sandyraj
Sai Kumar
Awareness proceeds change. You are seeking to
change the current buying habits of your target
market, and you must determine how are you going
to reach that group in the most effective way
possible.
Advertising Fundamentals
Nearly everybody in the world is subjected
to advertising. We talk about the good ads and
sometimes about the bad ones. For some
people, the advertisements debuting during the
Super Bowl broadcast are a bigger attraction
than the game itself. Memorable ads are part
of the culture of the last three or four
generations of humanity, as our civilization is
awash with advertising.
Advertising is Communication
Advertising sends a message. Your
advertising campaign, regardless of its scope or
size, portrays your organization, your products
and services, and your values. Each attribute will
be tested with each new customer you acquire.
This is one area of business where you do not
want to take unnecessary risks. Your advertising
should enhance your credibility as an
organization and present you as the best
solution to meet your customers’ needs.
You can see from our abbreviated list
in the section entitled Advertising
Options, that the number of advertising
alternatives is enormous. To sort through
it all, you need to constantly relate your
advertising to your strategy. It’s not a
matter of clever ads or large budgets.
You’ll get much better results if you focus
on the message you want to send and
reaching the people you want to receive
that message.
Take Proper Aim
As you build your plan, you will
benefit from your previous focus on the
development of your market
segmentation (Chapter 15:
Segmentation) and target marketing
strategy (Chapter 8: Target Marketing).
Your advertising tactics should take your
message to that target market. If your
target is a small group, easily identifiable
by factors like geography or
demographics, don’t spend the money
to reach a large group. The Fortune 500
companies that reach millions of people
use national television advertising, while
local restaurants may use the telephone
directory and newspapers.
Creativity comes into play here as
you look for ways to spend just enough
to reach just the right people. Testing
with small, more trackable groups first
may serve as a way to gain information
and experience. Later you can use this
broader base of knowledge to effectively
implement advertising tactics that are
tailored to your target market segment.
The Message
Every advertising campaign has to
involve a message. Make sure you
understand the message you want to
send to your target customers. Read your
positioning statement and review your
strategy. Does your message match the
strategy? Does it fit your situation
analysis? For example:
• The sign on the highway tells you
there’s a fast food restaurant off the
next exit. That’s a simple informational
message.
• The television advertisement shows
a woman and a child in a car driving
at night through a rainstorm on a
deserted road. Whatever product
being advertised, the message involves
safety and peace of mind
• Advertising may contain simple
informational messages, such as
name, address, price list, or location.
• The late John Crawford, former dean
of the University of Oregon School
of Journalism and an executive with
Leo Burnett Advertising, used to tell
his students that the best ad campaign
ever created was “Colgate
cleans your breath while it cleans
your teeth.” He said that was a
simple, easy-to-understand advertising
message that sold products
Advertising Specialties
• Pens and pencils
• Pads of paper and sticky notes
• Mouse pads
• Magnets
• Coffee mugs.
Consider these more for branding
and overall awareness than for
generating sales leads. Specialty items
like pens, calendars, and coffee cups are
good for keeping your name in front of
your customers, as a reminder.
Articles and Columns
The best columns and articles are
free, and nothing has greater credibility
than coverage in magazines,
newspapers, radio, or television.
Sometimes public relations can help.
Billboards
Not for everybody, billboard
advertisements are usually extremely
local (a motel, restaurant, or event at the
next exit) or for cigarettes or liquor,
whose advertising options are limited.
The Yahoo! listing on billboards is a good
place to look for more information:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Marketing_and_Advertising/Advertising/
Outdoor_Advertising/
Brochures and Circulars
Sales literature, brochures, circulars,
and other so-called “collaterals” have
their specific place in a marketing mix.
This is a huge topic, a place where
people spend their entire careers, yet
others will design their own brochures
on their computer. They are used mainly
as informational supplements, a takehome
sales accessory, rather than to
generate new leads. People judge your
company by the brochures, so unless
you are very local and have specific
information to pass on, like a price list,
make sure they look very good.
For an Internet view, consider the
following websites:
• Brochures Online:
• Desteo lets you tour through
thousands of already-published
travel brochures:
http://www.desteo.com/
• Auto Sales Literature lets you look
at automobile brochures:
http://members.aol.com/lccjerry/asl.html
Canvassing
Door-to-door selling? Good luck!
