Giant Voices is excited to welcome Hailey Bauer to the team as a summer 2024 intern! Get to know her in this intern spotlight. Find out more about her education background, degree, favorite hobbies and more.
Hi there, my name is Hailey!
I’m thrilled to join Giant Voices as an intern this summer, gaining valuable marketing experience and learning how to utilize consumer insights to make better marketing decisions and business recommendations.
Where are you going to school and when are you graduating?
I’m currently attending the University of Minnesota-Duluth and will graduate in the Fall of 2024.
What is your major?
I’m majoring in Consumer Insights and Analytics (CIA) with a minor in Marketing.
I chose to go this route because I have always loved to analyze things and look deeper into what causes certain events. This major has taught me how to take a mess of data and find meaning in it.
With an internship at Giant Voices, I’m excited to grow even more in my ability to uncover insights and use them to make recommendations to help a business succeed.
What is your favorite class?
My favorite class was Consumer Behavior. I find the psychology behind why consumers think and behave in the way that they do very fascinating.
I love learning how you can use this understanding of the consumer to shape your marketing strategy to be more influential and effective. Knowing how your consumer thinks and behaves is so important and should always be highly considered when developing any sort of marketing strategy.
What interests you most about marketing?
I think some businesses really overlook the importance of marketing—having a good marketing strategy can hugely impact their success. I love that there ares so many aspects of marketing and so many different ways a business can choose to approach this.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I studied abroad in Ireland last spring and got the chance to visit ten different European countries while I was there. This experience greatly influenced how I view the world around me and the people who live in it.
I loved that I got to meet so many people from across Europe and some of my closest friends were from Germany, Sweden and France, just to name a few. My favorite memories I have from that semester are the deep conversations with these people who have lived such different lives than me.
What are your hobbies?
I love to be active and spend time outdoors, which is why I love living in Duluth. Hiking, camping, running, biking, skiing, working out and gardening are some of favorite things to do!
I also love to travel—some of my favorite trips that I’ve done with my family include Glacier, Olympic and Rocky Mountain National Parks.
Giant Voices is excited to welcome Macy Sieger to the team as an intern this summer! Get to know her in this intern spotlight. Find out more about her education background, degree, favorite hobbies and more.
Hey, my name is Macy!
This summer, I’m excited to work with a marketing agency team, gain real world experience at Giant Voices and develop my analytical and creative marketing skills.
Where are you going to school and when are you graduating?
I’m currently attending the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and am on track to graduate a semester early in December of 2024!
What is your major?
I am majoring in Strategic Communications and minoring in Digital Media Studies. I chose this major because it’s versatile and allows me to develop a number of transferable skills.
What is your favorite class?
My favorite class was Strategic Brand Planning because it was fast-paced and used real-world complex cultural problems that I worked to solve.
I learned how to use research and analytic tools to identify strategic insights about target consumers, and then had the opportunity to develop effective brand positioning and message strategies.
What interests you most about marketing?
I am interested in marketing because it will challenge me to solve client problems, think outside the box and be innovative. I also am a big people person so I look forward to having the opportunity to meet new people and build relationships!
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I am left-handed.
What are your hobbies?
I enjoy running, reading and spending time outside with my family on the lake!
We could talk about marketing trends all day long, diving into the rise of influencer marketing and AI-driven content creation or the importance of sustainable marketing and data-driven campaigns.
While those trends are undoubtedly important for keeping your marketing strategy adaptable and relevant, there’s one invariable truth: the fundamentals of marketing are unchanging.
Let’s get back to basics and discuss why the right offer priced optimally and promoted to your ideal audience with strategic messaging through a curated media mix can be effective in driving results—without the frills of flashy marketing trends.
The Unchanging Fundamentals of Marketing
The foundations of marketing can be condensed into four fundamentals—offer, price, promotion and place. When you implement these key elements into marketing strategies, you’re going to see meaningful results (even if you ignore what’s “trendy” in marketing).
Create the Best Offer
You’ve likely defined the ideal audience for your products or services, but can you hone those insights further? (Hint: “everyone” is not a target audience!)
What does your audience want? What do they care about? Can you solve problems or challenges your audience faces? What can your company offer to make their life easier and help them achieve their goals?
These are all questions you need to ask when refining your offers to drive business growth. The answers will build the foundation of your entire marketing plan. This is your opportunity to create value for your customers, foster loyalty and set you apart from the competition, lending to long-term business success.
To stimulate further brainstorming when creating enticing offers, consider:
Has your target audience changed? Have their concerns evolved?
What are the demographics, psychographics and behaviors of your target market?
Is there existing competition, and if so, how is your offering different?
What makes your offer unique?
Why should the audience choose your offer over competitors’?
What are the potential challenges associated with your offer?
Is your offer scalable for future growth?
How will you collect feedback from early users or customers?
What is your long-term vision for your brand?
Set it at an Ideal Price
The next step in refining your offer is finding the ideal price point. When determining the right price, it’s important to ask yourself two questions: what do customers expect and how are competitors pricing similar products or services?
While you definitely don’t want to undervalue your products or services, you don’t want to go too high, either, as this could turn off prospects. Instead, aim to align the price of your offer with the value it provides.
Though these questions and considerations will help you gauge pricing options, ultimately, it’s up to you to determine what you charge.
Build the Perfect Promotion
To effectively and concisely communicate your offer to your ideal target audience, you must craft the right message and build the perfect promotion.
Understand your audience and what messaging will resonate. For example, you wouldn’t talk to a millennial the way you would talk to a baby boomer because they each have a vastly different set of drivers and concerns. These distinctions could make or break a campaign.
Craft a compelling message highlighting the benefits of your offer. Focus on your audience’s needs and how your solution adds value to their lives. Remember, it’s not necessarily about what you want to say but rather what your audience needs to hear.
Embrace uniqueness and creativity with your campaign, as this will help capture the attention of your target audience and differentiate your brand from competitors. Consider implementing storytelling, user-generated content, giveaways, influencer partnerships and more.
Find the Proper Place to Market
This is your moment—the time when you showcase your refined offer in a way that effectively communicates its value proposition.
During the execution phase of your marketing strategy, there are a few key aspects you need to consider to ensure your promotions are successful:
Choose the right marketing channel. Where are your prospects—physically and digitally? It’s important to find the most effective channel to reach your audience. Often, this includes a mix of online and traditional offline channels, like social media, billboards, radio and email marketing.
Ensure synergy and consistency across all marketing channels. This helps to create a unified brand experience, reinforces your message and fosters stronger brand recognition.
Measure and optimize. Develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, sales enablement metrics and return on investment (ROI). Use this data to refine your strategies and optimize your campaigns for better results.
Embrace adaptability by using the data and metrics gathered when measuring the performance of your promotion. This will help refine your strategy and optimize your campaign for the best possible results.
Digital marketing is essential, but don’t underestimate the power of human connection. The art of relationship building is still an important component of any marketing strategy.
Interactions at trade shows, 1:1 meetings, speaking engagements and networking events are all still effective and important ways to gain brand recognition—and they’ll complement your digital efforts to create a stronger campaign overall.
Get Back to (Marketing) Basics
As you navigate the complexities of today’s market, it’s important to recognize that an impactful marketing campaign doesn’t need to be complicated—it can be as simple as tapping into these four foundational pillars of marketing.
Understand your audience, create a value-driven offer and strategically price and promote it using the right channels and messaging. With the right approach, you can achieve your marketing goals while staying true to timeless principles that drive results.
If you’re looking for a marketing partner to take the reins and create a customized marketing strategy for your business, contact Giant Voices. We’re here to help you achieve your revenue goals.
