THE BLACK
L '
"'1
JANUARY 25-31, 1984
•
....
rtis·ng advice felr small b
I
David K.III1l�1D
One of the mo t difficult financial
nece 'ties f cing a Black busine
, when, ho , where and with whom to
dvertise.
Too many busine do little, or
no advertising hataoevet. uch of the
little that is done is inadequate or incor-
ect, Too often media espeople don't
kno t kind of dvertising to n to
the sam� buline, non.
IAt's amine dvertising, starting
with fe . ts to help you make
a good investment with your adverti-
sing dollar.
The.fir ep i for you to do some
stomers. Some sample questions to
include in prom uld be the fo ow-
ing:
-What percentage of your clients
, are male? what percentage are female?
-What is their range in e?
-Do you dr your clientele
from walking di nee in your busine '
neighborhood, from cro the city,
from the entire metropolitan are?
- hat kind of job are your cu
tomers employed in?
- hat is their racial bre down?
t is the avera e size pur-
ch a customer makes e ch time s/he
comes into your tore?
t medi reaches your current
cu torners?
YOU C CO vcr this survey
your elf. ith la If-developed question-
G
aire, or you can let a profe ional do the
rvey for you.
One y of obtaining a thorough,
yet inexpen ' e survey, is to find college
instructor who will assign one hundred
person, twenty question survey to one of
his student from a questionaire the in­
structor develops after a discu 'on with
you. Tell the instructor you'll pay the
student S50 cash (SOc nt per rvey);
and the instructor S50 0 collate and in­
terpret it. With. your survey and inter­
pretation in hand, you're prepared to ,
talk to a media sperson. I
The next t of information y u'll
need is the profile (demographics) of the
media you plan to dvertise in. That
mean the media ha done what you've
done; they' surveyed their audience. If
they don't have their demographics,
they'll be talking smoke. If they haven't
rveyed their audience they should,
becau otherwise, they won't know what
they're selling you, d you won't know
what you're buying.
.If you plan to spend more than 1
on advertising and don't have demograph­
ics you're playing a guessing game. The
key to efficient, cost-effective advertising
is matching your customers' profile
(demographic ith the media audience
progile (demographic). �
LET'S VSE SO
example to
illustrate my point .
Suppo all of your customer
are Blac and the media Jesperson
'.
51n� 55:
for the bite daily new aper in your
city pproaches lyou: about advertising
in the daily p per.
He doesn't bother to tell you that
only 20 Percent of the newspaper's read­
ers are Black, while 80 percent e bite.
He ju tells you what a bi circulatio
hi new paper hi .
If that's the ca and you buy,
you.re paying 100 percent of your ad­
vertising dollar to reach 20 percent of
his readers who are Black, who m y do
busine with you.
Meanwhile, mo of your money
is being spent to reach white readers who
will never alk into your busine and
speI¥i their money with you.
Bad b ying on your part, lousy
lling on hi . .
. If that's happened to you, don't
get angry, get smart.
Go back to squ re one, do your
customer survey, analyze the demograph­
ics of your clientele, a for the media
I
profile (demographics) of the media
that the sale person represent and tart
looking for your customer/media match.
The cIo er the match. the more cost
effective and uccessful your advertising
will be.
LET S TRY OTHE example.
Mr. Hotshot, a radio spot salesman tells
�ou he has a Black- jadio show that'
attracting bi number with respect to
listener . He tells you you' got to have
your busine adveertised on the show
THE CtTIZEN PAGE 5
1·
and Ion other program on hi tion.
You h si te, (you kno you have
not done your ey and obtained your
customer demographic) then you y
o.k. You buy S I 000 orth' of r die
spots. You don't have.a cu orner profile;
the radio spot sale non doe 't ave
one either.
._ So what happens? Your d cam-
paign falls f1 t. You a why outloud one
evening while you atch those slic tele­
vision commercials with your daughter.
I She tell yo the tion you
bought ad on, appeal to �l ck udi­
ence 12 to 20 year old, with just small
dult listening audience.
Your customers are Black all right,
but with an e ran e from 26 0 49
years. Your ads ot to the right r thi
time, unfortunately you reache the
wrong e group. Re Its? Very 10
return on your dvertisin dollar.
Finally, after bein burned ice,
you've I decided to do it the right w y.
You get I a busine instr ctor at
a local community college to put to­
gether your survey and dupli te the
number you need. One of hi udents
does the urvey with your client in a
couple Saturday in all-d y ions. The
three of you di us the results, and now
you're ready to adverti .
The survey says the bulk, 75 per­
cent of your customers can be reached
through 3 to 5 ifferent media.
ow what do you do? Loo for'
yo r answer in the next edition of
"Bu ine in the Black. '
ernor and lMC':
Fina'
, 'I · I
cial aid for college is available
TO SHIP- ore than
500 million is available to ichigan coll­
ege tudents in the form of holarships,
loan ; grant ,and or - udy job , ac­
cording to information from the Michi­
gan Finan ial Aid A ciation.
To make certain that all funds are
fully utilized and that potential d actu­
al college tudent are aware of the varie- '
I
ty of funds and grant available to them,
the A ciation a ed Gov. James Blan­
cahrd to declare January "Fin cia} d
Awarene Month," and on e. 8 the
Governor ' ued an Executive Declara­
tion to that ef ect.
Sylvia Coleman, Lake ichigan
According to Sylvia Coleman, Lake
ichigan College financial aid officer
Youth .orchestra 'program continues
)
ST. JOSEPH - Th Lake i hi an
Youth Orche tra' tring orche ra pro­
gram continue this Spring with the first
rehe r I on Saturday, arch 3, 1984,
10 a.m, in the Orche tr Room at the
St. Joseph High School. .
The Youth Orche tra is a training
orchestra de igned to supplement cur­
rent school pro s nd private instruc­
tion.' Student in gra five through
eight with a minimum f one year private
or public chool in truction on a ring
instrument are,�ligible. .
53 membership fee is required of
II participants. �
The Lake MichiganYouth Orchestra
is sponsor d by the Twi Cities Sym-
phonic iety Robert Vodnoy, usi
Director, wi h financial upport provided
by the Be rien Community Foundation,
the Performance Tru Fund
ichigan Counci for the Arts.
For more information, call the
Twin Crties Symphony at 616-983-
4334.
, any students are confused regarding
their eligibility for financial aid and not
fully aware' of the types of aid available.
LMC .carries the message to the high
schools, holds financial aid workshops
for parents, and in other ways strives to
get the information into the hand of
those who need it. However, with all this,
we feel the Governor's proclamation ha
been helpful, for e are getting many
more inquirie than \ve normally might
expect."
, . Mrs. Coleman id that mcrney is
available on the basis of both need and
merit and that it comes from tate
federal, private, and college ources.
"But tudent 'and potential stu­
dents must apply," rs. Coleman said,
I
'If they don't a we can't elp them."
According to the Michigan Student
Financial Aid Association a majority of
udent enrolled in in tituti ns of higher
education in Michigan rece ve financial
aid. These students would not be ble
to attend the college of their ch ice
wihout financial a 'stance,
F r additional financial aid lnfor­
mation tudents, potential udent and
parents can contact in person or by tele­
phone one of two LM offices: finan-
cial id Office ain Campus 2755
apier· e. Benton Township' 927-
3571 Ext. 213 or ain Office. L
South Campus 111 Spru eSt., iles;
684-5850.
( tlJlSlrllC/it1ll
, -
EJlERAL CONTRACTOM.
'.' .
ROOIfING· IDa Q.
• HO E REMoDELI
INSULATION
926-2711
273 CHESTNUT ST .... H.