The political advertisers and nonprofit
fund raisers use it effectively, but has
anybody seen a Fuller Brush man
recently? One of the most famous doorto-
door sales organization in the U.S. is
now the Fuller Brush online catalog,
Amway was once famous for doorto-
door selling. Illustration 17-3 shows
their website opening page. But take a
look at the anti-Amway site links, shown
in Illustration 17-4. It doesn’t look
encouraging, does it?
The cost of operations, and
subsequent customer irritation
combined with home security fears have
made this an almost obsolete sales
approach.
Catalogs
Design, print, and distribute your
own catalog and, if you can get people
to read it and buy from it, you have a
powerful marketing tool. The mailing list
is a critical component in the successful
use of catalogs. Catalogs boomed in the
1980s and early 1990s, but a lot of the
same effort is now going into the
Internet. The following Yahoo! search
lists several online catalog sites:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
business_and_economy/
shopping_and_services/retailers/
directories/catalogs/
With luck, hard work, a good
product, and a marketing budget, you
can also get your product into somebody
else’s catalog.
One of our sample marketing plans,
the Willamette Furniture plan, involves
a company that enjoyed huge growth
prospects after winning spots in office
supply catalogs.
Most of these catalogs charge the
manufacturers hefty fees for placing
their products on the catalog pages. With
the right audience and products, it can
be a hit.
Classified Advertisements
The classifieds are not just your first
advertising experience, and the
marketplace for used cars, houses, and
apartments; some companies use
classifieds as an important part of their
marketing mix.
Consider the classifieds in Inc.
Magazine, Business Week, Sunset, or USA
Today; these are major marketing
opportunities for certain kinds of
specialty products and services.
The local newspaper’s classifieds are
one of the best places to advertise
services such as hauling, painting, and
gardening.
Coupons in Newspapers,
Magazines, and on
Receipts
Are you looking to get customers in
the door? Coupons can generate local
business and new customers. Offer an
attractive deal to get customers in the
door once, and give them reasons to
come back. An effective technique for
years and years, and for the right kinds
of businesses, it still works. A significant
advantage of coupons is the tracking
they offer, with each coupon dated and
identified by the source.
Demonstrations
Demonstrations work best when
crowds are already gathered, such as at
a trade show. Have you ever seen the
airplane toys flying around a toy store?
A video of the product in use? One of
the biggest uses of demos these days is
in the software market. The Internet has
made demo software an excellent tool
for selling software.
Direct Mail
Direct mail is an industry itself, one
of the bastions of old-fashioned hard
selling. Direct mail is the junk mail
envelope with printed brochures and
order forms, asking you to call a toll free
number and order something. It is also
the coupons and catalogs in your
mailbox. It has fallen from favor recently,
and to some extent, been replaced by the
Internet, but the postal bulk rates are still
there and some companies still swear
by direct mail. Direct mail response rates
have fallen in recent years, often
producing results below one percent.
The following Yahoo! search brings
up a list of sites on direct mail:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Marketing_and_Advertising/
Direct_Marketing/Direct_Mail/
Direct-response Radio
You’ve heard these commercials,
offering a product and a toll free number
to call. Repetition is critical here.
Direct-response Television
This is the venue of the so-called
infomercials, which take 30 minutes or
more to sell exercise machines and cosmetics.
It also includes advertisements
that urge you to call a telephone number
to order a product, whether they are
30-minute infomercials or 30-second
commercials. Here’s the Yahoo! search
page:
Exhibits and Fairs
A relatively old-fashioned way to
promote products and services, but still
effective for some products in some
targeted markets.
Fax Marketing
Faxes sent to lists of fax machines.
Does anybody buy from these? A list of
qualified and repeat buyers will be
necessary to make this work.
Free Samples
Free toothpaste in small packages,
cosmetics, cheese and crackers, demo
software. Free samples work as
advertising, particularly at the point of
sale.
Inserts
Envelopes, boxes, and other
packaging is vital for retail sales. Boxes
make a difference to customer
impressions, and many companies
advertise on the outside of envelopes.
Magazine Advertisements
One of the stalwarts of advertising,
magazine advertisements offer excellent
audience targeting and a good medium
for communicating a message.
