Plan the ad around one idea

Each ad should have a single message. If the message needs reinforcing with other ideas, keep them in the background. If you have several important things to say, use a different ad for each one and run the ads on succeeding days or weeks.

The pointers which follow are designed to help you plan ads so they will make your store stand out consistently when people read or hear about it:

Identify your business fully and clearly

Make sure your radio and television ads identify your sponsorship as fully and frequently as possible without interfering with the message. Logotypes and signatures in visual ads should be clean-lined, uncluttered, and prominently displayed. Give your address and telephone number. It's possible to use a musical or sound effect signature identified with your store to
create a "logo" on radio, too.

Pick illustrations which are similar in character

Graphics - that is, drawings, photos, borders, and layouts - that are similar in character help people to recognize your advertising immediately.

Pick the audio format or type face and stick to it

Using the same type face or the audio format for radio or television helps people to recognize your ads quickly. Using the same format or kind of type and illustrations also allows you to concentrate on the message when checking ad response changes.

Make copy easy to understand

Printed messages should be broken up with white space to allow the reader to see the lines quickly.

Broadcast messages should be written conversationally. Remember, these messages are human beings talking to human beings.

Tell your listeners how what you're advertising will help them. Consumers buy benefits, not products.

Get the main message in the first sentence, if you can. Sentences should be short. Be direct. Go straight to the point. Get the audiences' attention in the first five seconds of the radio or TV commercial.

Try out your script on somebody else or read it into a tape recorder. When you play the tape back, you'll easily spot phrases that are hard to understand (or believe!). Your ears are better than your eyes for judging broadcasts ads.

Use coupons for direct mail advertising response as often as possible

Coupons give an immediate sales check. Key the coupon in some manner so that you can measure the response easily. In your radio ads, you can have listeners create their own "coupons". One fast food chain asked listeners to hand draw a coupon and bring it in for a free hamburger.

Tests for Immediate Response Ads

In weighing the results of your immediate response advertisements the following devices should be helpful:

Coupons brought in

Usually these coupons represent sales of the product. When the coupons represent requests of additional information or contact with a salesperson, were enough leads obtained to pay for the ad? If the coupon is dated, you can determine the number of returns for the first, second, and third weeks.

Requests by phone or letter referring to the ad

A "hidden offer" can cause people to call or write. Include - for example, in the middle of an ad - a statement that on request the product or additional information will be supplied. Results should be checked over a 1-week through 6-months or 12-months period because this type ad may have considerable carry-over effect.

Testing ads

Prepare two ads (different in some way you'd like to test or set for different stations or broadcast times) and run them on the same day. Identify the ads - in the message or with a coded coupon - so you can tell them apart. Ask customers to bring in the coupon or to use a special phrase. Run two broadcast ads at different times or on different stations on the same day with different times or on different station on the same day with different "discount phrases." Ask a newspaper to give you a "split run" - that is, to print "ad A" in part of its press run and "ad B" in the rest of the run. Count the responses to each ad.

Sales made of particular item

If the ad is on a bargain or limited-time offer, you can consider that sales at the end of 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 4 weeks came from the ad. You may need to judge how many sales came from in-store display and personal selling.

Check store traffic

An important function of advertising is to build store traffic which results in purchases of items that are not advertised. Pilot studies show, for example, that many customers who are brought to the store by an ad for a blouse also bought a handbag. Some bought the bag in addition to the blouse, others instead of the blouse.

You may be able to use a local college or high school distributive education class to check store traffic. Class members could interview customers as they leave the store to determine: 1. which advertised items they bought, 2. what other items they bought, and 3. what they shopped for but did not buy.

Testing Attitude Advertising Results

When advertising is spread out over a selling season or several seasons, part of the measurement job is keeping records. Your aim is comparing records of ads and sales for extended time.

An easy way to set up a file is by marking the date of the run on tear sheets of newspaper ads (many radio stations now provide "radio tear sheets", too), log reports of radio and television ads, and copies of direct mail ads. The file may be broken down into monthly quarterly, or semiannual blocks. By recording the sales of the advertised items on each ad or log, you can make comparisons.

In attitude (or image-building) advertising, the individual ads are building blocks, so to speak, which make up your advertising over a selling season. The problem is trying to measure each ad and the effects of all of the ads taken together.

