How do you make your product known? Brand promotion and turning what your company sells into a household name are the key.
Household Names
How do you get your brands to become household names, like Disney or Nickelodeon? It takes persistence.
The Disney Consumer Products Group took in $28.6 billion in 2010 (not including Marvel Entertainment, which earned $5.6 billion), and Nickelodeon earned $5.5 billion. How do they do it? Disney is an easy case study: it saturates the market. Who else can turn a theme park ride like Pirates of the Caribbean into the powerhouse merchandising machine it has become? In recent years, boys dressed up to be Jack Sparrow, yielding plastic swords and wearing fake beaded beards at Halloween.
Nickelodeon has mastered the same concepts. It has taken popular children’s shows and created a whole new segment of products. Little kids love Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego. They coax mom and dad to buy Dora backpacks, clothing, games, and Spanish learning products. And SpongeBob SquarePants has become an icon for boys and many of their dads. No longer do kids know words to nursery rhymes. But if you ask them who lives in a pineapple under the sea, kids will immediately start singing the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song.
Co-Branding
If you are not one of those mega-brands, co-brand with them. Disney has cruises, resorts, nail polishes (for the little princess in you), and of course lots and lots of toys. They don’t manufacture or manage all their properties. Hook up with a mega-brand where the licensing fees are worth the returns.
Brand Promotion
No matter who you are, or what product you have, the key is promotion. Companies don’t necessarily need a large marketing budget, or have to hire celebrities for commercials, but you must stay on top of current trends in advertising. Make sure to promote through social media. Consumers are more likely to listen to a recommendation from a Facebook friend, click on an ad from an email blast, or trust a YouTube video that shows the product being used. Social media sells.