Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Dear Milind,

For almost 14 years I lived and worked in Stoke-on-Trent in the UK. For those who don't know, Stoke-on-Trent was once the centre of the British ceramic industry.

Wedgwood? Minton? Spode? All made in Stoke-on-Trent.

Now to be fair, many of these companies didn't MAKE tiles.
But some of them did. And British Ceramic Tile is based in Devon.

All of which may seem irrelevant. But here's my point: clarify
your market, and figure out who is buying what, when, where, and why. I'm urging you to do this because tiles are not just tiles.

When it comes to marketing, the term "promotion strategy" is almost as wishy-washy as the term "ceramic tiles" and when it's combined with your question it's way too wide a term for anyone here to give you suggestions for any kind of promotion strategy.

Why?

Because for a marketing strategy to work, and for it to have a result, there's got to be a reason why people ought to buy whatever tiles you're peddling.

This means you need specificity of message, market, and message delivery method. To have these things in place you need solid reasons why people buy.

And for there to be "reasons why" there's got to be a need: you've got to clearly identify who it is that's buying your SPECIFIC tiles and what those buyers are doing WITH those tiles. Only once you've got those ducks in a row can you target your message (and your marketing) to particular buyers.

If you don't do this you won't have a promotion. What you'll have is dick. Nothing. Zip.

Screw this up (or simply choose to ignore it) and you'll waste a LOT of money and see piss poor results in terms of sales.

So do some digging and ask a lot of questions.

Here are a few suggestions that all stem from a four word question. What kind of tiles?

Wall tiles? Floor tiles? Counter top tiles? Installed in which setting? Domestic? Industrial? Commercial? Hand made tiles? Mass produced tiles? Custom tiles? Shaped tiles? Ornate tiles? Hand decorated tiles? Designer tiles? Reproduction Victorian tiles (a la Minton and Hollins)?

Are you seeing a pattern here?

The point I'm getting at is that just as cars are not just cars and paper products are not just paper products, tiles ain't just tiles.

Certain tiles are art forms, other tiles are sculpture. Some are just dull. But they all have specific functions. And wherever there's a function there's a market.

A specific market.

And to attract the attention of that market, you've got to talk to
the people that are buying IN that market about the things that
are important to and that interest THEM. This means aligning your messages with the thoughts, needs, wants, desires, and outcomes of your preferred buyers.

Without congruent messages and product supply to consumer demand matches you're not going to make much headway.

So, be specific, both in terms of your product offering and the buyers that are looking FOR that product. Then craft your messages so that their appeal, content, offers, guarantees, social proof, tone of voice, and projected future is aimed squarely at and aligned with the wants, needs, and desires of the people most inclined to need what you're offering.

This way, your marketing will work its socks off and you'll make more sales per dollar spent on marketing, thereby increasing your return on investment and reducing your overall costs and (hopefully) increasing revenue.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
Wilmington, DE, USA

I sell products in this industry. The specification for this is often done by the architect or the in house design and construction department. They also have degree in architecture. They also have to have X# of continuing education credits to keep their license current.

Develop a non commercial, continuing education program acknowledged by the AIA. Train and get your distributors approval to deliver the seminar. Then co-op costs with your distributor to identify those specifying your application and conduct "lunch & learn" presentations. You will have some paperwork to make sure the attendees get their credits. Print out and mail and diploma for them-- I'm amazed how many display these in their cubbies-- a constant reminder of your company. And you'll build a DB that you can keep in touch with.

These seminars can also be online, here is a US site . https://www.aecdaily.com/aecindex.html. I have worked with companies using this-- we know who takes the course and it's a great warm follow up lead. These guys struggle for those credits-- they'll come to you for them.

Subscribe to a construction lead service. You can sort by the types of projects you are interested and in the area of your distributors. It'll give you the project name, GC and specifier. All good info you need to chase a project.