In today’s world, nothing can be more important than name recognition when it comes to selling a product. Newcomers to the marketing realm must be especially wise in this area as they attempt appeal to a buying public and instill confidence in their brand.

Sadly, 60% of new ventures will fail and that failure will be based on bad advertising strategy. Indeed, many missteps can occur in advertising that could tarnish the name of even a well known company. Here are some of the more common ways that utilizing a faulty advertising strategy can doom a company to the point of no return.

Targeting the wrong demographic — although this may not seem possible or even that important, in the realm of marketing, it is everything. Let’s say you make a product that would appeal to 20 something females, but the adverts leans more toward 30-40 something’s. The mixed signal could confuse the masses, and in the end, you could alienate all client bases. This would of course hurt your image, tarnishing it before you even begin a well formed campaign.

Insulting your target demographic – the last thing any company should do is insult the intelligence of their target base. As far as a marketing strategy would go, it is career suicide. How can you insult your audience? By providing false information about the product or by assuming they will not know or understand certain aspects of the product you are selling. By being dishonest, or talking down to your audience, you are telling them you think you are smarter than they are. This works how often?

Beating a Dead Horse – what can begin as a brilliant campaign can grow wearisome if overused. When you develop a marketing strategy, test the waters from time to time to see how well it is doing. Don’t assume that something that worked two years ago will work indefinitely. Keeping your brand innovative, fresh and contemporary will help to preserve its longevity.

Failing to Cultivate Word of Mouth – many companies believe that putting a ton of money into splashy ads or expensive commercials is a surefire way to get people talking, but the old adage that a product sells itself is still tried and true. Put money aside to offer free samples to the buying public. If your product works as advertised, people will talk and your business will grow.

Foregoing test marketing – while you may think you have the best product on the planet, the world may not be ready for it. The videophone comes to mind. Companies that employ a time honored marketing strategy, like developing a raw prototype, or paying consumers to test their products, often do well. In the end, it may be worth the expense, especially if the information helps you tweak the product so it is more to consumer liking.

And remember; don’t throw the kitchen sink at one aspect of advertising. While it may be a good idea to put your name on one side of the super bowl blimp, you could be better served placing your advertising dollars in more than one basket.

By keeping an eye on your advertising strategy and playing it smart, your company will not only make a mark in the business world, it will remain in good standing for years to come.

Advertising is getting bigger by the day. With the advent of online ads, a ton of opportunities are suddenly created for people who would not have been able to afford it previously. Apart from the normal or common print and media ads, there’s a new form of advertisement. Well, not exactly new, but its awareness among small business entrepreneurs is just getting noticed. Prior to now, the only people or organization who ever dabbled into it were the Fortune 500 group. But with the new wave, even the common man can afford a media buy with a good bargain.

Digital out of home advertising is not as popular as it should be and that’s a good thing because you can now benefit from its many advantages. While people have become “immune” to the bombardments from the 3 major forms of popular advertising- TV ads, mobile and online ads- they are not very immune to the effects of digital out of home advertising. Many people love the advertising because of its sheer suddenness.

To a certain degree, you can say that digital out of home advertising is “subtly intrusive” meaning you find them in places you least expect; thus getting your attention and having you notice it. If you are thinking of utilizing this means, then it’s about time because not even many advertising agencies have packages for it. Before dabbling into digital out of home advertising, you should be aware that there are few rules you must follow to be successful. These are:

1. Do Your Research on the Various Ad Agencies.

This is pretty simple; but the thing is not many people think that it is advertising in this medium hasn’t attained the level that the big three have. Therefore, the ad-buying process is still sot of unstructured. Research the different ad networks and agencies particularly their areas of specialization. All over the country, there are pockets of networks with advert packages targeted at different critical points such as elevator advertising, cashier stand advertising, shopping cart advertising, bus-stop ads and so on.

Not many of them even have the financial capability or human resources to grown or develop into a mainstream advertising agency. Because of its relatively unpopular status, it is still a no-man’s land. If you want a close comparison of the digital out of home advertising, think in terms of social media online. Think, twitter, hi5, Facebook and you’ll get an idea of how the whole process works. These social communities are effective but each ion their own way.

2. What’s the lingo?

As with all professions and disciplines, digital out of home advertising also has its terminologies. This you need to understand to be able to get good bargains for yourself. If you want to start your own agency, then you would need to learn this in-depth. Bottom line, speak the language of the business. In the recent past, a few big companies in the out of home advertising sector came up with an idea that basically pioneered the homogenization of language in the industry.