Promotional ideas that make the consumer say Oh! make long lasting impressions.
Effective promotion – no matter how it is applied – be it marketing, public relations, sales or advertising, is meant to do one thing - promote. There are two or three letter Os in the words promote and promotion. When the target audience responds favorably to promotion – the word fills with ohs!– as in proh!-moh!-tioh!n. Find the oh! in promotion and it will make lasting impressions with customers and clients.
Learn from the Ohs! Of Past Promotions
Think of all the public relations, marketing and advertising campaigns that made the world stop and say oh, that’s what we needed. Take for example the first cell phone sales campaign back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The sales message in those days centered on owning a cell phone for safety purposes.
If you traveled a lot or traveled alone at night - especially women – you needed a cell phone – actually they were called car phones back then. How many people said to themselves – “oh! I do travel a lot and at night, so yes I do need a car phone”? When car phones became cell phones they also became little hand-held computers that could be used for phone calls, text messaging, Internet browsing and to take photographs – the Ohs! in promotion worked again. Oh, send and receive e-mail while waiting to board a plane? Oh yes, that’s perfect.
Most times the Oh! hits the consumer immediately but there are times the Oh! hits later, after the consumer has bought into the promotion. Google is an example of a delayed Oh! Google really started to catch attention from the average consumer after the phrase “google it” started to catch on. When consumers realized they could google themselves – oh! yes, everyone wanted to learn how to use the still popular search engine.
Find the Ohs! for Promotions
How can a small business with limited dollars for promotional campaigns get its consumers to say Oh!? Start with market research. Determine what a particular market needs and work to provide the needed products or services. Return to the market research to determine how to best reach the market – by print advertisements – by radio – by television or by press release or public service announcements.
The market may prefer to be reached with free giveaways. Last week, in the middle of a fundraising campaign for a classical music radio station in northeast Ohio, the station started giving away preloaded iPods (preloaded with 14 hours of classical music) to those people making a pledge over a certain dollar amount. The entire fund raising campaign was broadcast over the very same station the money was for – reaching those already enjoying the product. Oh!
Use the Ohs! in Promotions
Extend the market research by paying close attention to promotions in magazine, on television, on the net or over the radio. Find the Ohs! that others have done and recognize why they generated an Oh!.
The best ways to generate Ohs! is to develop great products and services and then couple them with uncompromised customer service. Next design the public relations, marketing and advertising by developing messages that speak directly to the target audience. Send the message right to their hearts. Last but not least, deliver what’s been promised. Oh! Now that makes sense.
