Part 1 - Marketing is like fishing...

Hi All,

Marketing in many ways is like fishing. You use the bait most likely to attract the kind of fish you want to catch. You use flies, worms, corn, dough, killies, crabs or minnows depending on whether you want to hook stripers, flounder, carp etc. In the same manner you select billboards, newspaper ads, radio or television commercials to attract your buyers.

If you're selling coffee & donuts and have a drive through, you'll probably have the most success reaching your customers in their cars. How would you reach them? A billboard near your shop is one way or if you have a big enough budget, radio, since many people listen to the radio when they're driving would give you greater reach, since they can be anywhere in the listening area, not just in sight of the billboard. And you can also run the commercials during morning drive time so people driving to work can stop for a blast of your Joe on their way to work.

If you're selling basketball sneakers, you're probably trying to reach a demographic in the 10 to 30 age range and might be targeting males, females or both depending on what your line offers. Your marketing would be targeting a different consumer. You would focus on the basketball players who'd want to wear your sneakers to run faster, be more comfortable to wear or emulate a favorite sports figure. You're customer goes to sporting events either to play or watch and probably watches basketball on television. Starting out on a low budget, you might put an ad in a high school newspaper or yearbook. You could sponsor a team in a local town league. As you got established you could one day be buying sixty second spots on ESPN or during the NBA Championships!

So go big or go home! Good luck and dream big. Thanks for reading. Questions, comments are appreciated.