subject: Brand Marketing and Your Small Business [print this page] Let's begin with a definitionLet's begin with a definition. This isn't an "official" definition it's just my definition of "Brand Marketing".
"Brand Marketing" is any advertisement that doesn't contain an offer.
Basically the ad just says "Hey! Here I am. Look at me." The idea is that a potential customer or client will see the ad and when the times come they will seek you out because you come to mind first.
There's no doubt that billions of dollars are spent on brand advertising every year by many of America's largest corporations. These glitzy high production value ads are produced by big advertising firms that charge their clients huge sums to make them.
There's only one problem.
It can be difficult or impossible to know for sure how effective a brand marketing campaign has been.
Do you remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua? In the late 1990's he became a pop icon. The ads were hugely popular. Then Taco Bell abruptly stopped running them in 2000. (If my memory serves me correctly.) Rumors circulated that the Chihuahua had died so they quit running the ads.
The real reason is perhaps more surprising.
The promotion simply wasn't making any money. Even though the ads were very popular, they weren't effective. In 2000 the same store sales were down 6%. That means that the same store sold (on average) 6% LESS in the year 2000 then it did in 1999. Even though our little buddy was at the peak of his fame.
A huge company like Taco Bell can afford to spend millions on advertising. But as a small business owner you cannot.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is marketing that can be measured. (Again, this is my definition.) It is the best type of marketing for any small business.
Limit your advertising promotions to those that have the highest ROI (return on investment). This may seem obvious (and it is) but I am always surprised at how many small business owners don't measure the effectiveness of their advertising.
Case in point - yellow page advertising. Do you have a paid yellow page ad? How much revenue did it bring in last year? If you had multiple ads, which one preformed the best?
I would bet one whole American dollar that less than 1 in 100 small business owners could answer those questions.
Make a Measurement Plan First
Before you fork out any money for an advertisement decide how you will track it first. Will you send them to a special website? Will you have them bring in a coupon or coupon code? The exact method doesn't matter.
Just be sure that you can measure the ROI of the campaign. To do that you need to know exactly how much you spent (easy) and exactly how much it made. (impossible if you're not tracking.)
The one BIG exception
There is one big exception to the "Don't use brand marketing" rule. There is one source of traffic and customers that is
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