J. S. Collard Design

Making Lives Better Through Advertising Arts

My Rants Vancouver WA | J.S. Collard Design

Main Street America Wasn’t Invited

Tea Party
Big Corporations, Pork, Politicians & Special Interests bellied up to the table! J.S.C.

Small Business represents 99.7% of all employer firms and employes the majority of workers in the U.S. Most of my clients fall into the small and micro  business classifications and many are asking why the support for the “little” guy hasn’t filtered down to them.

I don’t know anyone who can answer that question and I can’t begin to discuss it without getting a little hot under the collar.

The only thing I can advise is just be frugal and smart about investing in your business – for both the short and long term results. The least expensive and the easiest is updating or remodeling your existing brand and your channels of advertising.

A Website Remodel can create greater interest for your return customers as well as capturing new ones. Initiating an e-touch program using your own client lists can remind your customers you are still a viable business. Refreshing a logo that is outdated or doesn’t fit your brand experience can help to better tell your story. Targeting your demographics to focus your website for better Search Engine Optimization. These are all effective ways to bolster your business now and in the future, without too much of a financial investment.

So if you feel that you weren’t invited to the party, don’t let that stop you from throwing one of your own. And you never know, a new party may show up, one that more of us are invited to.

Illustration by: J. Scott Collard

Data Without Creative Is A Boring Ride

The Boot - More that one way to look at things (JSC)

For years, the buzz around the marketing cooler has been the talk of Analytics, Target Market, Customer Demographics, Data Cultivation and so on.  They’ve taken the front seat in driving the marketing bus.  Don’t get me wrong, they should be right up there and every CEO and business owner needs to keep them in mind when making any advertising road trip.

But making all promotional materials data driven alone is like handing over your brand to an accountant.  Now I don’t want to get any death threats from accountants, I have friends who are accountants and they do a great job on taxes and stuff.  We all have our own expertise!  I can’t make heads or tails of the IRS tax codes for corporations, and not one of my number crunching friends can draw a decent reposing nude on a bar napkin (let alone come up with a full fledged creative campaign).

Each day consumers are bombarded with thousands of advertising impressions.  Consumers want to develop a relationship with a company who has personality and that is projected through the creative.  Data by itself only lets you know where you want to be.  Creative is the vehicle that gets you there.  So, How’s Your Ride?

If your message is boring, what consumer would want to travel with you?

Merging data with creative and clever solutions will cut through the clutter and the mediocre.  Getting noticed is the key.  First you have to get their attention and then you can make them a customer.

Advertising During a Recession or Uncertain Economic Times

Since my livelihood depends on advertising budgets, it’s always disheartening when a client or perspective client makes the statement that during these unstable economic times, they are cutting back on or eliminating their advertising budget.  How can they justify such expenditures when they are just trying to stay afloat?

Unfortunately, those decisions affect me and likewise, everyone else in the advertising arena, but more importantly, it adversely affects the company well after the economic crisis has passed.  I’m not sure when we will regain some new sort of normalcy and how it will look, but when we do, as we always have, it will be apparent who has promoted their businesses and who hasn’t.

There have been countless studies of advertising during a recession or uncertain economic times.  An excellent article by James Surowiecki appeared in the April 20, 2009 issue of The New Yorker.  Mr. Surowiecki retells a story of two companies in the late nineteen-twenties and how advertising set the stage for dominance that is still held today.  Look it up online, it’s a good read and he’s a better writer that I am. www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2009/04/20/090420ta_talk_surowiecki

McGraw-Hill Research study of over 600 Businesses found that:

1981-1982 – business that maintained or increased their ad spend during this time

• Averaged higher sales growth during the recession and in the following 3 years!

By 1985 – sales of the businesses that maintained or increased their ad spend during that recession

• Sales had risen 256% over those that had cut back on advertising

Likewise in 2001 – another study found that aggressive recession advertisers

• Increased market share 2 1/2 times the average for all businesses in the post-recession

In 2002 – the Strategic Planning Institute illustrated that during economic expansion

• Although 80% of businesses increased their advertising spend there was NO improvement in market share

• Why? – Because everyone has increased ad spending! During a recession there is a scarcity of advertising relative to the abundance during an economic boom. Fewer advertisers mean that the ones who keep doing business will stand out to consumers. Consumers continue to consume, although at a lower rate; they continue to respond to advertising, although at a lower rate. The company that keeps their message out in front of the consumer, even at the cost of reduced short-term profits, is going to do more business than the company that doesn’t.

For an example close to home, J.S. Collard Design is on retainer with a national company that is very industry specific.  This year, their revenues were flat.  Not something that would be normally trumpeted to it’s employees, but in an industry that has seen a 30% revenue drop across the board, that’s pretty darn great.  This can be attributed to adjusting with the current economic profile, complete SEO for their on-line catalog, launching two new websites and a mini site to promote their products and services, developing and adding new products and beginning a relevant e-newsletter campaign.  This company reminds it’s customers that it is viable and can still provide a quality product.  This company was prudently aggressive in it’s marketing and advertising efforts and it has paid off in the short term and will continue to do so when the economy and the public finds a new confidence.

We’re looking forward to a new year, a new decade, and a new economy.