Stay the Course

With the myriad of tactical options available to promote products today, and more options appearing almost daily, it is hard to know what will and will not be effective. That's why we spend a considerable amount of time developing a strategy to plan out who we're reaching for, the tactics that need to be utilized, why each tactic is the best use of our client's dollar and how we tweak the message so it all fits together. Like a puzzle, the individual components may not fit our needs, but as you add the pieces together you find that the solution is in the symbiosis of those tactics.

Take for example Home Buyer University, an offering of Ole South Properties, Tennessee's largest independent home builder. A cooperative print, direct mail and email campaign brought nearly 70 Murfreesboro home buyers to this free class on preparing to buy your first home. Ten attended the first class and the second was cancelled due to inclement weather, but only then did the fourth component of the strategy come into play: word of mouth. Navigation started the buzz with marketing and allowed the chatter to reverberate through the community. Our follow up advertising served as reinforcement to entice those who had "heard" of the class to act and sign up. By the third and fourth class, participants filled the presentation until it was standing room only.

So successful, the four class "semester" has been extended to every six weeks throughout 2008, and being offered to a wider geography of potential home buyers.

This success story is one of many that can be attributed to smart planning, consistent messaging and repetition. And once again it proves that mature brands who are willing to stay the course and continue to promote during slow economic times will prevail with consumers when they reengage in commerce.