ADVERTISING 101:

Below are some of the pros and cons of conventional advertising that you need to take into consideration.

Medium	Pros	Cons
Television	Television allows you to reach a large numbers of people in a short period of time.	Requires multiple exposures for the ad to rise above the clutter. Expensive in terms of creative, production and airtime costs
Newspaper	Allows you to reach a huge number of people in a given geographic area	Ad space can be expensiveand Your ad has to compete against the clutter of other advertisers
Direct Mail	Your message can be as long and as graphic as is necessary to fully tell your story.	Some people do not like receiving offers in their mail, and discard immediately without even opening the mail
Telemarketing	Easily interact with the prospect, answering any questions or concerns they may have about your product or service	Increasing number of people are averse to telemarketing-very intrusive
Magazines	High reader involvement means that more attention will be given to your advertisement	Long lead times mean that you have to make plans well in advance. Space and ad layout costs are higher
Radio	Efficiently target your advertising dollars to narrowly defined segments of consumers most likely to respond to your offer.	Most listeners are doing something else while listening, which means that your ad has to work hard to get their attention

Depending on your product and budget you may implement one or some combination of the above conventional methods to make up for the shortfall of any particular method. For example you can use a radio ad to offset the non existent emotional aspect of a direct mail ad.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Each medium caters to a specific group and takes advantage of a time, place or network. For example Radio ads are catered mostly to people driving too and from work and as such the most effective and most expensive ad time slots are the morning and evening rush hour periods. Similarly with TV the most popular ad time slots are in the evening when prime time shows are on. Internet advertising is geared towards people who browse the internet. Billboards are visual ads for people on the go.

Companies segment their target customers by various factors such age, finances, and profession to ensure they maximize their return on advertising dollar. Intense competition and the changing demographics have led companies to segment customers based ethnicity. Research has shown that the same group of people respond more positively to an ad if it is geared towards their specific ethnicity. It is common now to hear radio ads and see TV and print ads from mainstream businesses such as Banks Insurance companies, Car manufacturers, Phone companies and Grocery stores that are geared towards ethnic groups. In some cases that actual message is in a different language. Such advertising has opened new revenue streams for these companies and more importantly created a stronger bond between their products and their customers. Innovative and forward thinking advertisers have realized the lucrative value of marketing directly to ethnic groups.

WHERE TO START?

Ethnic advertising is not only for big established companies. In practice small to medium size companies are well positioned to take advantage as well. It just needs some basic research and planning to determine if it is worth your while or not.

First of all, you need to consider if your product or service transcends cultures. For example if you sell DVD Players, you know your product is used by everyone regardless of their ethnicity. Even if you product is geared to a specific ethnic group you can still enhance customer loyalty by using ethnic marketing. The second thing you need to consider is demographics of the locality in which your business operates in or your products are sold in. If you have diverse community or even a few sizeable ethnic groups, you can deploy an ethnic marketing campaign.

Next you need to consider what advertising format you wish to deploy. Depending on the ethnicity you want to target you can use almost any of the advertising methods mentioned earlier to reach your new segment. For example, if you wish to target the Indian community with a radio ad, perform a search on the internet to find a radio station that has Indian programming in your locality. It is usually cheaper to advertise with a specialty Indian radio station as they don’t charge a premium to reach the general masses that a radio station with more universal appeal would (this applies to all formats). Furthermore, the ethnic radio station will work with you to create a radio ad specifically geared towards the Indian community. If you are skeptical just call the radio station (or Newspaper, TV station, etc) and get a quote and advice for free!

FINAL CONSIDERATION

The one problem with the above approach is that you need to select a specific ethnic group to focus on. Carrying on with the above example, if you also want to target the Hispanic community you would need to find another radio station that is geared to the Hispanic community (i.e. more cost, but the opportunity may justify the additional cost). Targeting one community over the other may also be perceived as partiality and might work against your business or brand image. Now this may not be a problem if you are already dealing with a specific ethnicity. So as a business owner you have to be careful and pay special attention to the sensitivities of your potential customers. If you need a system that appeals to ALL ethnic communities, learn more out M3i Telecom’s Catalyst Marketing System.