On March 4, 2009, Cox Media in San Diego held a seminar titled How to Market Your Business in a Challenging Environment.

The speaker, Jim Doyle of Jim Doyle and Associates focused on how “Concentration is the Key…To All Economic Success.” Doyle asked us in the audience to list the top three shampoos we could think of.  Once we all wrote down our shampoo thoughts, he mentioned how our brain has files and we store only about three names in each of those files.  Since there are hundreds of different shampoo options, that category is pretty full.  So, he asked how many people wrote down Head & Shoulders.  About 15 people shot up their hands.  Then he mentioned, if he had asked us to write down our top three choices for dandruff shampoos, most likely the majority of us would’ve written down Head & Shoulders.  The point, he stressed, is that it’s dangerous to be all things to all people in your business because most people don’t have enough file space in their brains to remember your company.

So, how do you present and advertise your business in a different way so that you’re one of the top three in your category?

1.  Come up with a strategy before you do anything. And, if you’re trying to be all things to all people, how can you focus on a niche that you can own in people’s minds?

2.  Find the strength of your business.  Make your stake there.  If you don’t know, ask yourself what is the point of entry, the thing people come in for first?

3.  Where’s the opposition?  Is some other business known for your strength?  Have they advertised enough that they already own that strength in the minds of consumers?  If they have, is it worth it to go up against them or can you own a different strength?

4.  What are your resources?  How much money do you have to spend and if you’re going up against a number one competitor do you have enough money to do that?  If not, narrow your focus.

Doyle gave us an example of how a company, The Base Camp, in Billings Montana focused in a big way on a narrow target.  They are an outdoor apparel company.  In the past they had held a sale in November before the holiday season.  They were doing OK, but worried that people were coming in for the sale in November to do their holiday shopping.  They wondered, were they giving discounts to customers that would’ve already come in during the holiday season.  In 2003, they changed their strategy and decided to have a Black Diamond Glove sale in November.  They charged $14 a pair.  That year, they sold 700 pairs.  Three years afterward, they sold 6,000 pairs and drove their total sales up by 40%. Two years after that, in 2008, they sold 12,000 pairs.  They are currently the number two retailer, after LL Bean, for Black Diamond Gloves.

What is your Black Diamond Glove story?

A consumer spending study from The Media Audit 2010 reveals that adults in Reno, Nevada spend the most amount of money on wine consumed in the home in a typical year. According to the study, consumers in Reno spend an average of $1,659 over the course of a year on wine.  That amounts to almost $32 weekly in wine purchases.  The average annual expenditure on wine consumed in the home for the typical U.S. adult is $911 per year.

Fort Myers-Naples, Florida ranks second in the national survey. Local adults in Naples spend an average of $1,577 per year on wine. Colorado Springs, Colorado ranks third with an average annual expenditure of $1,510, followed by Tucson, Arizona ($1,329 per year), Austin, Texas ($1,260 per year), Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida ($1,236 per year), Melbourne-Titusville-Cocoa, Florida ($1,224 per year), San Jose, California ($1,284 per year), Long Island, New York ($1,139 per year) and Toledo, Ohio ($1,131 per year). Data was compiled from The Media Audit’s 2009 Annual Consumer Buying Power Report.

The report further reveals that Austin-based Whole Foods ranks among the top stores shopped by frequent wine consumers.  According to the study, 35.7% of Whole Foods shoppers consume wine on three or more occasions in a two week period.  Among all U.S. consumers, 13.2% consume wine three or more times in a two week period. Trader Joe’s shoppers rank second, with 33.6% who typically consume wine three or more times over the course of two weeks, followed by The Fresh Market (31.3%), Harris Teeter (23.6%), Wegmans (20.4%), Safeway (19.4%), Costco Wholesale (19%), Vons (18.9%), Lowes Foods (18.2%), and Jubilee Foods (18%).

For more information, contact The Media Audit.

When I’m excited about your business and what you’re doing, I find ways to promote it in any way I can. And, when I’m out and about and talking about what you do, sometimes it leads to others getting excited about it too.  For example, I was at a radio event for KFMB Jack FM radio. They had recently acquired the DSC (Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw) franchise that was previously on KGB-FM.  The DSC is a morning show that offers, humor, paradies and skits during the drive time hours of 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.  I met Shawn Styles (KFMB-TV meteorologist) and his wife Molly there who like to go out wine tasting so I told them that I was working with the San Diego Vintner’s Association to help promote the  local wineries. After following up with Molly, a few days later Shawn called to say he wanted to do a story on some of the local wineries.  The result, a 6:30 p.m. news segment on channel 8 that featured Cordiano and Orfila wineries.  To realize the value of that contact and story consider a :30 ad during that time can cost about $1,000 so the two minute story had a value of about $4,000!  Watch segment here.

