Monday, May 16, 2011

Do Advertising Relationships Hold More Water Than Business Decisions?

By Quinn Harris


Successful businesses know the importance of building and maintaining good working relationships, whether it is with partners, employees, business or trade organizations, the government, media representatives, vendors, consumers, or the community at large. A business must carefully balance the benefits of these interpersonal relationships and should never allow these relationships to blind their judgment especially when it relates to what is in the best interest of the business's continued success and growth.

Which leads us to the main talking point of this article, which is buying advertising media with interpersonal relationships in mind. These deals are a huge mistake, as the businesses in concern put their marketing strategies into a huge quagmire of chance, dealing with people they supposedly trust and have a wonderful relationship with. But usually this ends up with the business spending the proverbial money for nothing, wasting advertising money for substandard results - and usually this is just the start of their woes. In other words, it is too late to undo the damage that has been done by these marketing expenditures, and while the budget may or may not have been exceeded, there has been little done to penetrate the target market or demographic.

Simply, the marketing / advertising expenditures have been made, the budget may or may not be busted, and the results may be none to little measurable penetration into the business's target demographic market segment.

So is it really a cardinal sin to buy advertising from a close business associate? No, however in order to choose the most effective media channels a business must first consider the audience or customer it is trying to reach. To wit, the business should have an uncanny sense of knowing how the target demographic behaves - it is as simple as knowing their tendencies when it comes to hobbies, interests, preferred entertainment or recreation or preferred media formats, and if a business has this sense, it can make a sound media buying decision. It is prudent for a business to choose more than one media channel provided they are able to pickle their target market and home in for the kill, so to say - and it would also be necessary to track results for each media channel. This is a necessary process for every business to make a reasonable and informed decision and help them use their marketing budget wisely, and prioritize expenses in such a way that would lead to positive results and higher margin of profit.

There is no denying that having positive and meaningful interpersonal relationships in the business world and maintaining them is a critical part of surviving in today's dog-eat-dog business climate where it is very difficult to trust anybody. However, the importance of a well designed and implemented strategic marketing plan can not be understated and is paramount to the business's development and longevity never taking second seat to friendship.




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