I realize we’ve all heard these before, but certain things are worth repeating every now and again.  So, please, bear with me as I present The Top Marketing Mistakes to Avoid:

1. Marketing to everyone. Do your research, find your target audience, and gear your marketing message to that audience.  Don’t try to reach everyone.

2. Fractured brand unity. All of your marketing efforts should present a cohesive feel for your product, service, and company.  The more unified your advertisements, website, etc, the better.

3. Using a single marketing medium. Your marketing efforts should employ a variety of media from television to the internet and everything in between.  Ensure that your message reaches your entire target audience, market creatively through a cross-section of channels.

4. Ignoring current customers. Repeat purchasers make up 80% of customers in most businesses.  However, most marketing campaigns focus on new customers instead of current ones.  Use messages that reach both potential and repeat customers.

5. Sending mixed messages. Marketing messages that are too confusing, too subtle, too long, or too complicated can easily miss your target audience.  Keep your campaigns simple.

6. Not asking for feedback. Testing your marketing messages is extremely important.  Test your marketing ideas on focus groups and ask for feedback.  Don’t launch new marketing campaigns blindly.

See, that wasn’t so bad was it?  Not to mention, I can almost guarantee that, even though we can all recite them by heart, we’re all guilty of committing one of these sins a time or  two in our professional lives.  Like I said, some things are worth repeating on occassion.

I’m learning a new language these days and it’s called Snacklish.  Developed by the Mars marketing team of the biggest selling candy bar in the world, the language takes elements of the Snickers candy bar and inserts them into everyday words, phrases, or celebrity parodies.  If you’ve seen a commercial featuring Patrick Chewing or Master P-Nut then you should already be fluent in Snacklish.

Snickers even has their own facebook page dedicated to the language.  The facebook page features Snickers fans, print ads in action, and of course, video advertisements.  The page encourages fans to share and submit their own “additions” to the Snacklish language.  Some of the more recent words are: Chompetition, Snacky Chan, Pika-Chew, Snackrondacks, Choclantic Ocean and Antihungerestablishmentarianism.  Most of the new Snacklish words can be found on the reverse side of a Snickers bar, located at your local grocery store.

With the new Snacklish campaign, Snickers is creatively reminding consumers about Snickers while stressing product features through integration of a new “language.”  Other companies that have created a new lingo in order to get products to stand out in the consumers mind include: Burger Revolutionary McDonalds, Coffee Trendsetter Starbucks, and Lifestyle Innovator Apple.

Now, don’t get me wrong-I don’t think “Snacklish” is going to have the same effect on our lives as say, mcnuggets, grande half-cafs, or iPods, but you can see what they’re trying to do.  Besides, it’s decently entertaining.

Snack On Snickers.