Page 315 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Rural Marketing

Notes also be a PennySaver or Mini-Nickel® or some free weekly or monthly tabloid. My favorite
media for small town advertising is direct mail. It’s less expensive than most conventional
advertising when done correctly. It only reaches your target market. It isn’t wasted on large
numbers of unqualified customers. See: “Direct Mail: Why It Works And How To Use It.”
If you don’t know what your customers are reading, watching or listening to then you may have
a problem. One of the nice things about small towns is that they are almost a control group. If
you don’t know your target customer, then take a look at your best customers. Make a “top 10”
customer list and ask them to help with a survey. Get age, income, education, employment,
radio stations they like, newspapers and magazines they read. See: “How To Do Market Research
In A Small Town.”
This is certainly not as effective as knowing your customers but it’s a place to start. You are
looking for demographics of your customers to match up with the various media that are
available to you. The right customer matched with the right product is the goal of any marketing
strategy.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. .......................... have now realised the potential of focussing on these non-metro urban
markets.

2. .......................... in the KUTs show an increasing preference for premium products and
services of established mass brands.
3. The .......................... and the ROUI comprise more than 50 per cent of total BTL activity in
the country, the report suggests.
4. .......................... advertising is also catching up more effectively in the KUTs and ROUI, as
opposed to person-to-person marketing, with more 500 million mobile users in these
regions.

16.7 What will Market Research Tell Me?

 Who current and potential customers are
 The demographics of your customers (age, income, education, etc.)
 Your customers buying habits
 If your customers want your products or services

 If your pricing is in line with customer expectations and other markets
 How your advertising and promotions are working
 How customers see you as a business (your business image)

 How you compare to your competition in the eyes of your customers
 How can I profit from market research?
If it is done correctly and accurately it can prevent costly mistakes. Done incorrectly, it can end
your business. Let me show you two examples of how market research can make profits in one
case or create losses and damage image in the other.

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