Double your pleasure

Many customers look at advertising as an "either/or" proposition. They will advertise either in the daily or the weekly paper. They will do cable or print. This attitude stems from a desire to save money and they see reaching the same consumer twice as a waste of money. There are two reasons why this is penny wise and pound foolish. First, each media attracts a unique readership. While many people may access multiple media, few are touched by all the available media in their area. By leaving your paper out of the mix the "thrifty" advertiser misses readers who may be the ideal customer for the product or service they sell. The best way to ensure the success of your business is to reach as many potential customers as possible. The customers that they reach in one media that they do not reach in another represents their unduplicated reach.

Advertisers should also ask themselves,  "is duplication necessarily a bad thing?" Customers assume that when a consumer sees their ad, it is love at first sight. That they will jump up out of their chair and head for the advertisers business as soon as they see their ad. This is a very unrealistic view of  how advertising works. Most people take much more convincing. The more often they see the customer's message, the more likely they are to recall their name. After a while the consumer begins to associate the business with the products they sell. The more often a consumer sees the customer's name and is exposed to their message, the more likely they are to patronize the advertiser's business. I argue that far from being an unnecessary waste of money, that duplicated reach actually provides the advertiser with a significant benefit.

I hope you found this post valuable. Please feel free to post your thoughts on this subject in the comments section and to pass this blog along to others.

Thanks for reading.

Jim Busch