Small Medium Enterprises

Local Marketing should be defined as marketing with content or budget control at a local level.  This would break down businesses into one of three categories:

1. Branded Branches – approximately 60 to 65%

• Local stores of retail corporations – for example a Home Depot store
• Franchisees – for example a McDonald’s restaurant
• Agents – for example a Century 21 real estate agent
• Owned and Operated Branches – for example a Bank of America branch
• Service Operators – for example a Roto-Rooter plumber
• Regional Marketing Departments – for example AARP’s Wisconsin branch
• Associations/Marketing Groups – for example Northern California Chrysler Dealers

2. Co-operative sellers – approximately 30% to 35%

• Brokers selling competitive branded products – for example an insurance broker selling both AIG and Chubb insurance products
• Value-add Resellers – for example a Microsoft Certified Partners providing systems integration of Microsoft products
• Retailers selling competitive branded products – a wireless store selling AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon
• Retail Locations – a deli selling Pepsi and Coco-Cola beverages

3. Independent – approximately 1 to 2%

• A lawyer
• A dentist
• A contractor
• A florist
• A print shop

Hello world!

According to Adage, Discover Financial is putting its $85 million media buying account into review.  This is a great opportunity to touch on a huge difference between brands and their local entities.  Brands buy media through a media buying company while local businesses are sold media by local media outlets.

Why does this make a difference?

Because when a brand wants to change media buyers, it “launches a review” of its media buying account.  Local businesses do not have the luxury of a media buyer, they deal with dozens of salespeople from local radio, television, newspaper, printshops and more.  Moreover, they don’t “launch a review” they know these salespeople and have relationships with them; they are members of the Chamber of Commerce and do business with each other regularly.

Understanding this relationship is critical when helping brands to understand how their local businesses interact in their local communities and why, in many cases, programs aimed at helping local businesses end up failing.  A huge stumbling block brands and agencies fail to realize are that these relationships cannot be easily changed.  In many cases, local initiatives have strict rules requiring utilization of specific media types or fulfillment partners.  These rules ignore the long-lasting relationships that local businesses have.

Understanding the relationships that local businesses have are critical when evaluating local marketing strategies.  A local marketing strategy that understands this concept and supports it will ultimately be  successful rather than a solution that is tied to specific media partners or restircts media partners.