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Educating Consumers Through Direct Marketing
Small business owners take on so much when they decide to build their own company. They often wear many hats and carry many titles just to get the business off the ground. Becoming profitable is a struggle in itself.
One factor that is essential to the success of any small business is how it is marketed. Business owners need to establish a clear picture of their
company’s brand and how that brand is to be represented through all marketing efforts. Another variable that adds to the difficulties of proper marketing is when part of the communication involves having to educate consumers on your product.
Let’s be clear here: everyone starting a business needs to educate consumers on their product to some extent. The type of education we’re talking about, specifically, is when you need to retrain consumers to think in opposition to common beliefs. That type of education takes more time, more patience, and more focused content in order to shift the thought process of consumers. This needs to be done on a personal level—one that is best achieved through direct marketing.
Juice Matters: How Quality Direct Marketing Can Change a Common Belief
In order to help you further understand the concept of educating consumers, we’ve chosen a Toronto-based business called Juice Matters. Owner and chef Tai Ali opened his business only last year, but has already expanded to more than 100 locations across Canada. That’s more than impressive for any business, much less a startup. Now Ali is faced with attempting to further broaden his company’s audience base from simply niche “juicers” to everyday people who enjoy living a healthy lifestyle.
This is, of course, much easier said than done. This same question was put to marketing, brand, and retail experts who offered their own opinions on what can be done. The advice varied from opening up distribution channels to include chained stores, to using visual tools and experiential marketing to help get the message across to consumers that juicing is equivalent to eating (or drinking) healthy, and not something reserved for fanatics or those simply looking only for a cleanse.
These are all good ideas and concepts that would involve direct marketing in a prominent capacity. In a circumstance like the one Juice Matters is undergoing right now, the job of the marketer isn’t just to sway opinion; it’s to change a common belief. That type of shift takes twice the effort of any kind of marketing campaign. And with personalization already such a huge expectation among today’s consumers, the level of personal messaging it will take to achieve a switch in thought is immense, but certainly not impossible.
Using forms of direct marketing such as e-mail and direct mail can be huge assets in determining the success of educating consumers. With both of these mediums, messages can be personalized to match the specific preference points of the consumer. For instance, if taste is determined to be a preference point for younger-aged Millennials, then that can be specified in direct mail or e-mail marketing content geared to that demographic. If health benefits are the main objective of Baby Boomers, then the content can be adjusted accordingly. This type of personalization can’t be achieved through most other types of marketing channels.
Direct mail is also beneficial because it helps marketers accurately track responses. This is crucial when trying to educate consumers. Being able to gauge their attitude toward your content and assess whether or not they are buying in impacts how you will move forward.
After successfully conducting direct marketing campaigns for more then 20 years, Macromark understands consumer behavior on all levels. Contact us to learn how we can help lead your next direct marketing campaign and get a free consultation today.
Source:
Kelly, D., “Chef aims to juice his way into your fridge,” The Globe and Mail web site, June 24, 2015; http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/the-challenge/chef-aims-to-juice-his-way-into-your-fridge/article25077703/.
David Klein