Discussion
Advertising is an art. The old saying "I waste half the money I spend on advertising, I just don't know which half"
Best advice I can give is to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Where would THEY look for your product? Local rag? Yellow Pages? Online?
Do some market research (just ask people!) and then go for that option.
Oh and ALWAYS haggle the prices. There is a lot of room for movement in advertising prices.
Best advice I can give is to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Where would THEY look for your product? Local rag? Yellow Pages? Online?
Do some market research (just ask people!) and then go for that option.
Oh and ALWAYS haggle the prices. There is a lot of room for movement in advertising prices.
You might try getting your hands on a copy of BRAD. It's the directory of all advertising sources, online, offline, outdoor, radio, etc...
It's a HUUUUUUUUUGE book, about the size of a telephone directory, and if you call BRAD they will try to sell you a hard copy for £250, or an internet membership for about £300. However, if you take a stroll down to your local reference library they usually have some back issues (about 6 months old) for about £20!
It should give you an idea of where you might be able to target your market. Then, when you have idnetified the various media you are more interested in ring the advertising department and ask for a media pack.
HTH
It's a HUUUUUUUUUGE book, about the size of a telephone directory, and if you call BRAD they will try to sell you a hard copy for £250, or an internet membership for about £300. However, if you take a stroll down to your local reference library they usually have some back issues (about 6 months old) for about £20!
It should give you an idea of where you might be able to target your market. Then, when you have idnetified the various media you are more interested in ring the advertising department and ask for a media pack.
HTH
dick dastardly said:
rico said:
Oh and ALWAYS haggle the prices. There is a lot of room for movement in advertising prices.
The last advert I placed in an industry magazine was priced at £2100 for 1/2 page colour. I ended up paying only £800.Blimey!
I have spent most of today gearing up for my first magazine advertising push. I've got a rate card for the two big ones, one of which has already offered a 25% discount without me even asking for one.
Is this fairly universal in the magazine advertising game?
Plotloss said:
Is this fairly universal in the magazine advertising game?
Magazine advertising is fighting a losing battle (in terms of online have less costs to cover so can be cheaper) with the online versions, so they're always keen to give good rates. Lots more option for an advertiser, so make them fight for your business.
Also, never fall into the trap of thinking "ooo 25% discount... bargain" as the original price might be 300% too expensive. Always work on a ROI (return on investment) basis on whatever you pay.
Good luck!
Edited by rico on Monday 25th September 16:25
rico said:
There is a lot of room for movement in advertising prices.
Indeed. Be very fussy and stick to what you want. One directory I advertise with sent me the proof of my advert and the font wasn't what I had asked for. Moaned like a bitch and got a reduction from the original quotation.
They then messed up the colours in the second proof so I moaned again - this time like Victor Meldrew.
My point in illustrating this is that after all the moaning - which included a threat to pull the advert altogether - they gave me the following year free.
There is plenty of room for negotiation.
Mon Ami Mate said:
For the vast majority of businesses, PR is a far more effective and cost effective tool for marketing communications than advertising. Drop me a PM if you'd like an explanation why.
Spot on. Gave up on advertising some 3 years ago and have relied on PR agency ever since, with excellent results.
Mon Ami Mate said:
For the vast majority of businesses, PR is a far more effective and cost effective tool for marketing communications than advertising. Drop me a PM if you'd like an explanation why.
Agree. However, an integrated approach works even better. That is to say; mix the media you use - mags, online, press, radio, etc. PR is very efficient and you'd be surprised at how much extra coverage you get when you spend some money with the publication at the same time!
This of course is all dependent upon the budget available though.
rico said:
Advertising is an art. The old saying "I waste half the money I spend on advertising, I just don't know which half"
If this is the case, then you don't know your existing customers and your target markets as well as you should.
I would suggest that spending time on research & customer profiling would be well worth it before spending out on advertising.
Your choice of media (radio, tv, internet, newspaper or directories etc.) will be dependent on your customers' demographic, attidudes and media consumption. ie if they are not local newspaper readers then yes, you would be wasting your money advertising there!!
steviebee said:
Mon Ami Mate said:
For the vast majority of businesses, PR is a far more effective and cost effective tool for marketing communications than advertising. Drop me a PM if you'd like an explanation why.
Agree. However, an integrated approach works even better. That is to say; mix the media you use - mags, online, press, radio, etc. PR is very efficient and you'd be surprised at how much extra coverage you get when you spend some money with the publication at the same time!
