Today marketing comes in for a great deal of criticism and much of the anger people feel is directed at the how unsubtle some of the advertising we see today is.   Most of us as soon as an annoying advertisement appears on the TV have turned over or express some displeasure that it is on again.   In fact when certain ads appear we tune these out and sometimes when we see it for the 20th time do we remain alert enough to remember just what the advertisement is for.

If your budget for marketing is limited then this is the kind of response you don’t want to be getting.  So knowing who your customers are is essential when it comes to marketing.   Most businesses are unable to claim that they are able to appeal to everyone.   I mean do you have a product or service that is the kind of thing a 79 year old woman would find useful in much the same way as it would for an 18 year old boy?   If it does then of course you have a sure fire winner and creating a marketing campaign for it shouldn’t prove at all difficult.   However most products and services will appear to specific markets and it is to these customers you must be able to reach out to.

If say your product is perfect for young male professionals then advertising it on the radio during office hours won’t work.  Instead you need to be advertising it during the afternoon period.  However if yours will appeal to seniors then avoid advertising it during a live rock show.   Remember you are trying to get your message across to the largest number of people so it provides real value for money.

For someone to be able to judge another person’s ambition they will often ask the question “Would you prefer to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond?”  When it comes to you marketing your business the answer to this question should really be the first one.   If you advertise locally you will spend a lot less money than choosing to go further and wider.   Also you will be able to gain the full attention of a small number of people rather than you barely registering with thousands.   When it comes to potential customers you want to have their attention fully.  Some may see this as lack of ambition but I see it as playing the percentages.

Certainly if you aim to be a big company one day then throwing lots of money upfront in order to try and stir up attention for you in the marketplace where there are lots of others competing for the same business doesn’t make a sound strategy.   However by becoming number one where you are based allows you the opportunity to diversify into neighboring territories before you become a feature on a more national level.   You need to be conscious at all times about what will work for you.

Although being ambitious is great, you shouldn’t get confused between ambition and recklessness.   When running a business you need to be fully aware of what you need in order for yours to be successful.   You have plenty of time to try and reach for the stars.  Instead what you should be doing is looking to build a decent ladder for yourself.   You aren’t actually aiming for what is low, but rather you are making yourself aware of what is possible and so ensuring that you are able to grab it.

Were you to ask one hundred consumers what they find most about marketing then you are probably going to find that at least 25% of them will say the way in which the word lie is used?   Consumers hate being lied to and are far less likely to take notice of marketing if someone is always telling them a lie.   In fact this has led to a cynical market which has become hard to nail down through the use of conventional marketing.

If you were to tell someone that something is too good to be true they will tend to believe it and so it must be a lie.   In fact you can go along way if you are honest with your customers.  However what this doesn’t’ mean is that you tell them to go somewhere else as you know of shop that sells what you have to offer for less.   What we mean is that you should be concentrating on the facts whilst avoiding trying to make your product look like it can solve all their problems.   What consumers want to hear is how something will make their life easier, more convenient or enjoyable.    Okay it may be that you are making your product to be better that it is and when this is the case people are often more impressed.   Certainly gaining a reputation for speaking frankly is very worthwhile indeed as people are fed up with all the lies and are more willing to value the word of someone who is prepared to be less hyperbolic and uses more constructive marketing instead.   But you shouldn’t undersell yourself and also be prepared to tone down what you say.   As you will discover people will be happy to spend more time with you if they trust you.

Today there not many advertisements to be seen on TV that can be accused of being understated, when they are trying to push a certain product.    The whole idea of such advertisements is to ensure that the service or product name is being placed directly in front of its potential customers eyes.   Ideally it is best if you can do so without it resembling a market robot and have the brand name repeated endlessly, but his is much harder than you may think.

The main thing to remember is that you should avoid being too modest.  Okay people do like a bit of modesty as it helps to create a buzz as people think that we aren’t telling them everything.   Yet you will still find that people hate it when someone chooses to tell others loudly about their good qualities.   In fact in marketing things tend not to work in this way and promoting your product by asking them to try it, saying it is quite good and it will help, and buying it is up to them or just asking them to buy it please is a sure way to see your marketing strategy fail.

What you have to do is show the people that your product is right for them, but you must do it without looking as if you are pressurizing them into making a purchase.   Striking the right balance takes some thought.  You need to explain why the product is useful to them and the ways in which it can make life easier for them.   Giving it due prominence is another issue altogether and will be dependent on who you want to reach.   So in order to identify these people you need to come up with an effective target strategy.

In this day and age it doesn’t seem like a wise decision to advertise without using the internet, especially as it seems everything is happening online these days.   But there is little doubt that the internet is a very crowded forum when it comes to advertising and so finding space for publicity in order for something to be seen is proving very challenging.   As a result of this it is important that you devise a strategy for offline marketing.   It is important no matter the size of your business that you are able to promote the product you have.   But how you go about this will depend on the size of budget you have.

Should the internet stop tomorrow all over the world then most of the big companies would just shrug their shoulders and spend more on purchasing advertising space in magazines or newspapers or on TV.  However not all businesses can afford to do this.  You could of course go out sticking up flyers everywhere but the problem is that in most places you are doing something that is totally illegal.   Therefore it will require a little ingenuity from you on how you place advertising.  Yes dropping flyers through peoples doors may get your brand seen but this won’t amount to very much as people normally throw what they see as junk mail directly into the bin.   What you need to be doing instead is thinking of a way that will allow you to catch the attention of people and once caught allows you to point your over to them convincingly.   If you can do so without being annoying then you are certainly onto something, but it won’t be easy to achieve.

