Mr. Muhamed Muneer

If there is one mistake small businesses make more often than any other, it is "whatever is left over, we'll use for advertising." Advertising is an investment, not an expense. I know it sure seems like an expense to me when I am writing the check, but trust me it is not. Without enough money put aside for advertising your sales can go down and you suddenly have less and less for promotion.

When do you advertise the most? For most businesses it is the first day of business or during the launch phase of a product. Didn't you have a Grand Opening, balloons, flyers, ads, contests, and prizes? Did the income from sales pay for that? No, it didn't. You advertise most when you need business. You advertise more when you don't.

On an average, advertising costs are usually 1 to 5% of gross sales for most small businesses, which can vary according to location, local advertising rates, and industry. Typically, advertising in the FMCG category will be much more than that in industrial products.

There is no doubt that in order to be successful you need successful advertising. In order to be successful, your advertising must provide a consumer benefit or solve a problem. The consumer must want that benefit or solution. The product or service you are offering must be tied directly to that benefit or solution. The benefit must be distinctly communicated through media advertising. In other words, you need to be clear, and make sure the message isn't lost in the ad.

A small-budget advertiser doesn't have the ''deep pockets" to develop big advertising campaigns. Sometime you need to break the rules to be noticed. A small firm brand such as Spinz deo did this by communicating their unique 2-in-1 formula and that too in highly focused media. And they became number three in a category dominated by an MNC within a short time of 5 months!

Budget-conscious advertisers must achieve top results for their advertising rupees. Stretch your rupee by adopting some creative techniques. At the risk of getting
blacklisted by ad agencies, let me share some of the very useful tips in this direction:

· Radio, newspapers and magazine specialists will frequently give free help in developing an advertising strategy. Things like demographic information, money-saving ways to produce your ads, etc.

· Place your ads in off-peak hours or in unusual locations for less. Many times you can still reach your target market with these spots.

· Instead of a one-time big splash ad, be consistent with frequent small ads that work.

· Monthly magazines sometimes have unsold ad space at the end of the month they will sell at a discount.

· Include a reply coupon in every ad for immediate response and feedback. You may have to offer some token gift to respondents to involve them.

· Try advertising consistently in the classifieds. These ads may draw more customers than more expensive display ads.

· Can you barter for the cost of ad production? Maybe the newspaper needs car rental service in exchange for an ad about your rent-a-car business.

· Piggyback advertising is the ads you receive with your credit card bill. Is there someone in your town that sends out a lot of bills? Like electricity or water authorities? Can you put a small flyer in with their bills and split the postage? Or pay a small fee?

· Split advertising costs with the people who sell to you. Vendors and manufactures are always looking for exposure. Let people know you carry their products and have the vendor pick up part of the ad cost.

· Are there up front advertising discounts for cash? Find out. Many times it does happen with small producers of channels such as Sun, Gemini, etc.

· Consider advertising in regional issues of national magazines. The costs are lower and you can still reach your target market. Filmfare is a good choice. It stays around for at least a month.

· Share ad costs with neighbour business. Video stores and Pizza parlours are natural partners. Have coupons to each others' stores or share the cost of flyers.

· Try reducing the size of your ad (not in the Yellow Pages) or length of your radio spots. A 60- second spot costs twice as much as a 30-second spot but you won't get twice as many customers for a 60 over a 30. Going with small ads or shorter spots will allow you to do more ads, which normally pulls more customers. It's better to be there every day with small ads than every month with one big one.

· Develop tight production controls to minimise the need to reject finished ads. The message is more important than the messenger is. Don't try to produce ads that win awards, produce ads that sell. Tell your agency this over and again.

· Who are your very best customers? Aim your ads to talk directly to people like them. Spinz Deo talked to the Indian youth as portrayed by MTV and it worked.

· What will suppliers give you in the way of point-of-purchase materials such as posters, stand ups, handouts, etc? Some have excellent display racks you can use.

· Some big brands like Coke and Pepsi provide outdoor signs for businesses. Try and grab these offers.

Cigarette brands, magazines, etc also offer such signboards.

· Can you sponsor a community event? A cricket match, treasure hunt or any other event that will be well publicised in the community. Your name may not be prominently displayed but sometimes the positive exposure in the community will bring in new customers.

· Exploit the media you choose to the fullest. If your message is verbal, you don't need TV. Use radio, billboards and newspapers to the fullest.

· Consider direct mail. A letter and brochure before customer contact can increase business. An IBM study concluded that selling time could be reduced from 9.3 to 1.3 total hours with direct mail advertising. Another study showed salespeople went from eight orders per 100 cold calls to 38 orders per 100 when direct mail was used. It depends a lot on the type of industry you are in.

· Try editorial style ads known as "advertorials". These are ads that look like actual stories in the newspaper. They will have "advertisement" at the top of the article. Develop a good headline, and 50% more people will read the article than would read an ad of the same size.

· You can't match larger competitors rupee-for-rupee but, you can use unusual approaches, colour, music, slogans, humour (be careful here), or media selection to win
your market away from the big guys.

· Due to the high costs of conventional advertising, many cost-conscious businesses have been forced to look for lower cost methods. Can you advertise on parking meters, taxi boards, balloons, blimps, and grocery shopping carts?

· Key your ads. Put something in the ad that will let you know which media it came from. On coupons, put a code that will record the paper and date of the ad. In radio or TV, have them mention the ad to get the discount. Ask every customer how he or she found you.

I hope these tips will help your business grow. Not all may be relevant to your particular situation. Hopefully, they will illustrate the importance to plan and control your advertising budget. Several of my clients found these useful enough over and again, and I
am sure you too will find these to be so. Do write in your views and additions.

Muhamed Muneer has extensive marketing and management experience and writes for a number of well-known publications world-wide. He has five published books to his credit.

Feedback and queries may be e-mailed to him directly at muneermuhamed@hotmail.com