This statement is of course totally incorrect and all advertising works.

Your car breaks down in front of a phone box, you open the door and there’s a business card “John’s breakdown service” you call John and he comes and fixes the problem…John’s advertising worked.

The problem for John is how many phone boxes does he need to advertise in, how many other breakdown services advertise in the same box and of course most people these days will have a mobile phone and not go into the phone box in the first place.
In these other scenarios Johns advertising doesn’t work!

So the task for John; and the rest of us is to target a specific clientele in specific areas with specific needs; and make sure we are the only ones advertising to these groups in these areas.

When you’re the first supermarket or petrol station to open 24 hours, you’re in front. But when everyone else does it the effect is nullified and the result is that you have the extra costs of opening at night.

Then there is the “buy 1 get 2 free” ploy which is not limited to food stores. Some car dealers are now offering “buy one car, get another free” Soon everyone will be at it. 
The next thing could be “Buy one, get two free” and  ”We’ll take you home for free in a red Rolls Royce”  I can see it now orders for red Rolls Royce’s soar….
In all these cases retailers are attempting to steal a march on their competition, and it is of course of great benefit to the consumer. But all businesses involved in these “deals” suffer a loss of profits.

Sadly our industry also uses ploys to increase sales.
Representatives are taught to ask personal questions of potential clients in order to find their “hot button” and to keep “pressing it to secure deals.
Which mean they find out what makes the potential client happy and what their likes and dislikes are and keep working on them.
If the client’s into scuba diving; go buy a scuba diving magazine and talk to him or her about scuba diving.

While I agree it’s good to build up a friendship with clients I believe that our task is to improve the awareness of their business and increase their profits.
For that is what they are paying us for.

I absolutely cringe when I hear sales teams boast about how many deals they made and how much commission they earned by using a piece of personal knowledge about the client to close the deal.

I despair at both reps and clients that either persuade or are persuaded to advertise in an area or media simply because their competition are doing so!! 
In fact I believe that no company selling the same product should be advertised in the same media publication.

The true measure of success for any and all advertising agencies and advertising media is how much have they earned for the client?
For me this is the only way success in our industry can be measured.

Regards
Keith
Beermatman
www.beermatadvertising.com

Predictability, now there’s a good word to start this blog off with. For as we all know almost everything in this life is predictable to some degree.
The World “Credit” crisis was predictable and in fact was talked about by economists for many years.
Faced with ever increasing competition and fall in profit margins; manufactures did the only thing possible; increased output.
But how could they sell more, much more?
Consumers must be persuaded to buy what they “Want” not just what they “Need”. And how was that to be done…. Credit!
It should have been obvious to everyone that to “buy” it now, no deposit, intrest free and pay nothing until 2-3 years next Tuesday was unsustainable.

Now it’s all gone pear shape and it’s time to pay the piper. And many will certainly pay the price.
It was always said that “the strong will survive”. Well that’s no longer true, and the converse is now the case. Those who survive will be the stronger.

The Government advocate to “borrow” a way out of the crisis; they could be correct at their level I’m not sure, but for us mere mortals the way back up is to “Trade” our way out!
People will still buy what they “Need” because they genuinely need it. The I want, I want, is on hold for now anyway.

I suppose on reading this blog it appears a strange thing for a advertising and marketing company to be saying. I’m supposed to be using “key” words, “elevator” pitches and pressing “hot” buttons.
But if you think about it that’s how the World got into this mess in the first place; with things like, “go on you know you want it” or “you deserve it you’ve worked hard” or “if you can’t afford to treat yourself now and again”!
Well I’m not a hypocrite so I’ll not do that..

So what am I saying?
I’m saying evaluate Everything your business spends money on, from the window cleaner to your delivery infrastructure. If you “Need” it keep it; but make sure it’s as efficient as possible. If you “Like” it but don’t need it, well I think you can see where I’m coming from.
The most important of all is to evaluate your advertising. As per the old adage
“If you don’t advertise your business, soon you wont have a business to advertise”!
The most important word in this sentence is not “advertising” or ”business” but Evaluate!!!!!
Regards
Keith
Beermatman
www.beermatadvertising.com

We can be very proud of what we have achieved in this tiny island of ours; for we have been World leaders at almost everything we’ve put our minds too.

