Visibility of your product or service and effectiveness of the message are two utmost essential considerations of any marketing campaign. The wider is the visibility and the higher is the rate of effectiveness, the greater is the chance for your marketing success.
It will not take long through your planning stage to realize that all of the effective methods (TV, Radio, Print, Internet, and Promotional Merchandising) of communicating your message out to a large group of people does not come cheap. Cutting down the venues of advertising down to today’s popular choices such as Internet, TV, and Promotional Merchandising can save a bundle, however that’s not where the real savings are.
Possibly, if you are a large company, you can afford firing your message out everywhere, no matter what the cost is. Eventually, if you stick at it for a long enough time, your message (good or bad) will be imprinted in everyone’s mind for immediate brand/service recognition. Now everyone knows what your message is and what you are selling; is anyone buying?
After spending millions of dollars on trying to advertise a product or service, it is very easy to end up with nothing to show for in the end. It is the opinion of the author that many managers or owners do not realize is that your marketing company does not necessarily care about or truly understand your brand, product or service. The marketing company cares about creating a nice package to deliver a message to your potential customer, however only you – the service/product owner can understand and communicate who that potential customer is. If for any reason there is no clear understanding about who your customer is, there should not be any marketing campaign.
Understand who your customer is and what his needs are. Grasp what can turn the customer’s attention on by understanding what your product or service does for your customer, and why your customer is interested in your product or service. After the true nature, form, and definition of your customer start to appear, and you begin to understand what specifically needs to be targeted with your marketing campaign, you are ready to work with a marketing company to help you along. It is creative and artistic help that you will be seeking; the guidance must come from you.
The marketing campaign does not have to be an all out war; the war can be won with surgical strikes. Not only surgical marketing can be cheaper, it can be much more effective.
The better you know the customer’s characteristics, the better the chances of success. Starting out with a less expensive Internet marketing is a great choice for building a custom visual and/or textual message and measuring effectiveness with reporting tools. If that goes well, Promotional Merchandising in shows, fairs, and/or competitions brings a personal touch with lots of one-on-one interactions with your customer. Finally, if there is significant justification, go for the gold via wide print and TV advertising with a honed and customer personalized message.
Understanding your customer is just like understanding the battlefield, knowing where your allies are, and where your enemies are. Once you have that kind of understanding, you are prepared to start the battle with your best troops from the marketing company, however do not forget who the commander-in-chief is. Finally, take the win with effective surgical strikes instead of all out expensive and dragged out war.
