It would be great to think we can just abandon traditional mass advertising media in favor of powerful (and cheap) one-on-one communication methods such as e-mail. It would really be sweet if everyone shopping for a vehicle in our marketplace would just stumble onto our website, be impressed with our information and convinced by our offerings. It ain’t gonna happen anytime soon...and here’s why. Effective sales and marketing must be in-sync with consumer steps to purchase. You need advertising (not just promotion) for awareness and to some degree comprehension and conviction. You need one-on-one individual communications for action and some comprehension and conviction.Two Basic Elements of Communication
Mass communication is where you send one message to many. This is your traditional media...broadcast, print, banners, signage. Then there's individual communication, where you send one message to just one consumer. Traditionally this has been the salesperson. The primary difference? Engagement. You don’t really know who you are reaching with mass communication but research, experience and more research (post analysis) can help determine the effectiveness of this method. One-on-one communication is the point of engagement. Both of these communication methods can work alone, but the interaction of the two has always been the most effective and efficient highway to sales heaven.
Let’s look at the four steps to a purchase.
1.) Awareness
Here is where you put yourself in the "consideration" game. The consumer becomes familiar with your name, your location, the products and services you offer, and starts to build "trust" in your brand.
2.) Comprehension
In this step the consumer starts to understand the benefits of doing business with you; how relevant it is to their life and needs.
3.) Conviction
You’ve planted the seeds of awareness and offered the benefits of doing business with you. Now the consumer begins the internal process of converting "desire" into "what’s the next step?". The best salespeople know that most shoppers are convinced before they walk into the showroom.
4.) Action
This is where the rubber meets the road. The better job you’ve done at building awareness, comprehension and conviction, the easier it will be to put the deal together. (Note to salespeople: the customer walking onto the showroom floor, calling you on the phone, or e-mailing you, has already been through the first three steps. They want to buy from you today. It’s up to you to confirm their good judgement and decision.)
These four steps are the same as they were 100 years ago. I’m betting they’ll be the same 100 years from now. The question is, how do we effectively advertise and promote to best relate to our customer’s shopping process? That process has changed. It isn’t the same as it was 100 years ago...or even 20 years ago, and it will probably look a lot different 20 years down the road.
Best Use of Communication Methods
25 years ago I coined the phrases "Share of Market" and "Share of Mind". I would explain to dealers that our advertising and promotion had two separate and distinct functions. We need to invest "Share of Mind" dollars to build awareness, comprehension and conviction in our customers' minds. This is best done with broadcast media. We also need to invest "Share of Market" dollars to sell as many cars as possible this month. Traditionally, this message was conveyed via broadcast, print, direct mail and phone calls.
E-communication has had its greatest impact on the "Share of Market" function. It is critical that we think through the "steps to purchase" concept when formulating our media plans. What is the very best use of each communication method available to us, and how do we insure that all of our communication channels work together (spirally integrate) for greatest return on investment?
Broadcast Still Reaches the Masses
Radio and television still do the best job of creating initial consumer awareness. These intrusive media sell with emotion. They help break through the "brand clutter" and put you on the shopping list of consideration.
Ironically, many dealers still insist on using the bulk of their broadcast media dollars to reach customers in the 4th step of purchase...action. You can waste a lot of time in a 30 or 60-second ad talking about prices if the consumer you’re reaching isn’t convinced of, or even aware of, your brand. Why not consider using more of this communication method to bring people to your website, where they can not only become more aware of your brand, but spend as much time as they’d like building comprehension of your products and services? Is it possible that a streaming video of a satisfied customer (on your website) might help a shopper build the conviction needed to take step 4?
Getting Action with E-Tools
If you’re trying to use e-mail to build awareness in your marketing, you’re making a mistake...a big mistake. If someone tells you that you can buy an "e-mail list" and reach tens of thousands of customers, you are also a good potential customer for snowballs in the Arctic. There is no such thing as a legitimate e-mail list. No one...and I mean NO ONE ever gives permission for a merchant to freely distribute their email to other merchants. Would you? It's really no different than a merchant giving out your phone number. E-mail is unlike "direct mail" in two important ways. It’s free (or pretty close to it) and e-mail is perceived to be much more intrusive than direct mail by the chosen target. Research has shown that people are less offended by a direct mail piece you’ve spent $1.00 on, because it’s easier to throw in the trash.
Did you ever stop to think how many direct mail "dollars" are in the average person’s wastebasket? I get my mail at the Post Office so I can toss the direct mail into the trash can there and not have to tote it out to the sidewalk once a week. One week I calculated that I tossed at least $260.00 in the Post Office trash can. The only direct mail pieces I open are from companies who have built awareness with me through advertising or actual experience. If I don’t know you, you go in the trash. I’ll bet there are a lot of people like me.
E-mail, on the other hand, doesn’t cost you anything...except a lot of resentment from folks like me who have to go through 400 e-mails a day, with 300 of them being "spam". Just like direct mail, I only open e-mails from people I am aware of or do business with, and having to delete the clutter makes me madder than tossing a "dollar" piece in the Post Office trash. And research says it does the same to most folks. E-mail is a terrific one-on-one communication tool. Its power increases exponentially with its degree of relevance. The more relevant an e-mail message is to its recipient, the higher the percentage of action.
An effective, efficient marketing campaign needs balance. Broadcast is still an important tool in your ad mix. Take the time to analyze the power and purpose of each medium you are considering in your ad plans. What is the message? How does it correspond to the 4 steps of purchase? How will your mass communication and one-on-one communication methods reinforce each other?
Do you have questions or comments about this or past AdTalk articles? Feel free to email them to CBC.
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