SA Franchise Warehouse

PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

Understanding the needs and desires of your specific target market is the secret to true business success.
By Pieter Scholtz

Many years ago, when we were still well and truly in the industrial age, manufacturers thought all they had to do was produce a great product and it would sell itself. That was before they knew about marketing and promotions; they had yet to discover that true business success occurs when you understand the needs and desires of your specific target market.

Business leaders then realised that if they were to identify what it was people needed, and concentrated on producing exactly that, they would have a ready market. But even doing this did not guarantee them overnight success, with consumers falling over each other to buy their product. Why? Because if the consumers didn't know the product was available and if they didn't know where to get it, how could they clamour for it? The business leaders eventually realised that they had to promote their business and their product/service.

This is still the position today. Yet how many businesses in this advanced technological age, this age of information, actually devote enough resources to promotion and what does the term promotion actually mean? According to the dictionary, ‘promotion’ is to ‘help the progress of’. There is nothing mystical about promoting a business; it’s very straightforward and logical once you know how and it’s imperative for your business’ success that you learn how.

The key to successful promotion is consistency. Promotion is a planned activity; it is not something that just happens. Promotional strategies should be developed to promote your business in a consistent and deliberate manner and on a regular basis. 

The greatest business people and marketers understand the concept of testing and measuring all their promotional activities. When you are testing and measuring, every step brings you closer to the right formula and the right approach. If you approach your marketing by expecting everything to work the first time, you will be disappointed and you may give up before you should. Marketing and promotions may have certain rules, but it’s still largely a matter of trial and error. You give it your best guess and then find out for sure. It is essential that you record every result — it’s extra work, but well worth it when you have a marketing strategy that produces results. 

There is another concept I would like to introduce; the concept of relationship. It is important that you understand what a relationship can do for your business. One of the most powerful results a promotional campaign brings to any business is the relationship that develops between the business and its target market. A good relationship means your customers will trust what you say and they will be more likely to take your advice than if the relationship were non-existent. Also, once you have established a relationship with your target market, your promotional campaigns will become interactive.

Just know that when it comes to attracting customers, the only real difference between your company and Nike, Apple or Burger King is greater, bigger promotions. Why do these well-known and successful brands spend millions on promotions? It’s all about top-of-mind awareness. Take Coca Cola for example, is it really necessary for a company whose products probably enjoy the highest levels of brand recognition in the world to invest the money they continually do in promotional activities?

Of course they do. If Coca Cola were to back off just a little, the company would lose vital ground to its opposition. Companies like Coca Cola have been doing this for a very long time and they do it in a systematic way, but it is important to keep the ball rolling and slacking off on their promotions would cost them momentum.