Want to Stand Out? Will Consumers Stand For It?

Copyright 2006 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
This blog post was transferred from another service.

Note: Since magazine editors like subscribers' comments to be brief & my comments usually aren't brief, I have 2 versions of the following post. The article I've responded to is "Want to Stand Out?" It's in the December issue of Inc. The URL for the web page is:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20061201/handson-marketing.html

This is the long version of my comments.

Advertising clutter can't be fought by adding to it. Plenty of advertising agencies & marketing consultants will gladly take your retainer (meaning they retain your money), then claim they've cut through the clutter by increasing the reach & frequency of your message.

In the early years of broadcasting, show sponsors avoided clutter by being the only advertisers during shows. But I doubt ad agencies or marketing consultants would make those kind of arrangements for clients. NO, they'll use some "creative" way to get attention (but not necessarily interest), then claim they cut through the clutter by spending more of your money.

Do you want to find out if they'll really cut through the clutter? Tell them you'll pay on a per order basis. If you don't make sales, you don't pay them. Would anybody work under these conditions? Yes, some of us will.

The number of minutes available to broadcasters is fixed at 1440 seconds every day. Can they reduce clutter by squeezing in more commercials? They have technology to compress the shows they get, but show producers object. But it doesn't significantly increase a broadcast schedule.

Print & Internet publishers can add more pages of advertising &/or more ads per page. They won't decrease clutter, unless they reduce the ad space per page.

Will Consumers Stand For It?

As far as I know, there are 2 main reasons people shun advertising: 1) Too many messages are irrelevant to their circumstances. Even if people are in the target market, they may think they already have the full solution & don't want to hear or see any other potential options. 2) They feel they're exposed to too much already. They resent the intrusion, even if advertisers pay for what those people want--news publishing & entertainment.

Too many advertisers think their messages are relevant because what they sell is relevant. What advertisers think doesn't matter or, at least, is a lower priority.

Examples- "38 years combined experience." 76 people can each have 6 months of experience. Each can do exactly the same thing & it adds up to 38 years combined experience. But this only impresses those who make these meaningless statements.

"Open until midnight" means nothing, if I don't perceive the value of, or even know, what the store offers.

"Smith Electronics, established in 1874" Of course, when the forefathers established it, the business name was 'Smith Buggy Works.' Plus, nobody in the Smith clan has been involved in it since 1902. If I don't know which electronics it offers, the name is almost meaningless. Since electronics didn't exist in 1874, it's meaningless as far as experience is concerned.

Classical Conditioning
Ring a bell when you serve food & ringing a bell will cause salivation.

I often see advertising in rest rooms & wonder, "Do merchants really want what they offer to be psychologically linked with rest rooms & unpleasant things in those rest rooms?"

When the average person is in a rest room, does s/he want to think about drills or pizzas? S/he may think, "What I need now is a good air freshener or hand-sanitizer." Power tools are irrelevant to the current situation. Eating pizza may be the reason s/he is in the rest room. :^( Bon appetit!

If you use mini-billboards as described in "Want to Stand Out?" I advise you to only do it if what you offer is relevant to 1 or more of these: 1) What viewers are doing when they see the messages. 2) What they do in about an hour after they finish what they're doing. 3) What they should've done, to gain more benefit or prevent something unfavorable, before starting what they're doing.

The headline should focus on how your offer is relevant to these consumers in the present or immediate future. Mini-billboards aren't apt to give you enough space to explain why they should plan to buy what you offer in more than 24 hours.

Unless you can include something for them to take with them--a brochure or flyer, they'll probably forget your offer when they leave the place. If you set the context in their minds, they may remember the next time they plan to go where they saw your mini-billboard. Example: "Next time you'll (be more comfortable, get more benefits) if you (use the offered product/service.)"

Advertising is a multiplied version of what sales reps do. Would you expect anybody to pay attention to a sales presentation in a place where you want to put your message?

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2006 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/