Author: blogger

Mueller Rifle Scopes – The Best Scope You Never Heard Of

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As far as optics manufacturers, Mueller Optics is relatively new to the market. Founded in 2003 by Richard Schlampp, Mueller has quickly developed a reputation for high quality scopes at reasonable prices. This has been accomplished through two unique strategies.

For starters, most all the Mueller products are produced overseas. However, this is certainly not new within the optics community. About the only optics company that still makes some of it’s products within the U.S. is Burris Optics. What seems to set Mueller apart from the rest of their competition is how they utilize these parts. Rather than outsource everything to one country, Mueller took a different approach. They searched long and hard for various vendors through the world that manufactured specific optical parts and selected the best that they could find. Each vendor that they use produces a specific item or part that is then shipped to an overseas plant and meticulously assembled. The result is a high quality product built with exacting tolerances. So much so, that Mueller optics offers a lifetime warranty on nearly every item they produce.

The second unique strategy that Mueller employs is done through their advertising (or should I say lack of advertising). Quite simply, Mueller spends very little money on advertising compared to most sports based optical companies. Next time you visit your doctor or dentist, take a moment to flip through any hunting or shooting magazines that they may have in waiting room. I’m willing to bet that you’ll see a number of various ads from different scope manufacturers, but you probably won’t see any ads from Mueller. They prefer to rely on their network of dealers, and word of mouth to effectively advertise their line. In doing so, they have been able to keep the retail costs of their products at a very attractive level.

From a scope product standpoint, Mueller has a scope offering for just about everyone (even bowhunters). Mueller has scopes that are designed for archery, big game, illuminated models, turkey, tactical applications, varmint shooting, rimfires, blackpowder, and nearly any other type of shooting you can imagine. Their most popular models seem to be the APV 4.5 X 14 and the Mueller Eradicator 8.5 X 25. These two have gained quite a following amongst varmint hunters and big game hunters. On a personal level, I have the APV 4.5 X 14 model and have to say that it comes very close to competing with one of my Nikon scopes and my Burris Black Diamond scope at more than half the cost.

Although this may be the first time that you’ve ever heard of Mueller optics, I doubt it will be the last if you are an active shooter or hunter. If you happen to be in the market for a new rifle scope, or are just looking to upgrade, you might want to take a look at a Mueller.

Advertising Agencies Have To Adapt With New Media

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Advertising agencies have dramatically changed over the last twenty years thanks to the Internet and online advertising. Most businesses realize the importance of getting online and using the hip new methods and processes associated with forms of Internet advertising.

Few could have imagined in the early 80s what role advertising agencies would take on today. The Internet has changed the way we live and do business. It has forever changed consumer habits. What was once the lifeblood of advertising, newspapers and magazines, is now on the decline and has evolved from direct response advertising to branding.

Advertising agencies have added such methods as search engine positioning, pay per click marketing and social media marketing to their arsenals. Not only do agencies develop video ads for television slots, they now create video ads for the internet and viral videos for YouTube.

Offline marketing has changed as well. Readership has dropped for many big newspapers and magazines. New services like transport ads have come into play. Even stationary billboards have gone high tech by playing full color video advertisements. There are more options today in offline advertising than ever before.

Advertising agencies have to create a larger variety of ads. They must design banner ads that are effective at getting clicks. They need to create videos that are accepted by social communities online that walk the fine line between advertising and entertainment.

Advertising agencies today have to be quick to adopt new trends since Internet media is constantly and rapidly changing. What works today may be ineffective next year.

Choosing the right advertising agency for your business will take a little work. You want to make sure you sign with a company that is on the cutting edge of adverting methods and not one that is stuck in the old methods of print media only.

It is more convenient for you if you sign with an ad agency that can handle your entire advertising campaign. They should be able to run PPC accounts, make YouTube videos and place print ads. It helps if they can design and create your ads for you. Having everything done by one company will help you stay organized and should save you money.

Look for an ad agency that has a strong reputation among its customers. View their portfolio of ads and go over their statistics. They should offer the ability to track and analyze the results you get from your ads as well.

Advertising costs must be cost effective no matter how you approach it. You need to be smart with your money and make sure the money you spend gets results in the form of a healthy return on your investment. That is why you need a strong agency that utilizes today’s latest advertising methods.

Do You Have What it Takes to be an Internet Marketing Superstar

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We are a unique breed.

Talk of bounce rates, A/B split testing, conversions, affiliate marketing and page impressions gets us excited (maybe a bit TOO excited).

In our free-time, pulling out a Seth Godin book, re-reading training material from Ryan Deiss, or checking out the latest post on Mashable sounds about as good as it gets.

We are hard-core. Do you have what it takes?

If youre not sure whether youre TRULY an internet marketing superstar, Id encourage you to take this short quiz and see how you do (answers below).

