|
|
 Home  Xml
Feed  Submit Articles  Editor Login  Contact us |
 |
 |
|
|
At the core of any marketing campaign there are a pair of devils that position themselves next to the ear of marketing executives arguing in different directions. As there is always a certain sum of cash to spend, which voice should you listen to? In one corner there is the little devil of advertising companies. He promotes the theory that a business should invest the greatest sum possible in the publicity itself, that way your company can secure a remarkably wonderful advertising campaign. On the other side is the devil who proposes that the most important factor is market research...be aware of the demographic, and, more importantly, be able to keep an eye on the success of these adverts. It has to be said, this demon isn't all that exciting and is prone to talking about 'qual' and 'quant' in a nerdy fashion. It's a fundamental challenge, and picking which route to follow is tough. Frequently, managers fail to get the balance right, with the result of weaker campaigns. Market research, unsurprisingly, is concerned with knowledge. If you know your demographic, you can advertise to it, and if you can look at the effectiveness of your prior advertising, you can modify your project, and next time be slightly more successful. In finance people employ the terms 'leading' and 'lagging' indicators, market research businesses promise to do both. In other words, they are able to predict the future, and they can tell you what happened in the past. The opposing argument is that even if you know everything about the target audience, at some point you need to actually reach them, so that you're going to need a campaign of one nature or another. No doubt, it depends on your demographic, but for many businesses the internet has changed advertising into a free for all, with no obvious rules and no way of guaranteeing success. As you would expect, too often executives follow the advertising demon and discount the importance of market research. In the end you can find out how effective it was by future sales, right? Perhaps, but marketing never ends, and you have to have data for next time round...market research is showy, but ignore it at your peril.
About the Author:
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Getting Your Research Right
