Author: Rick & Al Schad

Rural residents still tend to be more homogenous than their urban counterparts and tend to share cultural and religious values. They are more likely to be blue collar than white collar, and tend to make less money on average. An ad campaign aimed at a rural market would therefore necessarily be different from one aimed at an urban market. A rural car dealership, for example, might stress affordability and a trusted brand over green technology or new design features, which might have more appeal at an urban dealership.

Rural areas are by definition remote from city centers; they therefore, do not enjoy the same easy access to major shopping venues that city dwellers enjoy. A marketing plan targeting rural consumers might rely on Internet sales or a partnership with stores already serving the rural area. Its message would be less likely divided into different versions for different consumer subgroups. A marketing campaign aimed at urban consumers might need to be broken into subsets to appeal to the many diverse groups within the marketing area. It would also need to be more unusual or aggressive to stand out from the sea of ads competing for urban consumers’ attention.

Rural and urban America have many cultural characteristics in common, yet some differences apply. An ad featuring a popular country music star would be more favorably received in rural markets, as an ad featuring jazz would likely be well-received in an urban market. An ad using words like “dependable,” “traditional” and “values” might resonate best with rural consumers, while words such as “innovative,” “fresh” and “new” might have more appeal to an urban consumer. Marketing that blends in with the cultural norms of each community is more likely to result in sales.

Consumers who live in a rural area where change is slow to take place may respond best to one-on-one marketing done by salespeople who take the time to establish themselves in the community and earn trust. However, the same personal, get-to-know-you approach might be viewed with suspicion in an urban setting, especially if a no-nonsense, factual selling technique is the norm. It’s wise to take note of the sales techniques that are already working, when drawing up a location-specific marketing campaign.

Resource provided by: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-rural-marketing-urban-marketing-23162.html

There are a myriad of advertising techniques that can be used to influence the elderly.  Bootstrap recognizes these as very effective, and condemns the all too frequent abuse of this knowledge in the marketing industry.  We feel it is our moral responsibility as advertisers to proceed with caution when using these methods and require all Bootstrap clients to fairly market to this demographic without an abuse of power occurring.

60 percent of respondents age 65-plus said they feel younger than their actual age — in many cases much younger. “Among respondents ages 65 to 74, a third say they feel 10 to 19 years younger than their age, and one in six say they feel at least 20 years younger than their actual age”.

According to a report presented in AdWeek, “Older consumers could care less whether the person in the photo has gray hair or even is bald. They want to see the person being vital and active — doing something that is relevant to their life, not necessarily to their age.”

One stereotype about seniors is perfectly accurate, judging by polling data and the views of people involved in marketing to that cohort: the role of grandparent is a big and a main focus for many older consumers. A recent poll asked individuals in this demographic to cite the one thing they value most about getting older. The top two answers were “having more time with family” (28 percent) and “spending time with grandchildren” (25 percent).

Additionally, a “deep-seated longing for connectedness” carries over to the way this demographic tends to respond to the imagery in advertising. The Harff agency conducted research last year on what older people liked or didn’t like about photography in print ads. Among the findings: “All the ads that scored well showed connectedness,” with people in the photos interacting with one another.

Then again, there are needs that aren’t strictly utilitarian. An overlooked point that should be emphasized is that those in the Silent Generation often share a sense of having been overshadowed throughout their lives — growing up in the shadow of the generation that endured the Depression and won a world war, and then being eclipsed by the baby boomers.

This situation has resulted in many of the Silent Generation feeling a deep desire to get some enjoyment out of life before they are done.  This means that they’re never going to be the hedonistic spenders that the baby boomers are, however they want some adventure in their lives.

Resources for more info: http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/marketing-todays-65-plus-consumers-99953/

Info above modified from this article for Presentation

Income is an uncomfortable subject for many of us, but in advertising it must be looked at straight on because of the impact it has on marketing strategy. Vastly different tactics, aesthetics, and words should be used when attempting to get the attention of these separate target audiences due to the large discrepancies in desires and limitations.

Low Income

Deals, sales, specials, discounts, offers, payment plans – Even without altering any aspect of your aesthetic or attempting to target this demographic specifically, these words target those on a budget and will translate to much more powerful and attractive sounding words such as affordable, winning, obtainable, etc.

Middle Class

These same words (affordable, winning, obtainable), work as better copy for marketing materials targeting the middle class. While having a substantial increase in income compared to the poverty line, it is still a demographic that values reasonable spending and takes pleasure in sensible purchasing.

