Most Madison Avenue analysts believe that the royal road to product promotion is brand recognition. In their view, any publicity is good publicity. As long as you get your brand exposed to the public--particularly to your target demographic--you will ultimately be able to trounce your competitors. However, it's important to bear in mind that the connotation with which consumers associate your brand may also prove key.

For instance, if Coca-Cola was to start bottling and packaging its beverages in green containers, my guess is that the company would lose market share. In other words, the connotation of your brand is as important as its exposure--if not more. So what can you do to get a positive, large-scale brand exposure without spending a fortune on print or multimedia advertising?

Lessons in Product Promotion and Branding

There are several routes you can take. First, you can attempt to beat your competition in an out-and-out horse race by blitzing the public with new ads designed to steal market share. The downside here is that you generally can’t launch an impressive campaign of this magnitude without spending a lot of money. Moreover, chances are that your competitors won't take your aggression lying down.

Another avenue might be to carve out your own market niche. The trouble here is that customers generally respond to new or “weird” marketing ideas slowly, if at all. A final tactic could be to work really hard on coming up with a revolutionary and unique advertising platform. The challenge here is that even the most creative new ads can get buried under an avalanche of pulpy, run of the mill ads.