Artville

Your ability to sustain a long-term advertising program shows customers that you’re a successful, reliable brand.

I recently purchased a new digital TV. Normally, Circuit City would have been on my list as one store in which to shop, but the struggles the company was facing (followed by its decision to declare bankruptcy) made me nervous.

I was sure I could somehow get my TV serviced under the manufacturer’s warranty if something were to go wrong, but I figured it would be more of a hassle if the retailer from whom I purchased the TV wasn’t there to back me up. So I went elsewhere.

This principle, which I call “the fear of warranty,” is one of the reasons why GM is doing everything it can to avoid the bankruptcy process. People tend to feel less comfortable doing business with companies they perceive are on the ropes.

But I submit that the principle holds true at the other end of the spectrum as well. Brands that are setting the world on fire make people feel more confident about (and perhaps even more intelligent for) doing business with them. And one very visible signal a brand can send about its momentum is how consistently it advertises.

Riding the Victory Train
You probably have at least a vague familiarity with the names Michael Beschloss and Doris Kearns Goodwin. They’re the Presidential historians who always seem to be called upon by the television networks to provide expert commentary during campaign seasons. They really seem to know their stuff.

Of course, you and I can’t say with certainty whether or not they are the most qualified historians to comment on Presidential elections. Oh, sure, they are intelligent, studied academics who provide interesting insights. But there are probably many other capable people who could do the same.

What makes us believe that Beschloss and Goodwin are the leading experts is the fact that they are visibly and consistently out there, presumably because they’ve been vetted by people who should know. The fact that we see them on TV all the time is, in and of itself, proof of their leading expertise. Simply put, their visibility leads to credibility.

The same thing is true with products and services we see advertised day after day. The more visible a brand is, the more opportunities it earns to build trust with its customers and prospects.

Consider some of today’s most successful products and services. Without each of us personally spending a great deal of time and effort researching, testing and comparing competitive alternatives, we don’t really know whether Nike makes a better shoe, Michelin manufactures a better tire, or Verizon has created a better network. Instead, we entrust at least some of our judgment to the momentum these brands appear to have in the marketplace.

In some respects it doesn’t even matter what their ads say; the simple fact that each of these brands is actively and consistently “in the game” speaks volumes — especially in challenging economic times — and generates genuine momentum for their brands.

The Wisdom of Crowds
In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki makes the case that “together all of us know more than any one of us does.” He says, “Markets are made up of diverse people with different levels of information and intelligence, and yet when you put all those people together and they start buying and selling, they come up with generally intelligent decisions.”

In the world of advertising, consistency is like a scorecard on the wisdom of crowds. People know that advertising is expensive, so the more a company advertises, the more successful it must be. And the more successful it is, the more it means that other people are choosing it. Which means that it may be a good idea for you and I to choose it as well.

Your brand can benefit from this power of positive momentum. Through your initial advertising efforts, people will learn that that you exist. With repeated exposure, they’ll learn that you’re stable. With even more repeated exposure, they’ll assume you’re successful — after all, based on your ability to sustain a long-term advertising program, you’d have to be.

The specific content of your ads is, of course, of vital importance as well — Beschloss and Goodwin wouldn’t last long if they were misleading, annoying, or ignorant. But what’s true of your career, of sports, and of life in general is also true of advertising: never underestimate the power of simply showing up.

Steve McKee is president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, a firm that specializes in helping stalled companies rekindle growth. He is the author of the new book, When Growth Stalls.

2009-05-18 08:29:02

For many businesses, print advertising is substantially more cost-effective than television, radio or the Internet. For much less money than what it costs to produce and air television or radio ads, print can at least as effectively…

• Build customer traffic to your business.
• Stimulate word of mouth about your product or service.
• Introduce your business to new residents.

The challenge: Creating the right ad for your market and determining which print publications to buy space in. To succeed, avoid these costly mistakes…

Mistake: Playing “Follow the Leader” with your competitor. Your competitor’s marketing agenda may not resemble yours, so copying his/her advertising strategy isn’t the best way to be effective.

Better: Set your own marketing goals. What do you really want to accomplish? Attract more customers? Attract new customers? Bring back old customers? Offer special or bigger packages for repeat clients? Answering these questions is the first major step toward an effective advertising campaign.

Mistake: Assuming that bigger and louder is always better. Trying to get attention with shouting, screaming words and big, multi-colored logos is a mistake. What you say is infinitely more important than how you say it.

Example: Headlines that promise a specific benefit are very effective. Use phrases like “Relieve your pain” … “Make you rich” … “Save you money” … “Save your life” … “Make you happy/beautiful” … “Improve your marriage/popularity/sex life” and so on.

Then put the headlines together with powerful copy.

Important: Every ad should start with a headline that clearly explains the product’s or service’s unique benefit. It should also contain copy that describes the products or services you sell and tells consumers why they should buy them.

