Today’s entry comes from Barbara Fusco, PR specialist and client services manager, who attended the 2007 National Business Aviation Association convention in Atlanta, along with The Creative Alliance’s President,David Heitman.
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The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Annual Meeting & Convention is quite the happening. In its 60th year, the 2007 event saw an official 27,326 attendees as of the start of the three-day show. NBAA also enjoyed a record-breaking 1,152 exhibiting companies and some 115 business aircraft featured at its static display of aircraft at Fulton County Airport…not to mention more than 100 information sessions on a range of business aviation topics. Whew!

Not only is NBAA sensory overload for the general aviation enthusiast, it’s also a stimulating opportunity to reflect on the wide range of marketing and brand savvy displayed within a single industry. I saw some companies that were doing a great job of enhancing their image and position in prospects’ minds through sophisticated, strategic branding. I also saw some companies undermining their own strength and growth potential with less-than-enlightened marketing approaches, approaches that undersell their brands and hurt their competitive abilities in the long run. At the risk of sounding too self-promoting, we were gratified to find that our clients in the aviation industry were among the best branded, and most creatively marketed.

It’s a reminder that in the Marketing Hierarchy of Needs (apologies to Maslow), strong and integrated branding must precede all other marketing tactics—like trade show exhibitions—for those tactics to be worth the investment.

With a few years under its metaphorical belt, the Long Tail idea persists and persuades. When Chris Anderson coined “The Long Tail” in a 2004 article, and followed up with his landmark book by the same title in 2006, he cited several examples of evolving economies in which businesses are selling less of more, enabled by online technologies.

Hits to Niches
Target marketing has always been a powerful concept in the marketing arena. More productive and cost-effective than a scattershot approach, target marketing involves getting the right message to the right audience at the right time. Targeted marketing breaks through the clutter, speaks the audience’s language, and warms the environment for sales. With technology continuing to enable all sorts of businesses to provide not just products and services of mainstream appeal, but niche or targeted offerings that appeal to many smaller audiences, we expect to see Long Tail economies in effect, and growing, for some time to come.