According to a 2008 social media study, 93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites. In response to consumer demand and the low-cost, high return nature of social media marketing, Kidz-Med Inc. (the Company), a subsidiary of American Scientific Resources (Pink Sheets:ASFX), today announced that they have integrated social media in to their marketing efforts.

Social media marketing is the tactical process of promoting a business through various online social media tools by engaging and interacting with existing and potential consumers on a mass scale. At its core, the activities are designed to build links, create awareness, receive large amounts of traffic and gain consumer confidence.

Dr. Christopher F. Tirotta, CEO of American Scientific Resources, Inc. notes, “Social media marketing is a potent brand-building method, one that a multitude of big businesses are using as a fundamental part of their marketing strategies. This approach fits us like a glove. Furthermore, there are minimal costs and maximum rewards.”

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From DMnews.com:

Are you getting the most from your e-mail marketing campaigns? The following questions will help you out.

How do you welcome new subscribers to your program? Keep new subscribers out of your regular communication stream. Contact them twice as often for the first few months. Welcome messages can drive customers to preference centers to deepen their engagement — and provide valuable profile information — remind them of program benefits, and set expectations about future content that they’ll receive.

What are you doing with unengaged or “lapsed” customers? Between 20% to 50% of the addresses on most house lists are dormant, i.e., not clicked or opened a message in 12 months. Recognize these inactive customers, tell them they are missed and ask them to update their preferences. Try “sweeter” offers to reengage this lapsed audience. Too often online marketers look at campaign performance indicators rather than customer engagement metrics when determining a program’s success.

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From Current.com:

Eleven gruesome pictures will show the damage tobacco can do. Experts hope they will scare smokers into quitting.
Britain is the first country in the EU to introduce the graphic photo warnings. They appear on packs that have been manufactured since yesterday.  

Will these gruesome tactics work to keep Brit’s from smoking? New Yorkers have seen a far tamer version of anti-smoking billboards across mass transit–like missing digits or voice boxes. What do you think? Does this sort of marketing actually work?

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Ran across this post today from cNet all about what’s next for Apple’s marketing efforts. With the launch of the iPhone, Apple is now in direct competition with Blackberry/Storm, etc. Think about your coworkers–what does everyone have now?

According to cNet…

On Thursday, however, I saw the clearest sign yet that Apple wants a bite out of the enterprise: a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal. While some vendors like Cisco are looking for growth in emerging markets like the Middle East, Apple’s biggest emerging market may well be the Fortune 500

What do you think?

From MarketWatch:

 Companies within the industrial sector spent a greater portion of their marketing budget online in 2008, according to the report, “Trends in Industrial Marketing 2008: How Manufacturing Companies are Marketing Today.” This third annual survey of marketing and sales professionals in the industrial and manufacturing sectors was conducted by GlobalSpec ( www.globalspec.com), the leading specialized search engine, information services and e-publishing company for the manufacturing, technical, industrial and engineering communities.

Thirty percent of respondents reported spending more than 50 percent of their overall marketing budget online in 2008, up from 20 percent of respondents in 2007. On average, 37 percent of the marketing budget is spent online.

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In more Kids marketing news, Burger King has announced that it will reduce the amount of sodium in their kids meals. Success for marketers aiming at the discerning parent.

 From AP:

Burger King Corp. said Wednesday it is cutting the amount of sodium in its kids meals and promoting menu combinations with less than 650 calories as part of a push to emphasize nutrition at its fast-food chains.

The nation’s No. 2 hamburger chain said it will now limit sodium in its kids meals advertised to children under 12 years old to 600 milligrams or less.

High levels of sodium can lead to higher blood pressure — a key ingredient in heart disease and strokes. The American Heart Association recommends a daily intake of no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium in healthy adults and less for kids. A quarter-teaspoon of salt has nearly 600 milligrams of sodium.

“We have made a strong company-wide commitment to help improve childhood nutrition,” said Chief Executive John Chidsey in an interview with The Associated Press, calling the sodium limit “a positive step among many in that direction.”

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From The Australian:

The world’s largest food manufacturer has reduced sugar levels of some of its top-selling kids’ foods – such as Milo cereal and chocolate milk – and will stop advertising non-nutritious products under a plan to improve its image worldwide.

Nestle will unveil the global marketing initiative in Switzerland later today in response to growing concerns about the role of food manufacturers and their marketing practices in rising obesity rates.

The new “global marketing to children principles” will be underpinned by a nutritional profile system that will define which foods will be allowed to be marketed and which will need to be reformulated to meet marketing guidelines.

Products that will have advertising stopped because they don’t meet guidelines include Country Cup Noodlers Alphabet Chicken Soup, Uncle Toby’s Fruit Roll Ups, Nestle Stars In-cred-i Bites and Wonka Bertie Beetle.

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From MarketWatch:

Newark, part of the global Premier Farnell Group, and a leading multi-channel, high-service electronicsdistributor supporting millions of engineers and purchasing professionals across the Americas, is pleased to announce that it has received 9 Channel Marketing Awards from the National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA), for the creativity and effectiveness of its marketing communications.

The awards were presented at the 2008 NEDA Executive Conference in Chicago on November 3. Newark received 3 Platinum Excellence Awards for its integrated marketing campaign entry, corporate capabilities brochure and redesigned website. Six Gold awards were also captured in the categories of web promotions, image advertising and newsletters.

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