Many franchisors, some of whom I have met at the annual International Franchise Association Convention in San Diego this week, realize how significant grassroots campaigning will be in order to generate new business in 2009. Mostly considered practical by B2B marketers, the B2C businesses (even retail franchises like fast food) are requiring more direct interaction with their immediate community and encouraging their managers and owners to "get out" to both push and pull, but most certainly, not wait for business to waltz in the door. Profits came too easily to many of us in 2008. In 2009, a concentrated effort to market heavily to capture new business, (and retain existing business), is evident in most organizations.
For businesses that require "feet on the street" marketing, grassroots marketing campaigns are nothing new. However, for even the most consumer driven business models, getting out and directly networking with your most influential customers, driving referrals, and asking for business are essential elements to staying on top in a poor economy. What is surprising is the percentage of clients that do no consider promotional products as a viable part of their marketing mix. I mentioned this in a previous post: in a recent study by ASI, they found that 84% of people remember advertisers on products they receive. 84%! When promotional products are used in any campaign the magnitude of the impact is dramatic.
The key ingredients to successful grassroots marketing campaigns are common knowledge to most marketers: cut through the clutter and engage your audience with a compelling message that demands a response. Many marketers excel at writing compelling messages that demand a response but if you cannot cut through the clutter to seize your audiences attention, all the precious hours spent on campaign development are lost.
We recently launched a campaign with Dan Roam's book: The Back of the Napkin. Dan's exceptional book hardly requires more promotion to generate excitement but we were interested in expanding that excitement for as long as we could sustain it and thereby increase mindshare. In doing so, we delivered a teaser in the form of a spiral bound pad of napkins as our first promotional item. It was different, which helped reduce the signal to noise ratio but we couldn't let "different" be the key element (being different is not difficult), we needed to provide something of value for our clients. After delivering the napkin to our contact we followed up with Dan's book plus an invitation to submit events they have coming up on their marketing calendar. If the client submitted three events they would receive a leather bound journal with our "Eureka!" imprint. Since event triggers are responsible for much of our revenues we wanted to capture the events they are attending so we could begin the work of coming up with ideas for our clients. The more time we have, the more money they save, plus, we excel at event marketing so we had to create a natural, convenient channel for a response. Our clients, like most people, are incredibly busy and wish they had more time to generate ideas. Whether the napkin campaign helped spark idea generation in themselves or whether they decided to outsource the creative aspect to us was immaterial. We communicated that we can can help come up with those ideas and that new, creative approaches was something we all should do to make our events more successful.
So far, this has been an exceptional campaign. We've just begun delivery but have succeeded in calling attention to our brand in a unique way. When the Advertising Specialty Institute claims that 84% of recipients who receive a promotional product remember advertisers on the products, you can easily see why. We cut through the barrage of voices vying for attention in our buyers' minds and made an impression, one that will last. The reason it will last is because guerrilla marketing is a lifestyle we plan to live by this year, creative campaigns will keep coming and we will increase our market share because we are constantly getting in front of our clients to be the valuable resource they depend on. Anecdotal evidence already suggests that whatever they think our brand, they know we are creative and more importantly, will generate ideas by shouldering the arduous task of helping them think for their brand as well. For a promotional products distributor who works hard at differentiating themselves from numerous competitors, this is a incredibly strategic vantage point.
Adding promotional products to your marketing mix need not be difficult. In fact, the simplicity lies in the fact that the method of delivery and message are every bit as important as the product selection. If you genuinely care about the return on your investment, you should consider that the return on your investment grows exponentially when a branded product is combined with your local marketing. Once you start incorporating branded products into your marketing mix, you'll discover a great secret many successful companies already know: promotional product marketing helps simplify the creative process and makes execution effective.
