Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2016 | Page 10

kes

Different Stro

BY BOB STIMOLO

B

rand marketing and direct marketing are opposites. Brand marketing can be extremely effective when conducted at an appropriate level. But it requires a certain “mass” before its effectiveness
kicks in.
Thanksgiving Dinner “On You”
A number of years ago SMRI did a
market study of the brand awareness
of several different publishers active in
the school market. The Scholastic brand
registered far and above all the other
brands in the survey. Scholastic also had
a very large promotion and advertising
budget and their brand recognition

10 essentials | fall 2016

came at a significant cost — a cost that
most of the other brands in the survey
simply could not afford.
As an example, many years back the
National Council of Teachers of English
(NCTE) held their annual conference
over the Thanksgiving holiday (including on Thanksgiving day) and Scholastic
was said to have provided Thanksgiving
dinner for all of the attendees (hun-

dreds of teachers and administrators).
That was one way of making sure that
every member of the NCTE knew the
Scholastic brand, but the cost must have
been significant. Even so, there are likely some educators still teaching today
that remember that gesture fondly.

Build Awareness, Breed
Confidence
Brand advertising accomplishes two
important goals: it builds awareness of
your products and services and it breeds
confidence and enthusiasm in your sales
channels. Promoting your brand is especially important when you depend upon
sales representatives (both internal and
independent) and distributors to sell
your products. The level of marketing
you conduct can have a direct rela-