Gladstone & Associates Supports Cable Advertising for Small Business

Steps to Effective Cable Advertising
By Dominick Gladstone

As a small business on a limited budget, you may think that you don't have the money to venture into television advertising. But with the advent of dozens of cable stations television has become affordable advertising for local businesses.

With television, you have the opportunity to create a mood or a feeling, and a way to reach a mass audience, no other medium today has the unique creative abilities of television. Visual media has a big advantage over radio or print, in that it speaks to sight and hearing, our most immediate senses. The combination of pictures and music, motion and sound create the best opportunity to demonstrate your product or service and to get an immediate, visceral response from your viewer.

The television medium also has the most punch with viewers, as nearly half of the viewing audience believes that television is the most authoritative advertising source. Today, with more than 55 national cable networks in the U.S., along with a handful of superstations, your ability to target specific viewer groups is improved.

Viewership is also another plus. Cable households watch more television than non-cable TV households. The heaviest viewers are middle-income, high school educated individuals and their families. The average home has TV / Cable / VCR on for 8.5 hours every day; children and teenagers view an average of 17.5 to 17.8 hours per week, around the world, older women watch TV the most (36 hours per week).

The same rules apply for buying air time as with radio-let your advertising reps present their best offer, take your time to understand your options, and play with ad schedules to suite your budget and when your customers might be watching.

TV is good for delivery of certain messages to large, well-defined audiences, and it has no match for developing image and brand reinforcement messages. TV reaches many stakeholders - not just customers - to build awareness about your business.

The procedures for buying national media can be so complex that most large advertisers seek the assistance of ad agencies or media-buying services. But local advertisers are well served by station reps to determine the best buys for the money. And local production services are available at reasonable fees, perhaps even discounted by the cable company. You can even purchase stock commercials and add your imprint and contact information for as little as $500.

Here are the steps to purchasing a cable TV ad schedule:

Research available time slots: your ad rep will tell you what programs are available and how they match your needs for price range and ratings.

Choose targeted programs: decide on the most efficient programs in relation to the target audience using the cost per rating point (CPP) and cost per thousand (CPM) for each program.

Negotiate prices: the cable company will have a rate card describing the prices for different television stations, but these are always negotiable. Lower rates may be had with a longer-term commitment, or more flexibility in scheduling. A preemption rate, for instance, means you agree to be rescheduled of another advertiser pays the higher rate.

Sign a contract: This legal document states the program, dates and times of airing, length and rate for spots, total value, and other various obligations and terms. After your flight is complete, you should receive an affidavit of performance proving when your spots were aired.

To learn more about marketing, advertising, and public relations for the small to medium-sized business; click here: http://www.gladstoneandassociates.com

Dominick Gladstone has over 25 years of experience helping businesses grow.
Gladstone & Associates Inc. provides results-driven marketing, advertising, and public relations consulting for small to medium-sized companies.

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Reasons Why a Slogan is Crucial to Your Advertising: Part 2

Reasons Why a Slogan is Crucial to Your Advertising - Part 2
By Dominick Gladstone

Even if you're an advertiser, you're also a consumer. So think about all the media YOU are exposed to in a day. Can you remember any of the advertising you saw, heard, or looked at today?

The average American is exposed to thousands of marketing messages a day. Think about all the advertising mediums you are exposed to each day; television, radio, Internet, billboards, magazines, and newspaper. Perhaps now you can understand how hard it can be to be remembered by the average consumer.

You know that YOU need to hear a message more than once before you'll decide to take action... or at least remember the new business you want to try.

There's a term in advertising--'breaking through the clutter.' And there's more clutter than ever before. Have you had the pleasure of finding advertisements in a public restroom yet? If not, you will.

So obviously, you have to get people to remember you before they buy from you. This is especially true if they don't need what you want to sell them today. But they will eventually, right? Remember, you can't sell a refrigerator to someone who doesn't need one. But if you develop a consistent advertising presence, you will build awareness in potential customers, almost without them even realizing it. So when that old Frigidaire does give out, the prospect will remember a source for affordable appliances delivered to their home.

Creating awareness about your business-along with a descriptive, evocative slogan, will pay off when people are ready to buy. It can be as few as two words-Got Milk?™--or three-Just Do It™. A slogan is a phrase-a motto, a saying, a tag line, whatever you like-that expresses a particular concept that you want to stick in your audience's mind.

