Great Consumer Research

Last Friday I attended the monthly meeting of the Media Association of Pittsburgh. This month's program covered the "Mindful Consumer." The presenter had collected a large quantity of research from a number of sources into one concise presentation. This is good material to use in your planning and to share with your advertisers. You can download the presentation at www.mediapittsburgh.com I suggest you look at this information and use it on sales calls. Keep Smiling, Keep Selling! Thanks Jim Busch

Know what you are selling

The name of this blog and my business is Ideas and Eyeballs. This rather odd title comes from my belief that this is what we advertising folks really sell. We offer good ideas to move customers products and deliver them to the "eyeballs", the people they want to reach. As a rep you should prepare a "dossier" of the people in your market area. You should know the ages, incomes etc. of the areas where your publication is delivered. You can get this information from local chambers and business groups or from the web. A good place to start is melissadata.com Their ""free look ups" include detailed demographics by zip code. Having this information allows you to talk intelligently about the market and the value you deliver to the customer.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

Positioning Research

One of my job responsibilities is to help reps pull research for their proposals and presentations. I serve as a liaison between the marketing department and sales. There is a lot of research available from Paper Chain, the CVC audits and just off the web. Most reps use data very poorly. They rattle off the numbers and expect the customer to "Get It". Numbers are meaningless to most people and many people distrust statistics. The key to using data is to position it properly and to put a face on the numbers. After relating the numbers to the customer use a story to illustrate your point. For example if you talk about the fact that a high percentage of your readers are two earner families you could back it up with a statement like: "Mr. Customer, you're a busy person, so you know what its like, your may not have time to read the newspaper every day but our publication is a quick weekly read with lots of way to save money. You can see why busy families, the kind of people who need your services, like our paper, don;t you." This puts a face on the circulation statistics and also tell him how it relates directly to his business. This is much more effective than the raw statistics.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Ordering in food

A lot of our advertisers come from the restaurant industry, especially from the fast food industry. We run a lot of ads for pizza shops and other restaurants that deliver. Here is a study that should be interesting to these customers and by association to you. This survey conducted by Technomic Inc. asked consumers when they order in food.

Here is what they found:
Monday 4%
Tuesday 6%
Wednesday 13%
Thursday 10%
Friday 36%
Saturday 24%
Sunday 7%

This is useful information when helping customers create offers. For example a Sunday through Tuesday coupon could greatly increase a customer's cash flow. This is also a good starting point for a conversation. You can share this with a customer and ask them how it squares with their own experiences. Anytime you can share research with a client, you position yourself as both knowledgeable and professional.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Reaching the young demographic

If you read the news, you would think that the eyes of young people never stray from the screen of their laptop or their phones. If you handed them a piece of paper, they would wonder what strange material they were holding. This is not quite the case. It is true that young people as a rule do not read the daily newspaper. This migration is not due to the format of the paper, young people have turned their back on the dailies because they no longer find them relevant. A recent study conducted by the research firm Exact Target (2009 Channel Preference Study) found that 75% of 18 to 34 year olds made at least one purchase from direct mail. Like anyone else, young people are looking for deals. Community publications and direct mail give young people information they can not find on the web and savings from the local businesses they frequent. If businesses want to reach out to the very desirable 18 to 34 demographic (and pick up a few bucks from us oldsters as well) they shouldn't put all their money into web advertising. Community papers and direct mail may just do the job better.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling.

Thanks Jim Busch

Things are getting better

Monday's USA Today reported that their quarterly survey of 46 leading economists found that the recovery is stronger than it was first thought to be and that there is little danger of the country slipping backwards. Seven in ten economists report that they are more optimistic than they were 3 months ago. the reason for the recovery, retail sales are up. retail sales are climbing at an annualized rate of 10.1%. Even the unemployment rate is dropping, though very slowly.

This means that know is the time for businesses to ramp up their up their advertising. Businesses which hold back will miss the "Recovery Train." Share the good news with your clients and prospects, and help them participate in the recovery with an aggressive program.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Let the good times roll

Many pundits are saying that the recession will linger because consumers will continue to limit their spending even after the economy rebounds. Recent research conducted by Acxiom Corp. says this might not be the case. Their study describes 36% of consumers as "potential rebounders" who will begin to spend again as soon as the economy shows signs of recovery. Another 46% fall in the "status quo" category. These people plan to maintain their current level of spending as they have through the recession. Only 18% are "digging in" and planning to reduce their expenditures. This is good news for our advertisers. All three of these groups are "opportunistic" and are receptive to offers that will save them money. This is more proof that now is the time to advertise.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch