Last Friday my roommate opened the sports section of the newspaper and noticed a two page spread on the paper’s football pick contest. “Look at this,” she urged. “They have listed the advertisers’ picks for the games this weekend.”
Indeed they had.
Below their pictures, eleven advertisers’ picks were listed along with their names and the names of their businesses. These were the advertisers providing the prizes for the contest and advertising in the two-page spread which promoted the contest. Since their picks were in the center of the paper, the picks jumped out at the reader.
“That is smart,” I replied. “The newspaper involved the advertisers by having them make those picks.”
Contests are notorious for getting the involvement of consumers. This time of year, consumers frequently participate in contests which offer the opportunity to pick the winners of football games. Football fans love to guess the winners, don’t they? Melding their interest in picking football game winners with the involvement that consumers have in contests, the local newspaper created the “Click, Pick, and Win” contest. Entrants can sign up and make their picks online. Their results are totaled each week and added into a running total. Weekly prizes as well as a grand prize are awarded.
Tapping into the football hype at the beginning of the season is smart for the newspaper and for the advertisers. Why? First of all, most readers of sports pages are part of a hard-to-find market: men. Guys read the sports pages, especially this time of the year, to keep up with their favorite team and find out what is happening with other teams, too. If men are a business’s target market, this is an excellent vehicle to reach them.
Second, guys who are football fans love to participate in guessing which team will win a game. Setting up a contest in which they can do this on a weekly basis gives them the opportunity to do so and have bragging rights as to their picks for the week.
The newspaper took this a step further, however, with the third reason that this idea is smart. By having the advertisers make their picks every week, the newspaper opened the door for feedback to the advertisers. One of the greatest challenges to selling media is feedback. The advertisers’ weekly picks will prompt unsolicited comments from consumers on a particular game or week’s picks such as “You did okay this week on your picks, didn’t you?” or “I can’t believe that you picked New York in that game!”
These picks give advertisers an opening for conversation with consumers and the opportunity to build a relationship with them. The picks give both the target market and the advertisers a common interest. Rather than being a stranger who wants to take the consumer’s money, the advertisers become people, establishing trust. After all, you can trust another football fanatic, can’t you?
Trust opens the door to building a long term relationship as a customer and a business person. These relationships are profitable for both parties. That is what you want from your marketing.
The next time that you are offered an advertising opportunity, take a careful look at it. Does the offer involve your customer? Does it offer an opportunity for two-way communication with your customer? Will it afford you the chance to lay a foundation of trust and build a relationship with your customer?
If it does, grab it. That is profitable advertising.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Marketing Difference
Last Tuesday evening I had the privilege of being a member of a panel of business people who shared our experiences with students at Globe University. We began with panel members giving an opening statement regarding our careers, our current positions, and our recommendations to students.
Pat Lehman, the first panel member to talk, related how his career started in the automotive industry. He moved from that to door and window manufacturing to his current position as Vice President in charge of Manufacturing Operations at Silver Spring Gardens. In addition to their taste-tingling horseradish and mustards, Silver Spring is currently producing Asian recipes for a Japanese company which distributes the products in the United States.
In my statement, I mentioned that my first book, Mistakes I made My First Five Years in Business (and How You Can Avoid Them) had publishers in China, South Korea, and India. As a marketing consultant, I stressed that I am on a mission to get businesses to create and use a written marketing plan because I think that is the key to profitable marketing. In fact, I challenged the students to walk into any ten businesses in town and ask them for their written marketing plan. “I would be surprised if you found one that had a written marketing plan.”
The next panel member to talk, Scott Smith, Global Aftermarket Manager for Extrusion Dies, finished his opening statement by turning to me and noting, “We have a written marketing plan that we work everyday.”
“Great!” I replied excitedly. “That helps you be successful.”
Scott agreed.
David Czysz, the fourth panel member, expressed his storied past which led him from leaving school before graduating to selling cars to his current position selling financial investments. He had an excellent, very concise, very intriguing opening statement which he made to potential clients. I would give it to you, but I did not write it down and paraphrasing it would lose its impact. If David asked that question of me, I would certainly stop, think, and probably want to talk with him further.
Although all of the panel members had very busy schedules, they took time to give back to the students by participating in this panel. As Scott pointed out, one theme that threaded through three of our experiences was the international work. Within twenty years, some experts have projected that half the small businesses in the United States will do business internationally. Three-quarters of the panel members already were doing so. If this is any indication, the experts may be right.
Wherever their business is conducted, critical to the success of each of these business people is their marketing. Scott proclaimed that Extrusion Dies has a marketing plan which they work daily. Pat Lehman told me that the son of the owner, who is next in line to assume leadership of the company, is currently getting his MBA in marketing. David has carefully planned how he approaches and develops his customers. I practice what I preach by creating and using a written marketing plan. The basis of each person’s success was planned, written marketing. That is the basis of every business’s success.
Are you working from a written marketing plan? If not, take time to create one soon.
Then use it.
Pat Lehman, the first panel member to talk, related how his career started in the automotive industry. He moved from that to door and window manufacturing to his current position as Vice President in charge of Manufacturing Operations at Silver Spring Gardens. In addition to their taste-tingling horseradish and mustards, Silver Spring is currently producing Asian recipes for a Japanese company which distributes the products in the United States.
In my statement, I mentioned that my first book, Mistakes I made My First Five Years in Business (and How You Can Avoid Them) had publishers in China, South Korea, and India. As a marketing consultant, I stressed that I am on a mission to get businesses to create and use a written marketing plan because I think that is the key to profitable marketing. In fact, I challenged the students to walk into any ten businesses in town and ask them for their written marketing plan. “I would be surprised if you found one that had a written marketing plan.”
The next panel member to talk, Scott Smith, Global Aftermarket Manager for Extrusion Dies, finished his opening statement by turning to me and noting, “We have a written marketing plan that we work everyday.”
“Great!” I replied excitedly. “That helps you be successful.”
Scott agreed.
David Czysz, the fourth panel member, expressed his storied past which led him from leaving school before graduating to selling cars to his current position selling financial investments. He had an excellent, very concise, very intriguing opening statement which he made to potential clients. I would give it to you, but I did not write it down and paraphrasing it would lose its impact. If David asked that question of me, I would certainly stop, think, and probably want to talk with him further.
Although all of the panel members had very busy schedules, they took time to give back to the students by participating in this panel. As Scott pointed out, one theme that threaded through three of our experiences was the international work. Within twenty years, some experts have projected that half the small businesses in the United States will do business internationally. Three-quarters of the panel members already were doing so. If this is any indication, the experts may be right.
Wherever their business is conducted, critical to the success of each of these business people is their marketing. Scott proclaimed that Extrusion Dies has a marketing plan which they work daily. Pat Lehman told me that the son of the owner, who is next in line to assume leadership of the company, is currently getting his MBA in marketing. David has carefully planned how he approaches and develops his customers. I practice what I preach by creating and using a written marketing plan. The basis of each person’s success was planned, written marketing. That is the basis of every business’s success.
Are you working from a written marketing plan? If not, take time to create one soon.
Then use it.
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