Tricks of the trade: what the big guns do and you can do too

In the last post on the necessary evil of advertising, we looked at why advertising is part of every business (whether we like it or not) and some of the strategies that you can employ to put yourself and your company ahead of the curve. This time around we’ll be delving into the murky, unholy world of corporate advertising and trying to see if there are ways to utilize these ‘big boy’ moves without mortgaging your house and selling your children.

Large companies, governments and Bond villains use a variety of techniques to get their products, ideas or world domination plans out there and absorbed by the population to ultimately sell things or make everyone come around to a particular way of thinking (in the end both are really the same thing). Some of these are overt and some are downright sneaky, underhanded and without a shred of human decency. But they work and that’s why the advertising industry is worth billions.

There are 5 ways that these giants use to invade your brain and your wallet; so leave your morality at the door and let’s see if any of them can benefit the little guy.

1. Branding. This is the holy grail of advertising. Once you get an image, a slogan or some catchy words associated with your brand, you can include them in everything and from now until the end of time your product or idea will have a deeply engrained association, which besides an environmental disaster or mass poisoning, will make it recognisable and successful.

• With your business think about how the name sounds, the colours you choose for your company and the words that go along with it – market research; it’s worth doing well the first time.

2. Target audience. Large companies spend a fortune figuring out who will want their product/idea and how they will want it to be presented to them. This involve focus groups who test out every hair brained idea the advertisers come up with, until they find the widest demographic that works. This is time consuming and costly; and is not fool proof – a large alcohol manufacturer once planned to spread the smell of almonds through Prague as a marketing stunt – all the testing had been done and they were about to go ahead when one savvy employee (who obviously had nothing to with the plan before) pointed out that anthrax smells like almonds and that was that.

• Every business has a target audience and finding yours doesn’t have to involve scaring an entire city. Look at other small companies on social media and who they interact with. Put together a mailing list of people who you think may want your product/service. You’d be surprised who gets in touch.

3. Form. Delivering a message can take many forms: visual, auditory or kinaesthetic – sight, sound and touch. Big companies will use all three, because they have unlimited budgets so why not. All advertising will be a combination of the three, e.g. TV has visual and sound elements, or the break in half balsa wood flyer for the Karate school – they’d pin a flyer to a talkative and very fluffy parrot if it’d sell more drinks.

• You can do the same, without the need for flying leaflets with a mind of their own. Choose where to advertise, or if you do have a healthy budget, try all three and see what gives the best result. A good website, with catchy language, good visuals and a video or two will incorporate all of the above – especially if signing up to a mailing list gets you a small free gift (branded of course and so, so fluffy).

4. Needs, fears and desires. This is where things get a little grey and if you have a nervous disposition you may want to skip to number 5. These three tap into emotion and they seek to exploit every insecurity, dream and self-image there is. Evil? Maybe, but again it works – we humans are nothing if not predictable. Just to hammer the point home, the products/ideas/services we use every day all use psychological warfare against you – acceptance, security, change, excitement, beauty, and a whole host of other emotional connectors. What they’re basically saying is if you don’t own, think or use this then you will be a lonely, unsafe, boring, unattractive person and bees will hunt you down and steal your pollen (or not).

• Now I’m not suggesting that you use these same tactics but there is something to be learnt from these techniques. People do need some products and services and by pointing out why (in a non-violent, Gandhi sort of way) you can sell yourself without resorting to bees. Make sure your product or service is genuinely good and you won’t really be selling anything.

5. Underlying message. This is how it all ties together. How it takes on a life of its own and connects people together through the product/service. Now that social media can map connections and the reach of a product or idea it’s revolutionised the idea of mapping appeal. Companies can see exactly how well their new products are being accepted and shared, along with any words and picture (that little share button is actually a gateway to money and power).

• So do the same. Get your logo, words, pictures, videos and anything else that represents your brand and put it on social media. Even without paying them Facebook shows likes, reach and engagements – for free (how nice of them). This will allow you to see what works and how your message is being received.