Using two overriding metaphors, the Biblical story of David and Goliath, and Karl von Clausewitz's On War, this book lays out ten principles to develop and execute strategies to leverage relatively small investments in advertising, thoroughly integrate this strategic advertising approach with other marketing, and leapfrog overall corporate growth. Also, four types of buying decisions, five kinds of risks your customers take in considering you, three categories of benefits to the purchaser (something I've not come across elsewhere), five personality attributes that define most brands, and nine tests of a strong brand--tests that recognize that a brand is not only about a company's deliberate messaging, but also about the customer's direct experience.
To a solopreneur, like me, the dollar amounts involved are sometimes scary, as in the case of Gardenburger, which leveraged a single highly visible ad on the final episode of Seinfeld--what would normally be a very effective way to waste a whole lot of bucks in a big hurry--into 400 media hits and a widely expanded distribution network that directly fueled a 91 percent growth in the next year's revenues. But many of the examples were executed for far less, and those techniques that apply outside of purchased advertising cost little or nothing.
Among the key lessons: choose and define a battlefield small enough to prevail, muster enough resources to dominate your chosen slice of category, and answer the question about why people should buy from you. Oh yes, and don't be afraid to take risks and to be unconventional--not for its own sake but as part of a well-thought-out strategic plan.
Two of the strategies the book often suggests are to direct your messaging to influencers/dealers, rather than end-users, and to create marketing that itself offers high value. My favorite example is the telephone call center management software company that researched its market to discover that putting out bid requests was a major headache for its prospects--so the company created software to automate the process, and distributed it at no cost to any call center manager who requested it. This tool was designed, first of all, to suggest bid specs that favored the company's solution, and second, to create a very warm prospect list.
I very much like the creativity this book brings--not for its own sake, but for the sake of achieving big results for relatively low costs. If advertising is a significant part of your strategy, you'll want to study Underdog Advertising in conjunction with 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising by Michael Calder, my own Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, and at least a few of the classics by the likes of Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, and John Caples.
Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.
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Underdog Advertising®: Proven Principles to Compete and Win Against the Giants in Any Industry Overviews
‘Underdog Advertising’® is written for the small-to-mid size business owner/operator who cannot afford to hire an advertising agency. The book presents principles and processes that have proven successful for advertisers who must compete with larger companies in their industries for sales, awareness and market share. ‘Underdog Advertising’ has four primary components and just as David toppled Goliath with a well-aimed rock, the disciplines introduced in this book have consistently helped "budget underdogs" hit the mark and become the real winners. It may be just the weapon you need. First, under the heading ‘Underdog Advertising Principles,’ here are ten principles of ‘Underdog Advertising’ that consistently generate higher returns on advertising. These include: Principle #1 – Think Outside The Box; Principle #2 – Take Risks; Principle #3 – Strategy Before Execution; Principle #4 – Be Contrary; Principle #5 – Select Your Battlefield; Principle #6 – Focus! Focus! Focus!; Principle #7 – Be Consistent; Principle #8 – Demonstrate Value; Principle #9 – Speed & Surprise; Principle #10 – Have Patience. Next, under the heading ‘Big Dog Branding’ the book will cover a fast-track ‘Big Dog Brand ‘development process that helps create branding strategies that differentiate a brand from its competitors in a meaningful and compelling way. ‘Junkyard Dog Executions’ is an approach to marketing tactics that deliver results beyond expectation and for those wanting even more, the ‘Underdog Advertising Workbook, a how-to supplement that walks the reader step-by-step through the ten Underdog Advertising principles and helps apply them to any business situation, is made available by the author.
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