Market Research: Advertising

[WesKuhnley]

Greetings all.
My business partner and I are currently conducting some market research in order to determine how much, and what kind of advertising to do in the near future.

There is a reasonable amount of data out there regarding which kinds of ads tend to draw the most attention, what demographics tend to spend certain dollar amounts on products etc, but my main question is more specific.

I'm wondering specifically about the correlation between advertising dollars spent (and on what variety of ad), vs number of units sold (reasonably attributed to the ad). Interested in hearing from amp and pedal guys equally. All info regarding this relationship would be most welcome.

Any and all info/advice regarding advertisements is also extremely welcome.

If you are uncomfortable posting this info publicly, please feel free to PM me, or email: wes (at) resonantelectronic (dot) com

Thanks much!

[GA19RVT]

Units sold per ad is only measurable on a case-by-case basis. Someone like Bad Cat, with a full color page at the front of VG for two years running, is going to have a different response rate than a small builder running their first-ever 1/4 page ad in the back of the book. In my experience, advertising pays off only through frequency/consistency. Pick a spot and stick with it for at least 12 months. This will get people's notice. After they see it a few times, you begin to get mindshare and they will begin to look for it in the next issue. The next step, ideally, is for them to take action. People rarely take action upon seeing a single ad.

[WesKuhnley]

Originally Posted by GA19RVT

Units sold per ad is only measurable on a case-by-case basis. Someone like Bad Cat, with a full color page at the front of VG for two years running, is going to have a different response rate than a small builder running their first-ever 1/4 page ad in the back of the book. In my experience, advertising pays off only through frequency/consistency. Pick a spot and stick with it for at least 12 months. This will get people's notice. After they see it a few times, you begin to get mindshare and they will begin to look for it in the next issue. The next step, ideally, is for them to take action. People rarely take action upon seeing a single ad.

Great info.
We're looking at what kind of spot we're going to stake out, and how much success others have had with the same kind of spots. We sure can't afford a cover spot for the time being!
Thanks!

[HammyD]

Pickup a copy of Olgilvy on Advertising. Old, but the foundation of modern advertising, as well as having tons of research.

One anecdotal case might be the early days of PRS. He hired a top flight still photographer and bought a full page in Guitar Player every month to buildl that brand identity.

Also Trout & Ries have several good books like "Romancing the Brand."

[GA19RVT]

Olgivy is a great place to start, agreed.

[WesKuhnley]

Thanks for all the info and PM's guys, we're narrowing down our options quickly.

Any opinions are still welcome!