Cheap advertising

Advertising doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. It can make or break your business...but it doesn't have to break your bank account in the process. Even though good business ideas are difficult to discover, there's plenty around if you care to look. But what really matters is turning ideas into practice, theory into reality! But question is this at what cost? Commonly quoted figures for a budget marketing method are around 10% of turnover for a large business & around 20% for smaller businesses. Remember, marketing and advertising is an investment not a cost.

To be effective, advertising must be interruptive—that is, it must make you stop thumbing through the newspaper or thinking about your day long enough to read or hear the ad. Advertising must also be credible, unique, and memorable in order to work. Before making an advertise you must check an advertise through this list, of course, there are no ready formula for beating bull’s eye design, creative solutions, however, look at the basic strategies for successful advertising ;

·         To have success, must offer the advertising a consumer benefit or a problem to solve.

·         The fact that the benefit or solution must be obtained by consumers.

·         The product or service offered should be directly linked to the benefits or the solution.

·         The benefit or solution must be clearly communicated through media advertising. In other words, be clear, forget the brilliance of advertising and ensure that the message is not lost on the ad.

In Pakistan there are many small firms working or entering the market, their products are good enough to compete with MNC‘s product, but they cannot compete them in advertising and publicizing their product, because MNC’s spend a huge amount of their revenue every year on advertising and marketing that is the reason why many small local firms in Pakistan do not make a lot of business because they lack the resources to compete. Unfortunately in Pakistan there is not much concept of low budget advertising, these firms can concentrate on low budget advertising techniques that can help these companies to compete with these MNC’s while remaining in their budget.

Some low budget marketing ideas help you to achieve a constant flow of new customers into your business by using simple, low budget marketing methods. They can be of great help if someone starting a new business... or losing customers... or want to boost profits... or all of the above.

·         Place your ads on free time or in unusual places at discounted prices. This will help in containing costs. Often, you can still reach your target audience with these points.

·         Instead of a welcome sign of a great time, consistent with frequent small ads that continue to remind customers of their present work.

·         Consider advertising in regional issues of national magazines. The costs are lower, and you can reach your target audience. TV Guide is also a good option.

·         Sponsor a community event, if you can, as a fun run, cricket tournament or other event that are well known in the community.

·         Use the media to choose the maximum. If your message is verbal, does not need television. With radio, posters and newspapers as possible.

·         Rent an advertising design agency that is not on top of the stack, but can be creative and offer specializing in interactive campaigns for creative design solutions.

·         Send classified ads through weekly newspapers, metropolitan dailies, and national magazines. Readers in these areas may not be looking for your product, but your ad will be seen by individuals who are looking for specific information. On that note, classified ads need to be written in a clear and simple manner. Only feature one product/service per ad. If you offer more than one product, consider running a separate ad for each product you want featured.

·         Coupon Mailers contain cards advertising several different companies and their products. These are also known as "card decks" and reduce the cost of mailing.

·         Distribute handbills on the street; you can hire a high school or college student to do the grunt work for you. There are even distribution services you can hire at a low cost to pass these handbills out.

·         Print attractive and informative business cards that include your logo and hand them out everywhere, consistently! If you use letterhead stationery in your business, have it match your business card. Keep your identity as consistent as possible.

·         Print up some gift certificates. These let your customers introduce you to new customers. Since you get paid up front for the product or service, they are good for your cash flow.

·         Brochures let you provide a lot of detail about your product or service.

·         Flyers can be created very inexpensively on your computer, or by a local print shop.

·         Door hangers are very effective and widely used by fast food and home delivery and service businesses. If you choose this medium, use heavy stock so it won't blow off doorknobs and litter the neighborhood.

·         Paper or plastic bags and packaging make economical billboards. Print your name, logo, and message on anything you can, on all sides.

·         On the Internet there are many low budget advertising alternatives and methods to promote a website of your own and these are considered the best for reaching a targeted audience and low cost advertisements which can be implemented in many online ways. To create a website is one way of advertising, because what you do is to place your website link on different websites and if you have optimized your website properly, then your website will rank accordingly in the search engines and the more good strong and relevant backlinks you have for your website. Having an online space is cheaper than other advertising alternatives as the webhosting is very inexpensive with monthly fees and domain name charges are yearly. The main cost that you will have is the time to promote and market your website as this takes up a large percentage of your time.

·         An auto responder is a low cost way particularly if you rely solely on email advertising to build up your sites credibility through email communication and they can be very useful by providing updates to your products or your affiliate products, but also by building trust and providing quality information for your subscribers. But if you're a smart advertiser you will learn to combine many different advertising methods into a full force advertising campaign that reaches people on many levels.

·         Yellow pages is the obvious other way of advertising your business, although many might argue that the Yellow pages is becoming obsolete because of the Internet, but no as the Yellow pages is online too, so this adds to the power of the Yellow Pages advertising as people can find your business, website or phone number and contact your directly.

·         If you are a whizz with PowerPoint or an overhead projector and an drive home the point of your business, then you could include your presentation as part of a potential sales pitch where you would apply the presentation to a group of targeted people who just might purchase your product or help promote your business if you give them enough incentives to do so.

·         A newsletter is a vital update t new and existing client and can be sent through email or direct mail if your budget allows. I'd go with an email newsletter as this is far cheaper, but a photocopied newsletter sometimes can work wonders depending on your market.

·         One last thing about low cost advertising, one of the best forms of advertising is simply just talking about it. If you can relay the enthusiasm for something like your business and do it in a memorable way, then others will remember it and mention it to someone who they think would benefit from it, this is the age old Word Of Mouth and you cannot beat it, for its viral marketing capacity can be just as good as any other method, of course it's who you know and not necessarily what you know sometimes that can create some business for you.

