Marketers have long been concerned with ‘name recognition’ or ‘brand awareness’. But in the18 years that I’ve worked in the industry what my clients really care about is what that campaign did to sales.
There are four steps, and they all relate to Kipling’s five W’s and an H.
Step 1. PLAN the campaign around the following questions:
What are we selling?
Who is our target? This needs to be as comprehensive as possible. See next months Blog (No, your customer is not anyone with a buck).
Where are these people?
How do we reach them?
When will they likely be ready to purchase?
Why should they buy from us? Limit this to one compelling reason. Anyone can do price/value/selection/service/satisfaction; in fact the American consumer expects nothing less. The key is to pick one, and own it. (Wal-Mart owns price and is an ‘advocate’ for the average American while Target owns selection, particularly of ‘cool’ everyday products).
Step 2. DEVELOP the campaign (Set the budget, buy the media, and develop the campaign):
Rule #1 - DO NOT do the creative first. The creative should only be developed once you have defined the advertising channels to be used. Your primary consideration needs to be: ‘What medium will most cost effectively our target? ‘
Other critical considerations are:
What is the budget needed to support this campaign?
How long does it need to run to reach enough people enough times (reach and frequency)? Experience has shown that half a dozen or so contacts are often required before much of anything happens.
