another example that we humbly call your attention to is, “Affinity Marketing and Communications”. It is our name and is it our particular brand of marketing and communications. Our goals are to creatively and consistently build an affinity between our clients’ products and services and an ever-evolving dynamic consumer base. In some circles, this approach to marketing and communications is called, “attraction marketing”. If your name does not say specifically what you do, all is not lost. Many successful companies have created a power slogan, a logo, a visual swoop, and exposed the buying public to them through print, broadcast, and internet marketing. Over the hills of time and through the woods of visual and audio media, you will eventually build a brand. Just remember that neither Rome nor Nike was built in a day. And they were not built in one 13-week ad campaign. But that’s another story. How you say what you do, and the consideration you give to the journalistic owl’s who, what, why, where and when, will obviously make a huge difference in the success of your marketing and communications. Who you are is the substance of your platform legend and mission statement. What you do is your reason for being in the marketplace in the first place. Why you do what you do and offer what you offer should underwrite the emotional impact of your marketing messages. Where and when are the simple mapping and timing logistics of finding your products or services in the appropriate place at the appointed hour. Did the words, “emotional impact”, give you pause? Good. You are invited into the inner sanctum of advertising. It is somewhat agreed that buyers buy emotionally first and then rationalize the buy. The more left-brain types are not so quick to admit to this fact. Facts are facts, you know. It is more universally agreed that we operate more on a subconscious level than consciously. Shhhh. If your marketing copy contains the concrete facts that your running shoes come in red, blue or green, and sizes 4AAAA to Shaq-size, those are good solid pieces of information. If a particular consumer has a color preference, or a particularly large foot, they will experience a conscious emotional impact. On the other hand (or foot), if you use more poetic language, like, “Outrun The Mercurial God”, you will have enlisted a messenger who may elicit a more powerful emotional impact and subconscious response. Check back for Part II – Do What You Say.
	Say What You Do. Do What You Say. Part 2– Do What You Say. Excited at the prospect of landing a new account, the ad agency creative team stirred up their usual frenetic brainstorm – out of which would come a unique campaign for a retail chain of inexpensive “dollar-store” toys. They poured over (OK, they glanced at) the account executive’s client meeting notes, threw out headlines and slogans, and taped large sheets of paper with rough drawings all over the walls. There was magic in the air! Soon, the art director, copywriter and creative director proudly presented their fresh and lively campaign to the account executive. She loved it, and she was sure the client would be very pleased with their efforts. In her enthusiasm, she invited the creative director to take part in the client presentation, and the appointment was made. Before we peek in on the upcoming presentation, let’s review the building of the new ad campaign. The creative team came up with a slightly plumb grandmotherly fairy who would use her magic wand to “bling bling” special toys and prices. They would overlay the animated fairy in the proposed television ads, and she would serve as a branding icon for the stores in all of their advertising. The slogan: “Wilson Dollar Stores…Where There’s a Little Magic in the Air.” When the agency account executive and creative director arrived at the stores’ headquarters, the creative director couldn’t help but notice that the place was dirty, disheveled and dark. He thought to himself, “There’s certainly no magic here, but I’m sure the stores will be different.” Turns out, the general manager, who was supposed to meet the agency at headquarters had zipped off to one of the stores without bothering to call the agency account executive. So she called him and they arranged to meet at one of the stores. The store was in worse shape than the headquarters, and within two minutes of walking through the store, the creative director grabbed the presentation boards and adamantly refused to present this particular campaign to the prospective client. The agency ultimately opted out of handling the account. The moral of the story is that it’s important to do what you say, and be what you are, in your advertising. Slogans are easy. Integrity takes care and thoughtfulness. Another quick example before ending on a positive note. Have you ever shopped at a store where the cashier says, “thkufoshokmahavnda”? If you listened carefully, you would have heard, “Thank you for shopping at ______, have a nice day.” Of course, she was already looking at the next person in line as she nonchalantly tossed your bag somewhere near your grasp and mumbled the unintelligible string of words that she was taught to say to each customer. If you have front-line customer contact employees, check back often to be sure that they are following the spirit of your customer service guidelines, and not just the letter of the law. A while ago, a national store that was notoriously guilty of this watched their sales plummet and ended up in Chapter 11. Wonder how much this little faux pas had to do with their fate? Finally, have you ever eaten at a restaurant or shopped at a store and come away delighted with the experience, based in great part on the gracious manner in which you were treated, as well as the quality of the product or service? Did you go back again? Did you tell other people about your pleasant experience? Of course you did. So does everyone in your “target market”. This is just a gentle reminder to say what you do, and do what you say. It’s good business.