You have probably heard the common phrase “any publicity is good publicity” and that may be true for publicity. But is does not necessarily work for marketing.

Here is an example I saw the other day that reminded me of how much you really have to consider your target market and your product when marketing even if you are marketing on a budget. Because I am a true believer that it does not take a lot of money to do marketing that works.

I was driving down the road when I spotted a car with a magnetic sign. Now this is not necessarily a bad way to market your business if you are say a mobile auto detailing business or a landscaping business. If I was in the market for one of those services I would probably make a note of the number and maybe even call it. But this car with the magnetic sign was for a Pampering Day Spa. Hmmm, it was a rather dirty small white compact car which did not give me any type of pampering image nor did it give me any idea of luxury. Now if it had been a stretch limo I might have gotten another image in my head, you know, me riding in the limo with a little champagne on the way to get pampered in the spa for the day. But a small dirty white compact, not enticing me at all to want to call or even find out where this spa is, as a matter of fact it is making me think it is in some creepy, dirty strip center where I do not want to go. And for all I know it is a really nice day spa that I would love to go to. However, based on this type of marketing it is not represented that way. In reality, their magnetic sign is probably costing them more business than it is attracting for them.

So, while a magnetic sign is inexpensive and most people have vehicles to attach one to, so it makes it an easy marketing opportunity, if they had considered their target market this might not have been the best idea to attract it. Even when you are working with a limited budget there are ways to reach your appropriate target market in a way that will appeal to them.

Was this the wrong choice? I have heard people complain about the Oprah Free KFC Grilled Chicken Coupon Giveaway that caused some of the KFC’s to run out of product. But wait let’s see, KFC is very well known for FRIED chicken, most people go there when they know they are not thinking about nutrition. Now KFC wants to launch a healthy product, that is a pretty big undertaking. But they know their target market and they know they would be an Oprah viewer, so it is a match. Oprah offers the free coupon, people show up, love the grilled chicken and they have a successful campaign. Did it have a glitch, well yes they did run out of chicken but even that just succeeded in getting them additional exposure to people that do not watch Oprah. So all in all, it was all good and pretty much everyone knows KFC has grilled chicken and that it was SO good everyone wanted more and more of it! They could not have accomplished getting that message across with a commercial they made up themselves and paid a lot more for.

So if marketing is not a one size fits all and there are tons and I mean tons of opportunities out there to market and market inexpensively especially with the internet and the tremendous growth of social media how do you know what is right for you?

You MUST look at it from your target markets point of view, not from your budgets point of view, it is all about them and what they think, not what you think. Or even how wonderful you are or your product is.

So what may be some better ideas for the day spa that would not cost any more than the magnetic sign? Their target market is adults with expendable income not a lot of time, possibly some stress, (most likely working), who need to be pampered and can afford the service. They could joint venture with other luxury services in the area (dog walkers, house cleaners, etc) for promotion. They could attend local business events (chamber etc) to promote services or an open house night with champagne and munchies. They could hook up with local online websites and twitterers that post happenings and things to do. They could set up a local blog with helpful information, tips and resources that tie into their services. All of these may take time, however, the costs are low and the return on the investment could be much better than the magnetic sign. So are you really thinking about your target market or are you doing it because it is easy?