Gaining prominence for a young company, product or brand does not necessarily require large advertising budgets, particularly if a good strategy is executed in a clever way, according to advertising insiders spoken to by WA Business News.
Howard Cearns:
brainCELLS director
“More and more it is coming back to the product and differentiating your space and creating a new category, but so that it is not out of reach from the consumer.
“The second thing I would say is to be brave. It is just so crowded out there. There are a lot of good marketers out there and a lot of people use the same tools.
“We all do research and brand target models. It is not enough to do just that; you have to be brave. It is very easy to use the tools to make it safe and expect to win but 90 per cent of new brands and products fail.”
Neil Cumming:
JDA Advertising senior account director
“There are some good examples of guerilla marketing that can cut through without necessarily spending a large amount of money.
“We sent m-pgs to the West Coast Eagles’ corporate mailing list to prompt corporate boxes. It was a cheap, in-house production that was emailed to their database of contacts with the hope that it would be forwarded on.
“In terms of branding, people really need to define their unique selling propositions and where their brand sits and what is the most compelling part of that differentiates it.
Craig Billings:
MJB&B Advertising and Marketing director
“To get a brand up and running you need to get the name on the person’s lips and get it in their heads.
“Enjo is a good example of an emerging brand. How do you say it for starters?
“The Enjo ads were designed so people knew how to pronounce it and that is was environmentally friendly and there is no better way to portray that than with kids, because they are the future.”
Colin Mackay-Coghill:
The Brand Agency partner
“My view is that a huge amount of brand success is to do with the business itself and how well it is structured. If the business has done its research and understands its market and what the market wants, and if it is truly market driven, it has a much better chance of succeeding as a brand.
“A lot of people produce a widget and then go out and try to sell it, but you need to understand what the market wants.
“It is difficult to say if you have a new brand go and advertise on TV.
“Of course you have a better chance of reaching people, but you can grow the business other ways. There are some products that might be more suited to guerilla marketing because the market has become tired of mass media advertising.
“People these are bombarded with messages that you need to do something special to grab their attention.”
Paul Yole:
Gatecrasher Advertising strategic planner
“You need clear positioning. It helps to identify what is relevant and [helps you] be single minded in communicating that.
“There is a trade-off between frequency and impact and it implies a fairly heavy media spend, but there are clever ways to get attention and to use publicity.
“But publicity shouldn’t be used just on its own; it needs to be part of a strategy.”
Howard Read:
Marketforce chairman
“Media is expensive so it is important to know who you are talking to and how to talk to them. The more you define the targets the more effective you are at communicating your message.
“Businesses don’t necessarily have to spend more on advertising if they get the strategy right.”
Howard Cearns: “We all do research and brand target models. It is not enough to do just that; you have to be brave.”
Craig Billings: “To get a brand up and running you need to get the name on the person’s lips and get it in their heads.”
