PART 3: BRANDING VS. ADVERTISING

This is a much shorter blog post in our ongoing Branding vs. Advertising Blog Series.

This time I just wanted to make a suggestion.....if you're not sure whether your customers respond to an ongoing brand or one-off advertising specials perhaps a great way to find out is through surveying your customers.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/ is one great source for surveying clients.

Surveying will also tell you why your customers buy from you in the first place, will create a feeling that you care about how your customers feel about you, give you insight ino any improvements or changes your customers might like to see you make, and tell you whether your customers are the type that respond to one-off ads or more long term ad approaches.

As an example of how this may differ from company to company is where I'm in the Speaking Business and The Newsprint industry, my customers are not typically a "buy as soon as they see an ad" type market since they don't always have a need for either service, however, if someone is very much in the small item purchase business (i.e. Office Supplies, Toys) or a commodity business, their customers may purchase if they see a special promotion in a one-off ad.

If you already know which type your client is, you can focus your survey more on how they buy, but if you don't know, the survey may tell you this as well.

Long story short, if you'd like to know whether Branding or advertising (or both) is best for you business conducting a customer survey may just be a great way to find out.

Until Next Time,

CP for IBN