What should I say in my marketing message?

Whether your going to a trade show or creating a simple advertisement for use in a newspaper, magazine, radio or television promotion you need to work out the Who, What, Where and Why factors of the promotion. This will make creating your image, your copy or an advertisement easier to work out.

What are you objectives?

You need to understand what the objective for your display is. If you want to Attract

Attention, Educate or Inform, Stimulate, Entice, Promote or Sell, the content and layout of your display or ad will be affected.

Who is your Audience?

Who you are trying to communicate with, their attitudes, motivations and behaviours will influence your message. Knowing your target market and positioning your ad or display in appropriate media, means you have a better chance of getting your message to the decision makers.

Where are you promoting?

Where you are placing your display or advertisement plays an important part in achieving your objectives. If your promoting prestige cars, having a display at the Motor Show is more effective then advertising in Womens Weekly. Although this is a simplistic example, it illustrates the importance of knowing the Who, What, Where, When and Why factors.

When to advertise?

The timing of your display or promotion will influence what you say. Running a sales promotion during your organisations busiest sales months would appear to be counter productive.

If your creating a Trade Show Display be clear and concise by making graphics large, bold and simple.

The KISS theory generally applies ie: KEEP IT SIMPLE when creating or

designing any promotional message.

Be Brave and Creative

Having worked out your message donâEUR(TM)t be afraid to be BRAVE and CREATIVE, set yourself out from your competitors or other similar organisations.

Set your promotional objective, workout a budget, create a promotional and media plan. Its no good developing a great ad or display and not having the money to get the message out.

Dont forget to ensure your internal personnel are aware of your promotion and the message you are trying to send. The last thing anyone wants is a motivated client talking to staff about a purchase relating to your promotion or advertisement and your customer service staff dont know what they are referring to. Similarly running a promotion when the production department have rostered holidays during slow periods can create similar problems.

At the end of the day investing in a trade show display, promotion or advertisement isnt always cheap, so maximise your investment by following simple intergrated marketing plans. At least that way you have a better chance of maximising the impact and effectiveness of your investment.