Tips for Advertising, Marketing, Media And Competitor Analysis
Advertising, marketing, media and competitor analysis? What, you think they don’t go together. What would you say if I told you that analyzing what your competitor’s do can help you to improve your marketing?
Your competitors can teach you much about their best marketing strategies and tactics. Of course, they are not willingly going to take you by the hand and lead you down the yellow brick road to marketing OZ. But a good competitor analysis will reveal the advertising, marketing, media and promotions that work best for them.
If yours is a new business, conducting a competitor analysis and following the lead of your competitors can save you time and money. You can start with the advertising, marketing, media and promotions that they use, then test and track to assure that their methods are effective.
Do your competitors always run an advertisement in a certain professional newsletter? Then it’s surely working for them.
If your competitors frequently run advertisements on radio stations using a certain format, the format probably reaches the target market for products like yours.
If your competitors primarily use nontraditional media, then you should at least consider using similar nontraditional media. Your competitor analysis provides you the least expensive way to start your advertising, marketing, media and promotions.
But don’t just follow suit, make sure that those advertising, marketing, media and promotions actually work effectively with your target market by conducting market segmentation research.
Before you rush in to adopt your competitors’ advertising, marketing, media and promotions, make sure that they are appropriate for your target market.
Every target market is different. Target market members use different media to get different kinds of information. If you know their first and second level media preferences, you’ll know what media reaches them. If you know how they think and talk, you’ll may able to structure marketing and advertising messages that will appeal to them.
For example, you can reach the World War II generation through newspapers with messages presented in a journalist style, but you can’t reach Generation Y like that. In fact, Gen Y members can’t be reached through traditional media at all. They neither trust traditional media nor appreciate journalistic style.
Everything about your business should relate positively to your target market, from your brand to your marketing messages.
Your competitor analysis and market segmentation research will get your advertising, marketing, media and promotions started. Then you need to test and track to assure that these marketing activities work effectively with your target market.
Market segmentation research and competitor analysis can assure that your return on investments for advertising, marketing, media and promotions is worthwhile.