Getting more bang for your buck…the impact of the U.S. market turmoil

With Australia having such close ties to the U.S. market many businesses have gone into panic mode due to the financial crisis currently affecting the U.S. economy. Whenever something happens in the U.S. market people assume that it will have an impact on the Australian market as well. In order to protect themselves from any market changes that may occur businesses tend to go into fortress mode when all spending stops and they just hold the fort to see how everything pans out. If things do not go according to plan businesses move into phase two of the plan which involves cost cutting. The big boss sits in their office and scans through the books asking where can we say money and then finally the light-bulb moment comes…”I know, we can down-size the marketing department because it’s not like they do anything anyway”. It’s funny how it’s always to marketer who is first to go…it’s like we are a dispensable breed of business executives. Meanwhile you fire the marketing team, the enquiries stop and then what are you left with.

While there may be some merit in this strategy of cost-cutting what if we look at the other end of the spectrum which involves being proactive to counteract the negative effects of the market drop. Instead of cost cutting why not focus on getting more bang for your buck. Now’s your chance to look at our marketing budget and ensure that your money is being invested into advertising mediums that will give you the greatest return on investment.

TV, Radio and Newspaper advertising are quite expensive and tend to follow a mass-market approach which makes it hard to run a targeted campaign using them. Also, you have to think that once that newspaper is printed and read there will be another one to replace it the following day. No one wants to read yesterday’s news so there is very little chance of your advertisement getting repeat exposure with your potential customer.

Let’s compare these mediums to promotional products, one of the most powerful tools in direct marketing. Promotional products allow you to create a long-lasting, cost effective campaign with a good return on investment. Let’s take a mug for example…you give someone a mug and they generally keep it for years; it may even become their favourite mug that they will use every day. If you invest your money in purchasing a good quality mug for your customer that they decide to use daily think about the amount of brand exposure you will get over the life of the mug; the return just keeps on coming.

The key is to pick the right type of product that your customer will actually use, make sure you invest in a quality item that will last a number of years and work the product into your overall campaign.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the team at JEM Promotional Products on (02)8205 1334 or enquiries@jempp.com.au for more information on any promotional item in our range.