March/April 1991
Here are some guidelines designed to help you embark on an advertising campaign geared toward your community.
By Robert Skillen
Robert Skillen is creative director and chief executive officer of R.S. Skillen Associates (Nashville, Tenn.), an international producer of advertising and promotional concepts for syndication to recyclers.
Are you ready to tap the public as a source of scrap? If so, be aware that while news attention to the environment and recycling has increased your potential customer base, you cannot rely on the news to provide all the publicity you need. If you want people to bring their scrap to your firm, you must take steps to persuade them to do so. One of those steps is beginning an advertising program.
Advertising is the basis for all business; it is too important to be done by the seat of your pants. Thus, all of your advertising should be planned out carefully prior to execution. This plan should begin with a concisely written document covering your company's relevant history, the current situation in your marketing environment, problems and opportunities you might encounter, and your marketing and communication objectives.
This document can then be used to guide your advertising strategies-actually a series of interrelated steps covering the major factors that affect advertising decisions. None of these steps should be taken in isolation. Certain steps must be taken in one area before you can move on to another.
Although every business will need to customize its outline of advertising strategies, the following general outline has been very successful for many advertisers and agencies.
Determine What Roles Your Advertising Will Play. There are three roles of particular interest to scrap recyclers.
Image. One important role of advertising is to make your business name a household word in your community. Remember, many people think of a scrap plant as a junkyard-if they have any image at all of scrap processors. It should be your job to change the misconception or inform the uninformed, and your advertising may well be the very first contact the public will have with your company. You only have one chance to make a first impression.
Your public image becomes the foundation for building a strong advertising campaign. Pick your best "suit" and use it as your primary positioning statement. This can be any type of thought-provoking statement that clearly separates your business from the crowd, such as "We're the Oldest," "We're the Newest,” “We Recycle Texas," and so forth.
No matter what positioning statement you choose, be sure that it is unchallengeable by your competitors and stand by it. Use it in all your advertising--consistency is the key.
Motivating Sales. Advertising can help you increase your volume by providing potential customers with some beneficial reasons why they should do business with you. For instance, if you're willing to offer a special, limited-time price for aluminum, advertise it, noting a definite cutoff date to stress urgency.
Public Service. A certain amount of this type of advertising during holidays or in honor of a favorite charity can be beneficial to your advertising program. Keep in mind, however, that advertising that ain't selling, ain't advertising. So, when producing public service commercials, always try to tie in some kind of "special" to keep volume up
Set a Ballpark Budget. It's generally recommended that you estimate this dollar figure at about 15 percent of the total projected profits you hope to enjoy from the promotion. Most ad agencies concur that approximately 80 percent of that figure should go into print advertising and 20 percent into radio and television. It is very difficult to build a solid public advertising campaign by using just print or just electronic media.
Select Target Audiences. To do this, ask yourself what age group, sex, ethnic group, and income bracket you want to reach. Although your ultimate goal is to do business with as many of those different "kinds" of people as possible, it is often best to aim your advertising at one group at a time. Don't make the common mistake of trying to be all things to all people, all at once.
Analyze Market Opportunities. Stay in touch with your market and marketing trends. If the people in your area are really feeling the recessionary times, why not create an ad campaign that directly confronts that situation, explaining how recycling can help "recession proof” your community?
This step also calls for awareness of your competition. If you can offer "full-service" public recycling, when your competitors only take certain items, leap on that advertising opportunity. Above all, play up your strong suits and don't make any excuses for your weaknesses. Just fix 'em!
Decide on a Media Mix and Media Schedule. As was previously stated, think in terms of putting about 80 percent of your buys into the print medium and about 20 percent into electronic media, depending on what is available to you in your trade area. When scheduling your ads (print or electronic), think in terms of your selected target audience. For instance, if you are scheduling a television commercial that is directed toward women who work at home, you might want your ad to run during one of the most popular daytime programs. On the other hand, if your selling message is directed toward men, perhaps you would think in terms of scheduling your ads around a sports telecast.
Avoid long-term contracts with the media until your campaign has proven itself during the posttests of effectiveness. Try to schedule radio during "prime drive" hours only, and alternate weeks that you air commercials.
Compare the Objectives to the Costs. By the time you examine this step, you should have already contacted all your local stations and papers, mapped out your media buys, and totaled all the costs. Once your advertising plan is set into action, think about whether you're fairly confident that your goals are realistic. If the answer is yes, move on. If it's no, reexamine your market opportunities and start over.
Finalize Your Advertising Budget and Execute Media Buys. Make your final deals with the stations and the papers. At the same time that you cut the checks, be sure your employees are totally aware of the content and spirit of the advertising program.
Conduct Post-tests of Advertising Effectiveness. Post-testing can be accomplished by attaching coupons to any ads you run in the paper or by asking radio or television listeners/viewers to “mention this ad” for some additional benefit. Or you can simply ask your new customers, "How did you hear about us?" Keep notes and track the effectiveness of each medium involved, then make your future media buys accordingly.•
Here are some guidelines designed to help you embark on an advertising campaign geared toward your community.