Sym.prog.ad./rule of thirds

[Wallace Scherer]

Well, now that you lay it all out and I run some calculations, the symphony
program ad may be better than I thought. I had checked into it in our area
last year and it seemed really expensive. But it may be worth it in the
long run. Here's my calculation.

If your symphony concert typically brings in 1200 people, in ten programs
with many repeats we might expect a maximum of 5000 people in a season.
This may mean around 3000 homes represented. Being musically inclined, we
may guess that about half of them have pianos, thus 1500 pianos are
represented by those who attend in a typical season. This is without
considering schools, churches, or students they might also influence.

Now we apply the "rule of thirds" that I mentioned before from my
door-to-door survey work, that is:
One third already have their piano serviced regularly.
One third have no one who plays and are not interested.
One third would like their piano tuned in the near future.

We arrive at 500 piano owners who may want your services soon. If we have
paid $375 for a 1/4 page ad and 500 likely customers result, we have paid
$.75 for each of them to know about us. That's not bad for a qualified
prospect. Then if we make the ad into a coupon, or include a coupon, to
make the ad stand out some, it may work even better. The coupon could be
for something like $5.00 off for a bench pad, $25 off for a Dampp Chaser
system, $5 off for "beautiful walnut caster cups", etc., anything to grab
the attention a bit more. A graphic design or picture will help a lot.

The ad will pay for itself if it results in 5 or 6 customers during the
symphony season. But, of course, our goal is not to work just for the
advertising agency, but ourselves. So we would need about 10 customers in
the season to make the ad really "worth it". I would say that is possible.
They say that repetition is good in advertising, and seeing the ad several
times over the course of the season is good. If you actually tune for the
symphony, so much the better!

Have fun!

Wally Scherer, Norfolk, VA
E-mail: WallyTS@iName.com (Please use this new address now!)
Web page: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2411
"Speak to strangers - all your friends once were!"