What makes a slogan memorable? Brevity, rhythm, repetition, vivid language.

Slogans come in many formats.

A feature: It keeps going, and going, and going...

An entreaty: Don't leave home without it. Let your fingers do the walking. Just do it.

An endorsement: They're grrrreat! Finger lickin' good!

A question: Got milk? Does she or doesn't she?

A benefit: Melts in your mouth, not in your hand. Tastes great, less filling.

A rationale: Because I'm worth it. It's everywhere you want to be.

A statement: A diamond is forever. Beef... it's what's for dinner.

An assurance: What happens here, stays here. Have it your way

There are seven ways to make a slogan memorable:

(1) Make it exciting

(2) Be boastful or exaggerated

(3) Self-referencing

(4) Metaphorical, playful or humorous

(5) Inspirational or uplifting

(6) To trigger painful memories or possibilities

(7) Use of colorful or fresh language

Sometimes a slogan becomes an indelible icon .... "The Real Thing" was used for which soft drink ...?

Where do you start to build a slogan? The most obvious is to hire a professional who brings a certain level of expertise to this crucial business decision. Professionals don't simply write some words...They create icons.

What do I want people to think of when they think of my business?

Ask yourself, "What do I want them to do?" This is another type of slogan. Yellow pages had a great one for years, "Let your fingers do the walking."

Another way to create a slogan is to take two phrases that have parallel construction and place them together with a comma. Ex: Prizefighter Ali, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Add a slogan or a tag line to your marketing plan and you could become an icon that's Finger Lickin' Good!

This article is part 2 of 2.

To learn more about marketing, advertising, and public relations for the small to medium-sized business; click here: http://www.gladstoneandassociates.com

Dominick Gladstone has over 25 years of experience helping businesses grow.
Gladstone & Associates Inc. is a marketing, advertising, and public relations consulting firm that assists small to medium-sized companies who cannot afford a full-time ad agency.

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Reasons Why a Slogan is Crucial to Your Advertising: Part 1

Reasons Why a Slogan is Crucial to Your Advertising - Part 1
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dominick_Gladstone]Dominick Gladstone

You may be an advertiser, you are definitely a consumer. So think about all the media YOU are exposed to in a day. Can you remember any of the ads you saw, heard, or looked at so far today?

Estimates vary, but the average American is exposed to thousands of marketing messages a day. Think about a visit to the supermarket-how many "buy me!" packages line those endless aisles? Add in your television, radio, computer, and newspaper time, and you can understand how hard it can be to be remembered by the average consumer.

So how do you make your potential customers remember your business? I would pose that a unique slogan-short, sweet, possibly humorous, perhaps rhyming, maybe a little ditty-is something that, when used in an integrated marketing plan, helps create a solid bit of real estate in your target's mind.

A slogan can add credibility to your product or service. People are likely to figure you've given some thought-and money-to your promotion, and will take you for an established, worthwhile business.

After all, if people don't remember who you are and what you sell, how will they buy from you? Studies have shown that rhyme, alliteration (repeating sounds), and rhythm all strengthen the power of words to be remembered. Add a little humor, or something unexpected, and voila, you have set yourself apart from the crowd.

Our brains can't help it, we like labels. It helps us organize information, and a slogan becomes your business's label. It helps customers know 'where to put you' until needed. And when your slogan is attached to everything you do, as a tag line in advertising, or the end of a broadcast spot, the repetition makes for familiarity, and familiarity creates a memory.

As a business manager or owner, don't you want people to remember you when they need the new or replacement widget? Develop a marketing plan that includes a slogan and you have planted a seed that will yield fruit when the buyer has their checkbook in hand.

This article is part 1 of 2.

To learn more about marketing, advertising, and public relations for the small to medium-sized business; click here: http://www.gladstoneandassociates.com

Dominick Gladstone has over 25 years of experience helping businesses grow.
Gladstone & Associates Inc. is a marketing, advertising, and public relations consulting firm that assists small to medium-sized companies who cannot afford a full-time ad agency.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dominick_Gladstone http://EzineArticles.com/?Reasons-Why-a-Slogan-is-Crucial-to-Your-Advertising---Part-1&id=1022193