We work with a equipment manufacturing client (to remain nameless) that used to spend several hundred thousand dollars on print advertising.  They ran ads in specialty trade magazines.  This money was spent year after year, month after month.

How do you calculate ROI for a Brand?  This is a question that has baffled marketers for years.  Sure you can measure the effectiveness of advertising with a call to action, but how do you measure the affects of name recognition.  The Big companies use focus groups and surveys, spending large sums of money on marketing research.  For the larger brand name companies this is relevant and accurate.

But what if you are a smaller brand or better yet what if you only serve a niche market and the larger market has never heard of your product.  How do you measure the ROI on your brand then?

The unfortunate fact is that many companies large and small make this calculation by dividing their revenue by their expenditure.  This does give you the ROI of your total spending.  But does it really tell you what is working or not.  This leads us to the time old saying that, "50% of your advertising is wasted money.  The problem is that you don't know which 50%."

Back to our equipment manufacturing client.  They took a look at who their actual buyers were, how many of them there were, and what really had an impact on them.  For this company there are under 100 buyers/pen wielding decision makers.  The contracts are large and the prospects few.  The question our client had to ask themselves is, "Is print the right way to reach our 100 prospects?"

The answer was a resounding NO.  Why were they putting their name in front of the masses when their are only a few decision makers and they even know who the decision makers are.  If not print then what?

When you know the names of your potential customers and it is a manageable list of prospects, it is better to use a sales force to build relationship with those buyers rather than throwing money at the masses.

Our client took that money they used to spend on print and created opportunities for relationship and events to make contact with their buyers.  A couple of fancy retreats a year, several golf tournaments at exclusive resorts.  This one to one interaction with their prospects significantly increased the bottom-line and even reduced the marketing budget.  Plus the sales force gets paid to hob nob and play at fancy courses and relax at great retreats.

At these events the attendees would be showered with personalized gifts and branded merchandise.  Golfing shirts and other accoutrements all with our clients logo subtly but visibly decorated on the product.  So instead of wasting impressions on non-decision makers.  The impressions were personal and lasting, not to mention targeted.