If you sell a product or service, and want to be successful
quickly, you must tell people about it through advertising
and marketing.
TV, radio and newspaper are still considered the major
media for effective marketing off-line.
However, a lot has changed with these top three marketing
vehicles in the past 15 years.
In this article some critical changes are revealed that
have occurred and how you can get the maximum impact for
your advertising dollar.
Television is primarily an entertainment medium. Research
shows the average person spends more time with television
than with radio and newspaper combined. For many years, TV
was considered the most powerful advertising choice because
of the huge audience it provided. Even today, nearly
everyone watches some TV every day.
There are three things you must consider before spending
money on TV advertising - limited lifespan of your ad,
audience fragmentation, and ad avoidance.
Keep in mind that once your ad has aired, it is gone for
good. There is no way your potential customer can refer
back to it. This fact makes it imperative that you run your
ad many times to embed your message in the mind of the
viewer. Frequency is important with any advertising, but
especially broadcast.
Audience fragmentation is one of the major problems local
broadcast television faces today.
At one time, a huge TV audience was split over only a few
local channels. Community businesses could reach a large
majority of their potential customers very quickly. Large
national companies, such as Coke, only had to choose from
the three major networks - ABC, CBS or NBC - to reach over
80% of the population.
Today, with cable and satellite TV, this same audience is
now fragmented over 200 or more channels. The percentage of
viewers on local TV has dropped dramatically. Yes you can
run ads on cable and they will spread them out over ten or
more channels. This shotgun advertising has not worked well
for small businesses because many of these stations have
only a half percent or less of the total viewers. And, what
are the odds that they will be watching during the 15 or 30
seconds that your ad is presented?
Ad avoidance is also a very rapidly growing problem for TV
today.
Because the public watches TV primarily for entertainment,
they see advertising as an unwelcome interruption - not
unlike the hated telemarketing. This was true 30 years ago
but there was nothing a person could do about it except
channel surf or leave the room. As you know this was, and
still is, often done. Today, with TIVO, pay-per-view,
public broadcast stations, and the multitude of satellite
and cable channels, the public has shown a willingness to
pay for reduced interruption from advertising.
Radio has similar problems. It is also primarily an
entertainment medium. As such, advertising is also
considered an interruption. Satellite radio is one of the
fastest growing industries today primarily because people,
again, are willing to pay to avoid commercials. In fact,
most new cars have satellite radio built in.
Additionally, radio has evolved into an entertainment
source for primarily driving, and background noise at work.
If you buy any radio advertising, it should only be aired
during drive time.
At home, radio use drops off. People can play CD's or
listen to satellite radio. This way they can choose exactly
the music or programming they prefer without commercial
interruption. The radio industry understands that folks do
not want to be interrupted with advertising. Many times
radio stations promote themselves by offering "more music,
less commercials".
Newspaperes have had their ups and downs, but have steadily
maintained their local readership base and strength for
local marketing. Even when radio, then TV, came on the
scene, people still were loyal in reading their local
newspaper.
Unlike TV and radio, advertising in a newspaper is not
viewed as an interruption. In fact, one of the reasons
people buy newspapers is for the advertisement content.
Surveys have shown among 15% and 23% of those buying a
newspaper do so primarily for the advertising.
You see, people do want to see and read advertisements.
They do want to - and need to - buy products and services.
They just want the ads on their terms.
TV's best day of the year is Superbowl Sunday, delivering
nearly 40% of U.S. households. In striking contrast,
newspapers consistently deliver well over 50% of your
community households. They do it every day, 365 days a
year. Now that is some serious marketing power.
Another advantage over broadcast that only newspapers can
deliver is engagement of the consumer at the moment they
are making a buying decision. When a person is reading your
ad, it is because they choose to. At that time you have
their full and focused attention. And the working life of
your newspaper ad is enormous because it is physical and
static. Your potential customer can refer back to it
anytime they wish, or even cut it out.
You may have heard on TV or radio that newspaper
subscriptions and readership are dropping. This is true.
But it is not to the degree they would like you to believe.
What they do not tell you is newspaper on line versions are
growing much faster than the 7% or so losses in
subscriptions. In fact, you will find newspaper web sites
are usually the busiest web sites in any community. Be sure
you take advantage of this.
Now you can see why today's trend among business people who
are in-the-know is away from broadcast and back into the
old, reliable newspaper. Most all the major stores are
getting back to the basics and finding the print
advertising to be the best return on investment. So will
you.
Newspapers, of course, should not be your only advertising
medium, but it is the solid foundation on which you build
an effective marketing plan in today's environment.
----------------------------------------------------
Dr. John E. Neyman, Jr. is owner of Leaders Excel in which
he specializes in coaching, websites, and optimization. If
you would like to grow in your leadership ability contact
Dr. John at john@LeadersExcel.com or
http://LeaderExcelSolutions.com
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