Newsletters
A regular newsletter keeps your
company name in front of your
customers, or potential customers, and
can be an excellent fit to stimulate repeat
purchases and customer loyalty.
Newspaper Advertisement
Newspaper ads are the mainstay for
advertising by local retailers and local
services. The Wednesday paper is
normally full of grocery ads, and
weekend papers are full of ads for
consumer electronics. There are also
newspaper classified ads. Newspapers
are a key medium for time-sensitive
local advertising.
Personal Letters
Some companies still advertise via
personal letters (a variation on direct
mail), but this is rarer every day. Select
and high-ticket items may justify this
approach.
Postcard Decks
These are common in the electronics
industry. In theory, the target person
receives a deck of complementary
advertising cards in the mail and looks
through them. The goal is to generate
leads and sales by making it easy for the
potential customer to order the product,
receive a discount or request additional
information by simply mailing back the
postage paid reply card.
Radio Advertisements
Radio advertising is a strong and
effective medium, vital to many
businesses. As the world spends more
time in cars and offices, it spends more
time with radio, too. Again, frequency
of exposure is critical to the customer
receiving, retaining and acting on the
message.
Seminars or Educational
Settings
Be careful. You can’t turn seminars
or educational events into sales or
advertising mediums without risking
serious backlash from some of the
audience. Still, there are businesses that
sponsor informational seminars that are
based on exercise programs, investment
strategies, child raising, and other topics,
as part of their advertising strategy.
Signage
In many businesses, the sign outside
the door is a vital part of communication
with your customers. A retail store,
restaurant, coffee shop, tire store or
whatever, the sign says who you are, and
in many cases what you sell and how
you’ve positioned yourself. For walk-in
businesses, signage can be vital.
Statement Stuffers
Statement stuffers advertise
products in small pieces that come with
your telephone bill, credit card bill, cable
bill, and other regular mail.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing involves telephoning
people to offer them products, services,
or information about products or
services. Telemarketers buy lists of
phone numbers, and pay people to
deliver their message. More and more,
people view this as an invasion of their
privacy, and increasing resistance to this
approach is making it a less efficient
promotional tool.
Television
A 30-second spot on a national
television show costs tens and
sometimes hundreds of thousands of
dollars for placement, in addition to the
production costs of the ad. This equates
to big money for a big audience.
Television advertising also includes
fringe ads on late-night cable and
daytime cable that cost a lot less, and be
more targeted, than the major national
airings.
The Internet
Internet advertising is booming.
Internet usage is booming. This is a vital
new advertising medium (among other
things) that grew up almost overnight.
The targeting capabilities of the Internet
combined with its affordability makes it
a powerful marketing resource.
Information about advertising on the
Internet can be found at this link:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Computers_and_Internet/Internet/
Business_and_Economics/
Advertising_on_Web_and_Internet/
Trade Shows
• Trade shows are vital in some
industries. Buyers and sellers get
together in one place, the sellers put
up booths, and the buyers wander
the floor. A trade show can be the
best place to introduce a new
product, and line up distribution,
and impress potential buyers:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Conventions_and_Trade_Shows/
Directories/
• Event Marketing can be huge for
certain kinds of businesses:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Marketing_and_Advertising/
Event_Marketing/
Yellow Pages and
Directory Listings
The telephone directory is probably
the first and most important advertising
program for a majority of local
businesses looking for local customers.
Are you a retail business? Do you have
your ad in the yellow pages?
Advertising: Make or Buy?
Do you develop your own ads? Can
you? Can you afford to use an
advertising agency? Can you afford not
to?
Deciding on how to create your
advertising is a decision each business
must make. Your available resources will
determine how difficult a decision this
will be.
It is important that the creative
aspects of your advertising
communicate the look and feel of your
business to build the image you desire.
What is the “persona” of your business?
Is it an image that is fun, formal, secure,
functional, intellectual, reliable or a
combination of these qualities? Your
advertising must capture and
communicate the optimal attributes. If
you cannot accomplish this goal inhouse,
your decision to buy these
resources is already made.
What resources does your
organization possess to contribute to
this process? You may want to
“inventory” those resources before you
look outside the organization for the
creation of the resources you need to
promote your business. The list may
begin with these skill areas:
• Graphic design
• Copy writing
• Web design
• Photo manipulation
You may have the luxury to then take
on the tasks that match your in-house
skills and have other work done by an
agency or other resource to fill the voids.
