Nearly every product or service has a specific demographic group who will be most interested in spending money to buy the product or utilize the service offered. Some products and services will span a wide range of potential customers, and others may have a more limited range of potential customers. Some questions you will want to ask yourself when outlining your target demographic include: What is the age range of the customers I am targeting? Which gender would be most likely to be interested in my product or service? What is the income level of my potential customers? What is the education level of my potential customers? What is my potential customer's familial status? Is this an item that is needed or is it a luxury item? How will they use this product or service? What will draw them to this product or service? (Low price? Great service? Convenience? Improved item?) What is most appealing?
Keep it simple and to the point. Look at the advertisement from your customer's prospective. Stand out from the crowd. If your competitors are all doing something, then do something different. Try and find an image that tells a story and supports your headline. One of the most important aspects of any ad is a call to action. For example; hurry in, buy now, it's a great time to buy, etc.
A brand is the personality of a product, service or company. A brand is symbolic of all the information and expectations associated with a product or service. Branding is important because it helps to develop the expectation behind the brand. A brand is one of the most valuable elements in your companies advertising, as it demonstrates what the owner is offering in the marketplace. A widely known brand achieves brand recognition. When this happens a product/company can be recognized as the identification of a company. For example, what do you think of when you see a swish/check mark emblem on a shoe? Buyers often look for brands as an important value aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic. Well branded products or services also command higher prices. When two products resemble each other, but one of the products has no associated branding (such as a generic, store-branded product), people may select the more expensive branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the reputation of the brand owner.
No, TOMA is not a city. Well it could be but in the advertising world it stands for Top Of Mind Awareness. Think of it this way; when the need arises for a particular service or product, what is the first thing, name, company or store that comes to mind? The goal of repeat advertising is to be on your customer's mind when their need or want arises. Only a certain amount of the population is in the market for any given item at any given time. One of the main purposes in both TOMA and branding is that your product or service is at the top of the customer's mind in a positive way. For example, if you know a company is the best place for computers and stands behind their computers when you need a computer you are likely going to check with that particular business. For certain products and services the window of opportunity tends to be very small. For example, the average person down't buy a water faucet very often. So if a company manufactures faucest their window is relatively small and only opened briefly so they need to make sure they are first on their customer's mind.
Remember, a good ad will pay for itself and the most expensive ad is the one that doesn't work!
