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
Monday, February 15, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
PART 2 OF BRANDING VS. ADVERTISING
I mentioned in my last blog that in future blogs that I was going to share stories of people and organizations who are good at brand building (vs. one-off advertising) so that we can learn from their actions.
I just interviewed popular musical comic Jimmy Flynn a few weeks back and the full interview will be in the upcoming edition of Island Business News (which is about to go to print) but in the meantime, the following is an exclusive question / answer excerpt from the interview that demonstrates what I said last time about the importance of maintaining consistency while brand building vs. taking one-off advertisements and shifting gears if they don’t pay for themselves right away.
Island Business News: Can you tell us about the Jimmy Flynn Brand? How important is it?
Jimmy Flynn: Branding is crucial. And so is consistency with the brand. When people come to a Jimmy Flynn show they expect to see Jimmy Flynn. And we’ve made sure to continue to make products that enhance the brand. Over the years, we’ve done CD’s, DVDs, Ball Hats, Rubber Chicks, Jimmy Flynn Hats, Bubbleheads, Jimmy Flynn Dolls, and on and on. Anything you can put a name on, we’ve probably tried it. Because Audience members want a take home to share with their friends, and they want something new each time.
Much the same way you are trying to build a brand with your small business and/or your career, Jimmy Flynn is a brand much the same.
I mentioned in my last blog that taken one advertisement in any medium and switching gears if you don’t see an immediate return in business is a challenging way to judge whether or not the medium is working for you and your business because you may be building the brand for later sales (and more at that) despite not receiving an immediate sale from the advertisement or initiative. If you give up after one advertisement or one article your message may not have even broken through yet – consider the amount of advertisements we are bombarded with each day and as a result how difficult it is to break through with just one impression.
In the example above regarding Jimmy Flynn’s effort toward consistent brand building, what would have happened if Jimmy would have made one product and if it didn’t sell gave up on it because he didn’t get an immediate return?
Do you think the Jimmy Flynn brand would be as big as it is today?
Perhaps not.
In fact, as Speakers we write articles for publications all of the time in hopes that it will keep reminding readers that we have information that is important to their staff and/or company (to partly justify why they may bring us in to present to staff) and we know that just writing one article will do little for our brand in the long run and so we continue to write article after article despite the fact that we won’t always get a call the day after the article hits the stands.
The key is to be the company or person your customer thinks of when they finally have a need and it’s tough to do that with the one impression I mentioned above.
So here is the point of this blog – whether you’re a small or large business, whether you’re an individual, a salesperson, a speaker, a coach, an author, an office manager, or so on, if you want to build a successful brand, consistency (which your message and your medium for sharing it) in my experience has proven time and time again to be more effective than the medium in and of itself.
Obviously, this assumes that you have chosen a medium that reaches your customers or potential customers effectively.
Tune in next time when we continue this discussion.
CP for IBN
I just interviewed popular musical comic Jimmy Flynn a few weeks back and the full interview will be in the upcoming edition of Island Business News (which is about to go to print) but in the meantime, the following is an exclusive question / answer excerpt from the interview that demonstrates what I said last time about the importance of maintaining consistency while brand building vs. taking one-off advertisements and shifting gears if they don’t pay for themselves right away.
Island Business News: Can you tell us about the Jimmy Flynn Brand? How important is it?
Jimmy Flynn: Branding is crucial. And so is consistency with the brand. When people come to a Jimmy Flynn show they expect to see Jimmy Flynn. And we’ve made sure to continue to make products that enhance the brand. Over the years, we’ve done CD’s, DVDs, Ball Hats, Rubber Chicks, Jimmy Flynn Hats, Bubbleheads, Jimmy Flynn Dolls, and on and on. Anything you can put a name on, we’ve probably tried it. Because Audience members want a take home to share with their friends, and they want something new each time.
Much the same way you are trying to build a brand with your small business and/or your career, Jimmy Flynn is a brand much the same.
I mentioned in my last blog that taken one advertisement in any medium and switching gears if you don’t see an immediate return in business is a challenging way to judge whether or not the medium is working for you and your business because you may be building the brand for later sales (and more at that) despite not receiving an immediate sale from the advertisement or initiative. If you give up after one advertisement or one article your message may not have even broken through yet – consider the amount of advertisements we are bombarded with each day and as a result how difficult it is to break through with just one impression.
In the example above regarding Jimmy Flynn’s effort toward consistent brand building, what would have happened if Jimmy would have made one product and if it didn’t sell gave up on it because he didn’t get an immediate return?
Do you think the Jimmy Flynn brand would be as big as it is today?
Perhaps not.
In fact, as Speakers we write articles for publications all of the time in hopes that it will keep reminding readers that we have information that is important to their staff and/or company (to partly justify why they may bring us in to present to staff) and we know that just writing one article will do little for our brand in the long run and so we continue to write article after article despite the fact that we won’t always get a call the day after the article hits the stands.
The key is to be the company or person your customer thinks of when they finally have a need and it’s tough to do that with the one impression I mentioned above.
So here is the point of this blog – whether you’re a small or large business, whether you’re an individual, a salesperson, a speaker, a coach, an author, an office manager, or so on, if you want to build a successful brand, consistency (which your message and your medium for sharing it) in my experience has proven time and time again to be more effective than the medium in and of itself.
Obviously, this assumes that you have chosen a medium that reaches your customers or potential customers effectively.
Tune in next time when we continue this discussion.