When going through the “make or
buy” decision process, ask for references
from those companies with advertising
that you like and that seem consistent
with a look and feel that is going to be
best for your business. You may be
surprised where some of these referrals
lead you. You may not want or need a
“full service” advertising agency. An
independent graphic artist may be a
good solution for your needs, be more
responsive, and more affordable.
If you already know where you want
to advertise, explore what might be
available to you through the
organization selling the advertising.
They may have resources to do your
creative work that can be included with
the purchase of your ad. The newspaper
you are working with may have graphic
artists that are on staff to assist you with
your advertisement. Television and radio
stations may offer support to assist with
the production of your commercial. If
there is a cost associated with the
creation of the ad, ask if there are
arrangements where the cost, or a
portion of that cost, can be credited to
the broadcast time or space you are
buying. Using the advertiser’s services
may involve additional time, so plan
ahead and ask about required lead
times.
Consider investigating innovative
options to compensate for creating and
buying advertising. For example, based
on the products or services you offer,
bartering may be a solution to keep costs
down and leverage the expertise of
others.
The goal of the “make or buy” process
is to acquire the best ad possible with
your available resources. Keep in mind
how important it is to have an ad that
produces optimal results. It can be one
of your most significant investments in
your marketing efforts.
Agency
It’s amazing to consider how many
different ways there are for you to
advertise your product or service.
Most organizations need to have
access to external graphic resources. A
logo is critical, most need stationery,
some will use collateral, and others will
need to have a Web page.
Advertising agencies offer a variety
of services. Most agencies offer a source
for your “creative” work, including the
graphics associated with your ad,
letterhead, collateral or website.
Agencies also offer additional services,
including the option to place your ad
with the media source, and some also
offer public relations work.
It is important to determine what
you need from the agency before they
attempt to make that choice for you. In
most cases, the agency will be excited
to do everything they can for your
business, and you may not be able to
afford their level of enthusiasm.
Here are some questions that you
may want to consider regarding the
aspects of dealing with an advertising
agency.
How much will it cost?
Get a bid regarding the work they
will be performing before anything
billable begins. Open-ended
arrangements can lead to surprises for
and from both you and the agency.
Establishing a fixed cost or “not to
exceed” amount can avoid difficult and
expensive problems later.
Who owns the creative?
Before your project begins,
determine who owns the creative, them
or you. In some cases, the agency will
retain ownership of their work, and you
must depend on them and compensate
them each time you use the graphic, the
ad, or the photo. In most cases, it will
be an advantage for you to have
ownership of the creative so you can go
to other sources with the work they have
done.
Who is going to be the
point of contact?
Arrange for a primary point of
contact within your organization to
work with the agency. This will add to
consistency of dealing with the agency
and can save a tremendous amount of
time to assess progress, build on
previous work, or deal with billing
questions.
skills for the task?
You may find creative resources that
are better at some things than others.
Some have incredible skills at logo
design; others in ad layout. Don’t
assume that one agency or resource is
going to do everything well. However,
trade-offs do exist here. You will need to
weigh the increased burden of dealing
with multiple resources against the
benefits accrued from optimal work on
each type of project.
Who should place your ad?
If your ad agency creates the ad, you
may need to decide who places the ad
with the advertiser. If the agency places
the ad, there may be percentage
increases included, such as a
commission. You may get a discount for
placing the ad directly with the
advertiser. Regardless, you may have to
arrange to prepare disk, electronic file,
or film for the ad, depending on the
specification of the advertiser. Most
agencies will offer you options regarding
how you work with them on these types
of activities.
How do you assess their
performance?
Take a critical view of what the
agency is doing for you on a regular
basis. Don’t stay with an agency out of
loyalty alone. Check with other agencies
if you feel you are not getting the level
of performance you need. Letting your
agency know that you are no longer
going to use them can be difficult and it
happens all the time. Tell them why, and
if they are professionals, they will focus
on satisfying your needs, knowing that
they are at risk of losing you as a client.
The goal is to identify and leverage
the creative resources you need to
complement your business and produce
high quality promotional experiences.
