I Always Wanted To Learn How To Spell "Kierkegaard"

Woody Allen in Small Time Crooks says, "I always wanted to learn how to spell Connecticut." Well, I personally have no touble with Connecticut, but Kierkegaard is a different matter. And since this name has a lot to do with our today’s marketing lesson, I had to figure out the spelling.

Sören Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher who is considered the father of existentialism. This is not a lesson in philosophy; it’s a lesson in marketing. One (of many) Kierkegaard’s ideas should be of particular interest to us marketers and savvy entrepreneurs.

Kierkegaard maintained that every human beeing lives in their own universe.

Ta-da!

Every human being lives in their own universe! I live in mine. You live in yours. Your best prospect lives in hers.

When it comes to your marketing message, it has many important jobs to do, and the first one is to get your prospect to notice it (the message). And where does your prospect live? That’s right, in her own little universe! (Hey, great job! You’re catching up fast!)

So if you ever wondered why it was so difficult to get your prospects notice your marketing message, a Danish guy with a hard-to-spell name gave you an answer some 200 years ago.

Marketing Medium Numero Uno

I am afraid that in the last post, I didn’t really give you an answer that would leave you happy and satisfied. You asked me about marketing media.

“Use what works,” said I.

“Huh?” said you.

No worries. I got an answer! (Now, please understand I’m not saying that this is the only medium you should use. I am just saying that this is the medium that attracts the most advertising dollars of them all, and the one that has it’s share growing year after year. )

Ok, I won’t keep you in suspence any longer.

The number one marketing medium is… (drumroll, please!)…

Direct Mail! (a.k.a. "junk mail" that I love so much and most people resent.)

“Direct mail? Says who?” and might ask.

Many people. AdAge, for example. And they have hard numbers to back it up. Just take a look at this chart (click on the picture to expand it):



The AdAge folks measured where advertisers spend their dollars, where they spent them last year, and where they spent them a year before. And from that, you get these charts.

These numbers really tell a story. Not one - many stories.

Notice how direct mail keeps carving out a bigger slice for itself every year? That’s because a lot of advertisers are starting to use direct reponse techniques, those that we teach our client at bizLeverage.

Direct reponse is not the same as direct mail. (You can create a great direct-respnse TV ad, and you can create a lousy image-centric direct mail piece.) But it is a lot easier to be smart, know your ratios and stay profitable when you use direct mail.

The Internet is the fastest growing medium. Why? Again, because more people realize that it’s an ultimate direct reponse medium, if you know how to use it.

And who’s the biggest loser? It's TV advertising.

Did I hear you say “A-ha!”?

Your BBQs Are In!

Thank you to all of you who sent me your BBQs (your Big Business Questions, that is). You got questions -- we got answers.

Most of your questions revolved around two themes:

- What is the best marketing strategy to use in business today?

- What is the number one marketing medium to use?

The first question was easy to answer. The answer is this: direct reponse. Direct reponse marketing in all of its living forms. There were no two opinions in the group. Whether you do space advertising, Yellow Pages, Internet, TV, direct mail, or any other type of advertising, you need to use direct reponse techniques – always. Image advertising is a huge waste of money (and that’s your money we’re talking about).

Now, the second question did not draw a concensus: Everybody had their preferences and would present solid arguments as to why their favourite marketing medium was the best. I figured the right answer is to use what works for your business. The one-size-fits-all answer simply does not exist. Just find what works in your business and use it. As simple as that.

And speaking of BBQs (those with a grill), I'm going to use mine tomorrow, for the first time this season.