CP for IBN
Friday, February 5, 2010
BRANDING VS. ADVERTISING
I couldn't be more humbled by how the Island Business News brand name has progressed in the past two and a half years.
In this series of upcoming blogs I'm planning to share with you just how we built our brand to the current stage and how we plan to do so going forward (along with several others who have done the same) so that perhaps you can use some of the same strategies in promoting your business.
First of all, let me just say that I get a lot of inquiries from potential advertisers who tell me they'd like to run one ad and see if they get any new customers from that ad or to test just how many calls they get the day the ad comes out.
If they do get immediate business, they continue, then they will continue advertising, if not, they will go in another direction.
I'm assuming this process (of switching ad mediums) will continue month to month throughout the year because the odds of them getting a measurable return from just one ad is very slim.
Ironically, most of the advertisers that expect immediate return are getting less for each ad dollar by only advertising once and then moving on to another advertising option if they don't see immediate return.
Why?
Because they are ignoring or dismissing the benefits that consistent advertising (similar message / similar medium) does for their overall brand. To prove this point, I am still getting bookings from Speaking ads I ran almost two years ago despite not getting a booking for the first two months the ads were out - the customers that saw these ads didn't have a need at the time but I was still building awareness while they were developing a need.
I just interviewed someone today who used to sell advertising for a major publication and he told me that he used to tell his customers that wanted to run a full page ad once that he'd prefer they go with ten smaller ads spread over ten issues (or even with a different advertiser) than one full page ad as he knew the odds of them getting business by just putting their name out there one time was slim.
I realize you may think I'm simply saying this because I want you to advertise on a regular basis in our Island Business News publication, but if you look at our history you will see that we are more than happy to have clients on for a month - I just question whether or not this is the best strategy for those businesses.
In fact, I recently heard (and this could be an urban legend but could be true) that Coca Cola did a study a while back to see if there ongoing advertising was worth the continuous expenditure - they stopped advertising for one month and immediately after they stopped they lost the market lead for the first time in history for Pepsi. They started advertising again and apparently it took them close to 6 months to get their lead back. I believe this story because I know how powerful brand building can be (and the best part is you can build the brand while also advertising time sensitive offerings and specials)
I realize you may not be a Coke or Pepsi but this (branding vs. advertising approach) applies to small and larger businesses just the same.
Tune in next time (and to future blogs) when I continue this discussion, talk about having a marketing calendar, disclose what I see as the greatest (no cost) opportunity most small businesses miss when determining their market goals and strategies for a new year and share stories of businesses who have built a brand with a small marketing budget by simply focusing on the most effective marketing options for them.
Until then be sure to watch for the upcoming Mid-Feb. Edition of Island Business News which is scheduled to feature articles on Discount Car Rentals, PEI Mutual, Jimmy Flynn, CJ Graphics and more.
CP for IBN
In this series of upcoming blogs I'm planning to share with you just how we built our brand to the current stage and how we plan to do so going forward (along with several others who have done the same) so that perhaps you can use some of the same strategies in promoting your business.
First of all, let me just say that I get a lot of inquiries from potential advertisers who tell me they'd like to run one ad and see if they get any new customers from that ad or to test just how many calls they get the day the ad comes out.
If they do get immediate business, they continue, then they will continue advertising, if not, they will go in another direction.
I'm assuming this process (of switching ad mediums) will continue month to month throughout the year because the odds of them getting a measurable return from just one ad is very slim.
Ironically, most of the advertisers that expect immediate return are getting less for each ad dollar by only advertising once and then moving on to another advertising option if they don't see immediate return.
Why?
Because they are ignoring or dismissing the benefits that consistent advertising (similar message / similar medium) does for their overall brand. To prove this point, I am still getting bookings from Speaking ads I ran almost two years ago despite not getting a booking for the first two months the ads were out - the customers that saw these ads didn't have a need at the time but I was still building awareness while they were developing a need.
I just interviewed someone today who used to sell advertising for a major publication and he told me that he used to tell his customers that wanted to run a full page ad once that he'd prefer they go with ten smaller ads spread over ten issues (or even with a different advertiser) than one full page ad as he knew the odds of them getting business by just putting their name out there one time was slim.
I realize you may think I'm simply saying this because I want you to advertise on a regular basis in our Island Business News publication, but if you look at our history you will see that we are more than happy to have clients on for a month - I just question whether or not this is the best strategy for those businesses.
In fact, I recently heard (and this could be an urban legend but could be true) that Coca Cola did a study a while back to see if there ongoing advertising was worth the continuous expenditure - they stopped advertising for one month and immediately after they stopped they lost the market lead for the first time in history for Pepsi. They started advertising again and apparently it took them close to 6 months to get their lead back. I believe this story because I know how powerful brand building can be (and the best part is you can build the brand while also advertising time sensitive offerings and specials)
I realize you may not be a Coke or Pepsi but this (branding vs. advertising approach) applies to small and larger businesses just the same.
Tune in next time (and to future blogs) when I continue this discussion, talk about having a marketing calendar, disclose what I see as the greatest (no cost) opportunity most small businesses miss when determining their market goals and strategies for a new year and share stories of businesses who have built a brand with a small marketing budget by simply focusing on the most effective marketing options for them.
Until then be sure to watch for the upcoming Mid-Feb. Edition of Island Business News which is scheduled to feature articles on Discount Car Rentals, PEI Mutual, Jimmy Flynn, CJ Graphics and more.
CP for IBN
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