Wealthy

Unlike the middle class, an emphasis is placed on perceived value, not sensibility, and words reflecting this ideal such as lavish, royal, premium, etc. are needed to target this demographic specifically. Those with less income will not be turned away by such language, but they are less likely to attempt spending beyond their means when it can’t be justified with either a sale or some kind of emphasis on receiving extra value for payment.

Applying the Concept

Below is an example displaying the difference in marketing tactic when approaching audiences from different income brackets with the same product. For this example we will use a hotel – we will call it Hotel X. While a bit theatrical, it clearly shows one product from very different sounding perspectives.

Wealthy

“Dine like the stars, under the stars on your private patio, sleep on fine Corinthian sheets, and lavishly relax in our premium filtered pools featuring an exotic collection of rare birds chirping the stresses of your long day away. Hotel-X, second to no other world class spa vacation.”

Ad campaigns targeting “wealthy” demographic focuses on premium versions of services, features, or amenities, emphasizing quality as well as conveying a sense of superiority over competitors.

Middle Class

“Our five-star Hotel-X features an amenity for every desire. Spa includes steam room, sauna, mud baths, hot tubs, seaside pool, and world class massage therapists; and all rooms are equipped with fireplace, balcony, and hand sewn robes made locally.”

Ad campaigns targeting “middle class” demographic will feature value for price, sometimes inflating the product or services by emphasizing numerous details to boost the appearance of worth.

Low Income

“Hotel-X, on the beaches of beautiful beach-x, is offering four nights for the price of two when you purchase a spa & restaurant package. Enjoy all of the finest amenities Hotel-X has to offer when you book online in the next 24 hours.”

Ad campaigns targeting “low income” demographic will feature language explaining to the audience how it is possible that they are able to afford an otherwise unobtainable product or service and add urgency to the decision making process by adding a time frame or number limit. The low income demographic has the desires of higher income demographics, but needs some kind of deal, or extra value to justify a seemingly otherwise unreasonable expense.

There are a myriad of advertising techniques that can be used to influence children. Bootstrap recognizes these as very effective, and condemns the all too frequent abuse of this knowledge in the marketing industry. We feel it is our responsibility as adults and as advertisers to proceed with caution when using these methods and require all Bootstrap clients to fairly market to children without an abuse of power occurring.

Advertising Techniques:

• Using slightly older children than target audience. This creates an implied role model and therefore a level of trust. Watching other children having a good time with a product is in general highly effective in convincing children of desirability and adding a slight increase of age compounds the success of this tactic.
• Showing products in lifelike settings (Example: Barbie’s car doesn’t come with the real beach setting it is shown in, and many of the props used to elevate the perception of the toy are not for sale and unrealistically animated).
• Unrelated “cool things” occurring in the background (Example: a commercial for a simple toy might have aliens flying around in the background or bad guys that a toy is fighting off)
• Music, sound effects, and increase in volume all contribute to an increase in excitement for the audience subconsciously. Focusing on expressions of excitement adds to this illusion.
• Celebrities are always effective in advertising, however when advertising to children this extends to well known cartoons. When known spokespeople or cartoons are not available, often times a character is created as a substitute and can be more influential than unknown actors.

An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3% of adults are transgender. While this may sound relatively minimal, this translates to approximately 9 million LGBTQIA+ Americans, a figure roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey.

Including the LGBTQIA+ community in advertising efforts is mostly about NOT being offensive or exclusive. The needs for this demographic are pretty minimal and often times, displaying “the rainbow” with a simple and positive message of inclusion is all that is required to create a loyal customer. Many businesses shy away from including or targeting this unique audience wanting to remain unbiased on the subject, however the LGBTQIA+ community is large and loyal, more so than most demographics, which is a consideration many businesses haven’t accounted for. Because most LGBTQIA+ individuals feel excluded or judged by society, a simple nod to inclusion feels like a giant gesture – this audience will be your best word of mouth advertising or your biggest enemy depending on your public stance.

This does not mean that all advertising materials need to include rainbows or that you need to publicly defend political or religious beliefs. Subtle nods at appropriate times such as Pride day are often enough and as long as staff interactions and any written materials are not offensive or exclusive, this demographic is satisfied and will absorb messaging in advertising materials without bias.

To target this demographic specifically, it becomes important to visually represent the community. Models in photographs should be a bit more alternative in appearance and aesthetics should be fashionable, trendy, or artistic. In addition to visually reflecting the community, advertising should reflect values this group is known for such as freedom of expression, individuality, and inclusiveness.

