Now is not the time to stop advertising
Posted in Advertising on 03/05/2009 12:13 am by Elidet
The state of the economy is filtering out the real entrepreneurs from the competition.
“I’ve cut back on advertising because it’s slow.”
Small businesses and corporations alike are laying employees off, reporting loss in revenue and cutting back on as many expenses as they can.
Unfortunately, one big but common mistake many small business owners are making is cutting back in advertising. This is the opposite of what a small business looking to survive these trying times should be doing.
Although marketing and advertising should always be constant, it is important to spend wisely.
CASE SCENARIO: The Flower Shop
ABC Flower Shop only advertisers during Valentine’s Day, the busiest day of the year for them, but fails to attract business the rest of the year.
And when the owner does advertise on Valentine’s Day, there is a heavy discount, hoping to bait customers into purchasing from her shop throughout the year.
Unfortunately, because her prices are low on Valentine’s Day, when a potential customer does come back, the high price eventually drives the customer away without purchasing any bouquets.
If this pattern repeats year after year, the flower shop will soon go out of business.
Solution
An advertising budget is just that: a budget. It does not make financial sense to spend your entire advertising budget when your industry will most likely already get customers.
Customers don’t always know what they want: you have to tell them. Besides doing the usual “Buy her flowers for Valentine’s Day” campaign, you must also give the buyer other ideas.
In the case of the flower shop, flowers are universal: there is never a wrong time to give flowers, and there is no reason for a flower shop to go out of business.
But you don’t need to be a flower shop to create a universal way to market your product.





