What’s in a Name?

When you look at the marketing dollars spent out there, there is a significant focus on “breaking through the clutter.” In other words using shock value, sex, humor, community involvement, questionable offers, screaming at your potential customers, or random stupidity to get your company noticed. Your hope is that your “break through the clutter” creative gamble, will result in more sales. While those things can work, most of those campaign results (if they can be tracked) resemble that of the comedian laughing at his own jokes more than his/her audience. In other words, we end up marketing to ourselves rather than to our customers. Not good. So what do we do?

If any of you have marketed out of your own database you already know the answer to Shakespeare’s timeless question of “What’s in a name?” Experience has taught me that one of the basics of marketing success is the data, or as we call it at Noodle, “buried treasure.” Arrhhh!! All kidding aside, your database is priceless. That data is packed with demographic, geographic, and lifestyle information that tells you about your business and what makes your customers tick. I have outlined a 5 step process for those D.I.Y. entrepreneurs or anyone looking for a simple marketing refresher.

Step one: Data Analysis
Get your database into a program that you can use. While Excel is not a database nor made for statistical analysis, it does provide tools that will allow you to learn about your customers. You can sort and filter data, calculate averages, and more. There are plenty of software options out there that could eat Excel for breakfast, but if you do not know the difference between a T test and null hypothesis, I wouldn’t bother.

Step two: Strategy and Common sense
Look at your findings and logically think them through. Carefully make some assumptions about your customers. While you don’t have the resources to discover if your assumptions are statistically significant, use common sense and logic. Look at what people are buying, when they are buying, how they are financing it, where they live, credit score, and so on.

Step three: Media types
Decide on which medias to use to market to your customers. The “more the merrier” methodology isn’t always the best, especially when considering your budget. Your budget is the reason why you did your own data analysis in the first place. Don’t spread your dollars to thin. Reach and Frequency are important when using more traditional media types.

Step four: The Message
The hook. Arrgh! (Sorry about the pirate references.) Anyway, now that you have your data and assumptions, create a message that is relevant to your customers. If you have chosen a media type that allows you to customize the offer to individual customers, fantastic! (shameless Noodle plug). Remember, marketing is all about getting the right message to the right person at the right time.

Step five: The Creative
Now that the work is over, it’s time for everyone’s favorite part! Have fun with the creative, but remember to keep it relevant to your targeted customers.