Lately I hear business owners tell me that their ad campaigns under perform based on their expectations, or based on the results they received a year or two ago. I would like to discuss some of the reasons why this may be so, some of the reasons I have found to cause the problem, and how to fix the problem.
1. To begin with, if you are comparing today's expectations against results from two years ago (2008) using the same gross rating points or target rating points, and you are using the same basic offer or call to action, you probably are getting fewer responses.
Why? because in a deep recession there are fewer people in the market for most goods and services. In other words there are fewer fish in the same sized pond. So what to do? Get yourself a bigger net and cast it further into the pond. This will allow you to reach more buyers by purchasing more audience share or rating points. And why not, the rates are lower now so you can afford to buy more rating points, more reach and more frequency for the same budget you spent in 2008. It will take more fire power but there always people in the market if you can simply reach more people.
2. Check your offer lately? What you offered before may not be the same bait the fish want today. In other words, when the market is slow, consumers are looking for greater value, savings, service, warranty and guarantee protection, and overall more inducement to part with their money. Recession advertising requires that you give them more bang for their buck.
3. Get creative, and look for ways to solve problems that people are facing today. It may be creative financing, bundling of services or products to provide greater value, or creating a new service that people need to stretch their budget, create income, find a job, feel better, learn a new skill, etc.
4. Make sure you are selling what the market wants to buy. If you have a new car dealership your new car sales are down by 30-50% over 2008 based on the triple blow of the recession, tightened credit and manufacturer bankruptcies. So what to do? Focus on selling and leasing used car models at price points that people are buying and can afford to pay. Look at a buy-here-pay-here and a rent to own business model on older used cars that does not require bank financing, which fewer people can qualify for today.
Here is an example of one companies experience. In 2006 they had tremendous response to a radio campaign. So much so that they literally stopped advertising due to the residual sales and income. In 2009 the bottom fell out of the market and their sales revenue was cut in half. In January 2010 they brought me in to start advertising again, hoping to repeat the success of the campaign in 2006, of which I was not involved.
They did not get even close. Why? I asked them what was different if anything about their offer and message in 2006 vs. 2010? They could not think of anything that was different. After conducting some research into their only competitor I discovered that the competition was busy, very busy. Why? Because the competition started offering what the client company used to offer, but abandoned because of their own success.
It turns out that the client used to offer a guarantee and Saturday hours. Both of which they dropped in 2007, but because the market was so hot they did not feel the impact.
It also turns out that the competition continued to advertise in good times and bad, creating confidence, top of mind awareness, and brand preference, which consistent advertising does, while the client was in and out of the market with no consistency or continuity.
To make it more interesting, I also built a new website for them with analytics to measure traffic volume, sources and visitor patterns. What I discovered was that the radio campaign was in fact a great success. Why? Because we had nearly 1,000 unique visitors to the site in 6 weeks, 70% of whom came as a result of direct type-in or searching for the keywords we used in the radio ads. They also viewed over 3 pages and spent nearly 4 minutes each on the site, which is a long time. But fewer than 100 requested more information. This tells me they were looking for something they did not find, which is what lead me to investigate, where I found what they were looking for was no longer offered except by the competition.
So there you have it: cast a wider net, check your offer, get creative, solve problems, and give them what they want to buy.
1. To begin with, if you are comparing today's expectations against results from two years ago (2008) using the same gross rating points or target rating points, and you are using the same basic offer or call to action, you probably are getting fewer responses.
Why? because in a deep recession there are fewer people in the market for most goods and services. In other words there are fewer fish in the same sized pond. So what to do? Get yourself a bigger net and cast it further into the pond. This will allow you to reach more buyers by purchasing more audience share or rating points. And why not, the rates are lower now so you can afford to buy more rating points, more reach and more frequency for the same budget you spent in 2008. It will take more fire power but there always people in the market if you can simply reach more people.
2. Check your offer lately? What you offered before may not be the same bait the fish want today. In other words, when the market is slow, consumers are looking for greater value, savings, service, warranty and guarantee protection, and overall more inducement to part with their money. Recession advertising requires that you give them more bang for their buck.
3. Get creative, and look for ways to solve problems that people are facing today. It may be creative financing, bundling of services or products to provide greater value, or creating a new service that people need to stretch their budget, create income, find a job, feel better, learn a new skill, etc.
4. Make sure you are selling what the market wants to buy. If you have a new car dealership your new car sales are down by 30-50% over 2008 based on the triple blow of the recession, tightened credit and manufacturer bankruptcies. So what to do? Focus on selling and leasing used car models at price points that people are buying and can afford to pay. Look at a buy-here-pay-here and a rent to own business model on older used cars that does not require bank financing, which fewer people can qualify for today.
Here is an example of one companies experience. In 2006 they had tremendous response to a radio campaign. So much so that they literally stopped advertising due to the residual sales and income. In 2009 the bottom fell out of the market and their sales revenue was cut in half. In January 2010 they brought me in to start advertising again, hoping to repeat the success of the campaign in 2006, of which I was not involved.
They did not get even close. Why? I asked them what was different if anything about their offer and message in 2006 vs. 2010? They could not think of anything that was different. After conducting some research into their only competitor I discovered that the competition was busy, very busy. Why? Because the competition started offering what the client company used to offer, but abandoned because of their own success.
It turns out that the client used to offer a guarantee and Saturday hours. Both of which they dropped in 2007, but because the market was so hot they did not feel the impact.
It also turns out that the competition continued to advertise in good times and bad, creating confidence, top of mind awareness, and brand preference, which consistent advertising does, while the client was in and out of the market with no consistency or continuity.
To make it more interesting, I also built a new website for them with analytics to measure traffic volume, sources and visitor patterns. What I discovered was that the radio campaign was in fact a great success. Why? Because we had nearly 1,000 unique visitors to the site in 6 weeks, 70% of whom came as a result of direct type-in or searching for the keywords we used in the radio ads. They also viewed over 3 pages and spent nearly 4 minutes each on the site, which is a long time. But fewer than 100 requested more information. This tells me they were looking for something they did not find, which is what lead me to investigate, where I found what they were looking for was no longer offered except by the competition.
So there you have it: cast a wider net, check your offer, get creative, solve problems, and give them what they want to buy.
Being on your place, I would also use data room service
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