SSBy Roy Thompson Jr. —
Small Businesses
News & Views
Planning Advertising Budget
A small business owner who
wants to take advantage of the
benefits of advertising will not
have the same advertising budget
as giant companies do, neverthe
less, planning for advertising will
follow the same initial procedures
whether the ad budget is $1,000 or
$100,000.
An advertising budget doesn't
have to be expensive to succeed.
The small advertiser can take
heart from the knowedge that
some of the nation's corporate
giants started their advertising
ventures with very modest bud
gets. For example. Proctor and
Gamble spent $11,500 their first
year in business, Campbell Soup’s
spent $4,000, Borden, $500. and
Wrigley’s Gum $30. With advertis
mg aoiiars as witn an expendi
ture, it’s not how much is spent,
but how well the money is used
The first step in creating an
advertising program is to tho
roughly assess your business, its
products, services, and its com
petitors. The results can be sur
prising says a successful adver
tising consulting firm. “One owner
of a women's wear shop consi
dered her merchandise to be in the
moderate price range. However,
because her advertising concen
trated on prices and didn't men
tion quality the public thought of
her shop as a cut-rate place.'’
When she started emphasizing
quality and stylishness in her ads,
she developed a whole new set of
customers.
Most advertising experts recom
mend that new advertisers start by
developing a customer profile. For
example, a retailer would ask:
What kind of people buy from me?
What are their annual incomes?
How far away from the store do
they live? What are their shopping
habits? How do they perceive my
products, store, or services?
Answers to these questions can
be obtained from different custom
er records a business keeps -- order
slips, charge account files, the list
used to send direct mailings to
favorite customers, and simply by
observing customers. One
straightforward approach is to
develop a questionnaire for dis
tribution directly to your custom
ers. As one veteran advertising
professional noted. “You wouldn’t
believe the number of business
people who have no concrete idea
who their best customers are!
When they start going over their
customer-questionnaires, fre
quently they’re amazed at the
picture that emerges."
cmue me nrm s customers nave
been described, the business owner
can begin to analyze the com
pany's competitors. Some of the
questions that can be asked are:
Who are my main competitors in
this trading area? What is my
share of the market in relation to j
the competition? Why would a
customer choose my firm over the '
competition? What kind of adver- |
tising does the competition do?
How much do they spend on
advertising?
This analysis will help the owner
define the company's advertising
objectives. Specific goals will dif
fer. but some typical objectives
might be to: increase your store's
traffic, acquaint customers with
new products, promote special
events like clearance sales or new
store locations, to change the com
pany's image, to keep the business
name before the public, and to tell
customers about special services
available such as credit plans, free
alterations, and delivery service
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For Local Schools
WPCQ-TV
The Q-36 Action News team and
other employees of WPCQ-TV took
to the courts this past season in an
all out effort to help local schools
raise some money for their school
development funds.
Both junior and senior high
schools in Mecklenburg and sur
rounding counties were host to the
Q-36 players, otherwise known as
the Q36ers, in a thirteen game
season that managed to ring up
considerably more dollars than
points. With improvisational per
formances trom the likes of Q36
Action News Anchors Bob Raiford
and Amanda Davis, Sports casters
Lou Tilley and Steve Moshier, a
Weatherperson B.G. Metzler, the
Q36ers somehow wound up the
season with a no-win record.
They rebounded from this drib
bling scoreboard though, when
admissions to all the games were
tallied and they discovered that
they helped generate a total of
$4,500 for the thirteen schools.
Maybe that's not a million dol
lars. but it sure produced a mil
lion smiles, and that’s what it's all
about!
Softball games are currently
underway, featuring the now
famous Q36ers playing volunteer
fire departments, optimist clubs,
chambers of commerce and any
other non-profit groups that can
organize a team. Their softball
Plays Basketball?
season will culminate in a friendly
fisticuffs with Charlotte's Mayor
Eddie Knox and members of the
City Council at Crockett Park on
August 3. preceeding the Charlotte
O's regularly scheduled game
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