Relying on price to make your media buying decision is as dangerous as relying on price to decide which surgery you need to fix a failing heart. A tonsillectomy is much cheaper than triple bypass heart surgery, but when your life is at stake, you are not buying solely on price, you are paying for the perfect result. As a matter of fact, I am willing to bet that if the price of heart surgery is not as high as you expect, you will be looking for a second opinion. You see, your life is very important and you want the make sure you pay enough to get well. You will even be willing to pay a little too much in order to make sure you get well. Yet too many advertisers are only willing to pay what they want to pay, but rarely willing to pay what is needed to pay, in order to grow their businesses.
Many never consider the content of their message or how targeted is their media buy. What you say and how you say it is as important as to whom you say it. I often tell the story of the $15 Cadillac. A very rich man bought a new Cadillac and in the first week decided he didn’t like it. The dealership would not refund his money. They would only give him a “trade-in” value for a car less than a week old. In frustration he vowed to sell this new Cadillac in the local newspaper for just $15. The newspaper had a lot of readers. Yet nobody responded to the advertisement. The reason was that the offer was too good to be true. And because it seemed so unrealistic, nobody who read the ad bothered calling even though many of them were interested in buying a car. Your message must convey value for your product in balance with the price of your product. Our consuming public is far too wise to fall for bait and switch ads or other con jobs designed to fool them into acting. Again, a dollar is worth a dollar, as is the perception of a dollar.
When someone offers you a discount, you should ask yourself why. Nobody offers to cut their price without a solid reason. The only time I offer price concessions is for my convenience. When I want to increase the amount of booked revenue well in advance, when I want to increase my dominance in certain business categories, and sometimes when I am training sales people, I am likely to offer price breaks. I trade profitability in some cases for other strategic advantages. Want a discount from me? Offer me a strategic marketplace advantage and you will win my heart. I never discount for someone else’s convenience. Neither do my competitors. Be very wary of anyone who gives discounts because “they like you.” Either you are not getting a true discount, or you were paying too much in the first place.
Remember, too, that by increasing the response to your current advertising, you will reap big sales rewards without any additional investment. Spending time improving and perfecting your sales message will give you bigger payoffs than shopping advertising rates. Minor improvements in your offering can literally double your sales results. And I doubt if shopping advertising rates can ever impact your sales results in a positive way. Find an advertising representative who will invest their time and knowledge to help you create an ad that will work and you’ve spent your time very well. When the ad works well, differences in ad rates don’t seem to matter because advertising then becomes an investment and not an expense.
