Right budget for Advertising

[bryant]

It’s important that we choose right decision for advertisement package. Is it necessary to spend a huge fund for advertisement? It costs a company tens and thousands of dollars when they set out to advertise their products. And ultimately it’s the customer who is going to pay from his pocket for those advertisings. Is value addition or erosion ?

[theodore]

It depends on kinda products, for mass marketing you surely need big advertising budgets, alternately there are businesses who do not want to advertise at all, as they take limited work, they target the class not the mass.
so its either ways. for sure customer bears for the advertising cost. But also without advertising those products wont sell so much.

[TheAnonymousMan]

It also depends on whether you're trying to sell a product or service. I've found most my clients through limited advertising and mainly through the word of mouth as I offer a service not a product. It is also correct in saying that I can only take limited number of clients too where as product sales simply rely on the time to ship or produce new stock.

However if I had more expenditure on advertising I would naturally have to raise my prices or hourly rate to cover this cost. This means the marketing and advertising of my service should help channel new customers to my business based directly from this advertising.

Since I am not in a position to advertise I will keep my prices lower (than my competitors and industry) but will accept less profit overall. This is ok because I don't need to make a profit to live off from this business venture.

It's smart to know your potential customers and advertise where you will gain most exposure to this market, therefore decreasing the overall cost of a product. The customer also pays for the convenience of seeing a businesses advertisement if they choose to buy the product later on.

The customer wins because they conveniently located a product to make their life easier and purchased the product and the company wins because they have sold a product and made profit. It's a win/win situation.

[lane_hug]

Advertising is the essential thing for any product, advertising can be done by 2 methods, one is that you advt through media and other is by word of mouth which is done by people or you can say by layman, the second way is more successful cos if you advt your product by first method and which is not that good then it wont able to resist in the market for that long but if your product is really good so it will start to move up in the market as more people will start to use it and will advt. themselves to there circle.

[simon]

Yes, for sure without advertising there is no world of Market. In this busy world no one is having time to know about the products on there own. The only way they get to know the products are Ads. Many of them get attracted to the Products by the way there are promoted in the Ads. Products ranging from 1 Rupee to 1 Lac is getting Promoted.
It’s enssential

[keith]

Advertising is essential whether you advertise in big scale or small. Having a signage outside your store or office is already advertising. If you can't afford to advertise in newspapers or radio, you can try giving out flyers and brochures. Do email blasts. Have a blog or website. Send SMS or text messages to friends and relatives so they can pass it on to other friends. There are several ways in promoting and advertising your product without really spending so much. Important thing is, you should always let people know you exist. As the saying goes "A business with no sign is a sign of no business"

[TheAnonymousMan]

Hi keith

I agree with you that most businesses should advertise on a small or large scale depending on their budget. However I believe before a business advertises their products or services they should find out who their perfect customer is by the way of research.

In saying this, once a business has identified the perfect customer type they should attempt to advertise in any media where this customer would predominantly be exposed to the advertisement/s. For example a company that produces Anti-Spyware software would create a webpage that offers a free spyware scan so while the user downloads and installs the software they are shown various advertisements by the company enticing them to buy the full version product.

I also believe that not every business should adopt all types of advertising techniques. All business owners should initially conduct proper research (including low budget trial and error advertising) for the purpose of working out the advertising techniques that will create or attract the MOST amount of customers for every dollar spent.

[OmnivoreInk]

Depending on your business, when you run an advertising campaign can be crucial. For example, during the month of the NCAA championships or the Baseball World Series, there's no good advertising anything except sports related stuff, because that's all guys are interested in during those months.

Don't advertise during Thanksgiving and Christmas, unless it's for toys...

[litekepr]

There are many ways to promote a business that are low cost or free. They require time and effort, but depending on what you're selling, the personal touch can be very effective.

What you advertise, when you advertise and who you promote to are key whether you spend a little or a lot. I've also found that the more targeted your marketing is, the less money you waste

Shri

[Kevin Lee]

The advertising budget is highly dependent on the industry you're in. For example, my Sales and Marketing for Book Publishers instructor at Ryerson, Jack David of ECW Press http://www.ecwpress.com/home.htm once told me that $1 is spent on advertising for every book they print. So if a new book title has 5000 copies printed, then only $5000 would be allocated to promoting the book which was very surprising to me.

[JWDesignCenter]

You are going to spend something...whether it's time or money. You could spend a lot and not so much time, or you can spend a little and put a lot more time into it.... depends on you, the service and your goals. Be realistic with your goals. The real key to advertising effectively is learning to target. What is the point of sending out 5000 postcards if you aren't even targeting your customer's appropriately? It's a waste. I am a big advocate of mixing advertising mediums.

[gordman]

Advertising is really important to succeed, this is why it need proper funding.

[mrehou]

For me, I always recommend trying to get your product or service into the media without paying for advertising. Advertising is really only worth the investment if it is for mass market products like cars, cell phones etc.

Writing and pitching articles to the media in publications that your target audience read, reaps far better results. With an article you will get 500 to 1,000 words to showcase how your product/service solves a problem.

Remember though that it can't just be an advertorial that talks about you; it has to be packed with information of value. It is also good to tie it in with what is going on in the media and the current trends. For example, if you have a health service relating it to helping manage diabetes or reducing the risk of heart attacks would work because these topic are in the news a lot these days.

Maja
Brand content specialists that provide SMEs with targeted copy that get results.
http://www.wordforce.ca

[Bill Grieger]

There's no advertising, like free advertising. Use your resources on every avenue and look for ways to get your name out to the general public with little or no money. I have a handful of friends who have tried launching businesses; some with no money and others up spending upwards of a few hundred thousand dollars. When it was all said and done, for the most part, both sides had an equal out come. Use your common sense when advertising anything. It can make or break a company.

Good luck,
Bill Grieger, Online Research and Development