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Focus Your Marketing
October 09, 2007
By Robert Grede
You've probably heard the old marketing maxim that says 50 percent of all advertising is wasted. Don't believe it. It's a lot more than just 50 percent.
Traditional mass media advertising is a monologue aimed at the purses and pocketbooks of a passive audience. No wonder more than half of all advertising is wasted. It's amazing it's not more.
Imagine for a moment that half of all the television viewers who saw a Ford Motor Company commercial actually bought a Ford. Or, were even interested in buying a car at all. Imagine if McDonald's actually sold a cheeseburger to half the folks who watch each of their television commercials.
Not so. Ford and McDonald's are huge companies with huge advertising budgets. McDonald's for example has been known to spend up to 14 percent of their total gross sales on advertising alone. They can afford the inefficiencies of mass media advertising. You can't. You don't have the budgets of your bigger brethren. You can't afford to spend millions on television in order to achieve awareness or build market share. So you must substitute cleverness for cash. Being in the right place at the right time is more important than inundating a customer with witty phrases and catchy jingles.
Well-intended marketers begin each new year by carefully drafting a budget. After hundreds of hours of research, discussion, evaluation and arithmetic, they all sit in a room and thrash, nit-pick and hack away until everyone exits with radiant smiles, self-adulation and the satisfaction of a job well done. Then POW! A competitor introduces a rip-off of their leading product and the whole program is thrown out the window.
In business, nothing is permanent. Special situations must be met as they occur. This forces you to focus on the needs of your customers:
• Start by segmenting your target as tightly as possible, both demographically and psychographically. The old 80/20 Rule applies (80 percent of your sales come from 20 percent of your customers).
• Analyze the demographics and buying habits of your top 20 percent. Then, target others with similar characteristics.
• Focus your media efforts, too. If you decide to use media advertising, match your customer with the media. Choose only those media that reach your Top 20, AND NO OTHERS. Reaching anyone else is waste.
• The media segment your audience for you. Billboards target customers geographically. A syndicated cable television show may appeal to an extremely limited demographic.
• Trade magazines or hobby magazines appeal to especially small groups of people. Some direct selling and research services can even predict buying habits city block by city block.
• Radio targets your customers' attitudes and lifestyle. Every radio station worth its salt publishes a list of both the demographics and the buying habits of its audience. Listeners of country and western music have very different buying habits than listeners of classical music, or rhythm and blues, or heavy metal.
There are always better ways to make the most of every dollar you spend marketing your product or service. Focus your efforts on your Top 20 to maximize your marketing dollar, firmly establish your market niche, and avoid that wasted 50 percent.
Robert Grede, author of Naked Marketing—The Bare Essentials (Prentice Hall), is an adjunct faculty member at Carroll College and founder of The Grede Company, marketing and strategic planning consultants. He is also an exclusive contributing online columnist for SalesandMarketingManagement.com.www.thegredecompany.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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