It is early morning. There you are, standing in your new store. Your first ad just appeared in the local newspaper yesterday and a crowd of people waits outside. You take a deep breath, walk slowly to the doors and open them. The crowd surges forth, lifting you to their shoulders as they gleefully open their wallets and load their arms with merchandise. Then, you wake up.

The reality is that the new ad you ran yesterday probably didn’t bring anybody into the store today. It’s an all too common occurrence for many small business owners to pile their whole marketing budget into one ad or mailing - only to be disappointed by the results.

It’s all a matter of your point of view. To you, the small business owner, the ad probably occupied your thoughts for many days or even weeks. To your targeted prospect, the ad is just another piece of marketing material in a vast sea of marketing material. Yes, great design and wonderful copy should and will help your ad stick out, but then what?

When someone sees or hears your marketing message, it’s called an impression. Studies show that up to nine impressions are required before someone will act upon a marketing message. Worse yet, for every three times you put that message out, a given person will only see or hear it once. A little elementary math tells us that you’re going to have to run your marketing message up to 27 times before you see an appreciable result.

Okay, so your Uncle Bart ran one ad in Car & Driver, and now his high end, neon automobile light kits are selling like hotcakes. Bart was lucky. When a prospect hears or sees marketing materials, it usually takes a few impressions before she begins to think, “I’ve heard of these people before”. After the next few impressions, the prospect begins to think that what you’re offering might actually be worth something. People tend to think that frequent advertising is the result of success.

At this point, the marketing message has been run about 18-20 times. With no great response, you’re probably tempted to pull the message in favor of something else. This is a mistake. The prospect is just beginning to feel a sense of solidity about your business. Stopping the message at this point causes the prospect to lose that sense, and the marketing effort is, indeed, wasted.

After the next few impressions, the prospect is finally starting to think about checking your business out. As the message is seen more and more times, the prospect becomes more comfortable with your business. Finally, the interested prospect contacts you and becomes a paying customer. Now is when your impeccable customer service kicks in, and she tells all her friends about your business.

Obviously, this won’t happen with 100% of the people who see your marketing message. You might be luckier than Uncle Bart if it happened with 10%. The point is that your marketing budget is better spent on a campaign that reaches fewer people many times, rather than a single burst that reaches a lot of people just once or twice. The point is that your marketing budget is better spent on a campaign that reaches fewer people many times, rather than a single burst that reaches a lot of people just once or twice. (de ja vu?)

A lot of patience is necessary when you start a new business. It takes time for people to recognize you and to feel comfortable with your business. Stopping your marketing efforts prematurely is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Don’t expect sales to pay for your marketing when you first start your business. Plan for a long campaign with little return at first. The sales will come eventually. Then you can widen your efforts.

Picture yourself in the cereal aisle of the grocery store.  There’s a mom there with her 7 year old son.  He’s jumping up and down with a bright red box of Captain Kablamo’s peanut butter cannonballs in his hand.  He desperately wants the small plastic Captain Kablamo bobblehead doll that’s inside.  Mom knows that he never finishes a bowl of peanut butter cannonballs and she’s sure the Captain Kablamo doll will be lost under the couch in less than week, but she grabs the box and puts it in the cart anyway.  Junior won’t even look at anything else in the aisle.

Mom is on a diet.  She’s been trying to avoid sugar lately, so she looks high on the shelf and finds a green and white box of organic twiglets.  She turns it over to check the ingredients.  Although the first ingredient is dehydrated cane juice, she sees no sugar on the list and tosses the box in her cart. 

Neither junior, nor mom got the product they really wanted, but their perception is that they did.

A few years ago, I read Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson.  In one chapter, he talks about having an idenity for your company, rather than having an image.  I think his point was that it’s not a good idea to portray your company as something it’s not.  The customer might buy what you’re selling because of its perceived value but ultimately, they won’t be happy because they’re not getting what they truly want.

The key here is to present an image that excites the potential buyer to the point of purchasing without lying to them.  That can be a bit of a tightrope walk sometimes.  Let’s look at “dehydrated cane juice” as an example.  All other things being equal, the health conscious person looking at the product labels will almost always buy the product with dehydrated cane juice over the product with sugar - even if they know that dehydrated cane juice is sugar.  Why?  It just sounds more natural.  The word “sugar” conjures up an image of a refining plant with white powdery stuff all over the place.  The words “dehydrated cane juice” conjure up an image of a native person squeezing the juice of a plant into a bowl and leaving it in the sun to crystalize.

Is it deceptive?  Probably.  Is it unethical?  I don’t think so, but I’m certain others would disagree.  In such a situation, you must consider if the risk of backlash is worth the increased sales.  At the end of the day, you need to make sure the image you present matches the identity and the mission of your company.  Just make sure that image translates the value of your company to your potential customers as well.