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Advertising Decisions Where to Advertise Questions have been asked about my comments in regard to the demise of the news on paper and what axe have I to grind. Well none really, I am only looking at it from an advertisers point of view. Advertising is a cost, an expense in moving the product, if it was treated as an investment in moving the product a different mindset is required, but it is an expense and recorded on the books as such. Some people in business treat advertising as an expense they allow for in their yearly budget and spend because it is in the budget rather than expending the funds where and when it is most advantageous. Such situations could be: Funds are in the budget for an ad in the yellow pages because that it what we have always done or for when the radio / newspaper rep arrives and says have I got a deal for you. Advertising decisions made because the money is available rather than looking at the ROI. Or in the case of the yellow pages whether they are actually used since the public is on-line Yep, just because it is classified as an expense does not mean there should not be an ROI. Advertising decisions should be made from the head not the heart otherwise the targets you are hitting are not yours; most probably they are those of the sales rep. Any way back to the subject and the comments received 'but I will miss sitting down or staying bed with a coffee and reading the paper', nice, but is it the event of the coffee or the bed which is the attraction rather than the newspaper. But if it is the newspaper, is the coffee drinker interested in the advertisements. Advertisers want people to take action, be up and ready to go, I am not sure if these readers fit the profile. And how many people buy a newspaper for the advertisements, probably only the advertisers. Coming from a smallish town, a comment was, but if the newspaper goes, that is more jobs gone; we have to place more ads. Now that is really placing advertising from an emotive point of view, rather than the reality of a changing world and whose targets would you be hitting? The purpose of advertising is to make people aware of the products in your shop and this advertising decision should be done using your head. As said, people don't buy a newspaper for the advertisements; they buy it for the news, but as the news from a wide range of sources can be obtained on-line and the potential customer or joe public is increasingly on-line, the demise of the news on paper is entirely possible. The existence of a newspaper depends on attracting advertisers, advertisers pay the bills, and the success of a business depends on attracting custom, but if the public is trending to on-line, there is little point advertising in print. And from an advertisers point of view you have to go where the potential customers go. Telecom / Netguide survey 2009 highlighted the fact that people get their news online. I spoke to the local president of Grey Power who undertook a survey, 60% of the older set have computers and in today's world, that means they are online, wired and aware. So with all this information I feel a lot more relaxed about my comments about the newspapers and advertising. We live in changing times, society changes; think about the blacksmiths, the coopers and the buggy whip makers, now gone, The travel industry, the moteliers, and airlines they all adapted so why not the business person in Main Street. For anyone in business advertising is a fact of life, a necessity, so it is a situation of: Adapt or be left behind or worse go out of business, in this day and age everyone in business should have their OWN web presence. You can no longer leave it up to someone else to make your advertising decisions for you. Something to think about, the newspapers all have their own websites and they are committed to being on-line. Do they know something you don't? Contact Firstsearch

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