One approach is making your comparisons on a weekly basis. If you run an ad, for example, each week, at the end of the first week after the ad appears or is broadcast, compare that week's sales with sales for the same week a year ago. At the end of the second week, compare your sales with those of the end of the first week as week as year-ago figures.

Prior to opening your business you must decide upon the general Cost Level you expect to maintain. Are you going to appeal to
people buying in the large, moderate, or low price range? Your choice of location, look of your establishment, quality of goods
handled, and services to be offered will all depend on the customers you would like to bring, and so will your prices.

After establishing this overall price level, you are ready to cost Individual items. Generally, the price of an item has to cover
the price of this item, the other expenses, and a profit. Therefore, you'll have to markup the item by a specific amount to cover
costs and make a profit. In a business which sells few things, total prices can readily be allocated to each product and a markup
quickly determined. With many different items, allocating costs and determining markup might need an accountant. In retail
operations, goods tend to be marked up by 50 to 100 percent or more just to earn a 5 percent to 10% profit!

Let us work through a markup illustration. Suppose your company sells 1 product, Product A. The provider sells Product A to you
for $5.00 each. You and your accountant determine the costs entailed in selling Merchandise A are $4.00 per item, and you also
desire a $1 per item profit. What's your markup? Well, the selling price is: $5 plus $4 and $1 or $10; the markup therefore is $5.
As a percentage, it is 100%. So you have to markup Merchandise A by 100% to produce a 10% profit!

Many small business managers are interested in knowing what Industry markup norms are for a variety of products. Wholesalers,
distributors, trade associations and company research companies publish a huge assortment of such ratios and company statistics.
They're useful as recommendations. Another ratio (along with the markup percent ) important to small businesses is the Gross
Margin Percentage.

The GMP is similar to your markup percentage but whereas markup Identifies the percentage over the cost to you of each product
that you must set the selling cost in order to cover all other costs and make profits, the GMP indicates the association between
sales revenues minus the cost of the product, which is your gross profit margin, along with your sales revenues. Exactly what the
GMP is telling you is your markup bears a certain relationship to your sales revenues. The markup percentage along with the GMP
are basically the exact same formula, with the markup referring to individual product pricing and GMP referring to this product
prices times the amount of items sold (volume).

Perhaps an example will clarify the purpose. Your company sells Product Z. It costs you .70 each and you decide to sell it for $1
each to cover costs and gain. Your markup is 43%. Now let up say you sold 10,000 Product Z's Last month hence producing $10,000 in
revenues. Your price to purchase Product Z was 7000; your gross margin was $3,000 (revenues minus cost of products sold). This is
also your gross mark for your month's volume. Your GMP will be 30 percent. Both these percentages utilize the exact same basic
numbers, differing just in branch. Both are utilized to establish a pricing system. And both are published and may be utilized as
guidelines for small businesses beginning out. Often managers decide what Gross Margin Percentage they'll need to earn a profit
and simply visit a published Markup Table to find the percentage markup which correlates with that margin requirement.

While this discussion of pricing might appear, in certain respects, to Be directed only to the pricing of retail product it could
be applied to other kinds of businesses too. For solutions the markup must cover selling and administrative costs in addition to
the immediate cost of doing a specific service. If you're manufacturing a product, the costs of direct labor, materials and
supplies, components purchased from different concerns, special tools and equipment, plant overhead, selling and administrative
expenditures must be carefully estimated. To calculate a price per unit requires an estimate of the amount of components you
intend to produce. Before your factory becomes too big it would be wise to consult a lawyer about a cost accounting system.

Not all items are marked up from the typical markup. Luxurious articles Will take more, staples less. For instance, increased
sales volume from a lower-than-average markup on a certain item - a"loss leader" - can bring a higher gross profit unless the
purchase price is lowered too much. Then the consequent increase in sales won't raise the entire gross profit enough to compensate
for the low price.

Sometimes you Might Wish to market a particular item or service in a lesser Markup in order to increase store visitors with the
expectation of increasing sales of Regularly priced product or creating a large number of new service contracts. Competitors'
prices will also regulate your prices. You Can't sell a Product if your competition is greatly underselling you. These and other
reasons May cause you to vary your markup among items and services. There's no magic Formula that will work on every product or
each service all of the time. But You should keep in mind the general average markup that you want to generate a Gain.

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