Advertising agencies can account for a
significant percent of your marketing
budget. Make sure you are using them
wisely.
change the current buying habits of your target
market, and you must determine how are you going
to reach that group in the most effective way
possible.
Advertising Fundamentals
Nearly everybody in the world is subjected
to advertising. We talk about the good ads and
sometimes about the bad ones. For some
people, the advertisements debuting during the
Super Bowl broadcast are a bigger attraction
than the game itself. Memorable ads are part
of the culture of the last three or four
generations of humanity, as our civilization is
awash with advertising.
Advertising is Communication
Advertising sends a message. Your
advertising campaign, regardless of its scope or
size, portrays your organization, your products
and services, and your values. Each attribute will
be tested with each new customer you acquire.
This is one area of business where you do not
want to take unnecessary risks. Your advertising
should enhance your credibility as an
organization and present you as the best
solution to meet your customers’ needs.
You can see from our abbreviated list
in the section entitled Advertising
Options, that the number of advertising
alternatives is enormous. To sort through
it all, you need to constantly relate your
advertising to your strategy. It’s not a
matter of clever ads or large budgets.
You’ll get much better results if you focus
on the message you want to send and
reaching the people you want to receive
that message.
Take Proper Aim
As you build your plan, you will
benefit from your previous focus on the
development of your market
segmentation (Chapter 15:
Segmentation) and target marketing
strategy (Chapter 8: Target Marketing).
Your advertising tactics should take your
message to that target market. If your
target is a small group, easily identifiable
by factors like geography or
demographics, don’t spend the money
to reach a large group. The Fortune 500
companies that reach millions of people
use national television advertising, while
local restaurants may use the telephone
directory and newspapers.
Creativity comes into play here as
you look for ways to spend just enough
to reach just the right people. Testing
with small, more trackable groups first
may serve as a way to gain information
and experience. Later you can use this
broader base of knowledge to effectively
implement advertising tactics that are
tailored to your target market segment.
The Message
Every advertising campaign has to
involve a message. Make sure you
understand the message you want to
send to your target customers. Read your
positioning statement and review your
strategy. Does your message match the
strategy? Does it fit your situation
analysis? For example:
• The sign on the highway tells you
there’s a fast food restaurant off the
next exit. That’s a simple informational
message.
• The television advertisement shows
a woman and a child in a car driving
at night through a rainstorm on a
deserted road. Whatever product
being advertised, the message involves
safety and peace of mind
• Advertising may contain simple
informational messages, such as
name, address, price list, or location.
• The late John Crawford, former dean
of the University of Oregon School
of Journalism and an executive with
Leo Burnett Advertising, used to tell
his students that the best ad campaign
ever created was “Colgate
cleans your breath while it cleans
your teeth.” He said that was a
simple, easy-to-understand advertising
message that sold products
Advertising Specialties
• Pens and pencils
• Pads of paper and sticky notes
• Mouse pads
• Magnets
• Coffee mugs.
Consider these more for branding
and overall awareness than for
generating sales leads. Specialty items
like pens, calendars, and coffee cups are
good for keeping your name in front of
your customers, as a reminder.
Articles and Columns
The best columns and articles are
free, and nothing has greater credibility
than coverage in magazines,
newspapers, radio, or television.
Sometimes public relations can help.
Billboards
Not for everybody, billboard
advertisements are usually extremely
local (a motel, restaurant, or event at the
next exit) or for cigarettes or liquor,
whose advertising options are limited.
The Yahoo! listing on billboards is a good
place to look for more information:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Marketing_and_Advertising/Advertising/
Outdoor_Advertising/
Brochures and Circulars
Sales literature, brochures, circulars,
and other so-called “collaterals” have
their specific place in a marketing mix.
This is a huge topic, a place where
people spend their entire careers, yet
others will design their own brochures
on their computer. They are used mainly
as informational supplements, a takehome
sales accessory, rather than to
generate new leads. People judge your
company by the brochures, so unless
you are very local and have specific
information to pass on, like a price list,
make sure they look very good.
For an Internet view, consider the
following websites:
• Brochures Online:
• Desteo lets you tour through
thousands of already-published
travel brochures:
http://www.desteo.com/
• Auto Sales Literature lets you look
at automobile brochures:
http://members.aol.com/lccjerry/asl.html
Canvassing
Door-to-door selling? Good luck!
