Every once in a while I realize that not everybody has had the opportunity to experience the many marketing situations I have been fortunate enough to encounter and in this case I have a relevant story to complement my last two blogs.
In the mid 80’s I was Senior Marketing Specialist for Consumer Distributing (some of you may remember it fondly – or not) and I had the occasion to be involved in the process of selecting an advertising firm to represent us in our national advertising campaign. Back then, we had one of the largest seasonal television advertising campaigns in Canada after companies like Ford or McDonalds’s. We produced over 5 million catalogues each year with more than 5,000 SKUs. The reason I am relating this story is to illustrate that measurement and demographics have a place in guiding the advertising decisions but often final decisions are made based on an emotional reaction to a clever creative concept.
Creativity in advertising is largely under-appreciated and misunderstood. Companies and business owners often design their own advertising using designers & graphic artists, etc. but the process of developing unique powerful advertising that can change a person’s buying habits is complex and emotional at its heart. Never mind, the idea that you might be producing an advertising campaign for and audience that you do not relate to through age or preferences.
The competing advertising firms as I recall were Foster Advertising and Prizm Advertising and two others. The contract was worth millions to the eventual winner so the stakes were high. The process took several weeks and each firm had more than one meeting to present its creative concepts and supporting research. In fact the process was so onerous that the advertising firms were allowed to charge for the development of their campaigns. Each firm brought in its research in a printed tomb of several hundred pages chronicling the buying habits of Consumer Distributing customers.
The winning concept, You Work Hard For Your Money, based on a song and a concept that had resonance with Consumer’s customers had more going for it than a good creative concept. The concept of psychographic research was introduced by the winning advertising firm while the other firms used demographic research to support their creative concepts. The difference between the two was that psychographic research contained an additional dimension of research into the emotional profile of consumers.
The point of all this is that a good creative concept was well supported by unique research on the emotional profile of Consumer Distributing customers. The creative idea was good because it was based on an in-depth understanding of its customers.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Failure To Launch: Part Two
I have expanded on the four rules guiding the decisions around the advertising process. If you work your way through this process using these basic principles you will have a much better idea on which medium(s) to use and the kind of message that will resonate with your audience.
Understand The People Who Buy Your Products or Services: To help you make the right decisions you need to understand people who buy your products, note that I used the term “people” … not clients, customers or consumers…but people! Understanding what people want, how they will use your product, what is motivating their buying decisions, how external market forces are affecting them, can help frame your advertising decisions.
Develop Clever Product Incentives: Look at the features and benefits in your products and match those against why your clients are buying your products and how they use them to develop some sales incentives. These can take the form of cost reductions on volume, additional features added at the regular price, packaging the product with another to create value. Using a unique and surprising message to deliver the news about your incentives can enhance the response of people who buy your products.
Recognize Strengths and Weaknesses: this process is often called a SWAT analysis but a simplified version is to simply recognize what the level of help you need and what you can contribute effectively. Delegating advertising decisions, allows companies to improve the quality of decision making as it relates to advertising. Leaders can sometimes be too close to a process and rely on statistics rather than a deeper understanding of the buying decision - as an emotionally driven process.
Multi-Channel Advertising program: Using a variety of mediums to reach the people who buy your products or services is important. While there may be a core advertising strategy; say like using web based marketing through e-mails, banners, social networks etc.; this should be complemented by a broader initiative that includes some of the more traditional methods of advertising. Repetition creates greater awareness and results in better sales.
The effectiveness of advertising is often defined by its emotional impact on audiences. The steps I have outlined, offer a means by which you can set a frame work for developing an effective advertising campaign but keep in mind that an advertising campaign’s success is most often defined by the budget you allocate to a campaign.
Understand The People Who Buy Your Products or Services: To help you make the right decisions you need to understand people who buy your products, note that I used the term “people” … not clients, customers or consumers…but people! Understanding what people want, how they will use your product, what is motivating their buying decisions, how external market forces are affecting them, can help frame your advertising decisions.
