Don't Sell Print Against the Web

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 15, 2001 by Josh Gordon, Deborah J. Schwab

The main reasons advertisers use print advertising today are to build brand, introduce new products, and drive people to their Web sites--which makes it imperative that ad sales reps talk about the total customer experience, not the strengths of print versus online.

"I'm sorry Josh, we're cutting our print ad budget in half and putting our money into our Web site." I only had to hear that a few times before my "Web phobia" hit an all-time high. The challenge was how to respond when clients told me that their Web expenses were coming out of the same marketing communications budget as their ads. The knee-jerk overreaction was to start selling against the Web--but this is a huge mistake. The Web is far more than banner ads. And if your Web discussions with clients focus on contrasting the merits of banner versus print ads, you will miss a huge opportunity to sell more space.

There are ways to approach this challenge that prove that print advertising is more valuable in today's economy, not less. When I stated using this new approach, I had to adjust my thinking and behavior in four ways:

Bring up the Web on every call you make. I know many space reps who take an "Ignore it and it will go away" attitude. They ask, "Why bring up a potential competitor?" The answer is that your customers are dying to talk about the Web. It's new, interesting and confusing--and there are no definitive answers to anything. If you can talk intelligently about the Web, you will have your customers' undivided attention. Most clients would rather talk about how the Web is transforming, or not affecting, their business, than talk about print advertising. Gain access to this level of discussion, and you will be far more persuasive when the topic shifts to print advertising.

Stop talking about the marketing mix; start talking about the total customer interface. Ten years ago, I described print advertising as a slice of the overall marketing communications pie. Other slices included direct mail, trade shows, TV and radio advertising, and so on. My job was to lay out the communication options and advocate the importance of print ads over the others.

Today, viewing the Web as just another slice of the pie competing for your ad dollars is a mistake, because the Web's impact on a client's business typically goes far beyond marketing communications. While the Web may be a vehicle for exposure, it can also function as its own sales channel (e-commerce), a way to distribute collateral material, a customer service vehicle, a way to offer technical help, a dealer/distributor replacement, a way to offer contests and warranties to customers, a research tool, a way to offer product customization, a tool for implanting CRM (customer relationship management), and a tool in building customer loyalty.

Consequently, while today's marketing discussions go beyond marketing communications, they are still all about the total customer interface. Become part of these discussions, and you will be in a position to recommend print advertising as a way to help augment these other programs. Today I never talk about how print advertising fits into the "marketing mix," I talk about how it fits into the "total customer interface."

Explain the new uses of print advertising. The top uses of print advertising just 10 years ago were to generate sales leads, introduce new products, create exposure and build a brand. These four topics were the main areas of discussions with clients. Today, the Web has replaced magazines as a lead-generation tool. So-called bingo card responses are plummeting as readers realize that a quick hop onto the Web can give them instant access to information that would have taken weeks to acquire via bingo cards.

In addition, the whole concept of what a new product is and how it affects company's sales is being revisited by most marketing directors. The new thinking is that new products and new product features are not the magnet they once were. New technology and advanced manufacturing techniques have empowered manufacturers to bring products to market much more quickly and duplicate any advantageous feature a competitor may offer. For example, one professional lens manufacturer told me that he was once able to achieve four to six years of competitive advantage any time his company added a new feature. Now he sadly reports that that advantage is down to six months. In a world where unique product features don't stay unique for long, selling the overall promise of the company, the brand, has become the new mantra of marketers.

The Web has accelerated this. If you've tried to buy anything on the Web, the good news is that you have tremendous options. For marketers, that's also bad news because suddenly, if your brand or company name is not in the minds of your prospects, it's likely that they will do their buying on someone else's Web site.

What this means for you is what you already know: Print advertising, unlike electronic media, is a brand builder's dream. It has a physical presence that makes the message more tangible. In addition, since your message is physically bonded to the exposure vehicle, it creates an affiliation of quality that helps the branding process.