Winett Associates: Market Research for Results

Services

Professional Approach

Business Research

Case Studies

Typical Projects

Selected Clients

About Us

Contact Us

Subscribe to Newsletter

Industries

Articles and Publications

""

Marketing Viewpoint by Ruth Winett

How To Craft Messages that
Resonate with Your Audience

We have recently lived through a brutal local election season. Candidates have bombarded us with numerous cards, letters, and robot calls. How come some political messages and also some marketing messages hit the mark while others fail to strike the right note?

Crafting Messages that Resonate

Get to know your target market(s). Audience receptivity depends on a number of factors, such as the ages, income, gender, education, values, profession, and personal and family history of your audience. Also important are the audience's interests and past experiences. Because of these differences, you should prepare different messages for different audiences.

Be authentic. Craft messages that are informative and believable and that accurately represent your company and its products. You can't fool your audience. Clichés and unrealistic promises drive away voters and customers. Extravagant print material conveys wasted resources. This is especially true of non-profits.

Respond to the different learning styles of your market segments. Some prefer printed material; others learn through social media and online news sources.

Use testimonials and data judiciously. However, if you use testimonials, select people that know your product or candidate and that your audience knows and respects. If you use data, use the right data for the right audience, and explain what the numbers mean.= Appeal to beliefs and feelings as well as reason. Sometimes emotional appeals resonate when a litany of product features and functions or a list of campaign promises will repel people.

Exercise restraint. Will more mailings or more ads make a difference if people have already decided not to support a candidate or not to buy a product? After seeing the Farmers Insurance ad with Academy Award winner JK Simmons and the moose once or twice, people mute the ad. More is not necessarily better.

It is not necessarily how much you spend, but how you spend what is in your marketing budget. Assess your audience, and assess how they respond to your messages. Test your messages before going public, and re-test them afterwards to see if the messages are having the desired effect. Your messages should resonate with your audience and not repel them. Messages that resonate have a lasting effect.

Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!


Winett Associates helps companies
understand their customers and markets.

Copyright © 12/17 Ruth Winett. All rights reserved.

 

Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List icon Sign up for our Email Newsletter
For Email Marketing you can trust

 

articles index | home | back


Winett Associates           tel: 508-877-1938           email
©2024 Winett Associates. All rights reserved.