Develop Clever Product Incentives: Look at the features and benefits in your products and match those against why your clients are buying your products and how they use them to develop some sales incentives. These can take the form of cost reductions on volume, additional features added at the regular price, packaging the product with another to create value. Using a unique and surprising message to deliver the news about your incentives can enhance the response of people who buy your products.
Recognize Strengths and Weaknesses: this process is often called a SWAT analysis but a simplified version is to simply recognize what the level of help you need and what you can contribute effectively. Delegating advertising decisions, allows companies to improve the quality of decision making as it relates to advertising. Leaders can sometimes be too close to a process and rely on statistics rather than a deeper understanding of the buying decision - as an emotionally driven process.
Multi-Channel Advertising program: Using a variety of mediums to reach the people who buy your products or services is important. While there may be a core advertising strategy; say like using web based marketing through e-mails, banners, social networks etc.; this should be complemented by a broader initiative that includes some of the more traditional methods of advertising. Repetition creates greater awareness and results in better sales.
The effectiveness of advertising is often defined by its emotional impact on audiences. The steps I have outlined, offer a means by which you can set a frame work for developing an effective advertising campaign but keep in mind that an advertising campaign’s success is most often defined by the budget you allocate to a campaign.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Failure To Launch: Part One
In recent years I have encountered one marketing issue that seems to be pervasive among all types and sizes of businesses and organizations. They seem to possess all the basic elements to achieve success, including passion about their product, good understanding of sales, product selection, good customer service, a professional attitude and good marketing tools to name a few; but the road ends there …the final leg; advertising is often missing in a long term strategic plan. No money has been allocated to reach out to potential customers through an organized process.
I must admit I am not sure why; smart, knowledgeable business leaders seem to drop the ball when it comes to bringing the process full circle. Marketing and advertising is costly , often equaling the total cash outlay leading up to the launch of the company or product, but any business plan must include a means of reaching out to potential customers … and for some unforeseen reason this final step is consistently undervalued, regardless of the logic in taking that step.
Options for advertising can be bewildering. Some clients misunderstand the advertising process and as a result they put in place a sales force in an attempt to reach out; others are overwhelmed by the advertising options or they feel the volume of marketing materials make up for the lack of advertising, and some just can’t seem to get past the cost. Now…I am not advocating a foray into advertising at any cost ….but I am suggesting a consistent, customized and well researched marketing and advertising initiative is paramount to your business’s success.
The scope and customized approach of a well thought out advertising program based on a reasonable budget can have a dramatic impact on your business, but it’s not a quick fix. In my opinion there are four basic rules guiding the process:
1. Understand the people who buy your products and why they buy them
2. Develop incentives to enhance the benefits of your product
3. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses in contributing to the process
4. Design and advertising program that uses a variety of mediums, both traditional and new media
When you are launching a new marketing initiative for a product, a service or a location, allocating a budget for advertising will factor into the success of your initiative. Stay tuned for part two of this article where I offer some concrete suggestions and steps you can take to effectively complement your marketing plan with sound advertising decisions.
I must admit I am not sure why; smart, knowledgeable business leaders seem to drop the ball when it comes to bringing the process full circle. Marketing and advertising is costly , often equaling the total cash outlay leading up to the launch of the company or product, but any business plan must include a means of reaching out to potential customers … and for some unforeseen reason this final step is consistently undervalued, regardless of the logic in taking that step.
Options for advertising can be bewildering. Some clients misunderstand the advertising process and as a result they put in place a sales force in an attempt to reach out; others are overwhelmed by the advertising options or they feel the volume of marketing materials make up for the lack of advertising, and some just can’t seem to get past the cost. Now…I am not advocating a foray into advertising at any cost ….but I am suggesting a consistent, customized and well researched marketing and advertising initiative is paramount to your business’s success.