The political advertisers and nonprofit
fund raisers use it effectively, but has
anybody seen a Fuller Brush man
recently? One of the most famous doorto-
door sales organization in the U.S. is
now the Fuller Brush online catalog,
Amway was once famous for doorto-
door selling. Illustration 17-3 shows
their website opening page. But take a
look at the anti-Amway site links, shown
in Illustration 17-4. It doesn’t look
encouraging, does it?
The cost of operations, and
subsequent customer irritation
combined with home security fears have
made this an almost obsolete sales
approach.
Catalogs
Design, print, and distribute your
own catalog and, if you can get people
to read it and buy from it, you have a
powerful marketing tool. The mailing list
is a critical component in the successful
use of catalogs. Catalogs boomed in the
1980s and early 1990s, but a lot of the
same effort is now going into the
Internet. The following Yahoo! search
lists several online catalog sites:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
business_and_economy/
shopping_and_services/retailers/
directories/catalogs/
With luck, hard work, a good
product, and a marketing budget, you
can also get your product into somebody
else’s catalog.
One of our sample marketing plans,
the Willamette Furniture plan, involves
a company that enjoyed huge growth
prospects after winning spots in office
supply catalogs.
Most of these catalogs charge the
manufacturers hefty fees for placing
their products on the catalog pages. With
the right audience and products, it can
be a hit.
Classified Advertisements
The classifieds are not just your first
advertising experience, and the
marketplace for used cars, houses, and
apartments; some companies use
classifieds as an important part of their
marketing mix.
Consider the classifieds in Inc.
Magazine, Business Week, Sunset, or USA
Today; these are major marketing
opportunities for certain kinds of
specialty products and services.
The local newspaper’s classifieds are
one of the best places to advertise
services such as hauling, painting, and
gardening.
Coupons in Newspapers,
Magazines, and on
Receipts
Are you looking to get customers in
the door? Coupons can generate local
business and new customers. Offer an
attractive deal to get customers in the
door once, and give them reasons to
come back. An effective technique for
years and years, and for the right kinds
of businesses, it still works. A significant
advantage of coupons is the tracking
they offer, with each coupon dated and
identified by the source.
Demonstrations
Demonstrations work best when
crowds are already gathered, such as at
a trade show. Have you ever seen the
airplane toys flying around a toy store?
A video of the product in use? One of
the biggest uses of demos these days is
in the software market. The Internet has
made demo software an excellent tool
for selling software.
Direct Mail
Direct mail is an industry itself, one
of the bastions of old-fashioned hard
selling. Direct mail is the junk mail
envelope with printed brochures and
order forms, asking you to call a toll free
number and order something. It is also
the coupons and catalogs in your
mailbox. It has fallen from favor recently,
and to some extent, been replaced by the
Internet, but the postal bulk rates are still
there and some companies still swear
by direct mail. Direct mail response rates
have fallen in recent years, often
producing results below one percent.
The following Yahoo! search brings
up a list of sites on direct mail:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Marketing_and_Advertising/
Direct_Marketing/Direct_Mail/
Direct-response Radio
You’ve heard these commercials,
offering a product and a toll free number
to call. Repetition is critical here.
Direct-response Television
This is the venue of the so-called
infomercials, which take 30 minutes or
more to sell exercise machines and cosmetics.
It also includes advertisements
that urge you to call a telephone number
to order a product, whether they are
30-minute infomercials or 30-second
commercials. Here’s the Yahoo! search
page:
Exhibits and Fairs
A relatively old-fashioned way to
promote products and services, but still
effective for some products in some
targeted markets.
Fax Marketing
Faxes sent to lists of fax machines.
Does anybody buy from these? A list of
qualified and repeat buyers will be
necessary to make this work.
Free Samples
Free toothpaste in small packages,
cosmetics, cheese and crackers, demo
software. Free samples work as
advertising, particularly at the point of
sale.
Inserts
Envelopes, boxes, and other
packaging is vital for retail sales. Boxes
make a difference to customer
impressions, and many companies
advertise on the outside of envelopes.
Magazine Advertisements
One of the stalwarts of advertising,
magazine advertisements offer excellent
audience targeting and a good medium
for communicating a message.
