I have seen some debate in the forum on the effectiveness, or lack of it, in press advertising. So here’s my pennyworth.

Advertising, like other marketing instruments is a tool. It doesn’t work on its own and it’s unlikely to work for you if you don’t know how to handle the tool.

 

Entrepreneurs and start-up business people usually have the objective of selling as much as possible as quickly as possible. But that’s a gut feeling and not a marketing objective. The other thing that start-ups do is seek out the apparently cheapest form of advertising and hope that it will do all things for all requirements. Often that doesn’t work out because what is cheap is only what achieves the objectives cost-effectively.

That is, a newspaper may fairly boast millions of readers, but you should be interested  only in those who fit your customer profile. How many of these selected individuals read a particular page before the whole newspaper becomes obsolete ie the next day.   

 

My advice, before you even start advertising, is to get into the business of marketing. Marketing isn’t advertising, advertising is part of marketing. Have a look at six  P’s of your business and this will enable you to come up with a plan that will at least help you design and apply decent ads.

They are PRODUCT,  PRICE,  POSITION,  PRESENTATION , PEOPLE and PROMOTION.

 

Examine your product/service, is it as good or better than your competitor’s?

We know why you want to sell it but why should anybody want to buy it?  Can it be improved?  Can anything be added, or subtracted to make it a better product?  Are you sure it’s as good as can be? What’s special about it? Does it have a USP (unique selling proposition)?

 

Examine your price. Are you low-price competitive? High-ticket luxury? Is your profit mark-up  ok for the volumes you are doing?  Can you combine anything with the product offer to make the price more attractive? etc

 

Examine your position in the marketplace. Do people know your business? With whom are you competing and how are they marketing their goods and services? Always remember a small start-up business has a distinct advantage over a big business. You can chop and change, investigate quickly, implement new elements faster.

 

Examine the profile of your customer.  Who is he/she? What is their age, sex? Where do they live? Where do they work? How do they get there? What things do they like to do? Where do they go for fun?. At what time will they use your product/service? Do they even buy a newspaper?  What do they read and in what media?

 

And only now comes the business of “promotion”.   All of your notes from the foregoing will give you a good idea of whom you want to reach, how and with what kind of message.

 

There are lots of  advertising media available to you. If you have plenty of money and want to create general brand awareness, newspapers and magazines will do it for you. Also if your product or service is suitable for Mr or Mrs Everybody.  Otherwise I  advise you to stop hunting for prospects with a shot gun, find more selective and appropriate promotional media that suits your customer profile, and use a sniper rifle.

 

If your spouse left a message under the fridge magnet, you would read it. Its message was designed for you, it grabbed your attention with some urgency, offered you some good reason to read it. It would be personal and direct and informative. In other words great advertising in an advertising medium that’s right for the job.

 

So does press advertsing work?  It all depends on what work you want it to do!

 

Phil Sinclair   Leader's-Edge

www.leadersedge.co.za 

 

Phil Sinclair www.leadersedge.co.za