Text 12 - advertising

Advertising is a system of telling potential customers about your services or needs. All organizations advertise, whether they admit it or not. Charitable and community organizations don't do it as formally as businesses, but they find ways to get known.

Much of the lore of advertising is aimed at the clever phrase that gets people's attention. However, the most useful advertising for the majority of companies is the routine type. A regular notice in the same place all the time will help the customer find you when he is ready. Hardly anything beats the «yellow pages» type of advertising.

People are suspicious of slogans and displays that are so clever they appear insincere. The best advertising is third-person credibility — a customer telling a new or potential one about you. Give your customers a reason to do this.

The advertising budget for a charitable organization should be about 5 percent of receipts. It doesn't need to be that high if it can piggyback on the ads of others. Direct mail is the most useful if a sincere and personalized approach can be used. Remember that 80 percent of the money is given by 20 percent of the people. Go for them.

Retail organizations may spend 15 percent of their revenues on advertising, but that is high for a normal business. There is very little relation between the amount of advertising and the amount of business. A minimum amount will produce the same results as a maximum. It depends on how the advertising is placed. Use agencies if you can-they get their money from the media-but spend time making certain they understand your business. Don't assume it.

Positioning the product or service in the proper place in the market or business and presenting it in such a way that people become customers are what marketing is all about. Marketing people do not like to admit that they have anything to do with sales, but obviously the whole purpose of marketing is to create a situation in which a sale can be made.

In another sense, marketing is what we all do with our personal careers. Success or failure in the business world depends to a great degree on third-person credibility. The same is true in charitable organizations. For instance, the symphony that is thought of as a money-grubbing, disgruntled group of musicians gets very little support. The symphony that is thought of as yearning to pour music into the heart of every citizen receives all the funds and help it can handle. The difference between the two is marketing.

Companies such as Nieman-Marcus and Lazarus have developed a reputation for taking back whatever you bring them even if they didn't sell it to you. The reality is that this hardly ever happens, but the image of it is priceless. Such images are not generated by accident.

In careers, if one is thought of as a person of integrity, resourceful, energetic, and with an intense view of work, one will get far in the business world. If one is thought of as cantankerous, lazy, and difficult, obviously the reverse will be true. The difference in these two images lies very much in the hands of the individual. So all of us, as well as our businesses, need to think out how we wish to be presented to the world.