Stand Out

When I attended a meeting for marketing and information personnel last March, we were told to be aggressive in marketing our programs. The emphasis was to stand out by being ubiquitous but also, by providing really good quality products and services.

We were given some guidelines and tips in how to strategize in capturing our target markets, in getting our programs stand out amidst the stiff competition. Subsequently, we were tasked to come up with action plans based on their given guidelines. Every participant contributed enthusiastically that I know we came up with some really good outputs.

The most prominent marketing action plans the group came up with were: billboard ads in major highways, prominent landmarks, airports and seaports, TV commercial ads, publications in major newspapers, radio slots, shout outs in social networking sites (eg. Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and etc.), press conferences and a new slogan every quarter complete with logos designed by a prominent logo design company to attract attention and to help saturate our target markets.

Ironically, it is almost mid-year now and yet, we are still waiting for our advertising budget for this year. A first in so many years, this year’s advertising budget is way too delayed for us to move freely with the activities we laid-out for this year. This year’s target is higher by more 100% than last year and I am really antsy in getting things done but all things are tied up with finances. Standing out, after all, has its price. The delay in the release of our marketing budget restricted our activities. We are now worrying if we can actually reach our target this year.