Advertising can make or break a business. small business advertising has to be efficient and costly, while big business can afford to spend high dollar on its advertising. Small businesses depend heavily on marketing techniques to draw more shoppers.
Thanks to the current recession, small businesses have been suffering. With the increase of competition, there’s been a decrease in available resources. Without a safety net of large cash flow like the ones big businesses have, small businesses are being forced to close their doors. Many new small business owners drop their prices hoping to increase customer volume and grow their business. They fail to understand that a mere 5% of their customers base their choices on price. Small businesses end up with less wages, cut back marketing costs, and often throw away quality as a result of lowering prices. The other 95% of chopers that decide what to buy based on quality, service, and what they get out of advertising are ignored by taking the price route. Because small businesses usually don’t handle the vast amount of customer flow that large corporations do, they can’t benefit from a price drop in the same way.
Another thing to consider is that effective advertisement is what attracts the price conscious shoppers to your store. So if you are cutting back on small business advertising, you actually end up losing clientele. To ensure steady profit a small business needs to show that it’s a specialty, and not just show that it can lower prices. Effective small business advertising is the way to accomplish this. First off you have to show your creative niche, and prove that you offer more than your competition with offers like unique service, better customer support, error free order, etc. You can actually demand better prices for your company, and still attract more and more customers because your unique advertising should have told them that you’re company dares to be different. Your small business advertising plays probably the biggest role in gaining your customer’s trust and loyalty. It should be able to tell them why you’re the ideal choice towards their needs, and should focus on your company’s unique and special service
Competing on price is a land best left untraveled. There can only be one price leader, and this position is usually taken by large chain stores that operate on wholesale rates like Wal-Mart. You can never beat such chains at price, so instead of cutting down on prices and compromising your product’s value, you should instead focus on building brand loyalty rather than price loyalty. Never lower the value that you put into your small business advertising, because it’s what grabs your customer’s attention and keeps them coming back to you.