Thursday, June 26, 2008

Relentless Advertising -- Does it Work?


I just learned about a study conducted by Stanford University School of Medicine and Packard Children's Hospital as it relates to children and food choices.
In the study kids 3 to 5 years old were fed two sets of identical foods -- some in McDonald's wrappers and some wrapped in plain paper.
The conclusion of the research was the kids overwhelmingly preferred the food wrapped in the McDonald's logo wrappers.
Each child was given chicken nuggets, a hamburger and french fries from McDonald's, and baby carrots and milk from the grocery store... With one exception, significantly more children said the McDonald's-labeled product tasted better.
McDonalds spends an amazing amount of money to market to children and to develop brand loyalty at an early age. I know because given the opportunity, my 7 year old daughter is insistent about going to McDonalds if it's around lunch time and mom and I are out running errands. That brand loyalty translates into sales for McDonalds.
My marketing friend in Portland, Oregon comments on the study, "McDonald's has enough money to be seen and heard just about everywhere; the rest of us have to be more selective in choosing market segments and media opportunities we can afford to dominate. But even without a huge marketing budget, you can still follow thebasic principles that have kept McDonald's at the top of their category:
1. Have a consistent theme and spokesperson -- the Golden Arches logo has been there forever, and Ronald McDonald has been a significant part of the marketing effort for decades.
2. Establish a long-term plan, and stick with it. The most successful markets map out a year at a time, and they don't cancel their ads after a bad weekend.
3. Make an offer. A small portion of McDonald's advertising is forimage, but most of it gives the target consumer a specific benefit-- a coupon, a new product, a movie tie-in -- for doing business
with them today."
Using these basic fundamentals can spell the difference between success and failure in your advertising campaign.
Remember if you are looking for ways to impact the market in Atlanta using these principles, I've had lots of success helping clients get results with radio. In fact, one of our medical clients consistently gets 50+ patients per month from his advertising with us. If that sounds like the kind of results you'd like to see in your business, drop me an e mail at thecopee@gmail.com.

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