BFH> I find one criteria important. Place ads where your customers are. But
 BFH> then when you have not identified where they are that's tough.
It's becoming harder to make "identifications" these days, as folks seem to
tend to shy-away from answering even simple marketing questionaires. Many
that I've spoken to are just trying to keep their mailbox clutter to a
"sociable level" by not responding to questions on paper. Others openly tell
us that they don't want to chance being placed on a list of _any_ type.
However, they have no problems _saying_ where it is that they found out about
our business during the course of "normal" conversation.
I really haven't had the time to compile any statistics to judge the value of
our Yellow Pages ad in the phone book, and anyways we'd (recently) been
forced to change the Company's name so that's pretty well been rendered moot
...for now. Though only the Company's name had been changed, I wanted to
learn about the _acceptance_ by the Public to the name itself...
In one of my business ventures, I've tried to use the marketing questionaire,
but for all of my efforts the return is _still_ below expectations. We have,
however, noticed that most of our Customers are coming to us from word-of
-mouth "news" with relatives, friends, neighbours and (Church/work)
colleagues. Still, one of my main reasons in using any nature of questionaire
was to better determine the demographics of our service area. The information
could then be used to design advertising aimed at certain segmented
categories, indeed, even to help smooth-over the periodical sales slums
throughout the year. Another reason for the use of the marketing questionaire
was to better determine if our business should add any other (related)
services to our existing core service: if the demand warranted it, I'd be
more than simply willing to make the investment (banks aside, of course).
 BFH> Suffice to say if one has an automotive product, don't list it with a
 BFH> paper that is mostly read by homemakers, who would care less about
 BFH> tinted windows. The ad should go with things that are automotive, and
 BFH> then some. When it don't work in two tries, pull the add immediately.
I've done (immediate) neighbourhood and parking-lot flyers for this
particular business venture, and the response was terrific ! We've placed
"business-card" sized ads with a few "glizzy" supermarket shoppers'/TV
viewers' sheets which we hope will bring us some _new_ business. Come
February, we'll be joining other businesses on two "community-business" type
Information Boards located at high traffic destinations. Both of these
advertising venues will be closely monitored over the course of the following
year by us. If they work at all well, then I may (more) seriously consider
putting some advertising on the interior panels of the city's buses at some
point in time. I don't believe in spending wildly on advertising, but I do
believe that a bit of diversity in advertising is a requirement towards
success for _any_ business venture: under certain circumstances, you've
got to go where the people are in order to capture their attention.
What I've `discovered' about advertising alone has led me to develop a simple
guiding philosophy: Target...Capture...and Profit. Under this philosophy, I
actively look for under-developed (or non-traditional) markets for my
business' products. This is a cost-effective method leading to expansion...
and thus far, it seems to have paid-off (I've used that same philosophy with
my other two business ventures, so it * works *) ! Here, the ads that I
originate take-on a wholly "specialist" nature, totally away from the usual
generic forms that I've used. And the media ? Small institutional and "club"
type newsletters !!! (Since I'm "DTP-capable" here, I'll simply do the ad
copy to diskette in the format these people require...something they
appreciate immensely...and nets me a bit of a discount in the long-run). This
year, I'm kinda excited (and proud) of one of our "recent finds": the next-
door high school's yearbook ! With a student population of well-over a
thousand, how many students and _parents_ do you think will waltz into our
location "just because [we] saw fit to support the school" ? (We even employ
some of the kids...)
But the one form of advertising that has proven almost invaluable for us is
that of "community service": we sponsor girls baseball AND boys soccer teams.
You wouldn't believe the kind of response we get during the warm months from
the back of the teams' uniforms where our Company's name is placed !!! I've
often wondered if becoming a co-sponsor of a car racing team could effect the
_same_ kind of response...
We may not have the Deep Pockets that the breweries and tobacco makers
project for advertising: in fact, my advertising "budget" is practically "non
-existent": it's set whenever `Opportunity presents', if anything ! BUT we
_never_ run head-long into anything we don't like or think "isn't
appropriate". Of course, being into DTP services does give me an added
advantage - to a certain extent, of course - over many of my competitors.
There, the ideas come from a lot of the DTP work I've done for other
businesses over the course of years: sometimes I just "co-opt" them for my 
wn
purposes, even while still striving for originality of design. However, while
I do DTP in one market area (where I know _who_ to contact for whatever) I'm
still learning (or trying to, at least) where to go for comparable services
in the other market area.
Semper Fi
RTP
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