Can putting your advertising budget online support a business on its own? An interesting question.
We have a client with a struggling business. Changes in their industry and the economy are putting tremendous pressure on their margin. Their brand has had trouble ascending from being a product with a name. But, all is not doom and gloom. It’s an excellent product with national distribution and they participate in a sector with increasing consumer interest.
The challenge? How to take advantage of growing consumer sector interest with a limited advertising budget?
The Safe Road
Historically brands in the category use magazines if they can’t afford TV. This isn’t a bad choice. The target consumer reads magazines and values the information they get from them. Reach is relatively easy to achieve but frequency is expensive. But, the real reason this road is traveled is it’s the road well traveled. The Division President expects the media plan to rely heavily on magazines and the financial folks are comfortable with this choice. The sales team expects it and so does the trade. Easy, peasy, decision made.
The New Road
The target consumer is a heavy user of the internet. For the same reasons they value the content in magazines they value the information they get from trusted sites. The internet is also their source for entertainment. The target consumer is time starved. When they have a moment for themselves, and this doesn’t happen often, they turn to the internet for a break on their terms. I could fill this post with lots of numbers supporting these claims, very boring, so trust me, the internet commands an important and still growing share of the target’s daily media consumption.
So, is putting your advertising budget online really such a risk?
Hip Shot
Take the safe road? Nobody gets fired on this road. And not to worry, the company will move you to a new brand in 18 months so it will be the next guy’s problem.
Or, put all of your limited advertising budget online, put it into a single unproven channel that you will have to defend up, down and outside the organization. The upside is the opportunity to make an impact on the business by being where your consumers are, and your competition isn’t. The risks are many.
Which would you choose?
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