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Advertising and Marketing your Business
Some will tell you "advertising doesn't work". And it is certainly true that untargeted advertising
or very run of the mill advertising can just end up costing money for immeasurably small gain. For new businesses
there are almost always better and more pressing things to spend any spare money on. Advertising in Yellow Pages is not
likely to be suitable if you are a business serving or selling to other businesses.
Often these types of directories (Yellow Pages,
Thompson Local etc.) will give a free listing, which is worth taking advantage of, but for B2B companies, paying for huge
adverts is unlikely to produce a decent return.
The best advice one can give relating to advertising is be inventive, and make sure you are likely to make enough sales
to cover the cost of whatever advertising you decide to do. If you are planning (for example) to put an advert in a magazine,
work out exactly how many sales you will need to make in order for the profits from those sales to fund the advert. Do you
think there is a realistic chance of making that volume, from one advert?
Simple is often good!
FEATURE : VEHICLE WRAPPING AND LIVERYING
Do you recognise any of the following names :-
The AA
Eddie Stobart
Foxtons Estate Agents
Sky TV
Tesco - Sainsburys - Co-op ?
If so, you're probably thinking of a brightly liveried vehicle. These companies have built their customer perceptions and
brand largely through vehicle based advertising, otherwise known as "Van Wrapping" or "Van Branding". Almost any Business
to Consumer SME (and a great many Business to Business SMEs) can learn from these large companies. Put simply if
vehicle liverying was not worth the money, they wouldn't spend money doing it.
Vehicle Wrapping for Small Businesses - How, Who, etc. ?
Vehicle liverying is actually a very cost effective form of advertising. Although you have a medium to large initial cost,
the advert will typically last the life of the vehicle. During that time, literally thousands of potential cusotmers will
be exposed to your advertising. A side benefit that most people are unaware of is that the wrap can normally be peeled off
when the vehicle is due to be sold, revealing the original paintwork in 'as new' condition. This helps protect residual values!
In general the main points to look out for when considering having your vehcile wrapped are to (a) make sure you choose
clearly readable fonts for any text, (b) make sure your contact details are prominantly displayed, (c) obtain some examples of
your wrap fitter's previous work, (d) make sure you see the final proof of the various elevations of your vehicle before going
ahead with the wrap.
Searching the web reveals many companies around the UK who do this, but the company with the most impressive site and previous
work examples seems to be Raccoon at VanWraps.co.uk, who have even wrapped trains, and
the pods on the Millennium Eye in London!
To discuss all types of advertising and promotion, be sure to visit the 4SME Marketing and Advertising Discussion Forum.
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