Recently, EAG President Paul Weber was interviewed by an area MBA student on the topic of regional advertising for small business. Excerpts from that interview give an interesting perspective on how business owners tackle advertising in a sprawling community with both urban and suburban audiences.
Q. Define for me what you see as the different geographies one must understand when advertising a small business in the Kansas City area?
A. First, seldom is there really a state line when it comes to local advertising and marketing. Distance, convenience and other barriers like crossing a river are much more important. When it comes to localized advertising in Kansas City we typically define areas as Johnson County or Overland Park, including Lenexa, Leawood and Olathe; Eastern Jackson County including Blue Springs, Independence and Lee’s Summit; Kansas City, Kansas; North Kansas City up to and beyond Liberty; South Kansas City and Downtown which at times may include areas as far as the Plaza.
Q. Why must a business owner looking to advertise in an area like Overland Park or Johnson County be so concerned with geography?
A. Two reasons; (1) Simply put, for some goods and services consumers won’t go beyond their local service area to buy. Occasionally you might go across town to a specialty grocer but on a weekly basis you’re staying close to home. Conversely, for large ticket items like a car you may travel an hour to get a great deal. (2) Some advertising mediums like radio, yellow pages and even the Web may not give you enough narrow targeting to reach your audience without spending unnecessary dollars on people who just won’t travel to your business.
Q. For the business who serves the entire metro area, do they still need to be concerned with targeted advertising in outlying communities like Blue Springs or Olathe?
A. Yes, there are tremendous subtleties in advertising that can impact consumers in the metro Kansas City area. For example, a 24-hour plumbing service might promote heavily on radio, TV or other mass media. But when it comes time to contact them, you as a consumer might go to their website and see a barrage of messages about their Lee’s Summit location. A potential customer living in Overland Park might think that the 24-hour plumber in Lee’s Summit just isn’t close enough to get to them in an emergency.
Q. What about business-to-business advertising in the Kansas City metro?
A. When it comes to business-to-business advertising in the Kansas City area there are few boundaries that are obvious but there are definitely some subtleties. We started our advertising agency in Overland Park. As we grew we decided to move to the Crossroads area in downtown Kansas City for a number of reasons including access to talent and greater mobility in reaching our clients who extend from Liberty to Blue Springs to Overland Park. And most importantly, we wanted to be perceived as a progressive, creative agency. We believed then, as we do now, that an advertising agency based in the Crossroads is viewed differently than an advertising agency based in Corporate Woods in Overland Park. Neither perception is wrong, just different.
Q. Do different media perform differently in a widely spread out area like Kansas City? Are these advertising challenges unique to Kansas City or Johnson County?
A. Yes and no. Different media perform differently as they always have. Radio advertising is targeted by demographics and psychographics. Direct mail advertising can target just about any profile you can imagine. The trick is to consider human nature and barriers that exist, and don’t fight them. For example, don’t open a dry cleaner in the downtown loop and expect customers from North Kansas City to cross the river. Similarly, don’t advertise on radio that reaches the entire metro area when you truly only service Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs or Independence.
Q. Can you give me some best practices for removing geographical barriers from the customer’s perception?
A. If you are a service-based business whether consumer or business-to-business, go to the customer. Pick-up, deliver or offer to always meet at their location for business meetings. That’s the easiest way to remove barriers. Also, remove noticeable barriers from your website. Imagine a business that advertises to the entire Kansas City metro area but when you go to their website all you see are testimonials from Overland Park customers. The perception is that this business doesn’t truly serve all of Kansas City.
Q. Doesn’t billboard advertising specifically try to overcome that issue by trying to interest commuters?
A. Yes, to a point. A classic example would be major highway billboards on the commuter stretches from Eastern Jackson County to Downtown Kansas City or Overland Park to Downtown. Advertising on billboards gives you very limited space to get your point across. I mean very limited. If your advertising must include geographical references other than “Exit Now” then it’s probably too much for a billboard.
Q. How is print advertising in Kansas City impacted?
A. In business-to-business advertising the local magazines and newspapers do a very good job of removing barriers. Sometimes the business can hurt itself by showing some of the limitations cited above. In consumer advertising among newspapers there are still some vibrant local community newspapers that have a loyal following. Better yet, the strong newspapers deliver content in multiple formats including online delivery.
Q. Can you give one piece of advice for a business, whether consumer or business-to-business, when it comes to advertising and marketing in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area?
A. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. And if you can’t do that objectively, find someone who can. As business owners we truly believe a customer will crawl on their belly over broken glass to buy what we are selling. The reality is that consumers have so much choice in today’s market that any perceived barrier is a lost sale. You must see yourself through the eyes of the customer.