You can’t turn on your favorite program without expecting to be interrupted every 10-15 minutes with commercials. Big-name companies do everything they can to be witty, funny, clever, or entertaining so that you’ll give them 30 seconds of your attention and maybe, just maybe, will remember their product or service the next time you’re in the market. So you see dancing animals, babies, happy mothers, people with miracle cures, fast cars, and animation set to catchy tunes they hope will get stuck in your head.
It’s a great way to advertise, right? Madison Avenue calls it “branding.” If they get you to see their commercial several times a day over the course of months, you’ll become more familiar with their product or service – and will be more likely to try it.
Does it work? Maybe. Maybe not. Bigwig advertising executives don’t need to measure results, so they look at sales for the year. If sales are up for this year, they attribute it to a great advertising campaign. If sales are down, they pull the commercial.
Popular Commercials Don’t Necessarily Equal More Sales
That’s what happened to the Taco Bell Chihuahua. You might remember a few years back that Taco Bell ran a popular ad campaign that starred a Chihuahua whose catch phrase was “Yo Quiero Taco Bell.” The character was so popular, they produced toy figures of the dog.
The dog’s fame didn’t last long. The Hispanic community thought the dog was a thinly veiled Mexican stereotype, and nationwide Taco Bell sales plummeted during the dog’s commercial run. So despite nationwide brand recognition and that many Americans knew the Taco Bell catchphrase, sales still fell.
Creative and clever advertising only works – and this is a big “if it works at all” – because you are repeatedly exposed to the commercial numerous times each week over the course of months or even years. Coca-Cola can reach everyone because virtually everyone can consume their product – they just need to go down to their office vending machine, cafeteria, or convenience store and pick up a bottle.
Mass Market Advertising Is Expensive
As a small-business owner, if you try to mimic what big companies do with their marketing, you’ll go broke. Marketing your services is not like marketing a bottle of Coke. Aside from the fact that most small business owners don’t have a several million dollar ad budget, they aren’t just selling a quick impulse buy. It’s pretty easy to decide to spend $1.50 on a bottle of Coke. There isn’t a lot of risk in getting the decision wrong. You are probably already familiar with it – and $1.50 isn’t a huge investment in your part. If you really don’t like it, you can buy a different beverage next time you’re thirsty.
With services marketing, however, you’re not selling a small, cheap product. You’re selling an intangible service. When your prospect is considering hiring you, he can’t pick up a bottle, examine the label or color, and maybe do a sample tasting to see if he likes it.
Instead, he has to guess what working with you will be like. So he looks to every interaction with you from how your marketing materials look and read to what you wear to how you communicate with him to how knowledgeable you sound when you explain concepts in order to approximate what it will be like working with you.
It’s a big decision – one that’s pretty risky if he gets it wrong. What might happen? He might spend a lot of money for a solution that doesn’t fix his problems. He’s making a big investment not only in you and your company, but in your ability to help him solve his key problem in a cost effective manner.
Trying to convince him of exactly what you do, why you’re different from competitors, and why he should listen to you is an incredibly tough sell for a 30-second TV or radio commercial, especially if you can only afford to run it a few times over the short term.
Related Posts
Join Newsletter
Receive our free 46-page "Marketing Plan Guide for Freelancers and Small Service-Business Owners" plus our free weekly newsletter which reveals marketing tips to generate more leads and grow your business.