The Mighty Advertising Dollar

She only reads the sports section

Many entrepreneurs confuse marketing with advertising and assume that if you're doing one, then you must be doing the other. Even skilled marketers who have a grasp on the scope of their profession will place way to much emphasis on advertising channels (or not nearly enough). Developing the right marketing mix requires far less intuition and creativity than people think and a lot more of time consuming research (zzzzz).

As an entrepreneur with both a Bachelors and Masters in business, I should have seen that I was making the same errors in judgement. I figured, to give our new business a real boost, I would take advantage of my Associates in Advertising (yep, got one of them too) and put together a comprehesive ad campaign that took advantage of local print, radio, and cable mediums. "Screw researching our market and setting metrics for ROI," I thought. "Since I'm saving a boatload by doing most of the conceptual and design work in-house, we should be rolling in green by this time next month."

Using that logic, I proceeded to sign extended ad contacts with a regional lifestyles magazine, a local weekly arts publication, the city newspaper, a local radio station and cable company, a cinema screen advertising company (the biggest waste of money out of them all), and the area community paper. I was cranking out cleverly designed, catchy ads at an insane click. I was so busy buying media that I didn't take the time to notice that none of it was really working, save the arts publication. That worked reasonable well even though, on paper, it missed our demo of affluent suburban women. Measuring ROI really wasn't an issue because, after all the ad money is spent, it's not that hard to quantify $0.00 against $$$$$$.

Researching the best methods to reach our market might have turned up a highly cost effective (read: guerilla) solution that I had overlooked: charity events. Sure, we would donate items to high school organizations and the like when asked, but that was just our way of being a good corporate citizen. Then, by chance, we got invited to participate in a few charity events where we were asked to display our products. These were well attended by professional women who were well-plied with wine and ready to spend for a good cause. At the end of the night, we paid a portion of goods sold (usually 25%) and walked away with the rest. Some would say that 25% of revenues is a lot, but that figure was nicely diluted when, after each of these events, we saw an marked increase in business over the weeks that followed.

The point to this is, if you aim to fail then advertise into the wind. It's a plan that will blow your big idea down in no time. If, for some reason, you want to go the distance, then start small. Be a friend to the community. Find ways to contribute and still hold a percentage of your gross margin (be willing to take a loss here and there). Save the ad budget until you have a solid, well-researched marketing plan in place and remember: 'Viral' marketing is only contageous when the customer is within "sneezing range."