So what is it that evades a mail recipient’s attention?
According to Gary Levitt and Rob Lubow,who run marketing profs,a marketing blog, “In an attempt to break from the herd, many email marketers ironically adopt a herd mentality of more clutter, more content, more MORE.” Well, that’s exactly the wrong thing to do, apparently.

In email, less is more, Levitt and Lubow say. To help you understand the need to simplify your e-outreach, they offer three key questions to ask yourself before your next email campaign:

What kind of email do you want to receive? A personal note from a good friend is likely at the top of your list. And even then, you don’t expect more than a couple of lines of text.
How much time will someone invest in an impersonal marketing message that’s also sent to thousands of other people? The answer: Not much. Instead, “[B]e a friend,” advise Levitt and Lubow. “Keep it simple. Keep it nice. Make a good subject line that’ll earn those 3.5 seconds you need to get your simple message across.”
Will your message be sharing space with ads? Gmail, AOL and Hotmail are just a few of the providers that frame email with ads these days. “There’s only one way to stand out from all those ads,” the authors claim. “[L]ook less like an ad.”
“Once simplicity is embraced, you’re free to converse plainly with your clients—easily and often. Designers, template-selection, and deadly cross-service compliance issues fall away. Your readers save time, too, and love you for it.”

Reported by Kapil Ohri @ AFAQs

Amul, which established its presence in Second Life in March by setting up its virtual parlour, is now working to expand its presence in the virtual world.
Trimensions, a Gurgaon based company, is helping Amul to develop its existence on Second Life. Rahul Dutta, chairman and managing director, Trimensions, says, “Amul is planning to buy eight-10 islands, equal to 160 acres of virtual land, in Second Life to set up a simulation of its production and distribution facility. The objective behind launching a virtual setup is to demonstrate its functioning to the consumers, and experiment with any change in the production or distribution system virtually before executing it in the real world.”

Screenshot of Amul Ice-cream parlour

Dutta adds, “Setting up ice cream parlours on Second Life was actually a pilot project. It will take around six months to launch the virtual Amul setup on Second Life.” The Amul ice cream parlours showcase topical ads of Amul starting from the late 1990s, Amul TV commercials and product displays.
Before Second Life, Amul’s presence in the online world was restricted to Amul.com (a corporate website), Amul.tv (showcasing short films and TVCs related to Amul) and AmulIcecream.in (to sell ice cream).
Second Life is an Internet enabled virtual world in which users can create their virtual identities. These identities can move around, interact and socialise with other users. Members of Second Life can participate in individual or group activities and create and trade items like virtual property and services with each other. A member has to pay for the space he purchases on Second Life. Second Life is developed by Linden Lab, a company based in the US.

Around 13 million users worldwide, including 50,000 Indians, are registered with Second Life.

© 2008 afaqs!

Aditya Srivastava at Solutions|Digitas came across an interesting concept – "But Why"..that has a whole site dedicated to it…www.butwhy.in

Simple and addictive, it showcase three kinds of Butwhy’s:

Butwhy board: Ask your "but why" questions. e.g. Washing liquid contains real lemon, while a lemonade contains artificial flavor..But Why?

Butwhy photos: same concept in photos..e.g.

Butwhy stories: tell a story and ask the reader-butwhy? visitors can them offer interesting answers to a given situation.

There even is a contest on – post your butwhy to win exciting prizes. I do not think this is an individual’s attempt..and in any case, given their massive showcase of a popular model, it seems something is cooking.

Overall, pretty interesting..Looking forward to find out more..

given Apple’s habit of creating a bang, the latest gossip doing the rounds is the launch of iPhone 2.0. Forget about company sponsored leaks, the way apple news spreads, and conclusions derived, is all pure marketing genius. And it’s all go to do with the product’s hype value – and the obsession apple fans have for the brand.  Read more to understand the madness:

Reasons why Apple iPhone will be launched on 15th June:

1. Apple 24-hr store closed on May 29th on account of a commercial shoot. The only two times the store was shut previously was when the iPhone and OS X Leopard were launched.

2. AT&T sent all retail sales employees a no-vacation blackout memo between June 15 and July 15. Being the only carrier for iPhone 2.0, the assumption is valid that its all thanks to the launch. The same thing happened when iPhone was originally launched.

3. This is the weirdest. Fortune published a report on a major spike in Ocean Containers labeled "electric computers" by Apple. This is direclty being refered to the 3G-enabled iPhone 2.0 that has apparently been shipped from Apple’s two major Asian suppliers!

Compared to all other brands who love to leak stories, in Apple’s case, the non-leak formula seems to be the most effective!

Stay glued to your PC on the 15th! Love it or hate it, you want to know what’s next as far as Apple is concerned!

Guerilla marketing is an unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.

Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerilla marketing is more about matching wits than matching budgets. Guerilla marketing can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare. Rather than marching their marketing dollars forth like infantry divisions, guerilla marketers snipe away with their marketing resources for maximum impact.The term has since entered the popular vocabulary to also describe aggressive, unconventional marketing methods generically.

Levinson identifies the following principles as the foundation of guerrilla marketing:

• Guerrilla Marketing is specifically geared for the small business and entrepreneur.
• It should be based on human psychology instead of experience, judgment, and guesswork.
• Instead of money, the primary investments of marketing should be time, energy, and imagination.
• the primary statistic to measure your business is the amount of profits, not sales.
• The marketer should also concentrate on how many new relationships are made each month.
• Create a standard of excellence with an acute focus instead of trying to diversify by offering too many diverse products and services.
• Instead of concentrating on getting new customers, aim for more referrals, more transactions with existing customers, and larger transactions.
• Forget about the competition and concentrate more on cooperating with other businesses.
• Guerrilla Marketers should always use a combination of marketing methods for a campaign.
• Use current technology as a tool to empower your business.

It was an attempt to get people to vote in the ‘Worlds Sexiest Women’ poll. The results were outstanding – all down to the stunt creating huge public awareness. For a small business, this would probably be a little too extreme, but you get the picture.

[slideshare id=297004&doc=304052-guerilla-marketing-1204913133402532-2&w=425]