The Competitive Advantage

November 20, 2019

Their marketing worked! This time.

I needed a new part for my truck. The armrest was busted and I needed a new piece to fix it. I asked my mechanic about replacing the entire armrest, but was a little appalled at the cost of a new one. And I didn’t know quite where to go to find a piece as specific as the underside plate for an armrest in a Ford truck.

Then, in a huge stroke of luck/coincidence, I saw an ad on TV for a place called RockAuto. So, I went to their website, found the part, ordered it, the part showed up a few days later… boom! The advertising worked for them.

Sort of.

May 13, 2015

Advertising Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

There was an article in this morning’s newspaper discussing how expensive it can be to build awareness through advertising… $340k+ for a 30-second spot on The Big Bang Theory, $600k for a spot on a Fox Network NFL game, $675k – per day – for the universal masthead on YouTube, $200k to be an Instagram advertiser and even $1.5million for a spot during the NCAA March Madness final game.

I agree… pretty staggering numbers. Unfortunately, it’s because of articles like this – and sensationalizing the dollars involved – that the overriding perception about advertising is that while potentially a valuable weapon in a firm’s marketing arsenal, it is too expensive for most firms to take advantage of.

And while it’s true that you do have to spend some money to create and place the ads, the actual dollars needed to help build awareness through some of the Market Research industry (or most any industry, for that matter) marketing vehicles are downright pedestrian when compared to those numbers above. For example…

December 17, 2014

Stop it already with the bad marketing! Part 2: Advertising

Last week, we started a series discussing how to address much of the bad marketing taking place in our industry… horrible websites, rarely used social media sites, far-too-salesy e-newsletters, boring exhibits and so on.

This week, we’ll take a look at ADVERTISING.

May 28, 2014

“Should I advertise?

I got an email from a client last week. In it, she said that an industry magazine had reached out to her about advertising in an upcoming issue with an editorial theme that tied in nicely with her services. And her question was, “Should I advertise in that issue?”

I wish the answer was a simple one, but like everything else in Marketing… it depends!

February 19, 2014

Advertising works… and I was in Las Vegas last week to prove it!

I was in Las Vegas last week to speak at and attend the annual joint conference of the Southwest and Northwest chapters of the MRA.  Nancy Hernon and Rommell Montenegro and all of their colleagues put on a really nice event – good sessions, good food and some really great people.

It was the first time I’d been to Vegas in a while that I really had the chance to get out of the hotel and “experience” the city.  My wife, Lisa, was with me and after a few days there said, “You can’t describe Las Vegas, you have to see it!”

And what I saw more of than anything was advertising. Dazzling outside signs 5 stories tall, ads in the hotels and on the hotels, on buses and cabs, at the airport, on permanent and drivable billboards, in those special hotel guest magazines… even being handed out on the street corner.  It was everywhere!

March 13, 2013

How Advertising can Support your Marketing & Sales for a Competitive Advantage, Part 3

This is the third in a 3-part series on a few current consumer advertising campaigns that really got it right with their advertising – all of which were an excellent execution of a strong marketing strategy. [Yes, they’re B2C, but they illustrate very important marketing lessons.]

In the last two posts, we showcased Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. and Chik-Fil-A and the interesting work they were doing with their TV ads.  This week I want to talk about the law firm of Cordell & Cordell.

I first heard about them through their radio ads here in Nashville.  They are a firm that focuses on men in cases of divorce.  That, in itself, is very interesting.

March 5, 2013

How Advertising can Support your Marketing & Sales for a Competitive Advantage, Part 2

This is the second in a 3-part series on a few current consumer advertising campaigns that really got it right with their advertising – all of which were an excellent execution of a strong marketing strategy. [Yes, they’re B2C, but they illustrate very important marketing lessons.]

Last week, we talked about Hardee’s & Carl Jr’s.  This week, I’d like to focus on Chik-Fil-A (http://www.chick-fil-a.com/), the fast-food restaurant chain serving [great!] chicken sandwiches, etc.

February 26, 2013

How Advertising can Support your Marketing & Sales for a Competitive Advantage, Part 1

This is the first in a 3-part series on a few current consumer advertising campaigns that really got it right… they didn’t advertise simply to build awareness (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) or to make people laugh (which two of the three do)… but their ads are an execution of a specific marketing strategy.

Yes, I am a B2B consultant and most of you reading this work in a B2B environment… but there are three really good lessons to be learned here about executing marketing in support of a broader strategy.