It’s almost impossible to think of anything that we’re not good at.

Well there could be one or two I suppose.

One of our best attributes of course is to a produce an excellent product or service, sit back on our laurels while twenty others copy it effectively letting the raiders in. 

Of cause we’re British and along with knocking ourselves, other thing we’re good at; we wouldn’t want to to appear to be protecting our business and our own. Perish the thought!

As a Nation we are a social people and once again World leaders at “Social Networking”.

This is not a new concept to us at least, for we have always met down the pub, golf club, institute or even over the garden fence. Remember that?

But what’s happened to us now? When everyone else is advocating networking we’re plunging headlong into running our businesses at arms length..

Of course we must move with the times, but has nobody taken any notice of what people want anymore?

What about all the complaints relating to “I just want to speak to a human being” and “press 93 if you’ve forgotten why you telephoned in the first place”..

A client of ours we’ll call him Diego, is the M.D. of one of the largest car dealerships in Southern Spain.

A few years ago he decided that an excellent way to sell his cars to the “Ingles” was by using our products in selected golf clubs and other social venues frequented by ex-pats.

Now Diego’s business is ultra modern and he has more fully trained staff and high tech equipment than you can point a stick at. So he needn’t step outside his office to watch the sales come rolling in.

But Diego’s a sociable sort of guy and he visits each of the venues he advertises in every week. he normally starts off with; “I just need to speak the English”. Takes a coffee(sometimes a beer) and talks to people…Strange!

Well trust me he speaks, reads and writes better English than what I does!

No he’s there for one purpose only. To sell his products; and he does so exceedingly well!

Us in the U.K. on the other hand don’t need too do we?

Regards

Keith

The Beermatman

www.beermatadvertising.com

This is our first attempt at a blog so please “bear” with us; no pun is intended but my wife is sitting on a rock taking a few moments out after some interesting weeks promoting a local company in Sweden….
Bear Country!

As our name suggests we use the Beermat as an advertising vehicle.
We have to be honest it was not our initial intention to use this media; in fact all we knew about beermats when we started was that they were made of some sort of cardboard and everyone either fiddled or flicked or just generally played with them.

Some years ago while working in Spain with “traditional” media, in respect of flags, banners, parasols, radio, newspapers etc. An International Superstore insisted that we added the “Beermat” to their ongoing advertising campaigns targeting British ex-pats.

The response they received from the beermat on this first order was such that not only did they cancel all future orders for parasols, banners and flags in favour of the mat, but they recommended Beermats to Tivoli World, Mijas Hipodromo (Racecourse) and Torrequebrada International Casino.

They told them we were the “especialista de Ingles” (English Specialist) and I became known as the “Beermat Man”. (A name that has stuck with me to this day).

Within a few months we were receiving inquiries and orders from companies that we had not previously worked with or even considered.
Names like FRS Ferries, Servitour, Amena, Onda Cero radio, (Spain’s National Radio Station), quickly followed by REM fm, Wave fm. Car hire companies and estate agents by the dozens ordered beermats!
Newspapers approached us with “contra deals” which we declined. But they still placed orders with us none the less

Motor dealerships of Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Mercedes-Benz, Seat, Chrysler and Hummer all contacted us with orders.
Our company’s name and fame was spreading rapidly, so much so that we were contracted to promote concerts on the Costa del Sol for, Lenny Kravitz , Rod Stewart, Jamiroquai, UB 40, Bryan Adams and Sir Elton John; all using our Beermats.

The Beermat quickly became our primary marketing vehicle.

Companies across the board were reporting staggering results, in some cases 87% increase in profits which they attributed to the Beermat.
Of course all this is easily explained, these companies wanted to target British people living in Spain.
And what better way is there than the English Beermat?

But then a strange thing happened, we started receiving enquiries from the United Kingdom with requests of;
“Are we able to place advertising Beermats in prestigious venues there”?
The answer to all these questions is yes we can!

Businesses of every kind became interested in this “new” media and within weeks local and well known companies placed orders for our Beermats.

Our philosophy is and has always been; People buy from People and we must all work together.
This is never more true than in these not so vibrant times.

We have now become known as the formost authority in this phenomenal media.

So why is the Beermat so powerful in getting the message across?

Please share your thoughts with us…….

Anne & Keith

Beermatanne & Beermatman