Advertising and Brand Awareness

by Skip Cohen

Put together a group of photographers or small business owners, and they'll be split down the middle on the effectiveness of advertising. And as you discuss the negatives, you'll always find a few people who'll say, "I tried it once and it didn't work!"

It could be related to any of a dozen different issues, but my point is that doing anything in this industry "once" doesn't begin to build consumer recognition. You need to hit a consumer 5-7 times to establish any level of brand recall.

But that doesn't mean you should rely exclusively on traditional advertising. You need to weave a web around your target audience and include social media, publicity, word-of-mouth, community involvement, partnerships, email blasts and direct mail. This means being fully involved in reaching the community.

I checked in with Google AI to answer the question about the importance of frequency:

Beyond frequency, many photographers get tired of different aspects of their brand long before the public does. In fact, it’s no different for manufacturers. Companies get bored with an ad, a logo, or a business card design and change it.  Unfortunately, they’re changing things before they need to.  Most of the time they’re not even close to reaching the saturation point on brand recognition. They’re bored, but the public isn’t!

Think about how many times you’ve seen an ad on television before you remember the jingle, the product or the company name. You might be tired of your approach to the market, but that doesn't mean you've hit your target audience.

A few years back I found some great advertising tips in the SCORE archives.  This is the tip of the iceberg I'm sharing here.  It's a great site with a wealth of information, online workshops, and articles to help you build a stronger business presence!

Here are a few of their suggestions on advertising, which I think are the ones most ignored by photographers:

• Be consistent in your ad message and style including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, signs and banners. (Include social media here as well!)
• While word-of-mouth advertising has been around a long time, it usually falls short of attracting the number of customers needed to be successful in business. (But in your community it's still so important - you're building your brand and you want people talking about you.)
• Promote benefits rather than features. A benefit is the emotional satisfaction your product or service provides, or a tangible performance characteristic. (Social media can help promote benefits and appeal, whether through a blog or Facebook page, for example.)
• Know your competitors. Knowing everything about your competitors is just as important as knowing everything about your own business. (Don't underestimate the importance of keeping tabs on what the competition is doing - but stay focused on what you bring to your clients and the experience of working with you.)

David Ogilvy was one of the pioneers in advertising and passed away in 1999, but his comments and his books are timeless: "I have a theory that the best ads come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as valid and persuasive."

Happy Monday!