Example: “Speak Spanish in two months. The trick is how we teach you. When the course starts, you’ll start right out with simple words el almuerzo (lunch) and mas vino (more wine). From there we teach you how to master the language at a speedy pace.”

When you put great headlines together with great copy, you’ll quickly find that the precious dollars you spend to place the ads are well spent.

Mistake: Spending too little on advertising. Be frugal with your advertising budget, but don’t be foolish. Spend as much as it takes to get the job done and reach your sales objective. Modest sales gains may call for small budgets, while big gains require more effort … and money. Buying too little ad space to sell your product or service will not provide quite enough information to make the sale.

Key: Readers are bombarded by hundreds of sales messages every day. To grab a reader’s attention, you need an ad that is large enough “in the right publication” to say everything you need to say in large-enough, bold-enough type.

MEASURING SUCCESS

If you don’t get the results you expected from your print ad, the trouble is probably with the ad itself, rather than the publication or the placement of your ad. Here are some common problems…

• Wrong price. Is your price high for the products/services advertised?
• Wrong merchandise. Are you advertising swimsuits when you should be advertising snowsuits?
• Wrong benefit. After the holidays, people may be more interested in products that make them look slimmer and healthier than products that claim to improve their memory.

Key: Don’t stop advertising just because a single ad campaign failed. Use results to come up with different benefits, prices and offers. Keep testing.

Re-printed with the permission of Coffee News

The direct marketing media such as direct mail, postcard decks, telemarketing, newsletters, catalogues, infomercials, home shopping shows, e-commerce, canvassing, trade shows, and networking functions all work better when combined with advertising, and advertising works better when combined with direct marketing. Advertising without direct marketing makes a lot of noise (and vice versa), but noise doesn’t generate profits.

In the early days of advertising, media selection was pretty much confined to newspapers. Magazines came next, offering exposure at first on a national scale only. Newspaper supplements followed, offering depth of local circulation along with the content and leisurely reading pace of magazines. The automobile turned out to be not only ideal transportation but also an ideal environment for listening to the radio. Already, radio had earned a large following in the nation’s living rooms. Network television came onto the scene, changing everything and improving the effectiveness of advertising ø at least for advertisers who could afford it. Cable TV is turning the world of network TV topsy-turvy because so many small advertisers who could not afford TV advertising can now get on the tube and advertise like crazy.

Change in advertising has been going on as long as advertising’s been going on, and advertising media will continue to change with developments such as interactive TV, home shopping shows, and electronic catalogues.

When selecting the media that will hit your target audience right where they live ø or work ø consider the environment in which your advertising will appear. Pick media that reaches your target audience and will provide the proper environment for the advertising you will create, advertising that fits the mood of the readers, listeners, or viewers.

Be sure that you do not fall into the trap of selecting a medium based upon the old measurement of “cost per thousand,” but instead base your selection on the criterion of “cost per prospect.” Do not fall prey to the statistics quoted by reps of a specific advertising medium. While the statistics are usually true, they are often misleading. To see how misleading, talk to a rep from a competing medium. And remember that there are three types of lies: dirty, white, and statistics.

And Now The Good News…
Think of this when considering the environment in which your Coffee News advertising works. The fact that Coffee News goes into restaurants is no accident. The susceptibility to ANY form of advertising is greatest just before or during eating, when the mind is at a peak of awareness. This is a throw-back to pre-historic times when you had to be most mentally alert when hungry and needing to find and/or capture food for your survival. It is for this reason that people eating alone in particular, will mentally devour, not just read Coffee News and its ads. There is a very real need for mental input – food for thought during this time period, and Coffee News is designed to take full advantage of this increased awareness.

Also, when thinking about “cost per prospect”, use these figures. A restaurant during the course of a day will average 100 to 2000 patrons, resulting in restaurant weekly circulations of two to three times the number of residents in the area. Using a lower average of, say 500, that would be 500 prospects PER DAY passing by your ad in the Coffee News stand in one location. If that edition is located in 30 restaurants, that’s equal to 15,000 per day, or 105,000 per week!

“Attitude change: Declare a Positive Week”

Business owners and managers experience much doom and gloom in the course of a working day. Confronted by the news with tragedy of every sort, finding marketing and other business problems of all kinds, and facing the usual employee frustrations, many entrepreneurs and managers want to throw up their hands and surrender. Instead of falling into dismay, it’s time to declare a company Positive Week.read more…

It’s absolutely amazing how many small business owners I’ve spoken with over the years did not have a business plan, much less a marketing plan; unfortunately many of them are no longer in business. A business plan is much more than a “packet of information for the bank.” A well researched and written business plan is a road map on how your business is going to turn a profit. Your business plan should include, as a minimum:

• Strategic Plan
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Plan
• Executive Summary

There are a plethora of resources and templates for writing a business plan, but they are only as good as the research that you put behind them. One of the best resources I have found is the local community college. Many of them offer classes, such as Entrepreneurship, which focus on developing a business plan. — Brian

Brian Parton
Owner/Publisher
Coffee News of So. Mississippi