Marketing and advertising continue to dazzle and at times
puzzle the curious corner inside me or for that matter anyone. For a
product/service or anything under the sun that needs to be sold, one needs a buyer.
There are instances where sheer word of mouth publicity brings lots of
recognition to a product/service, but is restricted mostly for local markets.
Not every product/service though can be sold so easily or else we would have to
shut our shop and scout for employment ourselves.
One may often face this situation as a budding entrepreneur
– even though a necessary expense,
how much should one spend on advertising? A product or service underutilized burns
a big hole in the pocket and an ineffective advertisement campaign done with improper
tools and understanding may even dig a bigger hole. It’s a big dilemma for the
person interested to invest and try the route, if it is blemished with similar
experiences of his peers. Effectiveness is the key which is measured in most of
the cases with the quantity of response and in rare cases the effects are not
for direct measurement but for creating brand awareness by supporting a social
cause or a CSR activity of the company.
Advertising guru David Ogilvy once said, ‘When I write an
advertisement I don’t want you to tell me that you find it creative. I want you
to find it so interesting that you buy the product. When Aeschines spoke, they
said “How well he speaks.” But when Demonsthenes spoke, they said, “Let us
march against Phillip.”
It is a real challenge to catch attention of the target audiencewithin
a limited budget, but surely there are ways if acceptable to the client?
Secondly, the efforts you put in advertising /marketing are directly related to
the sales volume if done in a right way.
A great communication partner helps you to create the necessary
impact after understanding your budgetary constraints and paints the true
picture of possible outcomes for alternatives available had the budget been
good. The strategy could be to follow an action plan which includes a step up
approach where investments are prudently done matching the results. This action
plan can have least expensive approachedto
start with followed by some aggression as and when the gap reduces between the
possible expenses and allotted ones.
CEO of Ryan Air said, ’Forget all the ponytails that come
and give you some creative nonsense. The only test of your advertisement: does
it make customer want to buy your product? Can your ad increase your revenues?’
Creative concepts, imagery and other expenses in making an
effective campaign should be considered wisely as your client needs to see his
money’s worth along with the fact that at times you may have to disagree with
him for you are the only expert in letting him understand the repercussions minus
his fancies and you are the only one who has studied the demography
/psychography of his client in greater details after a thorough research.
A brand and communication consultant such as blossoms can
work with you every step of the way to create a campaign that increases your
sales numbers within a modest budget, if need be.
