Advertising is impersonal, usually paid communication intended to inform, educate, persuade, and remind.

Here are some guidelines for creating memorable advertising that really sells:

There's an old adage that holds that at least 50 percent of all advertising is a waste of money. It's probably true — and if you can figure out which half of your ad budget is useless, you'll save a bundle. But until you achieve this wisdom (which has so far eluded most marketers), you'd be wise to continue advertising full tilt and not take a chance on eliminating something that just might work.

Many small businesses use coupons as part of their promotional programs. The more common ones entitle the bearer to some benefit, such as a price reduction on a particular product or service. Others reward frequent customers for their loyalty. For example, a coffee shop may give each of its customers a card that is punched when a pound of coffee is purchased. When the card is completely punched (perhaps after 10 or 12 pounds), the customer gets a free pound. Be sure that your pricing supports the cost of this type of promotion.

For a small business, a demonstration is often the most effective and cost-efficient selling tool.

Once a small business has determined both its business positioning strategy and the size of the promotional budget, specific promotional activities can be selected. Promotion programs provide direct purchase incentives in contrast to most advertising, which provides reasons to buy your product instead of the competing brand.

This is the old "prize in the popcorn box" approach. A little something extra at no extra charge.

Mass marketers frequently run games and contests on a nationwide scale. People look under bottle caps, collect game pieces, or submit entries in an effort to win prizes. Most small businesses probably don't need (and can't afford) this type of promotion.

Joe's Redhots, a hotdog cart selling to office workers, wanted to use popular media such as TV, radio, and newspapers to advertise, along with promotional free product samples and coupons. Joe learned from his suppliers that his competitors in the downtown office area were spending little or no money to promote and advertise their cart luncheon business. He estimated that the most successful hot dog cart spent 5 percent of net sales revenue for promotion and advertising. Joe decided to spend at least 10 percent of his net sales during the first year.

Promotion, advertising, and PR spending (i.e., "marketing support") ranges from less than 1 percent of net sales for industrial business-to-business operations to 10 percent or more, for companies marketing consumer packaged goods. Consumer packaged goods companies may spend 50 percent of net sales for introductory marketing programs in the first year, subsequently lowering the percentage spent to a stable 8 percent to 10 percent within a few years. Retail stores that advertise and promote spend 4 percent to 6 percent of net sales for marketing support, on average.

A hot dog stand in a downtown office area has a large sign on it, "Joe's Redhots — Satisfy yourself for $1.00! You deserve it!"

In order for your business to succeed, you generally need to promote your products or services to the same buyers that your competitors are targeting. Even if your business is one-of-a-kind, you still need to tell target buyers that your business exists with some kind of advertising or promotional communication. Public relations (PR) activities are another way to promote the image or reputation of your product. PR is similar to promotion and advertising, but can be more indirect, since some or all of the publicity a company's products and services receive from public relations activities may not be controlled by the company.

A small business positioning strategy statement can be as simple as a one-page document that will act as a guideline to measure the consistency of all marketing programs.

Whatever you're selling, you'll need to communicate about it with your target buyers. Most businesses find that they need all three components of marketing communications (promotion, advertising, and public relations), in some combination. But how do you narrow down the available choices and build a communications program that makes sense? Here's how:

In some cases, a small business can pursue distribution into several different channels. However, most small businesses must prioritize distribution channel and sales force options over several years of growth and evolving resources for the company. For example, food supplements and vitamins are sold through a multitude of channels, including:

For a single small store with direct sales to buyers/end users, going through the exercise of deciding on appropriate distribution and sales force choices may yield new sales and volume gains. For example, Teddy Bear's Flower Shop research finds that most of its customers are located within a radius of a half to one mile of the flower shop.

Distribution systems may evolve over time as a business grows and changes. Consider a small one-store family restaurant named Alice's, with delicious, unique, homemade salad dressings (e.g., Pomegranate Vinaigrette, Rum-Raisin-Orange Ranch, Blue Cheese Catalina). Initially, the dressings were only available to customers eating at Alice's. Then customers begin requesting bottles to buy. Initial sales and distribution of Alice's Salad Dressings were from the restaurant to walk-in customers. The product was packaged in a 32-ounce canning jar with a handmade label.

Obviously, financial resources and cost-effectiveness are important in considering distribution and sales force options. What can you afford, and what will give you the most bang for your buck?

A small company must work harder at focusing limited resources, especially with distribution and sales force options. In some cases, the only sales force option is for the owner to do it himself or herself, as in a small retail shop, or consulting/service businesses.

Our independent architect who specializes in designing residential homes, Life Designs, has a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) list that includes:

Small businesses may face a particular difficulty in identifying their directly competitive selling channels, not usually in identifying where target buyers buy competitive products.

Strength and weakness analysis is an internal company exercise to gauge your ability to compete effectively. Opportunity and threat analysis is an external exercise centered on competitors and the external environment that affect a company's ability to compete effectively. Taken together, they are referred to as SWOT analysis.

Once you have selected and developed a unique product or business idea, correctly positioned and targeted it to buyers, and developed your packaging and pricing, the selection of distribution channels and sales representation is key to successful marketing.

Whole Planet Beverages, Inc., wants to determine the correct product pricing for a new 12-ounce bottled flavored tea beverage distributed through DSD (Direct Store Delivery) distributors. The optimum price will:

In addition to the primary goal of making money, a company can have many different pricing objectives and strategies. Larger companies may utilize product pricing in a predatory or defensive fashion, to attack or defend against a competitor.