Define the following online marketing acronyms:

CTR ________________________
CPM ________________________
SEO_________________________
PPC_________________________
CPA _________________________
SEM_________________________
B2B__________________________
B2C__________________________
CPL __________________________
CPC __________________________
CPS__________________________
CR___________________________
PPI___________________________
PPS__________________________
KPI__________________________
SERP_________________________
URL__________________________
ASV__________________________

CTR = Click Through Rate. Number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad was shown. Eg: 100 clicks / 10000 impressions = 1% CTR
CPM = Cost per 1000 Impressions. Cost expressed in dollars of an ad per 1000 impressions or pageviews. Eg: $5.00 CPM = $5.00 for every 1000 impressions.
SEO = Search Engine Optimization. Improving the ranking of a website through the use of organic techniques.
PPC = Pay-per-Click. Method of online advertising where the advertiser pays based on how many click throughs there are to their website.
CPA = Cost per Action. Method of online advertising where the advertiser pays based on how many of a particular action is taken (eg. Subscriptions, leads, sales, etc.)
SEM = Search Engine Marketing. Increasing traffic to a website through the use of organic and paid online advertising.
B2B = Business to Business (marketing). Marketing exclusively to other businesses.
B2C = Business to Consumer (marketing). Marketing exclusively to the consumer.
CPL = Cost per Lead. Amount advertiser pays for each lead generated by ad (registrations, subscriptions, etc.).
CPC = Cost per Click. Amount advertiser pays for each click generated by ad.
CPS = Cost per Sale. Amount advertiser pays for each sale generated by ad.
CR = Conversion Rate. Number of conversions an ad or website gets divided by total number of visits. Eg: 100 sales / 10000 visits = 1% CR
PPI = Pay per Impression. Advertiser pays based for each ad impression.
PPS = Pay per Sale. Advertiser pays for each sale generated through the ad.
KPI = Key Performance Indicator. Way of measuring progress towards specific goals. KPIs are decided on within an organization and then tracked to ensure company is meeting its goals.
SERP = Search Engine Results Page. The list of sites a search engine returns when you request a search.
URL = Uniform Resource Locator. Address of a website on the web.
ASV = Average Subscriber Value. On average, the cash value generated by each email or website subscriber.

So, how did you do? Are you an internet marketing superstar?

Weve even written about some of these acronyms

Facebook Advertising: CPC vs CPM for my Facebook Ads?

10 Tips for an Effective Facebook PPC Campaign

5 SEO Tips for Your Facebook Fan Page

How To Choose A Digital Advertising Agency

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Digital Advertising has broken all pace barriers and become a necessity for every business looking for growth and increase in sales. Association with a Digital Advertising Agency is also a must as the Digital Media requires a team specialized in the desired technicalities and round-the-clock monitoring. A correct assessment of the potential agencies is vital as investing in an agency ill-equipped to provide the appropriate Digital Advertising Solutions may result in a waste of time and revenue. This article provides a few points to tick while deciding on the agency best suited for your needs.

Mobile Digital Advertising

It has become the golden word now: tabs, smartphones, and even some feature phones are the new promised lands where the Digital Media is shifting to. It is imperative for a business to have an online presence optimized for the handheld devices. Agencies providing advertising in the digital media must have resources dedicated to looking after the Digital Ads in the mobiles. The Mobile Advertising Media requires specific set of skills and expertise and has specific demands. Make sure that the Digital Publishers you are considering are capable of handling the mobile media too or else your business will end up leaving out a major chunk of the target group.

Local Digital Advertising

In the case of retail businesses, though it is true that Digital Ads will be read by users across the world, it is more likely that most of the business will be done with the local consumers. Therefore, targeting them through Local Digital Advertising should be of the topmost priority. Make doubly sure that the publishers hold expertise in the nitty-gritty of Local Digital Advertising and can attract the local consumers searching for the nearest businesses straight to you.

Accurate Targeting

Every Digital Advertising Campaign involves thousands of emails that reach the inboxes but are never opened and countless cases where the ad simply ends up irritating the users. This happens in spite of brilliantly designed ads with attractive ad copies. The problem here lies with improper targeting. Top Digital Ad Publishers are known for their accuracy in targeting. Check out the facts and figures which are with the agency you are considering. If they correspond with the latest and updated figures of the market, that agency is well equipped to target accurately and ensure that your Advertising budget is not wasted in unopened or irritating ads.

Fast Implementation

Speed is one of the key elements in a market where data and techniques become outdated by the minute. Taking too long to implement a campaign will result in the employed techniques getting outdated. Look for an agency which has the means and resources to make a fast implementation of the campaign.

Tracking the Performance

The internet is a place infamous for springing surprises. Sometimes even the best conceived campaigns do not yield the desired results. We have, in fact, seen a few occasions where even some of the best in the industry blundered. It is very essential that the associated publisher has the expertise and capability to keep a real time track of the performance of the ad in terms of the views, shares, comments attracted, and the actual business being done due to it. A proper track will enable the agency to predict any undesirable affect and make the necessary changes in time.

The Digital Medium enables the users to express their opinions and provide feedbacks openly. It has increased the scope of Digital Advertising which is now, in fact, the entire process of Digital Marketing. The Best Digital Advertising Agencies form the complete bridge between the business and the consumer and plays an active role right from the point of attracting to revenue generation.