Newsletters
A regular newsletter keeps your
company name in front of your
customers, or potential customers, and
can be an excellent fit to stimulate repeat
purchases and customer loyalty.
Newspaper Advertisement
Newspaper ads are the mainstay for
advertising by local retailers and local
services. The Wednesday paper is
normally full of grocery ads, and
weekend papers are full of ads for
consumer electronics. There are also
newspaper classified ads. Newspapers
are a key medium for time-sensitive
local advertising.
Personal Letters
Some companies still advertise via
personal letters (a variation on direct
mail), but this is rarer every day. Select
and high-ticket items may justify this
approach.
Postcard Decks
These are common in the electronics
industry. In theory, the target person
receives a deck of complementary
advertising cards in the mail and looks
through them. The goal is to generate
leads and sales by making it easy for the
potential customer to order the product,
receive a discount or request additional
information by simply mailing back the
postage paid reply card.
Radio Advertisements
Radio advertising is a strong and
effective medium, vital to many
businesses. As the world spends more
time in cars and offices, it spends more
time with radio, too. Again, frequency
of exposure is critical to the customer
receiving, retaining and acting on the
message.
Seminars or Educational
Settings
Be careful. You can’t turn seminars
or educational events into sales or
advertising mediums without risking
serious backlash from some of the
audience. Still, there are businesses that
sponsor informational seminars that are
based on exercise programs, investment
strategies, child raising, and other topics,
as part of their advertising strategy.
Signage
In many businesses, the sign outside
the door is a vital part of communication
with your customers. A retail store,
restaurant, coffee shop, tire store or
whatever, the sign says who you are, and
in many cases what you sell and how
you’ve positioned yourself. For walk-in
businesses, signage can be vital.
Statement Stuffers
Statement stuffers advertise
products in small pieces that come with
your telephone bill, credit card bill, cable
bill, and other regular mail.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing involves telephoning
people to offer them products, services,
or information about products or
services. Telemarketers buy lists of
phone numbers, and pay people to
deliver their message. More and more,
people view this as an invasion of their
privacy, and increasing resistance to this
approach is making it a less efficient
promotional tool.
Television
A 30-second spot on a national
television show costs tens and
sometimes hundreds of thousands of
dollars for placement, in addition to the
production costs of the ad. This equates
to big money for a big audience.
Television advertising also includes
fringe ads on late-night cable and
daytime cable that cost a lot less, and be
more targeted, than the major national
airings.
The Internet
Internet advertising is booming.
Internet usage is booming. This is a vital
new advertising medium (among other
things) that grew up almost overnight.
The targeting capabilities of the Internet
combined with its affordability makes it
a powerful marketing resource.
Information about advertising on the
Internet can be found at this link:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Computers_and_Internet/Internet/
Business_and_Economics/
Advertising_on_Web_and_Internet/
Trade Shows
• Trade shows are vital in some
industries. Buyers and sellers get
together in one place, the sellers put
up booths, and the buyers wander
the floor. A trade show can be the
best place to introduce a new
product, and line up distribution,
and impress potential buyers:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Conventions_and_Trade_Shows/
Directories/
• Event Marketing can be huge for
certain kinds of businesses:
http://dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/
Business_to_Business/
Marketing_and_Advertising/
Event_Marketing/
Yellow Pages and
Directory Listings
The telephone directory is probably
the first and most important advertising
program for a majority of local
businesses looking for local customers.
Are you a retail business? Do you have
your ad in the yellow pages?
Advertising: Make or Buy?
Do you develop your own ads? Can
you? Can you afford to use an
advertising agency? Can you afford not
to?
Deciding on how to create your
advertising is a decision each business
must make. Your available resources will
determine how difficult a decision this
will be.
It is important that the creative
aspects of your advertising
communicate the look and feel of your
business to build the image you desire.
What is the “persona” of your business?
Is it an image that is fun, formal, secure,
functional, intellectual, reliable or a
combination of these qualities? Your
advertising must capture and
communicate the optimal attributes. If
you cannot accomplish this goal inhouse,
your decision to buy these
resources is already made.
What resources does your
organization possess to contribute to
this process? You may want to
“inventory” those resources before you
look outside the organization for the
creation of the resources you need to
promote your business. The list may
begin with these skill areas:
• Graphic design
• Copy writing
• Web design
• Photo manipulation
You may have the luxury to then take
on the tasks that match your in-house
skills and have other work done by an
agency or other resource to fill the voids.
