1. Your market is constantly changing and evolving. Your market changes constantly. Twenty percent of the people in the U.S. will move this year. New families in the area mean new customers to reach. Five million people will get married and 303 million babies will be born. People have changes in lifestyle and buying habits. The customer who wouldn't consider your business a few years ago may be your prime customer today.
2. Your competition isn't quitting. There are only so many consumers in the market who are ready to buy at any one time. You'll need to advertise to keep regular customers and to counterbalance the advertising of your competition. You must advertise to keep your share of customers or you will lose them to the more aggressive competitors. People spend money with companies they know and trust. Continual advertising builds awareness and trust in your company.
3. Marketing strengthens your identity. Businesses that succeed are usually strong, steady advertisers. Look around. You'll find the most aggressive and consistent advertisers are almost invariably the most successful. When you quit marketing you shortchange your reputation, reliability, and the confidence people have in your company.
4. Marketing enables you to hold onto old customers. Shoppers don't have the store loyalty they once did. The National Retail Merchants Association states: "Mobility and non-loyalty are rampant. Stores must promote to get former customers to return and to seek new ones." Many enterprises survive on repeat and referral business. Old customers are the keys to both. When old customers don't hear from you or about you, they tend to forget you.
5. Marketing maintains morale. Your own morale is improved when you see your marketing at work (especially when you see that it does work). When advertising and promotion are suddenly cut or canceled, salespeople may become alarmed and demoralized. They may start false rumors in an honest belief that your business is in trouble. Positive advertising boosts morale. It gives your staff strong additional support. Cutting your marketing seems a signal of failure to those who actively follow your advertising.
6. Marketing gives you an advantage over competitors who have stopped marketing. When we have a troubled economy it can be a superb advantage to a marketing-minded entrepreneur. It gives you a chance to pull ahead and attract some of their customers.
7. Marketing allows your business to continue operating. Your doors are open. Salespeople are on the payroll. Expenses continue whether you advertise or not. Even the slowest days produce sales. As long as you're in business, you've got overhead to meet and new people to reach. Advertising can generate customers now…and in the future. Ongoing advertising keeps the cash coming in to pay for your overhead.
8. You have invested money that you stand to lose. When you stop marketing, all of the money you spent for ads and commercials becomes lost, as the consumer awareness it purchases slowly dwindles away. Sure, you can build it again, but you'll have to start from scratch. Unless you are planning to go out of business, it's rarely a good idea to cease marketing completely.
9. Marketing pays off over a long period of time. Advertising gives you a long-term advantage over competitors who cut back or cancel advertising. A five-year survey of more than 3,000 companies found…Advertisers who maintain or expand advertising over a five-year period see their sales increase an average of 100 percent. Companies that cut advertising averaged sales decreases of 45 percent.
10. Marketing generates customers. Continuous store traffic is the first step toward sales increases and expanding your base of shoppers. The more people who come into the store, the more possibilities you have to make sales and sell additional merchandise. For every 100 items that shoppers plan to buy, they make 30 unanticipated "in the store" purchases, according to an NRMA survey.
Just as you can't start a business without marketing, you can't maintain one without it.
If you are interested in KEZW on-air advertising and partnerships or on-line advertising, e-mail Miles Schallert, KEZW General Sales Manager, or call at 303-967-2700.
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