RED BANK, N.J.: “Television advertising impact is at an all time high and in the hands of a professional, TV drives business every time.” So says Adam Armbruster, senior partner in retail and broadcast consulting firm, Eckstein, Summers, Armbruster and Co.
Armbruster writes that clients frequently ask how to compete with larger national retail chains. It doesn’t mean matching those big budgets dollar-for-dollar he said in a recent ExpertClick essay, “Creating Sales Growth in a Down Economy.”
“In fact trying to match a major national company spending level will usually prove to be expensive and risky,” Armbruster said. “The best method to grow business market share in a down market is to first examine how much more market share you need, and also to know where this market share is ‘hiding.’”
Armbruster goes on to say that a smaller market share indicates the potential availability of more customers.
“It’s not about what the market is doing to you; it’s about what you are doing to market.”
He provides an example involving “a good-size independent appliance chain with a market share of 15 percent in their footprint.
“Sales for 2009 year-to-date were down 20 percent. Not good, but clearly better than the industry average of -35 percent. So a -20 percent sales number means that, assuming the total market opportunity is similar to 2008--they feel it is--then this translates to an increase in 3 market share points needed to bring their sales back to 2008 levels. Three-market share point growth has become the goal of this company for 2009.”
Armbruster said the current ad plan allocated millions to print, inserts, cable and radio. After identifying precisely where new market share would come from, ESM recommended the shifting cable and radio money to broadcast TV and local online advertising.
The complete version of Armbruster’s entry is available at ExpertClick.
