All-the-Time Advertising
09/02/2009 10:13 AM Filed in: Norton Warner
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2, "The Battlefield," of the book, "David Can Still Beat Goliath," by Norton Warner.
Customer dissatisfaction induces a search for a new supplier of a product or service. Consumers who move into your community need new product and service providers. Condition changes also create new customer needs and wants. Since all these factors- customer dissatisfaction, change of residence, and condition changes-can arise any hour of the day, any day of the week, any week of the year, two strategies are necessary to increase your market share by attracting new customers, and a third strategy can also be productive.
1. Create awareness, understanding, and trust or preference before the customer need or want arises.
If you have reached prospective customers hundreds of times with your message, you have an excellent chance of moving them through the advertising communication process before the need to purchase arises. Either your name is on their shopping list or you have developed a consumer franchise in their minds.
There is no way to predict when a customer want or need will arise. Consumers' wants and needs are changing constantly, every hour of every day. When a customer suddenly decides to buy a product or service, it's important to reach that customer as soon after this buying decision as possible.
A consumer may decide to buy carpet this weekend or shop for a new or used car tomorrow. An automobile accident or a malfunctioning refrigerator creates an emergency need or want. In either case, you can put the selling odds in your favor if you are making advertising sales calls immediately after the buying decision or the emergency. To do this, you must intrude, penetrate the mind of the consumer, and tell your story as consistently and frequently as your budget will allow.
3. You may also ask your advertising to create dissatisfaction or to produce a want or need that was not present before your advertising campaign.
A third strategy is to create dissatisfaction with your competitor. When customers of a competing enterprise hear your message and compare your offering, they may respond in your favor: "Gee, my bank doesn't offer that service" or "I don't get that service free at my bank. I think I'll switch."
You may also create a want or need that did not exist until the prospective customer was exposed to your advertising, perhaps by offering a special service, bargain price, or unique incentive to buy. Or perhaps the want or need was there all the time and your incentive just raised its priority, causing customers to view it as "an offer [they] can't refuse."
Norton is the author and creator of Marketing Firepower. Five decades helping businesses develop strategies, create campaigns, identify and target the most profitable customer and proper budgeting advice have all contributed to the Marketing Firepower information. Norton created Marketing Firepower to make his experience and success strategies available to businesses around the world.
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