business matters
A
dvertising is usually the fi rst thing to be dropped when the economy takes a dip
but the truth is you should be advertising even more. After all, if there is less money around you want to make sure it’s spent with you, not someone else. That means you have to up the ante to make sure people are visiting or phoning your shop or logging onto your website. “But I don’t need to advertise
– all my business comes by word of mouth.” we hear you cry. All well and dandy – and certainly a lot cheaper than any other form of promotion but are you reaching your full potential? What happens when customers move away, die or have an unhappy experience? Research shows that for every complaint you receive, there are another 20 you don’t hear about so no business can aff ord to sit back and rely on word of mouth alone. The fact is advertising is an
essential… you only have to look at the great M&S to see that. Once upon a time they NEVER
advertised. Now you can’t blink without hearing dulcet tones telling you how to dine for a tenner or seeing a gaggle of ladies in this season’s latest! But how to advertise without
spending a fortune? And where to place it? If only we knew the answer! As someone once said “I know 50% of my advertising doesn’t work I just don’t know which 50%” Every business, large or
small has to run some form of advertising programme. But while the ‘experts’ say you should spend 10% of your turnover on advertising that may be impossible and perhaps not even necessary. Because while ‘above the line’
advertising (the trade name for adverts in papers, on the radio etc) is important there are other ways you can promote for less and often very successfully. The fi rst trick is to get the right
mix of promotional activities going so that you create a ‘drip’ eff ect to make sure everyone knows about you. Ideally you should have four diff erent points of contact with potential
customers. You already have one major selling point and that’s your shop window. But you’ll need more than that because not everyone walks past your shop and anyway, even if they do, you may not get your message across instantly from one brief look at your window. The second trick is to make sure
you know what type of customer you are after. If you want young trendies then the church magazine probably won’t be the answer whereas the cinema might. On the other hand older people traditionally buy local papers and look at newsagents windows so these are a good way of reaching this type of buyer. At the end of the day
advertising is not an instant fi x to boost sales but has to be part and parcel of every shop’s business strategy – big or small. Whatever you do, plan properly. Don’t start any promotion until you are 100% sure you can deliver the promise you’re making to the customer. Unless you know you and
your staff can walk the walk, don’t even start trying to talk the talk. Get it wrong and not only have you lost that new customer forever, they could quite easily tell their friends and that’s word of mouth publicity you certainly don’t want.
F&wb Autumn/Winter 2013
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