Can A Bad Ad Provide Good Small Business Lessons?

 

 

What You Can Do

If you are a small- or medium-sized business owner, you certainly know how competitive it is ‘out there”. Having a great location, great product and great pricing amounts to half the work is done. Wrong! That’s just meeting the bar, only the price of entry into the category. If you have a limited budget here are some lessons to apply:

Let’s use this Audi scenario to highlight key lessons on advertising and positioning your product or service:

  • Leverage any advantage you have.

In this case, Audi has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in creating a consistent, solid and very successful image. Why would you not remind your potential customers that that Audi is here?

  • Give your potential buyer a reason to choose you, buy from you.

It could be personalized service (though it’s fuzzy), longer hours, Sunday hours, free loaner car or, in this case, go straight ahead and mention that not only do you have great prices but also offer a flexible lease program which allows you to drive off the lot with no money down. Today there are roughly three Audi dealers in the Miami area, six in South Florida, six BMW dealers, six Mercedes Benz, seven Volvo and four Jaguars. And that just represents the European imports. Now add in the mix Lexus, Infiniti and other semi-luxury car dealers and you are probably talking about 50 other dealer locations where a prospective Audi buyer could conceivably take his or her business.

  • Treat your customer like an intelligent person. Advertising legend David Ogilvy said this many decades ago: “The consumer is not a moron; she’s your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence.”

 

 

 

Bottom line:

It’s clear this dealer has spent many years of service, time and money building a solid reputation. It’s unfortunate that it missed an opportunity. There is a great deal of pressure, especially for small or medium-sized businesses to accept mediocrity. Whether due time, budget or personnel constraints this example of this Prestige Audi ad is an object lesson on what happens when you bow to those constraints and accept mediocrity. Go the extra mile!

Other articles by Marcelo:
Apology marketing campaign fails to reach shoppers
In Marketing There are no “Pros” in Reaction
Guerrilla Marketing, Promotion and Social Media
Three Essential Marketing Campaign Components

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