My retail store experience was that people often stated they saw the ad in a media we were'nt using; sometimes came in to buy a product we didn't have that they "saw an ad on."

we did have some useful info about 20% of the time. Still, some guy said "50% of your advertising money is wasted, and you'll never know which 50%."

And people who "saw it in yellow pages" usually had a lot more impressions that they had no recall of. Steve Chichester

> Nancy Fraser wrote: > Other measures of ROI are: > > - number of leads generated or people walking in the door > - total sales revenue > - change in awareness of your brand – buzz in the media > - change in market share > - change in buying pattern re products, days etc. > - change in #’s intending to buy from you > - incremental increase in sales > - customer retention > >Gerard is absolutely right, it's difficult if not impossible to get accurate information from your customers, on what brought them in. Advertising being cummulative, works because of all of the things you are doing. Start with one medium and work on an effective message that illicites a positive reaction from your target market. When you are getting a good reaction from that, fine tune the message to see if you can boost the response even more. Stick with this until you have the cash flow to add another medium and start the process over again there. Different mediums...different ways to communicate the same message to be effective. >There are many advertising mediums,that don't cost a lot of money, that can effectively communicate your message. Be prepared to look outside the traditional. Don't advertise willy-nilly here and there with no plan, your money will be wasted and you will end up saying advertising doesn't work. It's not advertising that doesn't work, that's too easy an out, if advertising didn't work then no one would do it. > >Nancy >Nota Bene Consulting >www.notable-marketing.com > > >> Gerard Barry wrote: >> Brian, >> >>Simple answer....you don't. Advertising is a part of the overall Marketing mix. If you have a coherent Brand Strategy, all parts will uniformly and coherently push the same messages to the same target audience. To single out one source is erroneous. When I was advertising for major new homebuilders in the Bay Area, we found that the number one source of advertising that brought them to the homes was listed as “street signs.” Upon further review we discovered people would often just list the last form of Marketing to touch them. Were the streets signs really more a part of the decision-making process than the ad that they read that told them price, competitive advantage and location? Was the brand name that was built over the last 30-years really worth nothing in the process? What about word-of-mouth? Lack of negative word-of-mouth would make them perceive the signs one way as opposed to bad P.R. Have a succinct and coherent Brand strategy and realize that they all add up to how you are perceived (and therefore your ads) and don’t try to fault Advertising just because it is your most expensive form of controlled-messaging. Try thinking about it fom your target audience's point-of-view. What form of Marketing adds you to their consideration set? What do THEY think? Being on the side of a NASCAR racing car may attract one type of patron and not another. >> >>Gerard >> >> >>> Brian Smith wrote: >>> I have recently started a business, and we have been officially open for less than a week. Our store is located in an area under development, so 80% of the bays in our area are not open. >>> >>>My partner wants to advertise, but I am stuck on the concept of word-of-mouth growth and relationship development. I like to be able to track and quantify results. When we sent an announcement mailer to the surrounding neighborhoods, I offered a free cup of tea for people who returned the card. I also am tracking our personal/business contacts through an e-mail campaign and newsletter. >>> >>>When you do advertising through radio, cable television, newspapers, etc, how do you track results to show ROI? >>> >>>Brian Smith >>>Teavangelist >>>www.TheTeaSmith.com

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