I saw this classified ad and thought of you (marketers):
Well, this guy certainly knows what he wants in a woman! But it's hard to tell if "Single Male" is also a "Seasoned Marketer." Let's see if we can learn something about targeting and reaching such a tightly-defined "niche market."
Question: What do you think Loverboy's response rate will be?
Answer: "It depends on where he runs it."
If Loverboy runs the ad in Popular Science, he can expect a lot of sleepless nights pining away for Miss Right. She may never see it. And if he runs an ad in the USA today, he may go broke. How come?
Do the math. Assume that Miss Right is a "one-in-a-million" girl, and that there are 300 million Americans. Accordingly, there are 300 young ladies in this target market. Of these 300 ladies, assume 1-in-100 reads USA Today three times a year -- perhaps when they're killing time in the hotel lobby at an S.I. swimsuit photo shoot or a NORML convention.
Marketing Fact: The effects of print advertising are cumulative. In any real-life situation, only one-third of your market will see an ad the first time you run it. To be seen by 100% of your readership, you need to run an ad at least three times. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Guerrilla marketing expert Jay Levinson says it can take up to nine impressions to develop a top-of-mind position with a target buyer. That's 27 insertions. And that's in real life.
In our example, however, the numbers are much worse. Three supermodels reading USA Today three times per year is the same as one supermodel reading USA Today nine times per year. Nine "supermodel days" divided by the number of print issues per year (312) equals a probability of < 3% that our "target reader" will see our ad on any given day. D'oh!
Is it worth it? Probably not. Remember, Miss Right is a beer-brewing, dope growing, double-jointed supermodel twin. In all likelihood, she's already got a rich, burly, possessive boyfriend and is not going to respond to a classified ad -- no matter how many times she sees it. (I never said she was cheap!)
What if Loverboy runs the ad in "Brewmaster" magazine? His chances improve. And his chances would be better still if he simultaneously ran the ad in "Twins" magazine. But there's gotta be a more effective way to reach our tightly-defined market than through simple classified advertising. Any ideas?
Why not send direct mail?
Sure! In marketing, it's always better to mail to one highly-qualified prospect many times than many poorly targeted prospects once. Loverboy could mail an open love letter to all of the female subscribers of Brewmaster. Better, but not great.
What if he merges Brewmaster's subscriber list with one from "Twins" magazine? Better still. And what if he merges the combined "Brewmaster / Twins" list with a list of NORML members? Better still. And finally, what if he merges and purges the merged and purged "Brewmaster / Twins / NORML" list with the list from Cosmopolitan magazine? Even better.
Remember too, that Miss Right will likely be a member of the Supermodels Union and possibly a Circ du Soleil alumni member. By combining all of these lists, Loverboys ends up with a tiny -- and much more expensive -- list. But it can be worth it, especially if the expected Lifetime Value of the target customer is high.
Here's how it works.
Imagine we crack open an SRDS book and the lists in the above example have the following rental fees ...
- Brewmaster - $85/M
- Twins - $67/M
- NORML - $54/M
- Cosmopolitan - $98/M
- Supermodels union - $150/M
- Circ du Soleil alumni list - $770/M
The letter "M" means "per thousand names." So sending a direct mail piece to ten-thousand Cosmo subscribers will cost $98 per-thousand, or $980. Every time you merge / purge this list with another, you incur the costs of both lists -- but you end up with a smaller and much more qualified sift of prospects.
To merge / purge all of these lists would cost $1224 per thousand (even though there are only 300 women in our entire niche). $1224 / 300 = $4.08 per name, assuming that the entire niche matches the screen. It won't, of course. But let's say that through this exercise we end up with five names. $1224 / 5 = $244.80 per name.
Note: According to Land's End circulation guru Steve Waddick, if the same person is on multiple lists, then you can contact that name multiple times without having to re-rent the name. Therefore, if each of the 5 names were on three of the lists, you could contact each one three times (15 total contacts) at no additional rental cost, which would bring your cost down to $81.60/contact. A good list broker can help you manage these issues.
Would you pay it?
If the odds are better than 1-in-5 that one of these girls is available, I'd say YES. Realistically though, the odds are probably much longer than that. But what if Loverboy is desperate and goes for it anyway? He should know that "direct mail" is not limited to postcards and # 10 envelopes. Given a highly targeted, high value prospect, direct mail could mean a dozen roses or a box of Omaha Steaks -- several times each year. What have you spent so far on your current love interest?
Action item: As yourself "Exactly who is my target buyer (... and what exactly do they read?)" The more tightly defined the better! And the more tightly defined your customer is -- the tighter you can make your message-to-market match.
Imagine how effective Loverboy's ad would have been if he had known the name of his dream girl, say Claire Fenton. His classified ad headline could have been ...
Talk about a clutter-busting headline! If Claire Fenton were a market of one, then you couldn't possibly have a tighter message-to-market match than that. And if Claire Fenton had seen the ad, she would have read it. Several times. Now more than ever, the most effective marketing campaigns are the most tightly targeted. Check out The Long Tail for more on this phenomenon.
Indeed, Loverboy certainly knew what he wanted in a girlfriend. Are you that specific about your customers? You should be! The latest research from Columbia University indicates that the wrong kinds of customers can actually destroy value for your company. It pays to be selective -- especially in small business, where resources are tight.
For novice market researchers, this 30-page workbook by Dr. John Amos of the University of Missouri is just what the doctor ordered. It's loaded with research ideas and nifty resource links to get you started. Next, check out 75 things every mailer should know about mailing lists. It will rock your world.
__________________________________________
Q: Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A: Download Harry's contact info for future reference.
