Marketing strategy for Ellington’s, a men’s cigar and luggage shop. Mediums: Online formats with hyper-targeted advertising, such as Facebook, Google Local, etc. Implementation Strategy: Online communication is an increasingly important part of our revenue plans. Though targeted marketing efforts on various men’s lifestyle sites have been met with relative success, our new campaign will use the variety of ad technologies available to get exactly those customers within our profile, which we hope will convert them into lifelong customers of our great company. In order to do this, a few basic rules need followed: 1. So much of the Ellington’s appeal is the company’s voice. As such, all ads should keep the same general tone, no matter what the format. Anything short of the authoritative, man’s-man tone of our ads will not do, will not succeed, and will not be accepted for use. 2. Different sites offer different formats. As such, we need to examine those that allow us just the right space to get that famous voice across without compromise. This, of course, is not to say we won’t leap to grab large opportunities as they present themselves. Alternatively, if the format is inappropriate or unworkable with our corporate message, ads will do longer-term damage to our brand than a short boost in sales could ever cover. Markets: Alongside the aforementioned Google and Facebook platforms, Ellington’s will place voice-consistent ads on Bing, Yahoo!, and Barry’s Discount Ad Emporium. All of these sites match our branding—or at least give us space to do what we need to make it work. On top of that, each of them are, as stated above, hyper-targeted, allowing us to hit existing customers and people who match our profile while avoiding most customers who we believe wouldn’t identify with the brand. Potential Problems: As stated above, our biggest concerns all revolve around improper/incorrect branding. Even that, however, is mitigated by the fact that online media can be changed as needed. If there is a typo or something else that requires changing, our online activity team will be able to locate and fix the problem fairly quickly. Projected Success: High. Our smaller ventures into online advertising were all targeted as well—though less so—and all internal data indicates those ads have done well. By further localizing our plan of attack, we should be able to further expand our online footprint without much trouble. Closing: If this project succeeds—and as new markets open—Ellington’s hopes to take a more proactive approach to finding advertising material that will work with both our stringent vocal demands as well as the needs of the ad server. As it sits, we believe our prioritizing of the “big guys” like Google and Facebook gives us a good chance of success without much risk of loss, outside of general advertising costs.