The front of Slater’s 50/50 shows the use of traditional marketing: banner advertising, lighted product signs, and a clever logo

If you think that Internet marketing and social networking have replaced traditional marketing, think again. By picking the right traditional marketing tools, you can reach many prospects that you won’t touch in any other way. As much as I believe in web-based marketing, it’s just one tool, though a multi-faceted one like the Swiss Army Knife. It actually works best when used to augment traditional marketing.

Like my last two articles, I’m going to continue to explore Scott Slater’s marketing efforts for his Slater’s 50/50 “Burgers by Design.” This post will look at his traditional marketing.

Nine Standard Marketing Elements Used by Slater’s 50/50

Slater has demonstrated strong marketing skills. The following are some of the things that Scott Slater does well in old fashioned promotional efforts:

• A distinctive logo emphasizing his business name which in turn is his main unique selling proposition, i.e. “Slater’s 50/50” for his 50% ground bacon, 50% ground beef burger

• Logo includes his tagline, “Burgers by Design”

• He uses banners and neon beer advertising signs to draw attention to Slater’s 50/50

• He participates in the Yelp OC Bacon Elite, a physical event equivilant to having a booth at a trade show

• He’s active in the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce where he can do person-to-person networking and where he leaves flyers for them to hand out to visitors

• He used a direct mail campaign: local coupon booklets mailed to homes

• Slater ran an ad in the OC Weekly boasting that he has the largest beer selection in Orange County

• Happy hour specials and specials when the Chargers score during a game they’re watching

• Word of mouth

Technically, word of mouth is not something that Slater does. It’s something that customers do when they are pleased with their experience. I include it here under traditional marketing because word of mouth has been the best “advertising” any business can have going back centuries before anyone dreamed of an Internet. It’s not surprising that Slater told me his best results are from word of mouth. My next article will discuss this further because he’s getting word of mouth “advertising” from satisfied customers who use social networking to tell the world.

Slater’s 50/50 uses traditional marketing effectively to attract customers

Slater’s 50/50 uses at least these nine pre-Internet marketing activities to draw customers and to keep them coming back. The essential first step is knowing your best prospects well and then identifying a unique selling proposition that appeals to their wants and needs. This is crucial to any successful marketing campaign, whether online or off-line, which I’m calling traditional marketing. As I mentioned in my previous two blog posts, Slater does these well. Next, he cleverly uses his logo as part of his branding efforts. He manages to combine his USP and tagline or slogan into his logo together with a graphic design that has the general shape of a burger. While not every trade show is an effective use of marketing budget, Slater also hit it big with the Yelp OC Bacon Elite, a physical event, where he met many of his new customers, now fans. So whatever your business be sure you include traditional marketing methods to reach and appeal to people interested in what you provide as well as to keep them coming back.

If you would like to read more about Slater’s 50/50, I invite you to read my last two blog posts. Also, please check out my restaurant articles for Examiner.com on Slater’s 50/50:
• Anaheim restaurant Slater’s 50/50 uses social media to generate traffic and reviews
• Anaheim restaurant interview with Scott Slater of Slater’s 50/50
• Anaheim Restaurant Review: Slater’s 50/50

A Rule of Thumb Can Be a Lie Because It Is Misleading

When running ads, in magazines and newspapers, you would normally expect to run for seven days or seven monthly issues and get seven impressions. Wrong. Perhaps because my first sales job when I left the Air Force was in radio advertising, I immediately got a different slant on the seven impressions. Someone has to hear your spot or see — and actually notice — your ad for it to count as an impression. So immediately one has a challenge getting seven impressions.

How many people do you know who actually read every article and every ad in every issue for seven issues. That means that they might notice your ad every third or fourth one.

The other issue is that it needs to be frequent enough that the last impression hasn’t faded from memory. This is why in Internet marketing, the experts tend to email the members of their lists from once or twice a week to six or seven times a week. The objective, especially for soft sell salespeople and soft sell marketers is to maintain the connection.

So the hidden lie about seven impressions in advertising is a lie of omission. Being a rule of thumb, the novice would expect that seven ads or seven emails should start to produce sales. In reality, it’s more involved.
• First off, your reader must have a need and the ability to buy now.
• Secondly, your prospect has to have noticed the article or email, radio spot or podcast for it to make an impression.

Those of us who follow soft sell sales and marketing are comfortable with this. We build and maintain our relationship with the people on our lists, giving them value and striving to attract their interest every time. Because we work with them to know, like and trust us, we know they will buy when it’s right for them. When you help customers buy — whether it’s seven impressions or seventeen or seventy — you get so much more than just a commission or profit. You have a connection that makes selling fun, fulfilling, and mutually rewarding.

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