LOOK Advertising Keys
Key to Success
Choosing a Marketing Strategy
   
Follow along with the discussion below and test your own strategy against some of the marketing results we've enabled for our customers and that we've applied in some of our other businesses.  Our years of practical application of basic marketing techniques provides you with not only some design ideas, but an affordable way to get your product or company in the minds of the customer.  Also see our Designs Examples, Past Ads and Our Customers for some other good ideas on our menu tree to the left.
 
Strategy Formulation Comment

Name the first fast-food restaurant that comes to your mind.

 If you named McDonald's, you're on of the 9 of 10 that name it first in our studies.  Try it yourself, ask ten friends without telling them what you're doing and you'll see the results of successful advertising.  Even if you get 5 of 10 for 50% that's better than the 2% success rate of direct mail.  So try asking ten random people at the mall, gas station or convenience store about your product or company and test the success of your current strategy.
 

How does a company or product become a first-recall choice in a customer's mind?

 Have you ever heard, "I'd have used you or would have bought your product if I'd have remembered it."  Obviously the company must have good service or the product must have good utilization or value.  The trick is how to get the customer to think of it first.  The first battle is recognizing you can become a first-recall benefactor, and that's where the fast food test comes in.  Once you acknowledge this occurrence, you can begin to determine what works well, then what works well for the money.  McDonald's has millions to spend on TV adverts, but their trucks, arches and other seemingly-everywhere efforts capture your attention, even if you don't like the food.
 

Was your ad sold to you because you liked it or because you had a strategy?

 It's an old sales adage, "Give the customer what they want."  That will get a salesman sales, but not necessarily you customers.  Develop the "why" you do the advertising you do, and develop some anecdotal tests to help you evaluate your bang for the buck, instead of caving it to another adage, "10% of advertising doesn't work, you just don't know which 10% !"  Maximize the odds of getting your customer's attention with a plan, even if it's not our billboards!
 
How will you tell if billboards will work for you? Choose a impact design in a good traffic area where you can visualize your customer driving and possibly choose a graphic or message that may be a little out of your comfort zone.  We'd all like conservative designs that are safe to show to the board of directors.  But will that get the attention of a new or first-recall customer?  Go see the design for Maureen Realty with the Broker's arms stretched out.  In the first month alone, there were over 30 unsolicited comments from friends and business contacts that referenced the unusual position and all the associates.  That was on an 18,000 cars per day location in a 35-40 mph zone that really grabbed some attention.  Twelve months later, comments were still coming in.
  

Sitting where you are right now, try to visualize the first billboard that comes to your mind.  What did you "see" first?

 You may not have seen one at all, but the chances are that if you'll imagine yourself driving down a busy traffic area, one or two current or past billboards will come to mind, if not some other striking sign design.  Use this to test after you have driven around a bit, especially after you've alerted yourself to pay attention.  Our goal is to get the attention of a customer without them paying specific attention.  We do that with impact.
 

Do the "Pull-your-eyeballs-out test".

 Pick a busy traffic corridor in your area and set out in your car - it can either be a highway or slower traffic area.  Please be careful in doing this.  Drive with your eyes straight ahead...purposely, focused and determined not to take your eyes off the road ahead.  Do certain color combinations or styles FEEL like they're pulling your eyes out?  Well those are the ones that pull everyone's eyes out, not just yours.  Go to our designs menu item and see some that have worked. 
 

Now do the "How slow do you have to go test".

 If you can't read it in a few seconds and get the message, you stand a good chance of loosing a LOOKer. Small print, detailed information like addresses tend to be very small to fit in the space and hard for the LOOKer to absorb easily and effortlessly.  If You have to crawl to a stop to read the info, you have to ask will anyone else?
 

Do the "Fried Pies" test.

 We saw a local billboard that had a white background and two big words "Fried Pies" and an arrow from the interstate.  Is there little left in your mind what's going on here?  If you can condense the message to 5 words from 6, do it.  Less is better for LOOKers to get the message quickly.
 

A picture says a thousand words.

 It's true, but the wrong picture might not work.  Normal pics of scenery or busy backgrounds tend to lose a LOOKer.  Primary colors, sharp graphics and focused photos of specific objects on solid backgrounds seem to be some good efforts.  See our Design Examples to visualize what this means.