What is your marketing IQ? Are you in need of a little help or are you marketing brilliantly? Take the following quick and easy (not to mention enlightening) quiz and find out!

1. What is the best competitive advantage that any business can promote?

a. quality
b. service
c. price
d. None of the above; they are all poor choices

2. What is the most important factor when identifying your market niche?

a. Who you are
b. Demographic data
c. Psycographic data
d. Past economic trends within the targeted niche

3. What are two of the six categories of totally integrated marketing?

a. Advertising and Direct Mail
b. Networking and Personal Marketing
c. Business Communications and Pricing
d. Customer Development and Promotions

4. Of the six marketing categories, how many should you be working at any one time?

a. one
b. two
c. four
d. six

5. How important is the creative element in advertising?

a. Most important - its what gets noticed!
b. Less than 10% of the impact of an ad is in its creativity
c. There are no studies done; we dont know the answer so we have to guess
d. Of medium importance; about 50% of the impact of an ad is in its creative factor

. When implementing a direct mail campaign, what is most important?

a. Who you send it to (e.g., the list)
b. How many times you send it
c. The offer you make in your direct mail piece
d. None of the above - they are all equally important!

7. What is the most effective way to start a 1 or 2 person business?

a. advertising
b. networking
c. part-time
d. none of the above

8. What is historys most effective direct mail piece and why?

a. Publishers Clearing House; it has a highly valuable give-away prize
b. Wall Street Journal; it talks about the two brothers who started the paper
c. Unknown; it cannot be measured because you cant directly track advertising results
d. Time-Life Books direct mail campaign; it has both consistent reach and frequency

9. What two things make a good headline?

a. Large, offset letters and a powerful statement
b. White letters in a black box and a question
c. A powerful statement and a yes question
d. There are no guidelines, thats why its difficult to craft a good headline

10. What is the primary purpose of marketing?

a. Getting your company name out there
b. Generating leads
c. Generating profits
d. Generating sales

Answers Score one point for each correct answer.

1.d;87% of all businesses promote quality, service, or price as their competitive advantage. Because they do, it is ineffective and you must select another aspect of your business to function as your competitive advantage.

2.a;in almost all cases who you are is the most important aspect of determining your market niche; for instance, if you are a CPA and your passionate hobby is riding motorcycles, you would be well advised to target businesses in the motorcycle industry (as opposed to doctors, daycare centers, or other options). Why? Because within the motorcycle industry, you have the asset of instant rapport; you walk their walk, you can talk their talk. (Of course you neednt turn away other business; your marketing dollars are simply spent within your natural market niche).

3.d;customer Development and Promotions are two of the six totally integrated Brilliant Marketing categories.

4.d; six - if you had six horses and you wanted to get from Denver to San Diego, you wouldnt put five horses in the back of the wagon, run one to death, and then put him away and run the next one to death; youd put all six out in front, to synergistically get you where you are going (efficiently and expediently).

5.b; less than 10% of the impact of any ad is in its creativity (it may get noticed, but if its difficult to read, or if it doesnt focus on the sell, then it doesnt do you any good!)

6.a; although d wouldve made a good answer (they are all important), a is technically the correct answer. The list (who you send it to) accounts for up to 60% of the success of a direct mail campaign.

7.b;networking (and it makes perfect sense when you know that 87% of all business is based on repeat or referred transactions).

8.b;the Wall Street Journal created the most successful direct mail piece; its success is based on the element of rapport which it establishes when discussing the two brothers.

9.c;a strong headline is either a powerful statement (STOP THE PAIN) or a yes question (important for psychological buy-in).

10.c;never ever forget, marketing has one purpose... to generate profits!

Analysis

10 Congratulations! You are Brilliant!

8-9 Excellent! You understand marketing exceptionally well.

5-7 Good; but you will most certainly benefit from additional marketing knowledge; more than likely, you have fallen prey to common marketing myths. Learning the truth will make a huge difference in your marketing results.