The scope and customized approach of a well thought out advertising program based on a reasonable budget can have a dramatic impact on your business, but it’s not a quick fix. In my opinion there are four basic rules guiding the process:
1. Understand the people who buy your products and why they buy them
2. Develop incentives to enhance the benefits of your product
3. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses in contributing to the process
4. Design and advertising program that uses a variety of mediums, both traditional and new media
When you are launching a new marketing initiative for a product, a service or a location, allocating a budget for advertising will factor into the success of your initiative. Stay tuned for part two of this article where I offer some concrete suggestions and steps you can take to effectively complement your marketing plan with sound advertising decisions.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Your Image – What Is It Saying About You?
Six seconds. It takes approximately six seconds to tie a shoelace, six seconds to open one letter, butter one slice of bread and it takes six short seconds to make a first impression.
All things considered, this is not a lot of time within which to convey a lot of information about yourself, your company or your services. Yet people will make assumptions about credibility and ability within these few short seconds. What do your first six seconds say about you?
You need to ensure that you are capable of selling yourself and your company positively, if you are going to be given the opportunity to sell or promote your products and services. Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA found that there are three key elements that combine to create your first impression…
Verbal – what you say 7%
Vocal – how you say it 38%
Visual – how you look and act 55%
You will notice that the content of what we say is not nearly as important as how we say it, or even how we look as we say it. Yet, most sales professionals focus more of their time preparing their verbal communications rather than the other two elements. They are inadvertently overlooking the power of the non-verbal elements in creating their image and risk not being as successful.
Creating a strong first impression requires you to strategically refine the image you portray by aligning the vocal and visual elements with the message that you want to deliver. The consistency of the message is the key.
For the vocal elements - listen to yourself on tape. How does your voice sound? Is it too nasal or too high? Do you speak too fast or too slow? Do you speak too loud or too soft? In general, you convey confidence by speaking at a moderate pace with a slightly lower tone range. Deepening your voice slightly will often lend you a credibility and authority you might have lacked. You should try to speak loud enough to be heard clearly by your audience.
Choose carefully the visual elements, considering the tales they tell about you. Are you dressed too casually or are you over-dressed? Does the colour convey confidence or a lack of? Are you clean, well-groomed and professional? Do your own marketing self-survey by asking for others’ opinions about the messages that your current dress imparts. Does it fit with the impression you wish to make?
Your image is either going to contribute to or detract from your business success. Imagine for a moment that you are creating your own retail store at a major intersection. The store will have no name above the door; all that will be on display in the front window is you. What kind of customers will you attract?
All things considered, this is not a lot of time within which to convey a lot of information about yourself, your company or your services. Yet people will make assumptions about credibility and ability within these few short seconds. What do your first six seconds say about you?
You need to ensure that you are capable of selling yourself and your company positively, if you are going to be given the opportunity to sell or promote your products and services. Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA found that there are three key elements that combine to create your first impression…
Verbal – what you say 7%
Vocal – how you say it 38%
Visual – how you look and act 55%
You will notice that the content of what we say is not nearly as important as how we say it, or even how we look as we say it. Yet, most sales professionals focus more of their time preparing their verbal communications rather than the other two elements. They are inadvertently overlooking the power of the non-verbal elements in creating their image and risk not being as successful.
Creating a strong first impression requires you to strategically refine the image you portray by aligning the vocal and visual elements with the message that you want to deliver. The consistency of the message is the key.
For the vocal elements - listen to yourself on tape. How does your voice sound? Is it too nasal or too high? Do you speak too fast or too slow? Do you speak too loud or too soft? In general, you convey confidence by speaking at a moderate pace with a slightly lower tone range. Deepening your voice slightly will often lend you a credibility and authority you might have lacked. You should try to speak loud enough to be heard clearly by your audience.
Choose carefully the visual elements, considering the tales they tell about you. Are you dressed too casually or are you over-dressed? Does the colour convey confidence or a lack of? Are you clean, well-groomed and professional? Do your own marketing self-survey by asking for others’ opinions about the messages that your current dress imparts. Does it fit with the impression you wish to make?
Your image is either going to contribute to or detract from your business success. Imagine for a moment that you are creating your own retail store at a major intersection. The store will have no name above the door; all that will be on display in the front window is you. What kind of customers will you attract?
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