Niche marketing – Niche marketing, think leaflet marketing

Print is at the heart of marketing and works with other marketing tools to maximise audiences; but the way it is used has changed dramatically. Glen Bennett explains.
Thirty years ago, my father assured me that in the future I would work in a paperless office. Ten years ago, my peers were forecasting the death of print as a marketing tool ? the web would reign supreme. Leaflets and posters were ?so yesterday?, a blunt instrument that would be eclipsed by the power of the Internet: www would be cheap, modern and omnipresent.

I worried! After all, my career and future were immersed in the distribution and display of leaflets and posters. Maybe, I thought, flyers, leaflets and posters were past it. After all, theatres had been using print (handbills) since the 17th century. It seemed inevitable that traditional methods were about to change. How could the service that my company provided possibly compete with the awesome power of the web? We were being promised the ability to market direct to our audiences and measure their responses with increasing sophistication and within ever decreasing budgets.

Innovation

What rubbish! Like all tools, the web has an important and sophisticated role to play, but alongside, not instead of, more traditional methods. In response to the overwhelming choices offered and to increasingly expensive, professional search engine optimisation, leaflet marketing has innovated. In this country, we have become more print conscious than ever before, and more intelligent with our design. The next time you?re abroad, check out the local theatre or gallery?s print ? for the most part it is sadly naive or an ?in your face? sales come-on. Pah!

Over the past five years, leaflet-marketing companies have evolved, providing new services through partnerships with big brands to reach more varied and ever changing market sectors. Out has gone the ?man in a van? moving print from the garage store to the pub. Now we have print media companies selling display space in high-profile, high-footfall, big-brand outlets. Using resources to target an audience in pubs and bars is a waste if no one is inclined to spend time browsing and choosing. Precious relaxing time is at stake. Far better to target them when they are ?in the mood? and receptive to such choices; when your target is in ?browse mode? with lots of ?dwell time?.

Another important development for the smart marketeer is the ability to track customers and measure their response. A well-planned, strategic leaflet campaign can now deliver strong, measurable results.

First impressions

Eye-catching print, designed for display and marketed in the right places through quality outlets is a value for money tool that can take numerous messages to your markets at the same time. Good print can speak to, and massage, your current markets ? and tempt new ones. At the same time, if it?s strategic, print can fill a very powerful branding and ambassadorial role.

A tuned-in, motivated print distribution company will now offer a wide range of new services that reflect the changing social trends of the past ten years. In 1987, the demand for print targeted at informing the public about forthcoming events was primarily from pubs, bars, restaurants, and libraries ? the places where society met and socialised. As the squeeze on quality leisure time increased, we noticed big changes: demand from traditional outlets was slowing down. At the same time, the UK was moving into the whole retail experience in a big way. Shopping and retail time has now become the UK?s number one leisure activity. When we go to the pub or enjoy a meal out we are less receptive to browsing and picking up information.

Instead, we noticed a fast, growing and now almost insatiable demand for our clients? print from completely new outlets ? especially retail sites: supermarkets, garden centres, sports centres, health clubs: places where those clever retail marketing boffins had maximised ?dwell time? and enticed us into making lifestyle choices, from which brand of beans we choose, to what the family will do this weekend. We followed suit and developed a wide range of services that can be strategically ?pick ?n? mixed?. The target might be the home market, reaching the household decision-maker, the family, or the retired couple through the big supermarket chains. Or perhaps the targets are young, professional couples, families or retirees ? get them all at once at garden centres. The target could be the daytripper market, the active professional approached through sports centres, business travellers at the airport, commuters at the train station. All can be specifically targeted, message delivered, and now response measured.

Bright ideas

Below, I have set out a few examples of recent services we have employed to help clients reach markets at the point when the public is most receptive to print.

– Leaflets printed with different codes and promotional offers that kick in when the leaflet is returned to box office. This means the client can track conversion rates from pick-up to purchase and issue a loyalty or discount card for future purchases and future tracking of customer activity.
– A leaflet printed with a premium-rate telephone number that, when called, supplies a unique code. When this code is quoted at the ticket centre it provides a ?two for one? deal. In the meantime, the customer has been ?tagged? and ?tracked?. Revenue from the phone call is greater than the cost of the 2-4-1 deal.
– A gallery client moving away from short, tactical, one-off exhibition promotion to a six-month, user-friendly event diary, marketed through sports and leisure centres, supermarkets and shopping centres as well as motorway service stations, park and rides, train and ferry terminals and sightseeing tour buses.

All these get print into the right hands before they arrive, as they arrive and when they are most receptive. Niche marketing, coupled with the ability to track responses and customer spend: that?s leaflet marketing 21st-century style.

Glen Bennett is Managing Director of the marketing company EAE Ltd., which manages more than 600 client print campaigns every year. t: 0131 555 1897; e: [email protected]; w: http://www.eae.co.uk