racetracks

50 • NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA BUSINESS JOURNAL • SEPTEMBER 2003
Off the wall
continued from previous page
sage in unique places. If someone asked
me to place their name on an elephant,
I’d tell them,‘I’ll quote you a price for
that,’” said Jonathan Balester, owner/sales
consultant Abba Advertising Products,
Shavertown, who said he made his company’s
slogan “We will put your name on
anything,” because he saw the nontraditional
trend “catching on.”
An elephant bearing a marketing message
may very well grab your attention,
but something a little simpler may be just
as effective.
When Beiter, visited the First Union
Center in Philadelphia, he saw something
that caught his attention — something that
stood out from the many marketing messages
at the center — an advertisement on
the stadium’s turnstiles.
“I thought the placement was not only
effective, but interesting. It blows my mind
By Gaetan Giannini
I have been asked recently why marketers
have become so aggressive. The
answer starts with the “New Economy.”
Not the high-tech, bubble-riding economy
envisioned in the 90s, but the sober
economy of the new reality
— this “new reality” being a
long span of modest economic
activity, rather than a
90s-like boom or a
Depression-like bust.We will
all need to work harder and
be smarter to succeed.
The tech boom did affect
the world of marketing:
■ First, by creating some
outstanding new avenues for
communication, and vastly
improving existing ones.
These innovations made the
world a much smaller place that operates
at a much faster pace.Technology, especially
communications, has leveled the
playing field by providing even the smallest
businesses an affordable means to get
their message to prospective customers.
■ Secondly, the burst of the tech bubble,
slowed the global economy to a
crawl, and created a large pool of unemployed,
savvy professionals. Being used
to accomplishment and a healthy paycheck,
many of these folks contracted the
entrepreneur bug and joined the already
burgeoning pool of fledgling American
industrialists by venturing into their own
businesses. This cycle has changed the
business world as we know it.
There are more companies competing
for a piece of a shrinking economic pie
that has been spread to every corner of
the world. To add to the challenge, we
now measure changes in the market
place in hours and days, instead of
months and years.
When we look at all that has happened
in the past decade it is no wonder that
marketers have become aggressive. It is
truly a matter of survival. Let’s not forget,
however, that marketers have always
been aggressive, and many of the most
significant technological advances have
that it would go that far,” he said.“Another
nontraditional ad that I recently saw was
right here in Williamsport. I was at the
Weis Market the other day and saw photographic
ads on the floor. They caught
my eye and were very well done.”
Supermarket floors and turnstiles may
seem acceptable places to advertise, but
Sullivan said some places that advertisers
market may be questionable.
“In the early 90s, I was in New York
City, and I saw an advertisement on urinal
strainers. Being in the business, I really
appreciate creativity in getting the message
across, but unfortunately, in some
instances, good taste has taken a back
seat to the creativity. I’d like to see people
led to changes in the way we market. We
can go all the way back to the wheel —
it let our recently evolved ancestors get
more of their goods to more of their
neighbors in less time. Some other obvious
examples are: Gutenberg’s printing
press; automated travel (planes, trains,
automobiles); telephone and
telegraph; motion pictures;
TV; computers, fax, Internet
...so, we should not think
that we are really experiencing
something new, but just
the next step in the evolution
of commerce.
What’s different about the
present age is the new way
we are criticizing marketing
and advertising. In the 20th
century we questioned the
content of marketing and
advertising. That is, are the
messages truthful, ethical, and appropriate
for their intended audience,?
Today, the hot issues are not so much
the content of the messages, but the
method in which they are delivered.
Specifically, has the delivery of these
commercial messages become an intrusion
on the consumer’s privacy?
With traditional media (print and broadcast)
the rules had been pretty clear. We
implicitly agreed to suffer through commercial
messages in exchange for content
(entertainment, news, sports).
With other media, especially Internet,
direct mail and telephone, there is no
implied exchange and, without that consent,
many consumers feel that these
methods of marketing violate their right
to privacy. (Telemarketing and spam draw
the most ire because they come unsolicited,
and require your attention as soon as
they arrive. Mail can wait until you are
ready to sort through it.)
The facts of the whole matter are a bit
of a paradox. Any time we are force fed
information we can legitimately claim an
intrusion on our personal space of mind.
On the other hand, we all rely on the
results generated by these marketing
efforts for our livelihoods.
Unless someone buys the products,
services or ideas that our employers are
put more creative effort into the message
instead of location,” he said.
