Operating a small business using Advertising and Promotion

You are an expert in your field. You know the history of how your product was developed and produced, how your service has evolved to meet the needs of today’s consumer. You know how you can make your customer’s lives easier. And you know how to budget for payroll, production, purchasing, warehousing, and transport.

But it amazes me how little most business owners know about how to get the word out about their product or service. They don’t think twice about spending to produce or stock more products, or designing a beautiful storefront or warehouse, but that same owner will not spend much at all on advertising.

This tends to be the same business owner who wonders why advertising “doesn’t work for me”. This is woman who won’t take calls from advertising salespeople. Receptionists who are trained to screen out the ad reps. And if a call does get to the boss, he sounds utterly disgusted to be listening to – ick! – an ad salesperson.

This may be understandable. None of us want to be scammed or taken advantage of, and we feel this especially in areas we don’t know much about. What we fail to realize is that most salespeople are extremely knowledgeable about their product and may be able to educate us in new areas if we allow them the privilege.

My advice to the business owner is to make appointments with as many ad salespeople as possible, and take all the information you can—you’re not obliged to purchase. When you do purchase, you will know what you’re buying. Ad reps are happy to invest the time to educate you. Talk to the newspaper guys, the radio gals, anyone who can add to your knowledge base about promoting your business. You are bound to learn something new. People aren’t going to become a customer if they don’t know you exist.

I especially advise business owners to talk to advertising and marketing people daily to discover what is happening in their market. Salespeople have access to research data that would cost a business owner thousands of dollars to produce.

As a business consultant I do a lot of research so that I can make intelligent recommendations to my clients. I receive some of the most current data from salespeople who have to be knowledgeable in order to sell their product. When I make a recommendation to a client about what they should or shouldn’t be doing with their advertising dollars, that decision is generally backed by hours of research that validate any claims.

There is more to come on this subject. One final thought, if you do not learn more about how to get customers in the door, your competition will.

Branding is the Key to Business Success

IBM and GE - How to Brand Like the Big BoysBy [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Doug_Dvorak]Doug Dvorak
Started in 1880 as Computing Tabulating- Recording Company (C-T-R), IBM has been rolling out one innovative machine after another every few years. It has been involved in the invention of the first computer for space programs. From helping the US government in calculating the census and to launching space shuttles, IBM has been doing a yeoman service for the country where brand promotion through advertising is not required much.
IBM still remains the world's largest provider of computer services. Yet the first manufacturer of computers needs to spend $632 millions a year (in 2006) on advertisements to beat out the competition from its closest rival Microsoft.
GE
'We bring good things to life' is a very familiar slogan that any American can easily recall. The slogan has been recently replaced by the slogan 'imagination at work'. GE has remodeled its logo and given a new direction to its business. It has launched an "Ecoimagination" initiative to project itself as an eco-friendly and 'green' company.
Thomas Alva Edison, the founder of GE, invented nearly a thousand products. Out of them the incandescent electric lamp is the most prominent one. Today the company manufactures jet engines and generates wind energy. GE has stayed in business because of a series of innovations and the invention of a number of products over the years. If it was a dynamo and an electric fan back in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, it's the light VCD to detect health defects faster, which GE has come up with recently. There are a myriad of products that GE has given to the world in addition to these.
Right from day one, even before the company had a logo, GE advertised for its products in the print media. It was in 1892 that the logo 'ge' was created. The company regularly promoted its brand in the print and visual media. Now its ad copies have a lot of white space signifying the company's openness and accessibility.
Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak's clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training - http://www.dougdvorak.com
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