• Whatever your business is whether a salon, a boutique, a surf shop, a restaurant or a store that sells widget or any other small business…. The lesson to be learned here is... If you have more time than you have money to advertise your business, don't stand around waiting for people to hopefully walk through your door-- Get out there and pound the pavement and do whatever it takes to bring customers to your business!

Peek-A-Boo!

With this topic comes a strong and long debate about what concise as unethical advertisement, and to come up with one definition, of the term, which is globally acceptable for a student like me is not the wisest of ideas.

Instead of raging a debate about what should be and what shouldn't be in the realm of marketing we should rather look at instance which ca get as the global backing that either they were unethical or ethical.

Start looking at the things from the marketing perspective and it comes to you!

You start judging things from a different angle, you take the sale point of the product in view, and most importantly, you start evaluating the standards of the sales pitch... that too on your own standards.

Moreover, what your standards are remains to be discussed?

The overall environment around you and how you are raised and taught, curves your focal point of judgment. But, another long debate, bound to take us off the issue at hand.

So coming back to advertising ethics!

To pinpoint and advertisement to justify the debate on ethics would make the realm of this article limited, I'd never want that.

On talking about the global perspective of ethics in advertising, let us recall an artistic promotion, which has shaped our judgment, in some ways.

Well to raise the curtain over the mystery, we are talking about the great MONA LISA.

Background

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Jaconde) is a sixteenth-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel in Florence, Italy by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci during the Renaissance.

The work is currently owned by the Government of France and is on display at the Musée du Louvre museum in Paris under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

Arguably, it is the most famous and iconic painting in the world. Considered one of the world's most popular, hyped and researched painting by different artists, historians, and researchers.

The Research

Several stories nexus with this painting have come up over the passing centuries and yet no one is still sure about the true reality of the origin.

A lot many stories have been linked with and many are considered myths and fake anecdotes just created for tapestry’s popularity.

Following are some of the stories about Mona Lisa.

1. The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a seated woman whose facial expression is frequently described as enigmatic. Others believe that the slight smile is an indication that the subject is hiding a secret.

The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.

2. According to an other story Leonardo supposedly well-documented homosexuality contributed to his enlightened perspectives on the need for balance between male and female characteristics. The secret of the Mona Lisa, it claims, is that it portrays the fusion of the male and female that the painted figure is androgynous.

The same theory continues that Leonardo Da Vinci himself was gay that's why he was always fascinated by the divine union of male and female. Some historians say that Leonardo was a grand master of Priory Of Sion (a secret society established several years back having one of the most popular personals of time as its member, this society is considered to be the pagan worshipers, those who worship divine feminine the mother earth Gaea. And as Leonardo was its grand master he painted Mona Lisa as hidden symbol and dedication to the sacred feminine.

3. Some claim that the painter has derived the name of the painting from the names of Egyptian gods Amon and Isis. Amon is the Egyptian god of masculinity and Isis is the goddess of earth. Therefore, as the painting is the union of male and female, the name is the union of male and female as well.

4. Other references say that Mona is a contraction of "madonna" (meaning 'my lady' or 'madam'); Lisa is proven to be derived from Lisa del Giocondo. Mona Lisa is named for Lisa del Giocondo, a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.

The painting was commissioned for their new home and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea. Historians say that Leonardo painted Mona Lisa in 1503 and he lingered over it for 4 years and completed it after. They say that where he used to go, carried his Mona Lisa along with himself.

So now armed with the background of the painting -- very vivid indeed.

Now leaving the first and the last story aside, we can say we have been robbed of the true concept of beauty of a woman.

If the chosen two stories are considered remotely true than, it feels sorry to say that we have been beating around the bush to find the true beauty in our significant other (female).

Relating it to our debate, the question arises... Who promoted the painting? Alternatively, who advertised it as the true beauty of a woman?

Answer!

Leonardo himself had the biggest hand in creating the hype about his portrait for popularity purposes, what so ever they might be at that time.

So, now let us ask if the stories are true and the portrait is really of a man dressed up as a drag queen, than being a marketer what can be more un ethical than asking people to only believe in what is not true.

Asking people to base their ideology on what are entirely fake standards... where is the ethics in that.

Who is to ask the question now that a painting, which has set the global standards of beauty, and painting bearing a smile parallel or comparable to nothing -- as said?

Why rob us of our own idea of beauty, why enforce standards on us that are only true to the standards of a single individual have totally different and unacceptable priorities.

Well this is advertising 101.

You have to sell your concept and position your brand in the mind of individuals that they make your product the standard to compare things with.

So what, if in the mentioned saga it was all un-true.

No bars in what’s ethical or not as long as the idea is sold.

However, from a viewpoint of a common individual it was not something fair it was an advertisement promoted and sparked by personal bias... In addition, what is bamboozling at this point is to give kudos to the genius behind the promotion, who sold a very wrong idea very successfully. On the other hand, to sit with a grim on the face and curse the man for making us -- the straight men -- miss out on the undiscovered beauties of the world.

Whatever you choose to do… Do it with an understanding that when it comes to product promotion there are no limits to ethical or unethical -- at least in the capitalistic society that we live in.

The race is on to sell your product by any means necessary, a society in which moral values and ethics take a back seat you can expect many more Mona Lisa's on the way or better yet many are around us waiting to be discovered.

Who is to put a check on this all? Who is to highlight the customer values... maybe one of us?

If decide for once that money is important but earning it at the expense of defrauding someone or robbing someone his ideology of something is by far not acceptable.

However, what may have triggered Lenardo centuries back may still be around to trigger our sin of greed.

It may not just be the monetary aspect of the things it can be more than that... you know vanity is also a sin -- although not considered by many.

Nevertheless, just to prove a point using your power to change views is an art not possessed by many so for those who do have it... please consider some ETHICS first.