Integrated Marketing Helps You Target Audiences And Maximize Results
FAME Doesn’t Have To Be Fleeting...
It Can Make Your Company A Marketing Star.
Integrated Marketing
If your business plan is the brain behind your company’s strategic direction, then your marketing plan is the heart that pumps fresh ideas, new sales leads, and creative advertising throughout your organization.
Developing a sound marketing plan largely depends on your company’s goals and objectives. Keep in mind marketing that works well in one industry may not be suited for another type of industry.
You built your business on a solid foundation that has a clear vision and a defined mission. Preparing your marketing plan is no different. If you follow the four elements of FAME:
Frequency
Audience
Message
Execution
Frequency
Frequency is the number of times an individual sees or hears your advertising message during a designated period of time. The rules are changing when it comes to determining the amount of advertising frequency it takes to break though the clutter and allow your message to make a powerful impact on the customers you target.
The average person is exposed to more than 3,000 advertising messages each day. We are exposed to more advertising messages in a single year than our parents or grandparents were in their lifetime. The key to a successful marketing campaign is designing and deploying your vital messages on a frequent basis so you can maximize what your target audience retains about the messages you convey.
Recent research by Apple Computer found that its advertisements need to run six to eight times before the audience actually sees or hears the message and takes some course of action. Think about this statement for a second… Apple is one of the most recognized brands in the world and it still needs multiple touches in order to break through the clutter.
Keep in mind an advertisement doesn’t have to be an actual ad of the print variety in a newspaper or magazine – or a broadcast advertisement on radio or television. You can effectively touch prospective customers through such additional mediums as direct mail, e-mail blasts, or news releases targeted specifically toward your customers. Utilizing different communications tools is what is referred to in the industry as “Integrated Marketing.”
Audience
The second key component of your marketing plan is audience. You will avoid the cliché, “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half” if you can effectively segment your audience into the key prospects to whom you wish to speak to the most.
Audience segmentation variables include:
- Demographics (age, sex, income, education, and geographic location)
- Purchase Patterns (product usage and similar products used)
- Psychographics (lifestyle and personal interests)
Business-to-business marketers may use a slightly different set of variables that include industry classification (Standard Industry Classification), job function, and size of company.
Once you have determined your key audiences, you can use the information to find the message delivery vehicle, be it newspapers, magazines, or direct mail lists. You want your delivery vehicle to best match your audiences.
Message
Message is the third critical element of your marketing plan. Decide on the content of your message – the specific points you need to make and the overall feeling you want the ad to impart. Articulating key benefits into relevant and easy to understand messages so that they are remembered can be accomplished by asking yourself the following questions:
- What are the primary benefits to the consumer? The consumer is the operative word here. Step back and look at your product or service through the eyes of your customer. What makes your product or service better than competitive offerings?
- Are we using action words? Avoid clichés and complex phrases, borrowed interest, abbreviated slogans, and synonyms. More often than not, your audience won’t understand what it is you are saying.
An example of how an abbreviated slogan backfired is an ad campaign conducted many years ago by then-grocery giant A&P. A large television, radio, and print advertising campaign was created to communicate A&P’s low prices. The slogan was, “At A&P we say WEO!”
Television ads showed customers in check-out lines and grocery baggers saying, “At A&P, we say WEO!” What does “WEO” have to do with low prices? According to A&P, “WEO” stands for “Where Economy Originates.” A&P would have been better served by simply imparting the message “we have low prices” in an easy-to-understand manner. This simple and to-the-point approach to messaging seems to work for Walmart.
Execution
With the first three elements – Frequency, Audience, and Message – firmly in place, it’s time to approach the execution phase of your marketing plan. Creative execution can be the most complicated and difficult aspect of a marketing campaign. Your ad must be bold and different to break through the clutter of competing ads.
Creativity has two sides. The side most people associate with creativity is doing something uncommon or out of the ordinary. The second side is doing the common thing uncommonly well.
Challenge your creative team to develop a clean, well-written and produced advertising and marketing campaign. It just may be your company’s claim to FAME. Check out our portfolio for examples.
Call 440-357-8135 or The Marshfield Group and we can show you how an integrated marketing program and make your company a marketing star!
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