Advertise, Advertise, Advertise
Its the axis of the teeter totter, its the balancing pole of the tight-rope walker… It’s the one thing that can either make or break your business..
Advertising…
I thought I’d put my thoughts on the proverbial ‘paper’ and try and find that ‘X’ factor that either makes or breaks a business. It clearly isn’t as easy as whacking out a few hundred flyers and putting an add on your local radio station. And a big budget that allows you TV advertising doesn’t necessarily guarantee the success of your business.
Take for example Coca-Cola. It surpasses Microsoft and McDonalds as the worlds most well known brand. Not surprisingly so, as Coca Cola spends over $1.6bn on advertising per year. So does this mean that its purely about quantity of advertising? Does this mean that if you simply bombard the public with images of your product, it guarantees success?
Well a lot is to be said about quantity of advertising. I mean if you tell 100 people about your product, sure you’ll make a few sales, but how many more sales would you make if you told 100 million people? So yes, quantity does have its place in a good advertising scheme. But for every 1 argument about quantity, you’ll get 10 in reply for the quality of your marketing. Using Coca Cola as an example again. Their ads (excepting the one where the talking fish complains about the noise) are of a very decent quality and they appeal to people of all ages. The budgets are clearly quite high and they are well used to effectively market their company.
So whilst telling 100 million people about your product is a good plan, if you’re using a zit-faced teenager with braces and a spitting problem to tell the people, your response is going to be poor.
But then to throw a spanner in the works of the above quality vs quantity argument, take for example Google. It has been rumored that Google has not spent a single dollar on advertising. Ever.
Think about that for a second. Google hasn’t spent a single dollar on advertising, ever. Not one.
That means that the biggest web search engine, the most well known and progressive web company in the world, hasn’t spent a single dollar on advertising. It’s all been through word of mouth. They’ve relied on their phenomenal product to retain their customer base. And it works doesn’t it? I mean who hasn’t heard of Google. From pre-schoolers to grandparents, they all know Google. And thats with advertising.
Thus a lot can be said for the sheer quality of your product or service. If you’re telling 100 million people about your product and you’re using a hot, busty blonde, great! But if you’re product is the Ginsu Knives, you’re not gonna get the desired response purely because your product leaves a lot to be desired.
Thus what it all boils down to are these, somewhat estimated, averages:
Quantity of Advertising: 20% Importance
Quality of Advertising: 40% Importance
Quality of product: 40% Importance
Its getting the perfect balance between the above 3 elements that makes for a successful venture. Its not easy. Many have tried and failed. But the fact that many have tried and broken boundaries in doing it, shows that it does work.
At least by trying and failing, you’ll have eliminated one avenue that didn’t work and you can now plot your next venture, experience in hand, and hopefully reach your goal.