Quote:
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One of the first rules of business is you have to spend money to make money; and another rule is to advertise. So I say spend money on advertising!
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I've worked in radio and advertising most of my adult life. I also advertise two products of my own. There's gospel in the above quote. There's something called Top of Mind Awareness.
Generally-speaking, the idea is this: The more people think of you FIRST, the larger your piece of pie. If you live in Colorado and I say Tire Store, you might say Big-O Tires! Sure enough, Big-O Tires market share leads the pack. Well, after all. You're heard of Big-O Tires. Who the hell is Mike's Tires? Can we trust Mike? It's just the way humans think. That human tendency to trust what sounds familiar also explains why an inferior product sometimes rises to the top of its genre.
If I say "Baseball game" the same phenomenon happens (generally-speaking).
Your competition is taking advantage of all the freebies they can (some good suggestions have been posted here). I think most major businesses now have someone on staff who concentrates on Social Marketing through twitter, facebook, etc. But, the leaders are
also spending money to be the First to come to mind. The Grand daddies of baseball gaming, Strat-o-Matic and APBA, both knew they had to spend money advertising. They sucked it up and reaped the benefits.
Recently, we worked with a major marketing company which surveyed thousands of people with these
questions:
1) What company first comes to mind in this category?
2) Are you more likely to buy from the company that comes to mind FIRST?
Over 90% said "Yes".
Advertising isn't fat; it's muscle. It's like the light bill. Include advertising in your budget and be smart about how you use it.
Don't cut the muscle.
There's also something called Unique Selling Proposition. It means, " What makes you truly different from your competition?" For my money, OOTP's uniqueness comes from its "customability". It truly leads the pack in that regard. If you spend money advertising, I'd pound that point til kingdom come. It's OOTP's TRUE "USP". OOTP kicks butt in that regard.
"It's your game; play it your way." is a fantastic line.