As the online media segment settles into place (haven’t we learned from history that no new media actually replaces old media it just adds to it?) an article from WARC News states that “TV ads still best”.

EDINBURGH: A survey commissioned for the annual Edinburgh International TV Festival reports that TV advertising is up to three times as effective as any other medium. The survey by Deloittes and online research firm YouGov asked 2,123 people in the UK to name the three advertising media that had ‘most impact’ and TV was the clear winner with 64%. Next came newspapers on 30% followed by magazines, radio and outdoor.

Internet search, which has made huge inroads into the advertising market in the UK and elsewhere, scored just 12% while online display scored 8%. A total of 18% of respondents said they had gone to online video sites to see an ad again.

The survey also found that 44% of respondents had researched a product online after seeing a TV ad, while 31% had bought a product in-store with 21% buying online.

“TV was rated nearly three times more impactful than the next form of media,” said Howard Davies of Deloittes.

The survey raises a number of issues for online advertisers and agencies, although they will doubtless say that the results are to be expected from a survey commissioned for a TV festival.

But it is much-needed good news for the struggling commercial TV industry which has been hammered by a combination of the recession-induced ad slump and the migration of revenues online.

The continuing attraction of TV has also been boosted by figures from BARB, which measures television audiences in the UK, showing that commercial viewing reached record levels in the first half of 2009.

The average TV viewer watched 16.7 hours of commercial broadcast television a week, nearly ten minutes more than in the same period of 2008.

Data sourced from Financial Times; additional content by WARC staff, 20 August 2009

According to an article in late 2008 by Stuart Elliott on the New York Times website www.nytimes.com the advertising star was the “humble coupon”.  The article stated that if consumers were even buying anything they were more apt to use a coupon with their purchase.  It stated that “Procter & Gamble had opened a temporary store in Manhattan where coupons were available. At the store, which opened in December visitors sampled products like Pantene.

Coupons that offer cents off — or percents off — the price of things like groceries, clothing and restaurant meals are particularly popular when consumers need to stretch their dollars. So word that a recession began in December 2008 brought an increase in the number of coupons offered by marketers, as well as redemption rates by consumers.”

Still more, the article went on to mention that coupons were even being considered chic. For example, The Lucky Brand of apparel offered coupons on a funny holiday Web site (luckybuckoff.com). The better computer users played a game, the bigger the discount they earned on coupons redeemable at stores or on the regular Lucky Web site (luckybrandjeans.com).

Coupons prompt consumers to try products and increase the profiles of brand names.  Although the numbers for 2008 weren’t available then, in 2007, according to the Coupon Council of the Promotion Marketing Association, 89 percent of the population said they used coupons, compared with 86 percent in 2006.  The association says that 2007 was the first time since 1992 that redemption rates for coupons did not decline from the previous year.

Looking back, it appears Elliott and Procter & Gamble were right on. Have you been offering coupons for your business? In times like these, they make sense.

Popcorn Press & Media, Inc’s. client the San Diego Culinary Institute had a challenge that the agency and client worked together to find a creative solution for.  The challenge: The culinary school is sometimes confused with other culinary schools and venues in the San Diego area.  So, after running a consistent thirty-second TV message that generated response for the school, the agency proposed the idea of putting together a half hour TV show that could tell the story of the quality, high attention to detail and excellence that the school is all about. The result, after the client hired a talented TV show production team from LA, and the agency negotiated placement and sponsors for the show, is a new reality based TV show called “Haute Plate” that premiered on XETV channel 6.

Badagliacca (co-owner, San Diego Culinary Institute) says: “traditional commercials just don’t cut it anymore, it costs the same to produce a reality show as it does to do a suite of commercials and I thought we would try something different. So here we are with our own reality show.”  The show titled “Haute Plate” consists of 5 half hour reality episodes. “Haute Plate” closely follows 5 students from their cooking finals into their externships where they cook in the real world for the first time.   Complimenting “Haute Plate” is an original composition theme song as well as music score.  SDCI retained recording industry veterans Robert Cutarella and Ken Cummings to write and produce entirely original music for the show. Mr. Cummings lent his musical talents to advertising campaigns for Pop-Secret Pop-Corn, Downy, Disneyland and Domino’s Pizza to name a few. As a music publisher, Mr. Cutarella boasts over 3,000 songs and 60 platinum records working with artists such as Elton John, REM, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen.

