Cost Vs Quality

When you look at purchasing marketing material such as brochures, doorhangers, etc. what is your major concern? Is it the cost of the product, or the overall visual appearance of the product?

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Hi tiedeman, I would be interested in hearing what others have to say. My view is what will give me the biggest return for the money. Marketing and advertising is kind of an amazing thing. How many companies enjoy blowing money in marketing/advertising to in a sense toot their own horns. Look at us, we're the best. Look at our ads, aren't we so clever? Aren't we witty? But what are the returns on these things? When you read the Guerilla marketing books, it can freak you out how such low cost simple marketing techniques can have such great returns. While you are spending huge sums of money in other areas which are doing nothing for you. How do you see things?

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that is what I am thinking. I mean, I could spend $477 for 1,000 doorhangers through one company, which I do agree look very sharp and very professional, or spend $225 through another company which look very good as well. Sure they are not the best compared to the other company, but I still feel they will work

[Steve]

Have you seen some of the door hangers KC2006 has used. His door hangers are based on line art vs. full color images. It seems he has found them to work well. If he shows up on here maybe he could tell us his insight into this as well.

The biggest problem, from an advertiser's point of view, is the oversaturation of communication in the world today. We have billions upon gigallions (I know, I know...) of messages that all businesses are trying to push through our heads, and that makes it more and more difficult to establish a position in the market.

It requires a person to truly think beyond the norm in order to "cherchez le creneau", or "look for the hole" (a french marketing idea) to get their message through.

This is the age of positioning (has been for the last 25+ years, and this is only becomming more and more important), and gone is the "Image Era", where image was "everything". Not that Image doesn't still hold a very important position, and in fact may be your ONLY way to establish and hold that hole in the market once you find it, but it is no longer the engine behind successful marketing campaigns. The engine now is the ability to position yourself at the top of your category, and to reposition (or change the category), of your competitors.

So in short, image is important, but it is much more important to know where to target that image.

[Steve]

Hi Ned,

Thank you for your insight. Can you give us a 'for example'? Maybe even using some images to show us more of what you mean?

What works and why and what doesn't work and why?

With the doorhangers I was not only thinking about getting customers, but lettering customers out there also know more about the business for the long run. Basically I want people to know that "Hey, I am here now, but I will also be here in the future if you need anything."

[Steve]

When you look around at others in the industry, what examples can you think of lco 'branding.'

There are only two actually descent size lawn care companies around here that advertise (I am not talking lawn applications companies, just maintenance). The one company maybe advertises three times a year, while the other one is has a nursery as well, advertises all the time.

[Steve]

What sets these two companies apart in their advertising?

Does anything stick out in your head about them?

For instance, when I think of Geico Insurance, I think "A 15 minute free call could save you 15% or more on your car insurance."