How Smart Brands are Beating the Recession with DRTV by Timothy R. alexander mcqueen clothing Hawthorne
How Smart Brands are Beating the Recession with DRTV by Timothy R. Hawthorne
As a consumer product brand manager or marketing leader, the choices you make over the next few months during �these tough economic times� can either make or break your brand, and either ascend or descend your hard earned career. It�s likely that you and your colleagues are currently facing a vast number of serious issues with no simple, clear solutions. Lower revenues and tight cash are forcing most companies to make defensive spending cuts that could erode market share, brand equity and profitable growth for years to come. Your general advertising budget has probably already been cut. Your new product launch may have been shelved. You now have to justify all expenditures and wish you had more data to sell through the ideas you were hired to deliver on huanghaiyan251.
A recent McGraw-Hill study of 600 businesses found that companies which maintained or increased their ad spend saw higher sales growth during a recession and in the years following, experiencing a 256 percent increase in sales compared to those who cut their budgets.
Our objective for this brief guide is to illuminate a fresh perspective of seeing opportunity within these trying times and provide you and your company with a tactical vision for thriving in the midst of a recession.
10 Good Reasons to Test Direct Response TV Now
1. Test and Launch Fully Accountable Campaigns
Many brand advertisers drastically cut their advertising during recessions seeking to conserve cash. Since branding is most often a long term investment, it becomes less important than a healthy balance sheet. You may not realize that many consumer product marketers in some of the same product categories that have severely cut their general ad campaigns are thriving and gaining market share right now with accountable, integrated direct response television (DRTV) ad campaigns. They�re measuring the effectiveness of creative execution and media expenditures by tallying phone responses (800 #) and web visits. They�re analyzing inquiry and order conversion metrics, along with website engagement and click paths. They�re using this data to make immediate data-driven revisions to creatives and media plans thereby maximizing effectiveness and efficiency. Warning: it can be addictive to get this much market feedback information this fast:. And a revelation to finally know which creative executions really work.
2. Grow Market Share with Significantly Fewer Dollars
DRTV has proven to be highly cost-effective in driving customers to retail stores and lifting sell-through. For every product that a DRTV commercial sells direct to a consumer, 5 to 12 units are typically sold at mass retail. For the cost of 30 seconds in prime time, advertisers can fund dozens of airings across a broad range of stations. Additionally, the direct response metrics of a long- or short-form DRTV commercial can be accurately tested with as little as $25,000 in media expenditures. If your brand's TV budget has been cut, it is still possible to succeed with a DRTV-driven marketing campaign � and there's a measurable return on investment.
3. Make Immediate Tactical Campaign Adjustments
A DRTV-driven marketing campaign delivers immediate, actionable results. Properly managed, on a daily basis, every consumer response to a DRTV ad is matched with specific airings and measured against ROI goals. DRTV media planners and buyers optimize media budgets by adjusting strategies, budget levels and renegotiating rates, with changes implemented in days, not weeks. And marketers can create and test new offers and compare against controls within weeks, not months.
4. Reach and Motivate Today�s Demanding Consumers
In our new, consumer-driven, fragmented media universe, consumers are seeking more relevant information at more touchpoints. And, when times get tough, consumers do more comparison shopping You need not to be a Hollywood star just to have the right and privilege of wearing an alexander mcqueen clothing, it is every woman's freedom to own and wear a Alexander Mcqueen for as long as they want.. They track down the best deals, clip coupons and wait for discounted offers. They tune out messages that are not relevant to the problems in their lives right now. DRTV routinely demonstrates product benefits as solutions to everyday problems. With longer selling messages and prominent value based offers, DRTV always speaks the language anxious consumers want to hear. Free premiums and discounts are popular any time; in a troubled economy, they're compelling.
5. Your Brand will Benefit
Forget �yell and sell� Saturday Night Live fodder. Brandmercials are sophisticated creatives executed to protect/promote brand equity while generating a measurable response. Hundreds of top brands such as P&G, Nissan, Philips Electronics, Hoover, Neutrogena, Schering-Plough, Bank of America, and Jenny Craig have utilized short-and long-form DRTV to successfully launch new products or revive lagging sales. DRTV campaigns have been crafted to be brand-conscious while also including direct response elements that enable media optimization and measurement of campaign ROI. Post DRTV campaign research conducted by several brands consistently has shown more positive attitudes about the brand following an opt-in viewing of a half-hour Brandmercial.
6. Retailers Love DRTV Campaigns
Many brand marketers are still under the impression that selling DTC and distributing the same product in retail stores creates channel conflict when, in fact, the exact opposite is true, as long as you don�t undercut the retailer�s price. Retail chain buyers in every consumer product category have seen the positive impact that a DRTV-driven campaign can have on in-store demand and sell-through. In fact, store buyers are actually encouraging marketers to support their retail shelf space with DRTV campaigns.
7. No Better Time for Bargain Media Rates
Spot DRTV media is regularly purchased as remnant time at 10 � 50% off rate card. In the current recession-driven soft advertising market, DRTV media rates are down even more -- between 10% and 20% on average as TV stations and cable networks respond to deteriorating ad revenues by exchanging entertainment programming for paid 30-minute commercial slots, rates are also beginning to come down for long-form DRTV media. And, with people now entertaining themselves more at home, TV viewing households and hours are on the rise.
8. A Powerful and Highly Versatile Platform
Just as with general TV advertising, ongoing DRTV campaigns lift sales in other channels and can be seamlessly incorporated into a fully integrated marketing plan. With its ability to do the heavy lifting while simultaneously delivering efficiency and effectiveness metrics, DRTV can be utilized in a variety of tactical ways. The most common tactical use of DRTV by major brands is to create a DRTV commercial that powerfully drives retail store sales, while partially offsetting the cost of media with direct sale revenues. DRTV campaigns have also launched many CRM initiatives within companies new to one-on-one marketing and previously unaware of the value of a large, dynamic customer database. Companies often repurpose the DRTV footage for POS and optimizing their websites. Time after time, DRTV has measurably been proven to outperform general TV advertising in terms of delivering vast amounts of valuable information and lifting overall ROI of advertising budgets.
9. The More You Tell, The More You Sell
30, 60, 120 seconds or 28-� minutes. It�s your choice. Many consumer goods and services marketers have discovered that a longer format TV spot can more effectively differentiate and demonstrate the superiority of their product, uphold their brand standards and deliver competitive CPPs to drive retail sales.
10. The Time is Right
DRTV is structurally well-suited to thrive during difficult times, and current media billings prove it. During the two notable recessions our nation has suffered during the past 20 years, DRTV billings were robust. In fact, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reports that DRTV grew roughly 10 percent during the early-90s recession. And it is dramatically growing again in 2009.
If these 10 good reasons get your strategic marketing juices flowing, then it might be worth your while to have a brief discovery conversation with some DRTV-integrated marketing experts with dozens of brand company success stories and case histories to draw from to test some of your thinking. Compared to what�s at stake, what�s the risk in learning more?