Statistics provided by: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gates-How-Many-People-LGBT-Apr-2011.pdf

Marketing is largely thought of as printed or digital materials used to influence a target audience, and while this is true, there are some simple differences in gender shopping habits and desires that should be considered by anyone looking to attract both men and women or target either.

Males

• When it comes to shopping, men focus on the practical things.
• A majority of the time, they enter a store knowing exactly what they are looking for.
• Practical issues such as parking accessibility and store inventory are as important as quality of product.
• If decisions need to be made, they automatically eliminate any options that don’t have the specific attributes they’re seeking.

Females

To get technical, female brains have stronger connections between their right and left hemispheres. This means their memory and language are very in touch with their emotions. Since they are better at remembering details, incorporating emotional cues and details into marketing strategies is effective.

• While men like concrete information and straight-to-the-point advertising, women prefer comprehensive data and emotional connections.
• Background information is important to women.
• The more emotional context incorporated in an advertisement, the more relevant it will be to women.
• Women, on the other hand, consider all options and look at the overall picture.
• Women base their shopping experiences on interactions they have with sales associates – were they helpful, knowledgeable and genuine?
• Women have the tendency to browse, so the advertiser’s job is not over once the customer has entered the store.

There are a myriad of advertising techniques that can be used to influence the population. Bootstrap recognizes these as very effective, and condemns the all too frequent abuse of this knowledge in the marketing industry. We feel it is our moral responsibility as advertisers to proceed with caution when using these methods. Bootstrap requires clients to fairly and honestly represent their business or their product, without an abuse of power occurring. We provide this information as education on the marketing industry and insight into the tactics that competitors might be employing. Bootstrap believes the best tactic is to honestly communicate with an audience that has real need for a business, service, or product, and our job is to connect our clients with that audience. We hold the opinion that many of these strategies are unfair manipulations of the public and the psychology of the human brain.

Emotional Appeal

This technique of advertising is done with help of two factors. The first is the needs of consumers and the second is fear factor.

Most common appeals under need are:

• Need for something new
• Need for getting acceptance
• Need for not being ignored
• Need for change of old things
• Need for security
• Need to become attractive, etc.

Most common appeals under fear are:

• Fear of accident
• Fear of death
• Fear of being avoided
• Fear of getting sick
• Fear of getting old, etc.

Promotional Advertising

This technique involves giving away samples of the product for free to the consumers. The items are offered in the trade fairs, promotional events, and ad campaigns in order to gain the attention of the customers.

Bandwagon Advertising

This type of technique involves convincing the customers to join the group of people who have bought this product and be on the winning side. For e.g. recent Pantene shampoo ad which says “15 crores women trusted Pantene, and you?

Facts and Statistics

Here, advertisers use numbers, proofs, and real examples to show how good their product works. For e.g. “Lysol floor cleaner cleans 99.99% germs” or “Colgate is recommended by 70% of the dentists of the world” or Eno – just 6 seconds

Unfinished Ads

The advertisers here just play with words by saying that their product works better but don’t answer how much more than the competitor. For e.g. Lays – no one can eat just one or Horlicks – more nutrition daily. The ads don’t say who can eat more or how much more nutrition.

Weasel Words

In this technique, the advertisers don’t say that they are the best from the rest, but don’t also deny. E.g. Sunsilk Hairfall Solution – reduces hairfall. The ad doesn’t say stops hairfall.

Endorsements

The advertisers use celebrities to advertise their products. The celebrities or star endorse the product by telling their own experiences with the product. Recently a diamond jewelry ad had superstar Amitabh Bacchan and his wife Jaya advertising the product. The ad showed how he impressed his wife by making a smart choice of buying this brand. Again, Sachin Tendulkar, a cricket star, endorsed for a shoe brand.

Complementing the Customers

Here, the advertisers used punch lines which complement the consumers who buy their products. E.g. Revlon says “Because you are worth it.”

Ideal Family and Ideal Kids

The advertisers using this technique show that the families or kids using their product are a happy go lucky family. The ad always has a neat and well furnished home, well mannered kids and the family is a simple and sweet kind of family. E.g. a Dettol soap ad shows everyone in the family using that soap and so is always protected from germs. They show a fluorescent color line covering whole body of each family member when compared to other people who don’t use this soap.

Patriotic Advertisements

These ads show how one can support their country while he uses their product or service. For example, some products together formed a union and claimed in their ad that if you buy any one of these products, you are going to help a child to go to school. One more cellular company ad had a celebrity showing that if the customers use this company’s sim card, then they can help control population of the country.

