Business advertising

Jack Mitchell was my first boss advertising boss. He was a funny adventurous sportsman. His idea of a vacation was getting lost in the high mountains of Peru. He could spend the rest of the year holding the interest of all of us in the palm of his hand as he told his latest adventure stories.
Jack was the Director of Advertising and Sales Promotion at Remington Arms Company and his four questions have helped me get my ideas focused in every advertising challenge I have ever faced.
After all, some say 85% of all advertising does not work. But when it does, it is pure magic. Let’s see if his four questions are your magic wand.
The Mitchell Four Questions.
Question 1: Who is your best or prime prospect?
The surest way to put your new business in the bankruptcy court is to think everyone is going to beat a path to your door. They will not. You will have a small group of customers who will account for most of your bread and butter business. That is what is meant by the 80/20 principle. Eight percent of your business will most likely come from twenty percent of your customers. Start to think and plan with that key fact in mind. If you do not, you will not have a clue who is buying from you and the media folks will be all over you like buzzards on a dead water buffalo. Get to know that prime prospect like you know your best friend. Develop a mental picture of that prime prospect. When you do, you will focus your efforts at those folks most likely to keep you in business rather than making large donations to the ad of the week club.
To paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln, you can reach all of the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time; but you cannot reach all of the people, all of the time.
Not even the giant Wal-Mart attracts everyone but you can bet they know who their prime prospects are and aim most their approach, right at them.
So where do you start? How do you find out who is going to be that best or prime prospect?
Start at the same place your business idea started. Why in the world did you want to start your business in the first place? Who encouraged you to take that giant step? What did you plan to do different that would attract customers in the first place?
If you have competition, go shop them. Get copies of their advertising. See who they are trying to persuade to come use their products and services. Go to your local community college and university and offer to let their marketing students do a research project on your business. Do online surveys.
Here’s another way to gather information. Create a drawing with a significant prize. Money. A trip. An I-pod. Something cool. If you have a store, do the contest in the store. Encourage everyone who comes through the door to fill out an entry. Do the survey twice a year.
We are looking for demographics in the survey. Demographics are numbers we can measure. How old is your prime prospect? Is the prime prospect female or male? Married or single? Does your prime prospect have a family? How much education? White collar or blue collar? White or minority? How wealthy? Is fitness important? Do they like pets? Member of a church? What is their favorite type of transportation? (Yes pickup drivers and different that Lexus drivers.) Do they drink? Smoke? Play sports? Choose questions that apply to your business and what you offer.
If you haven’t opened your doors, head for the chamber of commerce office and in some cities, your local newspaper. Both can and often do have lots of demographic information on your prime prospect group.