“Our product is so good it sells itself!” That line has been used at more multi-level marketing meetings than could be calculated. Now there is no doubt that many of the products you see distributed by multi-level marketing companies are quite good. Many of these companies have been around for years and some folks make quite a good living selling these products. But when it comes to really selling a LOT of product, who sells the most, multi-level marketers or big corporations who spend lots of money on advertising?
Let’s put it this way, what is the first thing you think about when I give you the following incomplete sentences.

Aren't you glad you use ______? Don't you wish everybody did?

You deserve a break today ______________.

Things go better with __________.

__________ melts in your mouth, not in your hand.

See the USA in your _____________.

Double your pleasure. Double your fun with _______________ gum.

Now this little game may not be fair to some of the younger readers because most of them would not have been around when these ad campaigns were running, because all of these slogans are over a quarter century old. Oh, I probably shouldn’t have phrased it like that; it does make you start to feel old when I put it that way doesn’t it.
The point I am making is that all these were major ad campaigns by big companies that have lasted well beyond their expected life span. Advertising is a part of a marketing campaign that should be well rounded to reach as many consumers as possible with your message. But understand that true marketing is more than just putting ads on TV or radio or in a magazine or newspaper. Marketing should be defined as educating your consumers as to the existence of your product or service and the benefits derived by using it.
This can be done through several means including advertising on various forms of media all the way to the personal contact of the multi-level marketer. But one thing has to be kept in mind for any successful marketing campaign, and that is the consumer is bombarded by hundreds of marketing messages every day. Your message has to compete with not only similar messages of like products, but messages from every other product out there. Consumers have become somewhat jaded as a result of this mass inundation of advertising messages. In fact, studies have shown that by the time they reach the sixth grade, kids have learned that you can’t believe everything you hear or see; they are wary consumers.
Marketing in the 21st century has become much more challenging than it was at the turn of the 20th century. If you look at the history of that time you will find that the protection consumers assume is in place today to keep unhealthy or unsafe products off the shelves wasn’t in place in the early 1900s. Snake oil salesmen roamed the country selling all kinds of elixirs to “improve the health” of the consumer. As it turns out, many of those remedies contained large amounts of alcohol and narcotic substances, even toxic compounds. As this fact came to light, consumers began to be wary of advertising and the trend has continued to this day.
That is not to say however that advertising is useless or all commercial messages are suspect. If advertising didn’t work, then the big companies who spend lots of money on ads would stop doing it. You don’t spend millions of dollars on ads without spending a few more to see if your ad campaign is working or not. That’s just a part of the total marketing effort. These major retailers see the costs of advertising and marketing, and judging its effectiveness as just a part of the cost of doing business.
So how much should be spent on marketing a product? Retail marketing considers it a good business practice to spend 2 to 3 percent of gross sales for advertising. TNS Media Intelligence reported back in March of this year that total advertising expenditures in 2006 increased 4.1 percent to $149.6 billion as compared to 2005. That’s a lot of money any way you look at it.
Looking at the final USDA report on the 2006 pecan crop, the total value of utilized production came in at $320,643,000. Using the standard retail calculation for figuring the amount of advertising that should have been spent on selling the ’06 crop the result is between $6.5 and $9.5 million dollars. The total amount of advertising spent on pecans wasn’t even in the same ballpark. It was more in the neighborhood of two to three tenths of one percent.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t an effort to market the crop. Groups like the Texas Pecan Board, the Georgia Pecan Board, the National Pecan Shellers Association and others are going to great lengths to market the crop, but with much smaller budgets to work with rather than the standard retail model. This means making the best choices possible with the monies available and becoming innovative in marketing techniques.
The Texas Pecan Board, for example, has been providing grocery retailers with point of sale recipe brochures, which were developed specifically with quick and easy to prepare pecan recipes for busy people. These recipe brochures also utilize pecans in ways other than the traditional recipes of pecan pie and banana bread. That is also a part of the overall marketing effort, to show that pecans are so good in so many different types of food. The recipe contests that the TPB sponsors are also aimed at seeding ideas in consumers on how to utilize pecans in everyday meals in new and different ways. This third part of this multi-pronged marketing strategy, touting the health benefits of pecans, is aimed at educating consumers that pecans are not fattening but actually improve health in numerous ways.
The aformentioned marketing strategies are just a few of the ways that have been implemented in the last few years to raise consumer awareness of pecans. While it will take some time to fully analyze the efficacy of these methods, there is no doubt that something is causing an increased demand for pecans, despite the fact that pecan prices have increased significantly as well over this same time period. It would not be out of line to assume that marketing efforts have had something to do with this.
The Texas Pecan Board has commissioned an independent study to determine what impact it’s marketing efforts have had over the past nine years since it’s inception with an eye to improving overall strategies and effectiveness of its marketing program. Because the bottom line of any business should be to spend money wisely to gain the greatest results for the money spent, particularly in light of the relatively small marketing budgets in the pecan industry at this time.
Marketing can and does work with today’s consumer. A good ad campaign can ignite demand in consumers and catapult a product into stardom. History has proven that. Look at the examples of the old advertising slogans that were mentioned at the top of this article. I’m sure you got most of them, but just to keep you from hanging in suspense in case you didn’t get them all, or to check your memory, here are the answers to the fill in the blanks.

Aren't you glad you use Dial? Don't you wish everybody did?

You deserve a break today at McDonalds.

Things go better with Coke.

M & Ms—melts in your mouth, not in your hand.

See the USA in your Chevrolet.

Double your pleasure, Double your fun with Doublemint gum

See, advertising does work. And no matter how good your product is, it won’t sell itself if people don’t think about it. No matter how good pecans are, we must continue to remind consumers that they are good and good for you. That message has to be shared as often as possible to remind consumers to buy some pecans today. And that demand means more money in your pocket.