Marketing Math: The Sum is Equal to More than the Parts

Small business owners are not necessarily good marketers. Most of the time they have started a business because they are passionate, knowledgeable, and good at what they do, whether that be plumbing, construction, or running a restaurant.

Well here here some basic marketing math for you. The marketing total is equal to more than the sum of it's parts.

You might have thought that the image shown might be wrong, that is  '1+1=2' and not '3', but in marketing it can equal three!

What this concept is meant to identify is that the types of marketing methods you use, the better the results. This works for small business and large businesses alike.

Take the recent advertising campaign by Old Spice. You might have heard of it. They recently spent resources on promoting a social networking advertising campaign that went viral. It was heralded as being 'Genius'  by many marketers.

However, as much as it was entertaining, it didn't work!

When sales were measured, numbers showed that Old Spice sales for the first six months were first reported to be down 7 percent year over year, then flat in terms of share growth. Now, my point here is not to show that social media marketing is not worth it, but it is to show that social media marketing for entertainment value alone is not enough.

Only after Old Spice started issuing massive amounts of 2-for-1 coupons did sales spike to 106%!

Would the coupons alone have doubled the sales figures? Probably not. Standard coupons issues usually only increase sales a few percentage points, definitely not triple digit growth.

When matched with the increased awareness of the brand that the social media campaign brought, it took the coupons to get the customers to take action and actually purchase the product. This will eventually lead to an increase in the customer base through customer loyalty.

What this Means for Small Business Marketing

The lesson that small businesses can take away from this example is that one advertising media will not cut it. You need to get your name out to the customer in more than way. By using more than one advertising or marketing method, you will be helping to make sure that '1+1' does equal three.

That means that if you advertising in the local newspaper, consider also direct mailings, event marketing, sponsoring local events, etc. Using more than one marketing tool increases customer engagement. It increases familiarity which is a key aspect of getting a customer to engage in a purchase.

There are secondary effects such as also helping when a potential customer remembers seeing your ad 'some time ago', when they didn't actually need your service. They will have a much higher chance of finding you when they do start looking for you.

Marketing methods that work for larger business do not always work for smaller businesses, but in this case it does. Using more than one marketing method for your business promotion to reach your customer will definitely help increase sales, making the total equal to more than the sum of its parts.