Traditional advertising and marketing cover a wide range of platforms and generally refer to non-internet marketing functions. It is, however, based on out-of-date marketing techniques such as mainly focusing on product sales and profit rather than the customer’s needs as is the case in non-traditional marketing.
Many of the traditional advertisements can be seen and heard on platforms that don’t need an internet connection; like by simply listening to the radio on your way to work or by looking out the window at bus-stop ads. They have rooted themselves into our daily lives in an era before the birth of smartphones.
They can be generalized into four different types:
Hardcopy: This type of advertisement can be placed in journals, newsletters, newspapers, leaflets, as well as other hard-copy items for marketing.
Direct Mailing: Posters, emails, booklets, newsletters, catalogs, and other things that are printed and distributed directly to customers or targeted consumers use the direct mailing strategy.
Broadcast: Advertising on television and radio, as well as other forms of advertising such as on-screen adverts in cinemas, are all examples of broadcasting.
Telemarketing: This includes cold calling consumers to establish a relationship to expand the company.
Contrary to popular beliefs, the advent of digital marketing does not eclipse traditional methods. Traditional marketing still plays an integral role in the success of many brands and, not only is it still relevant, but it is also extremely important for businesses to use it for the following reasons.
Traditional marketing is a low-cost solution. Advertisements, posters, and banners, for example, can be produced cheaply and still target a huge audience in their unique ways.
Traditional marketing is unique by its very nature. Whereas an online commercial can be easily "ignored," traditional marketing is generally more “in your face”. When performed correctly, this could help your ad connect with a huge portion of your intended audience better.
Many people find direct mailings to be a satisfying experience. It is found that direct mailing is preferred by 73% percent of U.S users over internet marketing. Additionally, according to a study, direct mailing requires 21% less intellectual energy to process than digital content.
Banners and large signs have still not gone out of style. Banners are still widely used as one of the most effective traditional marketing strategies as they progressed from e.g from roads to entrances of shopping malls. This old-school marketing strategy relies heavily on visuals and can play with different factors of the physical environment to create an engaging and interesting angle.
Advantages
Despite the many challenges posed by digital marketing, traditional marketing still maintains a certain edge over advertising on online media because of the unique advantages of what the different platforms can offer.
Here are some of the possible considerations a marketer makes when deciding on the platform to put their monies on:
Marketing printed materials endure longer: Printed marketing materials last longer because fliers, posters, brochures, and other printed materials may be recycled and re-read at any time and from any location without the need for a connection to the internet. These printed materials can also be saved and repurposed for upcoming years' use if, indeed, the user is an ideal collector.
Enlightening and simple to comprehend: Traditional hard copy marketing is always simple to mentally digest and remember in the future. A visually attractive billboard or a compelling television commercial is a regular occurrence in most people's daily life. They are simple to understand and sometimes fascinating.
Recognizing easily: Viewing something in person instead of on your smartphone increases the likelihood of remembering it. A gorgeously designed dish advertising on a billboard sticks with you longer and will be more recognizable in the future than a Facebook ad you will probably swipe up through nano-seconds.
Attracting new and local customers: Traditional marketing, such as large-screen banners, cinema theaters, television, and radio commercials, can help you reach a local audience as well as a wide population across numerous sectors. These will distribute your information throughout specific local areas. It will attract your intended customer and expand the reach of your brand and business to new people in a certain area that you know will convert better than if they are based in another location.
Disadvantages of traditional marketing
However, it is not all roses and sunshine when it comes to offline media. There are limitations and areas where it is much inferior as compared to digital marketing.
It is no mystery why digital marketing caught on like wildfire and here are some downsides which may throw a marketer on a tight budget off.
Expensive costs: Traditional marketing such as broadcasting advertising on radio and television is expensive. Furthermore, printed items such as newspapers, journals, leaflets, and flyers ceased to exist after the day of their distribution despite the high costs. Traditional marketing firms may also charge for the distribution fliers and mailers, on top of the printing fees, in each delivery location. They are also not very environmentally friendly.
Permanent texts: Advertisements and wording for traditional marketing are permanent texts written in stone. Unless you wish to start a new advertisement campaign, you cannot update or edit your content in printed materials like newspapers, magazines, leaflets, or emails. A typo is going to be costly; both in sending your message across and damage to the brand. Unlike digital marketing, you will also not be able to edit your copy instantly if they are not performing well.
No specific numbers to show for: Traditional marketing makes it harder to gather information for a new campaign. As a result, performance and engagement, in this type of advertising, are difficult to assess. It is impossible to assess how successful or unsuccessful your marketing campaign was because there are no statistics to measure against. With digital marketing, you can see how many people click on your ad, how long they linger on your webpage, and even if they have bought something from your website or not.
Less information: Marketers can't add enough information about their products in traditional marketing since print media does not have enough capacity to present all the pricing adjustments and other details that can attract customers. With digital marketing, an ad can lead to a landing page on a website where more information will be shared, to convince potential customers on why they should be buying from you. Customers will definitely appreciate it if they are given all of the answers to their concerns about a product before making the purchase decision.
At the end of the day, a business requires new customers to survive and they can gain new customers through marketing. Despite living in a digital world, traditional marketing still holds its impact on the new consumers in its unique ways as compared to digital marketing.
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