Dave Schwartz, vice president of marketing
and communications, Ideaworks
Marketing and Design, Plymouth, who has
also encountered a similar ad locally said,
“A question that needs to be on advertisers’
and marketers’ minds is,‘Is it wise to
invade peoples’ privacy?’You may be doing
more harm than good.Another example of
this is the pop up advertisements on the
Internet. I’ll go to an information-based
Web page and six to eight pop up window
ads will appear for things like mortgage
rates and vacation packages. It might be a
great deal, but chances are that I am not
going to use it because I’ve just gotten
selling, we don’t get a paycheck.
So, with overloaded and annoyed consumers
on one side, and companies desperate
for sales and growth on the other,
what can be done to bridge this chasm?
The answer is deceptively simple: Go
back to basics.
When we look closely we find that consumers
do want to be marketed to, just
not for all things from every company.
Consumers will accept marketing for
goods and services that they need or are
interested in.They are even more accepting
if it is on their terms, is somewhat
entertaining, or contains an offer of real
value to them.
Successful companies in this century
will be using personalized messages and
images via a mix of media to educate and
inform a laser-targeted audience of customers
and prospects, thereby beginning
to cultivate a relationship with these market
segments, and creating value in their
brand.We will find many companies looking
not for the broadest markets for their
sales, but the deepest.
They will be asking themselves,“Where
can we bring the most value to the customer?”
rather than,“Where can we get
the most volume?”
This approach will build a loyal, longterm
customer base that is willing to pay
more for a product or service, rather than
a fickle customer base that is willing to
change brands on small differences in
price or with the ebb and flow of fads.
So business owners and marketers, take
heart. The recent public outcry against
certain types of marketing is not a signal
to stop marketing. It is a signal to start
marketing better. An intelligent, longterm
approach to the right audience(s)
will yield success without alienating
clients or prospects.
Gaetan Giannini is president of G2
Integrated Marketing and an adjunct
professor of marketing and advertising
at East Stroudsburg University. He is
also an adjunct instructor for the
Manufacturer’s Association of Berks
County, and on the Business Advisory
Committee of Ben Franklin Technology
Partners. E-mail him at
gaetan@g2marketing.biz.
bombarded by advertisements.”
“Off the wall” advertising is designed to
break through the advertising bombardment,
but Schwartz points out,“the more
you can put the message in front of people,
the more likely they are to recognize
your product.The flip side to this is that
the audience may have sensory overload
— even if you use nontraditional media,
but if you do choose to place an advertisement
using a nontraditional medium, it
may catch customers’ attention longer and
you might have a better chance of the consumer
recognizing your product.”
More and more marketers seem to be
taking the chance and going out on a
limb to gain consumers’ attention by
using off the wall marketing. Who knows
what they will think of next, but as
Schwartz said, “There is always going to
be something new in advertising.That is
the nature of the beast. What is considered
nontraditional now is eventually
going to become traditional . . . whether it
takes a month, a year, a decade.”
Tech boom has marketers looking for ‘deeper’ markets
Giannini
“Off the wall” advertising is designed to break through the
advertising bombardment. “The more you can put the message
in front of people, the more likely they are to recognize
your product.”
— Dave Schwartz, Ideaworks Marketing and Design, Plymouth
How to be heard
above the marketing din
Once a company embraces the concept
of value-rich target marketing, they will
still have a major challenge — how to
stand out in the crowd.
Here are just a few tips:
■ Micro-target.
Do your homework to find out which
consumers find the most value in your
product, service or idea.
■ Mix up the media.
Pursue this smaller, more valuable audience
using a mix of media appropriate
to their preferences and styles. It is
more effective to have an audience-specific
message that appears to be everywhere
than it is to have a generic message
that is only in one or two places.
■ Place marketing and media strategically.
Marketing has the most impact when it
appears at the same time that a prospective
customer is thinking about the problem
that your product or service solves,
or the need that it fulfills.
■ It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
The marketing axiom that it takes five
to 10 exposures to your message before
the average consumer will begin to identify
with it is true. So, when you are getting
tired of a given messages, you can
assume that the prospective customers
are just starting to absorb it.
■ Stay on message.
It is easy, and quite common for companies
to have different messages and different
looks on every marketing piece
they produce. Once you have found a
message and image that conveys the
value of your company to its customers,
make sure it is pervasive.
■ Be smart, have fun.
Marketing pieces that educate or
entertain work best. They are often kept
or passed around to others, which will
increase effectiveness exponentially. So
get creative!
— Gaetan Giannini