When deciding on your offline marketing strategy it is crucial that you think about the best way that you can get your product or the name of your company in front of people without the need to spend too much, yet without making yourself look like Scrooge.   It is also important that you do so without annoying people and without underselling the product.   This is why the best advertising execs get paid what they do.  When you describe their job above it is on a par with attempting to juggle chainsaws whilst walking across a tightrope and you have itching powder in your underwear.

Or is this the case?  Many people are of the opinion that good advertising is all about just one word, simplicity.   They feel a good but simple advertisement will draw lots of people in.   If you are able to grab attention and put across the message that leaves them thinking that is all I needed to know and has made them interested in your company, then of course you think you are doing a good job.   In fact this may be much simpler to do than you first thought.   Of course first things first you need to get their attention and this can be done through the using of bold typeface or music that stirs something within them.

Only then will you be able to tell them what they need to know.   Is it that simple?  Today a great deal of money is being spent by marketing companies to discover ways to attract customers through the use of subliminal techniques.   Surely they aren’t throwing money away if everything was this simple to grab their attention?   Perhaps the main driving force for you operating in this way is that you are looking to differentiate your brand from others and this is where the marketing gurus seem to be of use.

Throughout the Soccer World Cup in 2010 it was dogged by a number of controversies.   However the most interesting of this wasn’t anything thing to do with what was actually happening on the pitch.   During one game that took place between Denmark and Holland some officials inside the stadium noticed that 36 women fans were stood together dressed in orange miniskirts the same color that is worn by the Dutch soccer team.   It was discovered that these women were wearing advertising that has been placed by the Dutch Brewer Bavaria and were then removed from the stadium.

In fact this was the latest in a series of ambush marketing campaigns that this particular brewery had devised.   The reason for this title is that the World Cup has its own beer sponsor that is different from this Dutch brewery and the rules laid down by this sport’s governing body forbids other companies from certain industries from advertising in the stadium if it is already represented by another company.   So by advertising their brand which competes with another, Bavaria had broken this law.   Of course the result was still in their favor; although they were banished from the stadium the Bavaria brewery still boosted their images as they got mentioned in newspapers around the world.  In most of the articles the writers were complaining about the stranglehold that corporate business seems to have on the sporting world.   Even though they did not pay anything like the amount that the governing body of soccer demands to advertise their product they still received a lot of good publicity and which is the point of using ambush marketing.   Although you may think their tactics they employed weren’t within the rules of the game they worked extremely well.

Most companies prefer not to spend too much on their advertising these days as it is one of the few things that they are unable to quantify the return on using it.   Alright you may be able to draw more people in through an advertising campaign just carried out.   But just how many of these were motivated to do so by your marketing or happened to stumble across your business?   In fact it can prove difficult making sense of any marketing returns and unless you are assured that the technique you use will work then it is unwise to commit too much money to such a project.

So what is the solution?  Are you able to advertise for free?   To some extent the answer to this question is yes.   Of course you don’t need to spend money advertising your business, but it does make things a lot easier when you do.   For those who would like to be able to advertise their business without spending too much then it is important to have a good marketing strategy in place.   You can use word of mouth marketing in which you get members of staff to sell your business to friends and family.   But of course the problem with this is that these people may already be customers because they are being loyal to their friends.   Another way to get your business in the public eye is through participating in events in your community wearing something with your company’s logo on it.  But this is a real hit and miss strategy to use at the best of times.   When you want to market yourself without spending too much then the best way would be probably to show your value to the community through offering deals especially for schools and offices allowing you to show your community spirit.   Although it may end up costing you money it is will prove to be a very sound marketing strategy if it helps to create new business for your company.

Most companies today who want to become more prominent in the eyes of the public will choose to use a big hitting marketing strategy.   As well as being expensive this type of strategy can also prove very risky as they need to purchase TV time and then record an advertisement that will be aired locally and regionally.   Otherwise they may take out a full page ad in a newspaper or place short ads that are repeated on the radio.   What they are hoping is that by spending more they will able to bring more customers to them.   However the biggest problem with taking this approach is that it doesn’t matter how much you spend there is no guarantee that this form of advertising will succeed.

Predicting the future with any kind of accuracy is difficult and should you place an advertisement on National TV or with a certain radio station you cannot be sure that will not happen between placement of the advertisement and it is meant to run that causes people to turn over to watch the other.   So resulting in you losing that all important marketing punch.   Although this may not happen there is nothing to say that it won’t and you can clearly see how dangerous it is to put all your eggs in one basket.   For those who want to attract more customers then history clearly shows that they need to grab their attention from the ground up.   The more attention you get then the easier it increases your pull.   If you do this gradually instead of trying to get their attention all at once is the best way to go.   Only start using TV advertising when you can afford to do so, never use it as a gamble as the odds it gives aren’t worth taking.

The world has changed somewhat since the internet arrived.  It Is perfectly reasonable to say that this has become the biggest single development to occur in relation to global communication since the telephone was invented.   It is in fact on part with this invention.    Just thing what your routine would be like on a daily basis without the internet.  No email much reduced rolling news, no online shopping and no internet banking.   Now you get the picture.

Now think what you would have to do in order to market your business without the internet.   Okay marketing came well before the internet and was possible to do before we went online and would remain possible to do even if all the servers in the world were to crash.   In fact it is still easy for us to market offline.   But it seems stupid to consider when you have marketing for free online.   So why would you bother to market another way?

There are many reasons for why you should consider it.  Firstly not everybody today has the internet as some people don’t have a computer and cannot afford to without having to borrow the money which they simply don’t want to do.   Whilst for others there are personal reasons for them not wanting to have the internet.  Then there are others who still distrust things which can be purchased online.   It is for these reasons alone that you should have established an offline as well as online marketing strategy.