The Mayoros Agency Advertising Blog

Here’s an interesting fact found while looking through some research on consumer behavior.  People here in the Carolinas are among the most likely in the country to eat breakfast from a fast food restaurant.  Top location for fast food breakfast?  Greensboro, NC, where more than half of all adults had eaten a fast food breakfast in the past month. 

Boston, MA was second, then Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greenville, SC. 

This water-cooler quality fact came from Scarborough Research, bundled with a bunch of information about what fast food breakfast eaters do when they’re not ordering at the drive through.  Most are heavy Internet users and somewhat surprisingly tend to have family incomes that exceed $100,000 annually, making them good targets for a wide variety of other products and services.  Great intel for large companies that could partner their marketing with fast food chains.

While this particular set of facts isn’t really that helpful for most small to medium size businesses, it represents a world of knowledge that is out there to help you market your goods or services more effectively.  Research pays off and that’s why we spend a lot of time sorting through and filing away research reports even when they don’t pertain to current clients.  We probably won’t use a lot of the research we review, but when you find the right data it leads to a very targeted and efficient advertising campaign. 

According to FedEx’s third annual survey of small business owners, 34% of small businesses made cuts to their advertising and marketing last year and 1/3 said those cuts had a negative impact on their business results.  42% of those responding indicated they plan to increase spending on advertising and marketing this year.  Randy Scarborough, vice president of marketing for FedEx Office, says “Small businesses are… identifying and investing in the tools that will help them bounce back… print ads, direct mail campaigns, online marketing programs, and a social media presence… maximize their budgets… connecting effectively with new and existing customers… “

87% of small businesses said that printed advertising and marketing tools are somewhat to very effective at driving customers to their businesses.  61% believe that traditional advertising/marketing methods are more effective than web-based methods. 

Here are the top traditional advertising and marketing tools respondents planned to use this year.

• Business Cards 77%
• Printed Brochures 43%
• Direct Mail (postcards, etc) 43%
• Yellow Page listings 39%
• Flyers and signs/banners/posters 37%
• Newspaper ads 32%

46% have plans to improve their online presence and 36% plan to use social media websites.

A study completed by the Council for Research Excellence shows 45% of all TV viewers are busy with a variety of other tasks while watching TV, making distraction  the most likely reason viewers miss commercials.  Twenty percent of viewers left the room during commercial breaks and 14% changed channels. 

Skipping or fast forwarding commercials were not included in that study, but a recently released study by Duke University says 95% of all viewers still watch TV live, eliminating their ability to fast forward through commercials (Those using DVRs fast forwarded through 70% of all commercials).

What does this mean to you if your business advertises on television?  Don’t count on just the visual impact of a commercial.  The visual appeal of the commercial certainly matters to the 55% of viewers paying attention, but the audio is very important because it may be all the distracted viewer is exposed to.  Close your eyes with the television on and see if the commercials all make sense.  It doesn’t matter if you spend $500 or $50,000 producing the spot if you’ve lost half your audience with a poorly written audio track.

A December poll by AdWeek Media/Harris Poll shows 77% of Americans say they will not pay to read newspaper stories online.  Just 4% say they would be willing to pay more than $10/month for an online subscription.  This poll confirms our earlier statement that newspapers charging for content are pursuing a very risky strategy.

The most recent Mayoros Agency Newsletter was delivered just after 1pm today to our subscribers.  Here’s a sample of one of the articles.

American Express recently released updated information on what consumers say are their spending priorities. The results show there are some companies that should increase their advertising. According to the survey, hair styling, auto maintenance, private schooling, home improvements, organic foods and massage are all receiving more spending priority compared to last year. Increased advertising could help reach customers already in the mood to spend on these items. Being pushed lower on the priority list were vacations and dining out.

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