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"Tom Egelhoff's book is easy to
read, providing a cookbook list of common sense advertising that
will help you spend your advertising dollar more wisely. "
Foreword to
"The Small
Town
Advertising Handbook:
How to Say More And Spend Less "
by George Arimond, Ph.D.
Small business consultant and Professor,
University of Wisconsin La Crosse
Entrepreneurs of small town America who are searching
for to answers to their advertising needs will really appreciate
The Small Town Advertising Handbook. The Madison Avenue
marketing experts, or want-to-be experts, write most of the popular
advertising books.
Unfortunately for the small town
business owner these national advertising gurus focus on corporate
America, which is far removed from the advertising needs of small
business.
Many traditional corporate theories and concepts of advertising
that they discuss in their books are potentially useful for small
business; however, they don't quite hit the mark.
Tom Egelhoff recognizes this and in this book shows how certain
advertising theories can be made to work in small town America.
He illustrates and interprets the unique
aspects of advertising in small towns as well as demonstrating
a clear understanding how small town consumers think.
Tom has that innate sense of how
small town culture influences people's purchasing decisions and
that small town consumers respond somewhat differently than urban
and suburban America.
In the last ten to fifteen years there has been a revolution
occurring in the advertising and marketing industry. There have
been debates about whether advertising is art or science. It's
considered science when an ad is based upon well-researched theories.
It is considered art, on the other hand, when a creative ad
emotionally grabs the consumer's attention at the gut instinct
level. Tom recognizes that you need to use a little of both-science
and art.
He says to focus more on consumers'
emotions, but at the same time don't forget to use
the science side of advertising: 1) inform them about your product,
and 2) provide a persuasive message highlighting the benefits
of your product.
A second revolution has been 'Relationship Marketing.' Relationship
Marketing says you must learn more about your customer and then
personalize your product and advertising message so it meets
the individualized needs of each customer.
In addition, Relationship Marketing should leave the customer,
after their buying experiences, feeling as if they've been treated
as a friend and not just another customer. This supposed new
marketing approach is not new to small town America.
Consumers in rural America want to be treated in a neighborly
manner and have the assurance sales people will be honest with
them. Neighborly trust and other essential characteristics of
rural Americans are things Tom truly understands and points to
their importance in advertising.
He says you need to first learn who
your potential customers are. Then delve into how
they will think and feel about your product, focusing heavily
on the emotional aspects. With this
knowledge, he says only then can you create the kind of ad messages
that will substantially increase sales.
Rationale for why a particular advertising strategy works
is helpful and insightful. Tom shares
his rationale as to how and why certain small town advertising
strategies work so well.
His rationale is based upon years
of extensive experience in retail sales and his intimate knowledge
of small town consumers. With his keen sense of small
town consumers, he shares examples and stories that make clear
the rationale behind each of his suggested small town advertising
strategies.
This is a major strength of this
book because few advertising and marketing authors possess this
kind of small town consumer insight.
An important focus of Tom's book
is avoiding waste in advertising. Waste is caused
by the use of misplaced or inappropriate ads, which leads to
a poor return on your advertising dollar. Small town businesses
have small advertising budgets, which means advertising errors
or waste can be much more costly as compared to larger businesses.
Tom recognizes this important concern, but also recognizes
money must be spent on advertising if your business is to grow
and prosper. The key, he says, is to
treat advertising as an investment and not just another expenditure
on your income statement.
Whether you call it an investment or an expenditure, you're
still faced with the question, "How
do I get the best return on my advertising dollar?" Tom
says the key is to test and monitor your ads.
Determine whether the ad is selling sufficient product to
offset your ad costs and produce sustainable business profits.
Many would say that's nice, but I can't afford the time nor the
cost to measure the effectiveness of my ads. It is just too complicated.
Tom counters this opinion by demonstrating
inexpensive, easily implemented testing methods that will measure
your ads' performance. And, you don't need a marketing
department or marketing consultant to carry out his testing methods.
In terms of constructing ads, he shares with you inexpensive
ways to create ad campaigns and shows you how to work with media
sales people so that you get what you need at a price you can
afford. In addition, he reviews how
to effectively use tried and true advertising methods, such as
direct mail, and gives good suggestions on the use of new advertising
mediums, such as internet web pages.
To conclude, Tom Egelhoff's book is easy to read, providing
a cookbook list of common sense advertising that will help you
spend your advertising dollar more wisely.
Each year as a consultant, I advise numerous small business
owners. You can be sure I will be recommending this book to them
for their advertising needs. Those of you questioning whether
your advertising investment is really working, I suggest you
turn to Tom's book as well.
George Arimond, Ph.D.
Small business consultant and Professor,
University of Wisconsin La Crosse
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