This article is presented here to get anyone in marketing, thinking about what they are really doing with their efforts. Manufacturers cannot simply follow trends that others set or they will always be second best or worse. Chefs cannot just hide in the kitchen producing food for empty tables. Look at the success stories of the Australian wine industry. Olive oil and tourism are hot on its heels and many players within these industries have grown their businesses on a shoe-string contribution to marketing. This article gives some insights as to how.

Tightwad Marketing™ is the art of doing more with less, or using your creativity instead of your chequebook to get the word out about your business. Even though the saying, "If you build it they will come" worked for Kevin Costner's character in the movie, "Field of Dreams", life doesn't often imitate art.

Usually the first thing that pops into someone's mind when they think about marketing is, "I've got to place an ad." Place a few ads and soon your marketing budget has totally dried up. Statistics say that someone must see your ad six times in the same publication before thinking of using your business. If it's a weekly or monthly publication, that could be six weeks to six months down the road. And who can afford to wait that long!

In order for the public to find your field of dreams, here are ten inexpensive ways to get started:

1. Define your USP--your Unique Selling Proposition and use it in everything that you do. Make sure your customer knows what it is that you do that is unique to you and your business. Obviously, using Cherikoff ingredients is a drawcard for anyone interested in food but it is your application of these new flavours which makes your offering different. Could you feature a degustation of dishes each combined with a glass of selected wine or beers as a menu choice? Are you, as the chef, promoted enough on the menu?

2. Create joint ventures with other businesses that complement yours.

For example, if you're a chef who enjoys cooking in other people’s homes, team up with a real estate agent, a cleaning service, an interior decorator and a gardening service to offer a nice packaged deal to a new home buyer in an affluent area.

Is there a government organisation nearby who could benefit from using your facilities as a showcase for Australian products or endeavour?

A very basic JV for a chef who is not the owner of the establishment in which they cook is to negotiate just such co-operation. The owner concedes the venue will build the reputation of the chef and the chef's food brings in a growing body of customers to make the venue profitable.

Many promotional event make the most of joint ventures or co-promotional opportunities. Have you hosted a lunch for a wine, meat, fresh produce or beer company yet? Have you thought of bartering your offerings in exchange for graphic design work, advertising, renovations or some other service?

3. Stress the benefits of what you do, not the product or service. There's a great story that's passed around about the world's most successful insurance salesman, who, when asked what he did for a living, responded, " I buy life assurance." Most people responded, "What do you mean?", to which he replied, "I buy life assurance for my clients at the best possible price. Would you like me to buy some for you?"

Another example is with tax accountants. When asked what he did for a living, one accountant replied "I show people how to save thousands of dollars in tax and become wealthy quickly."

Make your potential customer think; "I really want that!"

What does a great meal do for a diner? Think of your target market and deliver their most wanted benefit.

Are you providing a food experience? Is yours a great place for a business lunch meeting (a venue for meetings where food happens to be served can still be a tax deduction whereas a meal shared during a meeting may attract fringe benefits tax, at least in Australia).

Does your restaurant provide the perfect romantic getaway with the food exciting the senses and the beginning of that fantastic night you'll want to repeat over and over?

4. Become newsworthy! Send out media releases to announce a new menu or service or sponsorship of a charity event. Create or promote an event or a special day. Link what you do to an existing trend or news event. Talk about your personal story in the business, i.e. if you went broke and bounced back, started to offer one cuisine and ended up with another, etc.

Issue an award or give something away. Conduct a survey and report the results. Write letters to editors often. Become a recognised personality yourself.

5. Talk to your customers. Call 5 previous customers and find out what they liked and didn't like about their dealings with you, and how you might better serve them in the future.

This makes the important assumption that you have a database of your customers' contact details. You should. After all, this is also what adds significant value to your business.

Have them write testimonials that you can use. Ask and reward them for referrals.

6. Love what you do and become a model of what you're selling.

If you don't absolutely love what you do and feel passionate about it, your customers are going to see right through you and not be convinced to buy what you are offering.

For example, if you're a chef and your restaurant menus are grubby and the bathrooms dirty then who would want to come back? Or if you don’t take the opportunity to promote your restaurant using your menus, the chef’s reputation or some other benefit then again, why should people feel that they are getting value for money?

If you don't truly feel passionate about your business and become a living model of that business to everyone you meet, then find another livelihood!

7. Network, network, network! Join organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce, professional groups, civic groups, etc. and any type of organization to which your target market might belong. Attend community events like business open-houses or neighbourhood picnics.

Sales master Joe Girard lives by his "Law of 250", which states that everyone knows about 250 people well enough to invite to their wedding or to be in attendance at their funeral. