CONSISTENCY MAKES YOUR MARKETING WORK
By Rod Alan Richardson
“Advertising doesn’t work!”
This is the famous statement I heard from the management team of an equipment manufacturer that I designed a product launch strategy for.
“How have you been advertising?” I asked.
“We buy discounted spots periodically when an ad rep has some extra space available,” they replied.
After some discussion, they gave me a budget of $180,000 and wanted to sell 50 units. I spent $80,000 on the initial collateral development and test launch and sold 0 units.
“What a disaster… pull the plug!” Management complained.
“Hold your horses,” I assured, “we’re just getting started.”
By the end of the rollout, the product became the number one selling product in its category in the world. The final result at the end of the launch was 80 units sold for $120,000. The launch added $6 Million to the company’s revenue in 9 months. It maintained its top selling status for 5 consecutive years after the initial campaign and may still be so today… I haven’t checked in a while.
So what happens in marketing that causes business owners to prematurely pull the plug? The secret lies in the consumer adoption pattern.
- Awareness – with all the clutter today, it takes a while for anyone to even know you exist; it may take at least 4 months of promotions.
- Trust – once a market is aware that you are there, you must earn their trust (up to 1 year to build). Trust is built through consistent messaging over a sustained period of time.
- Response – when the prospect likes your value proposition, believes they have a need for your product, and trusts that your solution will solve their problem, they will purchase.
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