Nike’s Marketing Strategy

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Nikes marketing strategy rested entirely upon a brand image which is favourable and has evolved into a great multinational enterprise over time. The favourable brand image has been kept afloat due to the strong association with the Nikes logo which is quite distinctive and the slogan Just Do It which has been used in advertisement for quite some time. The company has been known to invest heavily in advertisements and brand promotion (Fill C, 2005 p.54).

Market Segmentation
Most of the consumers of Nikes products are mainly sportsmen. This is so because of the utility that comes with the products. An athlete is more likely to go a sports shoe designed and marketed by Nike more than a person who detests sporting and exercises. Nike targets these consumers by agreements between Nike and athletic teams, colleges athletic teams1 etc for product sponsorship and eventual promotion to the members of these teams. In this way, Nike is able to reach a wide number of consumers and consumers who are more likely to buy. Even though others are likely to buy the products, Nike pays specific emphatic targeting to the athlete more than any group of individuals even though it also targets the youth who have embraced the hip hop culture (Mercer David, 1996, pp 171).

Targeting strategies
Nike lays a number of strategies to target their immediate consumers; athletes and other sportsmen. The targeting strategies include among others the sponsorship of products by professional athletic teams, celebrity athletes and college athletic teams. This strategy is specifically successful because of its ability to reach a large number of athletes. If the athletic team manager prescribes a specific type of track shoes made by Nike, the trainees have no option other than to buy them. The teams can as well buy the track shoes in bulky and supply them to the team members.
The second strategy that Nike applies is the designing of product destination. It does this by associating success with the product. For example, when a celebrity athlete sponsors a specific brand of athletic shoes, the brand will be associated with success. This psychological effect is reinforced with advertisements that affirm this position.
Finally, Nike targets the consumers who are likely to develop product intimacy; those who care more about the utility and quality of the product than the price. In this way, the pricing is not affected too much in a bid to accommodate a large number of consumers. However, price has also been factored in Nikes marketing strategies as shall be seen later in this paper (Frank, 2004, p.173)

Pricing Strategies
As stated in the foregoing section, Nike targets the consumers who embrace product intimacy and thus care less about the product. This has enables Nike to set relatively higher prices than its competitors. This is a strategy that calls for higher pricing points so as to push the perceived product value. It has been established that consumers who consider a product to be of high quality are likely to pay the high price more often and consistently. Once consumers develop product intimacy, they come to associate their person with the product and will pay whatever price quoted on the product provided it has the Nike logo on it.
Another very important thing to note is the fact that Nike uses the vertical integration pricing strategy in which they take ownership of the participants at channel levels that differ and they also engage in multifarious channel level operations both in a bid to control costs and thus influence pricing function (Goldman S, 2000, pp154)

Distribution Strategies
Distribution strategies embraced by an organization can either give them an edge in market or make them lag behind the winners in the market. The more efficient the product distribution is the more sales and thus more profits. The delivery of the right product and at the right time to the consumer not only effects utility but also leads to high degree of consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Nike distributes its products on level basis. The high priced premium products are given to certain distributors while leaving the low priced to be sold at highly discounted prices at mega retail stores such as Wal-Mart. Whereas Reebok embraced a limited distribution strategy Nike ventured more into a global3 market capitalization (Jeannet J, 2000, pp 44).

Promotional and Communication Strategies
Apart from Nike selling quality products which have lead to a high degree of customer loyalty, the promotional strategies that the company employs are simply superb. Nike has contracted a number of professional and celebrity athletes which have managed to draw a considerable attention to their products. Some of the sportsmen signed by Nike include soccer stars such as Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, Basketballers such as Jermaine O’Neal and Lebron James2, triathlete Lance Armstrong and golf superstar Tiger Woods. This has created a relatively high degree of Nike products awareness. Besides the signing of celebrity sportsmen to promote their products, Nike has also employed a great deal of advertisements through the mass media. Nike employs a selective- demand advertisement focused on the high priced shoes used for traditional sports (Goldman S, 2000, pp154).

Conclusion
Nike has remained and continues to remain at the top of production and distribution of sports gear and equipment. However, it should be noted that competitive pressure cannot allow Nike to sleep at the top. The recent Reebok- Adidas merger poses a great challenge to devise new marketing strategies to continue leading or recede to oblivion. The following recommendations are suggested in a situation where marketing management is competent. These include:
Increased market share through a new product development, competent pricing strategies, advertisement and other sound promotional activities.
Restructure market dominance by driving away competitors mainly through fierce promotional strategy coupled by pricing function that will make the market quite unattractive for the competitors.
Increased social responsibility to strengthen the image of the company
Diversification of market through factoring the Asians and Black Americans in their product promotion besides doing a research to establish the tastes of these groups.
Venture into new distribution channels especially in international markets
Different pricing strategy so as to open up a new market segments.

All the above show a competent marketing management can hoist organizations top become market leaders and making the market leaders maintain their competitive edge in the market through adherence to marketing ethics, marketing plans and well thought out and formulated marketing strategies.