Advertising Tips to Survive the New Economy

In today's new economy, most businesses are cutting back on advertising and that is simply a big NO! As a paid public, persuasive and sponsored message, advertising concentrates on getting the word out to promote your products and services. It concentrates on building strategies including reach, placement and frequency. It also includes choosing and purchasing media spots in one or more outlets such as newspapers, television, radio, internet, billboards, and more. In a cluttered market such as ours, you need to keep the word out about your products and services. While consumers are being bombarded on a daily basis by thousands of promotional messages, you need to make sure that your brand is out there as well leading the clutter and standing out. You need to continuously remind consumers of your existence so when it is time they need a service or a product such as yours, you come to mind first. In order to increase the success of your campaign, do not hesitate to take the necessary steps to develop and implement a successful advertising strategy. As a rule of thumb: Identify and define your target market. Find all the possible categories that your brand could fill. Your message needs to focus on what and who you are. On the other hand, do not ignore the power of the competition. Define your real direct and indirect competitors. Do not hesitate to explore their offerings and find out how they are perceived in the marketplace. In addition, figure out how your brand is positioned in the market. Research how consumers perceive and evaluate your products and the competition's as well. Find the gaps in the market and try to find the feature in your services and/or products that would help fill the gap by meeting consumers' needs. Once the position is decided upon, market your product by clearly informing consumers about your whereabouts ñ where it is, how much it costs, what is unique about it and how to get it. Simply reinforce the product's position in the mind of your consumers. The last and most important step would be to monitor the results of your advertising campaign. Evaluate your plan by studying the feedback from the campaign and adjusting goals based on the market and consumers' needs. Courtesy of Manal Richa, The MarCom Network ñ offering Communications, Branding and Advertising solutions.