Flint Advertising
Growing up in Flint from the mid seventies to now had allowed me to see a lot of changes in our economy. I recall when I was 8 years old. We moved to a street called Hazelton and at the end of that street at Kersley on the corner was a General Motors factory. The Parking lot for that factory was a whole city block and that was just one of the parking lots that the factory had. That factory is since gone, the four square blocks where it once stood bringing hope of a promising future to a city is gone with it.
Advertising in a flourishing market when you have customers busting out the walls of your business is easy. It's the times when the economy is on it's back and there are thousands of less employed people to walk through your front door that makes good advertising choices all the more important. That dollar has to be spent in a more focused manor to produce better emotional buying decisions. Let's face it, John and Jane customer are being forced to tighten the budget, downgrade life style and prepare for hard economic times. Little Timmy still want the newest game to play and Suzie still want the Barbie with the matching dress and sports car. Mom and Dad still want to keep up with the Jones'
When in a financially declining market, People tend to drive less, rent more movies rather than go out to a movie theater and cook rather than eat out. Now with the internet at there exposal they can not only rent that movie online, but save the time and money they would normally have to spend. So with more and more people flocking to the World Wide Web for more shopping needs it has created a whole new category of advertising and employment. So when they are making less buying choices it becomes more important for your company to be able to capture those purchasing dollars. We have all read about the giants of the internet and the fortunes that were made via the power of internet. When looking at companies like Google, E-bay, Amazon and from Microsoft to Dell Computers. Every single one of those companies has the massive traffic of the internet to and the smart strategic marketing done online to thank for there overwhelming success.
The question comes to mind. How do you as a business owner with less money to put into advertising and the increase in cost of running at the same level you were fifteen years ago when you had more customers? I think the answer is found in one of those not so desired places. I like to call us Generation X. Yes, this group of society can hold the key to our business survival. I think back at all the conversations with comments like, "these kids and there computers." I love it as I think about this one, "these young people today should be in welding school or getting a shop skill trade."
It is time to put our trust in the newly developed skills of this generation to help sustain us and drive our customers from the comfort of there home to our virtual store fronts. The great thing about this generation spending time on the computer creating the social networks and the need for search engines and storefronts, is that we can now use them to help the brick and mortar business owner.
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