{"id":35440,"date":"2023-10-20T14:38:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/five-marketing-gaffes-to-avoid-in-2012-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:38:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:38:35","slug":"five-marketing-gaffes-to-avoid-in-2012-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/five-marketing-gaffes-to-avoid-in-2012-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Five marketing gaffes to avoid in 2012 – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The world of social media may have provided businesses with great new marketing channels, but it has also increased the opportunities for costly stuff-ups.<\/p>\n

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Last year saw a number of marketing blunders, often by brands that haven\u2019t quite grasped how to use the new tools available to them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe mistake many brands make is that they desperately want to be liked,\u201d says Michael Halligan, founder of Engage Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey see that a rival has got 100,000 Twitter followers and they want the same. They jump into social media on a flimsy excuse of growing their numbers. You need a better way of doing it than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to Halligan, a solid marketing strategy needs to underpin everything your start-up does, to ensure it doesn\u2019t veer wildly off course and make a critical mistake.<\/p>\n

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\u201cStick to the key fundamentals \u2013 get your brand right and make it enticing to consumers,\u201d he says. \u201cThink less about the tools on offer and more about the strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To help you avoid any marketing disasters in 2012, here are the five lessons that every start-up should learn from last year\u2019s stuff-ups. Make sure you avoid all of these mistakes.<\/p>\n

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1. Acting desperate to be noticed<\/h3>\n

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As a start-up, you will be rubbing shoulders with well-established brands with fearsome marketing budgets.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s tempting to use low-cost marketing stunts in order to stand out from the pack. Sometimes, this can work.<\/p>\n

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But beware. What you see as a cheeky, quirky attempt to generate sales can be viewed by customers as desperate and, worse, devaluing to your fledgling brand\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

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Using horribly twee language, such as the Essential Beauty ad <\/a>that provoked 44 complaints last year by using terms such as \u201cfairy horrest\u201d and \u201cnimpy skickers\u201d, is a good way to tarnish your business before it has even got off the ground properly.<\/p>\n

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Cross the line into outright \u201clook\/listen to me\u201d behaviour can also backfire, as the outrage provoked by Kyle Sandilands in 2011 demonstrates. Stick to your brand values and provide a good product or service \u2013 the marketing should take care of itself.<\/p>\n

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2. Alienating a segment of your customer base<\/h3>\n

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It may seem like Marketing Rule 1.01, but plenty of businesses shoot themselves in the foot by unthinkingly offending potential customers.<\/p>\n

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In 2011, EnergyWatch, for reasons best known to itself, thought it would be a good idea to play upon the stereotype of an Indian doorknocker <\/a>to spruik its energy price comparison service.<\/p>\n

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The ad sparked 75 complaints and was promptly banned. The damage is potentially greater, however, when you consider the rather slim probability of any Australians of Indian ancestry (numbering nearly 150,000 at the last count<\/a>) using EnergyWatch\u2019s service.<\/p>\n

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Last year saw various examples of rather thoughtless marketing, including The Tool Shop\u2019s depiction of women as sex objects <\/a>and the bizarre decision by GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons to post a video of himself shooting an elephant in Zimbabwe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The lesson is simple \u2013 if you think that your marketing will alienate a decent portion of your potential customers, don\u2019t go through with it.<\/p>\n

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