Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

One thing I've found is that promotion is invariably and inescapably tied into any business venture or product, whether intentional or not.

I was teaching a marketing class and I asked that question to my students: Does your business do promotions? Several of the small business owners said they did not.

So we took a look at what they were doing. A bagel shop owner who said they didn't do any promotions had several in fact that he didn't realize were promotions: a large sign in front of his shop, his name printed on the sides of his take-out bags and the frequent discussions he and his employees had with friends and neighbors!

A contracting consultant promoted his business through lunches with contractors, attending various builder luncheons, one-on-one visits to job sites, the signs he put out on the job sites he worked on, etc.

So in fact, many of them were doing promotions even if it wasn't an advertisement.

The reason is clear: even if you are a local, small business, people won't purchase what you're selling unless they know about it. Even if that is as small as a listing in the yellow pages, promotions are key to generating awareness of who you are and what you're selling.

How much more effective, then, would it be to take control of that awareness generation effort so you can be effective as possible for the least expense? Sounds like a reason to pay a good marketing manager the big bucks!

Nice job!

The problem is that you have just promoted your idea and THAT my friend makes what you say invalid. If you're idea were the best, we would all reach it automatically and since we didn't you might need to spend a little more money promoting it.

Good starter tho!

Michael