How Research Can Drive the Advertising Mediums You Use

How Research Can Drive the Advertising Mediums You Use

How many times have you run a newspaper ad, radio commercial or sent out a direct mail solicitation and wondered "Did this actually create a sale or change someone's attitude?" If you have, then you're not alone. Most business owners consistently question whether advertising works and if it does, how can they "fine tune" the advertising while decreasing costs.

Advertising in its purest sense is communicating a message from one group to another. There are many mediums to use to communicate this message: Television, radio, newspaper, magazine, outdoor billboards, direct mail, direct sales, brochures, the internet, etc. The biggest mistake businesses make when it comes to advertising is choosing the inappropriate medium to communicate to the customers that purchase their product. For instance, it would be inappropriate for a machine shop to use television advertising to communicate to its commercial customers since its customers are relatively few in number and the cost of television advertising is extremely high. However, it would be appropriate for the machine shop to use a direct sales force, technical brochures, and direct mail, as the customer target is small and these forms of advertising can effectively reach the audience.

In order to determine what advertising medium to use, a business needs to determine who their current customers are, who they want as customers. How is this done? Research.

Who Are Your Customers?.... What do my customers purchase? What is the average sale? Do they purchase the product/service daily, weekly, monthly? At what time of the year do they purchase the product/service? Where do my customers geographically live? What is the household income of the people who purchase my product/service? What kind of work do your customers do? Does the household have children? How many cars and what type of cars do they own? Do they own a home or do they rent? What is the age of the purchaser? What is the sex of the purchaser? Are they a repeat purchaser? How did they hear about the business?
All of these questions provide answers to help the business determine which advertising medium to use, the message to communicate and when to use the medium.

If you can learn all you can about your customers: age, sex, employment status, buying habits, etc., then you can advertise using the mediums that effectively reach your target. You can target your customer, save money and increase your sales.

What type of research can help? It doesn't need to be complicated; a simple customer survey often will be enough to steer you in the right direction. The key of course is to monitor the customer from time-to-time to determine any changes in buying behavior, household status, etc. What you're trying to achieve determines the scope of the questions and analysis.