Help your agency help you

It’s no good complaining to your agency about a failed campaign unless you can be sure you gave them or allowed them to obtain all the information required to develop the right creative message.

To achieve this you must develop a comprehensive brief that includes the following.

• Your campaign objectives – is this brand awareness, increased market share etc.
• Your target market – you should have done market research before now that describes who your market is, what they buy, how they reach purchasing decisions.
• What is your products USP (Unique Selling Point or Proposition) – Why should it be purchased above a competitor, what makes it new
• Your core message – what you are offering the customer – further information, a chance to sample, special offers
• Your call to action – How you want potential customers to respond – request information, call a telephone line, go to your website
• Media – where your message is going to be delivered. More reasons to have conducted research
• What supporting activities will be required – point of sale, telemarketing, exhibitions

This is vital information that will help creatives approach the job in a logical way, ensuring all the relevant facts are taken into account and that the copy and creative ideas fit the task.

A brief of this nature is vital whether you are using outside suppliers or your own in house team.

For further information or for a free one hour review of your current marketing, text your name or call 07790 012893

email david@dlhmarketing.co.uk   www.dlhmarketing.co.uk

The importance of Market Research

Whether you run a hairdressing salon or a garage, knowing your customers is vital to the life of your business. Learning about them can help you target your marketing and ensure you are providing the product or service they will buy. Market Reseach doesn’t have to expensive and the money spent can be repaid several times over.

• When you know who wants your product/service you can specifically target them rather than waste money trying to reach everyone. Save money and increase sales
• Research techniques such as interviews and questionnaires will help you find out what your customers want and what they may be interested in buying in the future. You save money by not bringing in products that won’t sell
• Gain as much information from your customers as you can. What are their favourite products, what do they like or dislike about your offering? Find out their ages, gender, dates of birth etc. This way you can target specific messages to them via email or direct mail
• Collect information about the reasons your customers buy certain products above others. Knowing why someone buys something means you will know how and what to sell
• Finally, do they buy particular products at certain times of year. You may find you can introduce new products to coincide with buying patterns.

For help contact DLH Marketing. Text your name or call 07790 012893. email david@dlhmarketing.co.uk

This morning it was reported that Apple Corp. had made £3billion during the past three months. This was despite teething problems and some negative press on the iPhone 4. It got me thinking about how this was achieved and how easily could other, smaller organisations replicate it.

Obviously there are several reasons but what Apple do better than almost anyone else is not provide products we want but products we are willing to pay for.

We all want a mobile phone that works, is user friendly, gives us freedom and looks good. However, with hundreds of models on the market Apple have created a product that many people will pay 2, 3, 4 times as much for to own.

Take a look at your product and  talk to your customers and prospective customers, decide what makes it stand out. We can all provide want the customer wants but are you providing what they will pay for?

www.dlhmarketing.co.uk

Marketing tip for Friday

If you keep your staff happy, they will keep your customers happy and your customers will come back.

SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE

During a shopping trip last weekend my daughter was looking for a handbag that would match a pair of shoes she was wearing for a wedding. Easy you would think! Unfortunately the task proved more diffilcult than she had hoped. However, more frustrating was the assistance, or lack of it from the majority of the stores she went into. Either the assistants were more concerned with discussing the coming evening or they weren’t aware of the stock the store carried or couldn’t be bothered to look any further than the shelves. Basically, they couldn’t be bothered, that is except one where the assistant went out of her way to help. Not only looking at her own section but discussing the requirement with other sections until eventually the perfect bag was found at a not inconsiderable price.

As is the case these days, between shops, my daughter was texting her various friends and recalling the experience in each shop. Needless to say the shop and assistant that provided the help got a great sale and some free publicity whereas the others, well…

Secret customer programmes from www.dlhmarketing.co.uk

Don’t let your marketing plan sit in a drawer

A friend of mine was recently made redundant from a small manufacturing firm. They appeared to be very successful, had a skilled workforce, were good at what they did and had a reputation for ‘going the extra mile’. However, it transpires that the only people who new this were a small group of loyal customers.

Like a number of small organisations it had developed around the vision of one person, the owner. He new the customers, new what they wanted and developed the company accordingly. All was fine while the customers continued to buy but once they had problems there was an obvious knock on effect.

Some time ago the company had put together a marketing strategy as part of a finance raising plan for the bank but, as is often the case, the strategy document had been put into a drawer and promptly forgotten.  Everyone was busy dealing with existing work for core customers (basicaly making hay while the sun shone) to put any part of the plan into action.

Consequently, the plans to investigate how product design could be adapted never took place, research into potential new markets didn’t happen, exploring diversification and growth within existing larger customers was put to one side.

A marketing plan is an essential tool not something you put together to appease someone and like all tools it has to be used if it’s to acheive results. As the organisation develops and market changes occur so the plan has to be tweaked to keep you on course. Considering the World Cup, think of the plan as a football. Your aim is to score goals and how you move the ball up the field determines how well you do. Each player within the team has a certain skill  and they each play their part. Some may do more with the ball than others but achieve the aim it has to be kept in play and moved around as the field of play changes. You need to be aware of what the opposition are doing at all times or you lose the ball.

If you need help or would like a free one hour review of your current plan text your name or call 07790 012893. www.dlhmarketing.co.uk

Losing out on potential customers

I was looking through the local free newspaper this week and was struck by the number of companies selling the same basic product.  If you were looking for bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms or double glazing you were spoiled for choice and yet none of them really got it right from a marketing point of view. Yes, they provided me with pictures but I know what a window looks like. I new what special offers they had but I also new what their competitors deals were. What each one failed to do was to say how they and their product was different from anyone else and why spending my hard earned cash with them would be the best choice.

So much of this type of local advertising suffers from a lack of understanding the basic principals of marketing and as such they fall into the category of stack em high and sell em cheap without any thought of who or what their potential customer is really looking for – that point of difference that makes me want to place an order with you.

For a free one hour review of your current advertising and marketing activity text your name or call 07790 012893. www.dlhmarketing.co.uk