Advertising - SME Marketing

How does Advertising help?

Adverts are one of the most high profile ways to make a consumer aware of a company’s brand and products. Whenever people walk past a billboard photo in the street, see an advert on TV or read the paper on the tube, they are being influenced in some way by what is in front of them.

Despite being expensive, advertising can be a good way to reach your target audience and influence their decision making. When starting up, companies need to be clear what the message is they are trying to get across and how this will help them drive sales. Sometimes a product or service may chose to advertise how it is made or the service it gives in order to differentiate it from the competition. In this way Innocent Smoothies’ adverts contain information about the ingredients that go into each of their smoothies as it is important to the company to emphasise that the drinks are naturally produced. Other companies may simply aim for brand awareness so that when someone shops around for a product theirs is the one consumers remember. An example of this ‘Sheila’s Wheels’, the women’s car insurance firm who use distinctive and memorable adverts to raise brand awareness. 

As well as thinking about what message it portrays, a company must also be sure to use the right medium. Companies all have different target audiences and no one company will chose to advertise in exactly the same places as a result. The media available now is ever growing, from traditional print advertising to online and radio. The most important thing is to be sure you are reaching your potential customers.

Of course, a new company’s budget will be tight and advertising is not cheap, so it is important to consider other, cheaper ways you can get a company’s name or product information into the public arena. For example gorilla marketing, direct mail and issue hijacking are all alternatives to traditional advertising. These activities can be cheaper and are a more direct way of getting into contact with your customers and business prospects.