This of course is all dependent upon the budget available though.
If you have the budgets, there's no doubt that an integrated approach will work best. Marketing communications is all about getting your messages right and then reinforcing them to your audiences as consistently and regularly as possible. If people receive consistent messages over a period of time they will be influenced by them. The idea is that you see the posters, the ads in the magazine and the newspaper, read the endorsement or the product test and receive the email or the mailshot, and if all these things say the same thing, and that thing coincides with your need or your desire, you will be influenced to buy.
The problem with advertising is its cost - buying space is expensive. For the price of one advert in a magazine you can hire a PR company for a whole month and they could write articles for any number of magazines, newspapers, radio or television. What are you more likely to be influenced by - an editorial or an advert? In isolation, PR has more credibility as well as being more cost effective.
Edited by Mon Ami Mate on Tuesday 26th September 09:14
Mon Ami Mate said:
steviebee said:
Mon Ami Mate said:
For the vast majority of businesses, PR is a far more effective and cost effective tool for marketing communications than advertising. Drop me a PM if you'd like an explanation why.
Agree. However, an integrated approach works even better. That is to say; mix the media you use - mags, online, press, radio, etc. PR is very efficient and you'd be surprised at how much extra coverage you get when you spend some money with the publication at the same time!
This of course is all dependent upon the budget available though.
If you have the budgets, there's no doubt that an integrated approach will work best. Marketing communications is all about getting your messages right and then reinforcing them to your audiences as consistently and regularly as possible. If people receive consistent messages over a period of time they will be influenced by them. The idea is that you see the posters, the ads in the magazine and the newspaper, read the endorsement or the product test and receive the email or the mailshot, and if all these things say the same thing, and that thing coincides with your need or your desire, you will be influenced to buy.
The problem with advertising is its cost - buying space is expensive. For the price of one advert in a magazine you can hire a PR company for a whole month and they could write articles for any number of magazines, newspapers, radio or television. What are you more likely to be influenced by - an editorial or an advert? In isolation, PR has more credibility as well as being more cost effective.
Edited by Mon Ami Mate on Tuesday 26th September 09:14
Mon Ami Mate could you drop me an e-mail to info@ultimaforza.co.uk to tell me what sort of things you could do for me and at what cost? Take a look at my website www.ultimaforza.co.uk to get an idea of what I do!
kwacker said:
What sort of advertising do you do and approx how much does it cost.
We have been thinking about advertising in a local rag and I just wanted a comparison to reduce the shock of how much it might cost.
Daniel
We have been thinking about advertising in a local rag and I just wanted a comparison to reduce the shock of how much it might cost.
Daniel
Kwaker,
What does your customer base look like?
Do you supply to mostly to independent specialist craftsmen/traders, or do you supply to individuals or do you have large kitchen & bathroom suppliers as clients?
Understanding this might give a better steer on where exacly your budget would best be invested. You talk about using your local rag but if specialist kitchen design companies from all over the UK seek want your stone and marble then you need to find away of reaching them - probably directly in some form.
I know nothing about your area of work so I can't really do more than guess but start with knowing exactly who you want to reach.
All depends what you want to do. I launched a product some years ago with a marketing budget of £2k! We sold almost £200k worth of stock in 2 months so it worked rather well but it was well targetted to a specific market. Working on another project now involving PR, marketing, on-line, door drops, POS promotions etc and the budget is comfortable but still low for the coverage we are aiming to achieve.
Best advice I can offer is to get maximum undersatnding of your target market and the swing factors that are relevant to their decison making process (OMG, I have been infected with marketing speak!). Get those two right, and assuming then product hits the mark then you will do just fine.
IMHO, local rags and door-drops do have a place and cen be very well targetted but the response rate tends to be pretty low, although it is easy to measure.
Best advice I can offer is to get maximum undersatnding of your target market and the swing factors that are relevant to their decison making process (OMG, I have been infected with marketing speak!). Get those two right, and assuming then product hits the mark then you will do just fine.
IMHO, local rags and door-drops do have a place and cen be very well targetted but the response rate tends to be pretty low, although it is easy to measure.
pappa lurve said:
(OMG, I have been infected with marketing speak!).
Don't worry, it affects us all - usually happens during the campaign laydown period whist pulling demographic profiles through the strategic schematic phase. As long as you achieve maximum OTS or OTH you'll be fine.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff