MARKETING EXPOSED

Years back when I was in the outdoor industry we were given an assignment.  We were to produce a video on our interpretation of “vertical marketing”.

If you’re a business owner or you work in a marketing field no doubt you’ve been exposed to all sorts of titles referring to some vague application in advertising.  This was no different.  My direction was to approach the ways a business could talk to me across multi media.  That led to placement!

The first time I walked into a local restaurant’s restroom, entered the stall, sat down and discovered a flooring-store ad facing me – inches away – I actually chuckled out loud.  At first it seems preposterous.  An advertisement in the toilet stall!  But as I sat there I thought…it’s perfect!  That flooring-store had my complete attention for a few minutes.

Isn’t that one key desire of adveritisng?

One of the most frustrating decisions for a business when it comes to advertising is where do you put your message?  It is, after all, one of the Power of Three that can make or break your advertising success.  With all the choices and the diversification of where we get information, what’s the answer?

It isn’t an easily definable one.  Gone are the days of just 3 mainstream medias:  radio, television and newspaper.  It is more important than ever for your business to refine and specify your business.  Trying to be everything to everyone is impossible.  Defining ONE thing that is your unique position in a market is required.  It doesn’t have to be something that none of your competitors is offering, quite the opposite!  It just has  to be something that none of your competitors are talking about.

That means you must fully understand your own business!  Once that specific asset is uncovered, placement becomes less of a mystery.  Understand who you want to talk to and how you can solve a problem for them.

The budget you allocate for marketing will play a part in placement as well.  There are so many avenues opening up that cost little to nothing, especially in the social marketing arena.  But developing a brand and name awareness still requires utilizing mass media.  The 2 crucial aspects of the Power of Three can also change where placement may be best suited.  Here’s an example:

My sister owns a salon/spa in Michigan.  Approximately 90% of her patrons are women.  The obvious place to promote her services is where women are, right?  We were examining how to advertise her services during the Christmas season.  After some brainstorming she admitted that a large portion of her sales during that time of year were from men!  Gift Certificates.  We created a very sensual sounding message addressing the pampering and how their wives would look and feel after a salon visit.  The message began with “This is for all you men out there…”   We only placed it on the local news/talk and sports radio stations.  We tightened the schedule to run only the week prior to Christmas and she had lines out the door of men every evening!  Here….the message drove the placement!

Placement (who you’re talking to) needs to take into account the additional aspects of your niche.  Would it have made sense to utilize a urinal in that case?  Hmmmm…the jury may still be out on that one!

Photo credit:  Admit One