Sales & Marketing Society of the Mid-South

Billions of dollars are spent every year on creative and artistic advertising campaigns that don’t resonate with consumers because they fail to reach them where and when they want to be reached.

This was the message from Maria McLendon, a marketing and communications leader who shared her expertise in market segmentation, targeting and positioning with attendees of the Sales and Marketing Society of the Mid-South March luncheon. McLendon is a marketing and public relations consultant who is skilled in orchestrating internal and external resources in order to develop and implement effective advertising and sales promotion programs.

“Great ads and marketing can be lost if we are not fully aware of who is receiving the message,” McLendon said. “We have to know our customers inside and out. To have a successful campaign, we must identify our ideal customers, and then reach them when, where and how they want to be reached.”

“Maria’s presentation was timely and well received by our SMS audience,” said Lori Turner, Managing Partner, Red Rover Sales and Marketing. “As business owners and marketers, its easy to get excited about all of the new and exciting marketing delivery channels, thanks to the explosion of social media, but it’s critical that we don’t lose sight of the fundamentals — proper market segmentation, understanding the common traits of those segments and messaging accordingly.”

The Sales and Marketing Society of the Mid-South is a network providing continuing education to sales and marketing professionals with the intention of continually improving the standards for professional selling, sales management and marketing. Its primary goal is to provide educational events and services for sales and marketing professionals. In addition to being a source for education and information, SMS is also involved in sponsorship and scholarship programs for college students from the University of Memphis, Christian Brothers University and Southwest Tennessee Community College.

Check out the photos from the Luncheon, courtesy of Gary Baldwin:

Its been a long time coming, but the Sales & Marketing Society of the Mid-South finally has the blog up and running!  The purpose of this blog is to allow us to more readily communicate with our members and anyone else about upcoming events, member benefits, special discounts, sponsorship opportunities- you name it!

We will also be posting slide presentations from our guest speakers, videos from luncheons and other events, photos, and anything else we can get our hands on.  Stay tuned by subscribing to our RSS feed and we’ll make sure that you’re always in the loop with what’s happening in the word of sales or marketing.