Small Businesses Shirk Advertising
Keith Johnson used to be a brand manager with world’s-biggest-advertiser Procter & Gamble Co., overseeing Iams’ eight-figure annual media budget. But after launching custom pet-food business Petbrosia last year, he’s putting most of his marketing focus on influential pet bloggers and email. And he’s trying Gannett’s daily-deal service, DealChicken, with a half-price offer aimed at signing people up for pet-food subscriptions.
Digital isn’t the only way to go for small businesses with tiny marketing budgets. PR is another good option — and it can enable the really lucky, like Corey Ward, to hit it big.
Mr. Ward is co-founder of Tom and Chee, which launched in 2009 serving gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches and tomato soup near the county courthouse in Cincinnati. It now has six stores in two states and plans to franchise nationally.Tom and Chee started out with Groupon. The restaurant sold 2,500 Groupons by 10 a.m. the first time it tried daily deals in 2011. But that was when Groupon was a novelty and drive-time radio DJs were talking about the daily deals. So he turned to PR and managed to get his chain appearances on Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food” and ABC’s “Shark Tank.” The result was 7,000 franchisee applicants from as far as Ireland and Vietnam, along with attention in local media for store openings.
