THE ADVERTISERS' CORNER
Stu Powell ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER
Chemical & Engineering News
WHAT IS A "PROMOTABLE" CHEMICAL?
Are all chemicals promotable? You might expect me, as a salesman of advertising, to say "yes." And probably at one time or another all chemicals are promotable, and can be helped by promotion. But the important question is: Does the cost exceed the gain? Today, profit margins are difficult to hold. Company management is hard put to decide whether this chemical or that chemical is worth extensive promotion.
There's no easy answer. Marketing men have to stay on their toes round the ctock looking for sales opportunities, looking for ways that advertising can take a small product advantage and turn it into a strong product campaign. Caution is a natural instinct with all of us. We have a tendency to look for reasons why we shouldn't do things, rather than wny we should. We decide against promoting a particular product because it "might tip off our competitors," "the product needs more work," "the market situation isn't right," "poor distribution," "oversold," "poor sales." And yet each of these situations may hold out promotional opportunities if we turn off the red light and switch on the green. There may be small product advantages or successful case histories buried in call reports which might be turned into major advantages and trends. Your advertising department can, and often does, take a seemingly routine product situation and breathe new life into it. We all agree that new products should be advertised. But how often, after hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in research, does a "new product" campaign end up as Vs pages. In product areas where the competition is keen, it is often the small difference, well promoted, that spells success or failure. "There's no competitive difference" is easy to say, but it is generally not true. And even if it is true, it is marketing's responsibility to create and exploit a competitive advantage. Once the advertising professionals in your company are given a promotional opportunity, they can frequently build a decisive marketing edge. The number of promotional opportunities depends on how much management believes in the value of promotion, and in its ability to keep the lines of communication open between research, production, sales and advertising.
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