Questioning the Customers

The advertisers using this technique ask questions to the consumers to get response for their products. E.g. Amway advertisement keeps on asking questions like who has so many farms completely organic in nature, who gives the strength to climb up the stairs at the age of 70, who makes the kids grow in a proper and nutritious ways, is there anyone who is listening to these entire questions. And then at last the answer comes – “Amway : We are Listening.”

Bribe

This technique is used to bribe the customers with something extra if they buy the product using lines like “buy one shirt and get one free”, or “be the member for the club for two years and get 20% off on all services.”

Surrogate Advertising

This technique is generally used by the companies which cannot advertise their products directly. The advertisers use indirect advertisements to advertise their product so that the customers know about the actual product. The biggest example of this technique is liquor ads. These ads never show anyone drinking actual liquor and in place of that they are shown drinking some mineral water, soft drink or soda.

According to the Management Study Guide: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/advertising-techniques.htm

Brick & mortar stores have a fantastic opportunity to communicate with the public: signage. This includes both exterior and interior signs, that can convey the store’s identity, target audience, specific products/brands, or help guide the customer within the store to find the products they are looking for.

• Across genders, age groups, and regions, 29% of American consumers report that they have been drawn into unfamiliar stores based on the quality of the store’s signage.
• Over a third of American consumers (34.5%) report that they have made quality assumptions about a business on the basis of clear and attractive signage. No gender or regional differences were observed.
• How does signage compare with other communication media in terms of perceived usefulness as a source of information about new products? The survey asked respondents to rate the perceived usefulness of various media, including television, radio, newspapers, etc. Although television was rated as the most useful source of new product information, indoor signage ties with magazines as the second most useful source, and outdoor signage ranked third, beating out radio, internet, and newspaper ads.
• 75.2% of respondents (n=7,000) agree with the statement “One of the first things I notice about a new or unfamiliar business is the signage outside its building.”
• 85.7% of respondents (n=7,000) agree with the statement “In addition to identifying a business, signs can convey the personality or character of the business.”

source: http://www.signresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/BrandSpark-Better-Homes-and-Gardens-American-Shopper-Study2011.pdf

Who should your customers be?

Your customer should be defined as an individual or group that is or has potential to be interested in services or products that your business provides or can be convinced to become a customer without dishonesty or misrepresentation. Identifying which demographics will have a positive interaction with your company is the first step to targeting an audience.

Often, businesses worried about the bottom line go after inappropriate audiences and will use any means necessary to obtain customers. This short sighted way of thinking doesn’t benefit businesses for long and results in high levels of customer dissatisfaction. Knowing not just your product or service, but its impact on those that use it, is a powerful start to any marketing campaign.

Bootstrap encourages both new and established businesses to periodically re-examine the products and services being offered and honestly evaluate which groups or individuals can genuinely benefit from what is being provided. The answer to this will identify your core customers that will make up the majority of your recurring business.

Non-customers can be converted. If the service or product that your company provides is beneficial to an audience that either isn’t aware of your business or doesn’t understand it, it is your job to provide the necessary information or education to bridge this gap. Bootstrap finds that business owners take pride in their products and understand why what they provide is valuable to them personally, but often overlook what the value is to a wider audience. Bootstrap advocates for the customer, exploring potentials you might not have considered, and expanding your audience through education and better communication.

Are you reaching your audience?

Often, businesses are vague in their communications with the public, not realizing that marketing materials that are seen by a specific audience are not the same as marketing materials that target that audience specifically. In order to successfully target an audience, a business must have an understanding of the needs, desires, behaviors, budgets, and obstacles a demographic possesses. Businesses must know the unique preferences of their audience or they risk being ignored, resulting in lost time and money spent on advertising that ultimately was unsuccessful.

Is your audience motivated to listen?

In order to get the attention of the public on a subject that they are unfamiliar with or uneducated on, businesses must provide some kind of motivating factor. Almost every business ultimately can be stripped down to be viewed as a “solution” to some kind of existing “problem” or “answer” to someone’s “need”. Pointing out “the problem” to the correct audience is reliably motivating enough to cause an audience to react. This is a tactic that is so successful that some businesses sink to creating non existent issues to scare the public into listening.

Using the knowledge that fear can be a motivator is a slimy tactic when used to deceive or manipulate an audience to motivate them into spending money for unnecessary or undesired items or services. It is always our responsibility as marketers and business owners to never use marketing knowledge and tactics to misrepresent ourselves or our products. Much like scientific advances, marketing walks a fine line defined by positive and negative intentions.