When going through the “make or
buy” decision process, ask for references
from those companies with advertising
that you like and that seem consistent
with a look and feel that is going to be
best for your business. You may be
surprised where some of these referrals
lead you. You may not want or need a
“full service” advertising agency. An
independent graphic artist may be a
good solution for your needs, be more
responsive, and more affordable.
If you already know where you want
to advertise, explore what might be
available to you through the
organization selling the advertising.
They may have resources to do your
creative work that can be included with
the purchase of your ad. The newspaper
you are working with may have graphic
artists that are on staff to assist you with
your advertisement. Television and radio
stations may offer support to assist with
the production of your commercial. If
there is a cost associated with the
creation of the ad, ask if there are
arrangements where the cost, or a
portion of that cost, can be credited to
the broadcast time or space you are
buying. Using the advertiser’s services
may involve additional time, so plan
ahead and ask about required lead
times.
Consider investigating innovative
options to compensate for creating and
buying advertising. For example, based
on the products or services you offer,
bartering may be a solution to keep costs
down and leverage the expertise of
others.
The goal of the “make or buy” process
is to acquire the best ad possible with
your available resources. Keep in mind
how important it is to have an ad that
produces optimal results. It can be one
of your most significant investments in
your marketing efforts.
Agency
It’s amazing to consider how many
different ways there are for you to
advertise your product or service.
Most organizations need to have
access to external graphic resources. A
logo is critical, most need stationery,
some will use collateral, and others will
need to have a Web page.
Advertising agencies offer a variety
of services. Most agencies offer a source
for your “creative” work, including the
graphics associated with your ad,
letterhead, collateral or website.
Agencies also offer additional services,
including the option to place your ad
with the media source, and some also
offer public relations work.
It is important to determine what
you need from the agency before they
attempt to make that choice for you. In
most cases, the agency will be excited
to do everything they can for your
business, and you may not be able to
afford their level of enthusiasm.
Here are some questions that you
may want to consider regarding the
aspects of dealing with an advertising
agency.
How much will it cost?
Get a bid regarding the work they
will be performing before anything
billable begins. Open-ended
arrangements can lead to surprises for
and from both you and the agency.
Establishing a fixed cost or “not to
exceed” amount can avoid difficult and
expensive problems later.
Who owns the creative?
Before your project begins,
determine who owns the creative, them
or you. In some cases, the agency will
retain ownership of their work, and you
must depend on them and compensate
them each time you use the graphic, the
ad, or the photo. In most cases, it will
be an advantage for you to have
ownership of the creative so you can go
to other sources with the work they have
done.
Who is going to be the
point of contact?
Arrange for a primary point of
contact within your organization to
work with the agency. This will add to
consistency of dealing with the agency
and can save a tremendous amount of
time to assess progress, build on
previous work, or deal with billing
questions.
skills for the task?
You may find creative resources that
are better at some things than others.
Some have incredible skills at logo
design; others in ad layout. Don’t
assume that one agency or resource is
going to do everything well. However,
trade-offs do exist here. You will need to
weigh the increased burden of dealing
with multiple resources against the
benefits accrued from optimal work on
each type of project.
Who should place your ad?
If your ad agency creates the ad, you
may need to decide who places the ad
with the advertiser. If the agency places
the ad, there may be percentage
increases included, such as a
commission. You may get a discount for
placing the ad directly with the
advertiser. Regardless, you may have to
arrange to prepare disk, electronic file,
or film for the ad, depending on the
specification of the advertiser. Most
agencies will offer you options regarding
how you work with them on these types
of activities.
How do you assess their
performance?
Take a critical view of what the
agency is doing for you on a regular
basis. Don’t stay with an agency out of
loyalty alone. Check with other agencies
if you feel you are not getting the level
of performance you need. Letting your
agency know that you are no longer
going to use them can be difficult and it
happens all the time. Tell them why, and
if they are professionals, they will focus
on satisfying your needs, knowing that
they are at risk of losing you as a client.
The goal is to identify and leverage
the creative resources you need to
complement your business and produce
high quality promotional experiences.
Advertising agencies can account for a
significant percent of your marketing
budget. Make sure you are using them
wisely.