Visibility = Vitality
With the financial sector rocking, and consumer spending down, many businesses are being hyper-vigilant and tightening their belts. In most cases the first thing to get cut is marketing. Don't make decisions based on panic -- now is when your brand needs exposure the most.
Don't pull a blanket over your business. Keeping your brand visible will keep it vital. A business that doesn't promote it's brand is like a lighthouse that doesn't shine it's light -- it's just standing still. Shine your light, get noticed, and guide consumers into your port. Smart marketing can be the difference between weathering the storm, or going down with the ship. The key word is "smart". You already know that blogging, posting articles on sites like biznik, and social networking are great ways to promote your brand. But, turbulent economic times like these can offer tremendous opportunities if you are able to invest in advertising. Diminished ad sales may give you leverage to negotiate attractive rates that stretch your marketing budget. If the economy is keeping the competition from advertising, now may be the perfect time for your brand to seize consumer mindshare. Be prudent. Plot your course to navigate the rough waters, and when seas are calm again, you could be riding a wave of success while your competition is still weighing anchors.
When developing your advertising, keep these tips in mind:
1) Don't design by committee. The opinions of individuals who don't understand your specific needs -- or marketing, advertising and design in general -- will only diminish your returns. Anyone can put together advertising that gets noticed, but it takes talent to design advertising that gets results, so work with a professional designer with proven experience.
2) Make sure that your advertising correlates with your brand's visual identity. Over 70% of the impact of advertising on market share results from increasing brand awareness.
3) Create ads that focus on your target consumer rather than appeal to your personal taste. Many unsophisticated advertisers fall into this trap. Just because you're a fan of helicopters doesn't mean that a helicopter has to somehow be worked into the concept of your advertising. Concentrate on your consumers, and what will create emotional connections between them and your brand.
4) Communicate with simple, persuasive copy. You don't have to squeeze as many features and benefits into the ad as possible. As the number of messages in an ad increase, recall decreases.
5) The more often a brand repeats a claim, the more likely consumers are to believe that the claim is true, especially if there is no evidence to the contrary. But, don't make claims that are false, or that your brand can't support.
6) Focus on frequency, not reach. Frequency typically generates greater returns than fewer ads to a broader audience. There are conditions that can necessitate the opposite approach, and a savvy brand strategist will know when that is, and be able to explain the practicalities and benefits of each strategy.
7) To increase brand awareness and equity, target consumers who are most likely to influence the remainder of the market, i.e. opinion leaders, early adopters or "hard core" users.
8) Business-to-business advertising doesn't have to be stale and "by the numbers". Business decision-makers are ruled as much by their emotions as other consumers. A recent study of buyers in ten corporations demonstrated that corporate buyers overwhelmingly rely on personal and emotional reasons over rational ones in their purchase choice.
9) Advertising in magazines and newspapers can create a relationship with the publications, alert you to editorial opportunities, and can sometimes impact your brand's presence in articles.
10) The most effective ads combine a subtle emotional appeal with a practical benefit. You're not just selling floor wax, you're selling the beautiful home with beautiful floors that will make friends and neighbors jealous.
11) If the ad is designed so that consumers feel they've overheard something versus having been told about it, they will be less rigorous and defensive in their analysis of the message.
12) If a significant portion of your sales result from repeat purchases, it can be more effective for your advertising to reinforce the purchase than to persuade people to purchase for the first time.
13) Repeatedly featuring a product's packaging in advertising makes its more noticeable at point-of-sale, and therefore, more likely to be purchased.
14) Brand familiarity and popularity increase with frequent, consistent advertising.
15) Advertising affects purchase decisions by affecting the order in which alternatives are evoked (top-of-mind awareness) and the desirability of a particular alternative (positioning). The former is the most important effect. It presents an alternative for consumer consideration.
16) Themes and slogans that reinforce your existing brand image generate awareness faster than those that support new positioning.
17) Highly recalled messages tend to be the result of well-funded long-standing advertising campaigns.
18) For low involvement categories (in which the alternatives are often virtually identical), advertising can tip the balance in the favor of the advertised brand. For these categories, it is particularly important that the ads break through the clutter and focus on one simple message.
19) For high involvement categories, advertising plays less of a role overall. Typically, its role is to put the brand in the consideration set, not to influence the final buying decision.
20) A "call to action" in advertising is often preferred.
21) Color ads are read up to 42% more often than the same ads in black and white.
22) Advertising isn't rocket science, it's persuasion, and persuasion is an art. Work with a professional designer, or firm, that understands all of the above.
About the Author:
Ken Peters is the owner and Creative Director of nationally acclaimed Nocturnal Graphic Design Studio LLC, a Phoenix-based strategic design firm specializing in brand development and brand launch. To view samples from Nocturnal's portfolio, visit www.nocturnaldesign.com
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Visibility = Vitality