The show’s website is www.hauteplate.tv.

When you’re thinking about your marketing plan are you keeping in mind the Marketing Mix? This term, originally called the “four P’s” product, place, price and promotion, according to Advertising Media Planning by Jack Sissors,  is used to define what you do to sell your products or services. Even though media is not specifically part of this mix it is a key element used as part of the selling process.

Media Plan: Target Audience

Media plans are most efficient when the marketer can supply the media team with a specific target audience and as much qualitative data as possible.  For example, do you want to reach men who are 18 to 49, live in Portland, Oregon, and are environmentally focused?  Have you done your research to find out if this is your most profitable target audience?  The more specific you are, the more specific and effective the media plan can be.

Multiple Mediums: The Best Option

The Media Mix is also an important element to your overall plan. Don’t make the mistake of pouring all your dollars into one form of media.  The best plan is to combine multiple mediums into one campaign. For example, if you’re running a direct mail piece, make the schedule more effective by adding radio to the mix and repeat the same message.  This might be a biased opinion on my part, but I think the biggest problem I’ve seen throughout my 19 year media career is that companies put too few dollars or media mix into the campaign and then expect a huge return on a minimal investment. Or, they try to go up against a competitor who is spending a lot more in advertising but they’re expecting the same exposure.  It’s like hosting a dinner party where you’ve purchased a ham but there are no drinks or side dishes at the party.  Your guests might really enjoy the ham but will probably not be pleased with the missing elements.

So, spend your dollars wisely by considering the marketing mix, having a very defined target audience, planning a budget that will make an impact within your audience and using multiple forms of media.

MEDIA DEFINITION (from Media Planning-A Practical Guide by Jim Surmanek)

Cost-per-point (CPP) Is the unit cost (e.g., a 30-second commercial) divided by the rating of the program in which the commercial will appear.

Yesterday I saw the movie Jack and Jill because I had been given a free pass to the new Cineopolis Movie theater in Del Mar and the pass was expiring. I needed a good laugh and usually Adam Sandler can provide that for me.  I also liked that his character in the movie was a successful Advertising Executive.   While I was relaxing and watching, my advertising mind started turning as I realized that a large part of the movie costs were probably paid for by Dunkin’ Donuts.  The main plot of the movie was that Sandler’s character Jack was going to lose his largest client, Dunkin’ Donuts, unless he got Al Pacino to star in their commercials for their Dunkacinno drink.  A quick google search found that it truly is a drink of theirs that they describe as “A Match Made In Heaven, our Dunkaccino, with its unique blend of coffee and hot chocolate flavors, is the perfect treat to warm you up.  Drink as is, or add extra indulgence with delicious whipped cream.”  BTW, Dunkin’ Donuts, you can thank me later for the extra pitch for your product on my blog!  Just send a years supply my way.  That’d be great.

Anyway, other noticeable product placements in the movie were for Pepto Bismol and I’m guessing American Girl dolls as the daughter in the movie had outfits for the dolls that matched each of her own and there were quite a few close ups of them.  Hmmm, movie gets launched right around Thanksgiving and parents need gift ideas for their daughters and maybe a guilt trip because their daughter’s been bugging them all year for an American Girl doll but they’re a little expensive, however since the movie daughter has one their daughter should have one…

Jack and Jill, at times, was hard to sit through although there were a couple of funny laughs like when Jack’s sister Jill gets Chimichanga stomach pains–sometimes bathroom humor works. Overall I’m glad the ticket was free.

But, it makes me wonder what advertising executives and advertisers need to be conscious of.  When doing product placement for clients and products, it’s best to be mindful of how it’s presented.  Sure, we’ve all heard about negative press being better than no press but isn’t a positive impression of a product the way to showcase it?  Bottom line, always be mindful of how consumers will take in marketing efforts and don’t waste money on promotions that are just going to make the product look bad.

Overall, product placement isn’t a bad idea and can be a way to get exposure but it’s probably not a good idea to make a whole movie out of it. Or if you do, offer a “being sold to” discount for entrance and why not be more blatant about it and give people coupons to buy the products being featured in the movie?  At the very least offer a warning.  “Contents in this movie have been paid for by sponsors.  You are being sold to.  Enter at your own risk.”