Advertising Where?

Today I would like to provide some insight into how we are going about marketing Mendis coconut brandy. The general strategy of big beverage companies in launching and marketing a new alcohol product is to launch the product, then provide advertising support, generally in the form of print and digital media, such as magazines and T.V. respectively. However, over the past 5 years there has been a dramatic shift in the consensus of how best to get your product message across to consumers.

We view that the most cost effective form of advertising comes from the Internet, mobile advertising and in-store promotions. We view certain forms of print media as dying out for the alcohol industry. It is very hard to translate print media into actual sales, it is more for brand name recognition. The act of reading an article in a magazine then remembering what you read or imagery you saw up to the point of making a purchase is very low. As more and more people go online, the web offers a low-cost medium to get your message across to potential consumers. While the act of reading something online and making the consumer remember it until they make a purchase in a store is just as low as print media, it is a lot cheaper for getting the same effective brand recognition.

Mobile advertising is considered a very effective form of advertising, effective in relation to potential consumers viewing the advert and remembering it until they go to make a purchase. Mobile advertising is live in the streets, close to the store where consumers go to make their purchase. One of the negatives we view with mobile advertising though is the high cost associated with running a long-term mobile campaign. Renting several trucks and drivers and then getting the print advertising prepared and installed is very costly. We view a very effective way to get around this is to buy your own fleet of vans, this way we are not giving money away to some mobile advertising company for a 3-6 month mobile campaign, that at the end we have nothing tangible to show for it. For around the same cost as a 3-month campaign in Manhattan running several trucks, we can purchase 3 vans and have them detailed out in advertising. At the end of the 3 months running them around town, we own them outright and have free mobile advertising for the next several years. This is our reasoning behind why we are buying our own vans that we have been talking about.

Lastly, the most effective form of advertising around for the alcohol industry is in-store promotions - the last point of contact with the purchaser prior to making a purchase. Irrespective of all the print media and other forms of advertising the purchaser has been exposed to, in store promotions can compel a consumer to buy a product on promotion in store over their preferred product of choice. Combining the three mediums of advertising; In-store promotions, Internet and street mobile advertising offers a very effective and cost efficient promotional campaign. Even though we are dedicated to our 3-tier marketing campaign approach for building out the Mendis brand name, we will always be open to print media if we find a print medium that is in direct contact with out target market, such as the Rolls Royce Magazine. In the great words encapsulated in the James bond movie, "Never Say Never...".