Low Cost Marketing

Low cost marketing approaches may help you to break into emerging industries. However, before you spend money and time on your marketing efforts, you should realize some fundamental truths about modern consumers. First of all, by and large, people consciously despise overt marketing attempts. By the same token, people subconsciously respond well to overt ads, even to ads which they consciously hate.

The explanation for this paradox is rather telling. While consciously, consumers may feel disdain for an advertisement, subconsciously, they have different filters to discriminate important from unimportant information--and these filters are far more sensitive to immediate environmental cues. In other words, your emotional reaction to the ad doesn’t have to be positive for the ad to be effective. Indeed, annoying ads can be intrinsically “stickier” because people hate them.

Low Cost Marketing Strategies

The point is that your low cost marketing efforts need not be ironic or consumer savvy to be effective. You can run lowest common denominator ads or repetitive spots or colorless, artless campaigns--what matters is whether you reach your audience’s subconscious. Of course, a truly clever and memorable marketing campaign can win you plaudits from the ad industry glitterati, which may in turn yield positive effects.

The way to keep your marketing efforts low cost is to stay on budget, no matter what the consumer response. Devising a hard and fast budget up front for your teams will put a lot of pressure on your creative executives to work hard. Yet financial limits may help. After all, with an unlimited supply of cash and resources, your team might be tempted to waste time or attempt bizarre, potentially off putting ads.