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Advertising: Return on Investment
What's Important Advertising is the recognition that you pay for. We use this definition in contrast to things like public relations and direct selling that also bring you recognition, but through a different pathway. Working from the basis of pay for, we make the case that advertising is no different from a copier or metal lathe or whatever you buy that is intended to make you money. There is a direct connection between what you spend and what you need to see in return. It is something called Return on Investment. Besides being something to impress your friends and your banker, the term is directly tied to your advertising as follows: When buying advertising, it is best to start with a specific numerical outcome in mind. For example, let’s say that the average number of persons who walk into your business on Wednesday is 20. To raise the money to buy a new display rack, you need that number to increase to 50. What’s more, of those 50, 20 percent need to be between the ages of 18 and 35 because that is the market that buys what you sell and the average sale per person for that group is $50 versus $20 for everyone else. Here’s the math. Regular customers = 20. Additional customers = 50 or a net increase of 30 customers. 20% of the 50 = 10 customers between 18 and 35. 10 times the $50 = $500. Now comes the advertising. What advertising attracts the target group you need and costs less than $500. Why less than $500? Because why would you spend up to or more than you can make by doing nothing?Things You Can Do Keep it simple. Use primary colors. Avoid script or overly stylized fonts. Use high contrast, dark colors against a light, preferably white, background. Consider simply using a text treatment as your logo and brand. There is, after all, a lot of precedence for this approach. Just think Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, IBM, Microsoft … you get the idea.
That’s all for now. Look for more Insights soon. Until then, God Bless and keep safe.