Does our marketing have to change if we are seeing shifts in the market dynamics?

We’re a relatively small manufacturer in a highly competitive category – we’ve witnessed some intrusion from Asia in the last 12 months with prices being eroded and we’re finding it hard to compete.
We have an advertising plan and a budget that has worked for us in the past but as the market has changed I suspect we need to do things differently. Your thoughts please?                            Brian - Manufacturer, Castle Hill

Brian yours is not an unusual scenario as the global village increasingly becomes a reality. There is a truism that says: “if you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always got”.

Ask yourself (or your marketing person responsible for your current advertising plan) these five questions – if you haven’t got the answers then you haven’t got a strategy. (Advertising without a strategy is like riding a horse without a saddle or bridle – and the results may be that you end up in the same place!)

Here are the questions YOU MUST have the answers to;

1. What you need to say
2. Who you need to say it to
3. What makes you different from your competitors
4. Why you can say what you do
5. How to say it for best effect
6. When to say if for maximum impact

Of course there are other answers you may need – but if you haven’t got these fundamentals then you should consider the value and wisdom of your current investment on ad-hoc advertising.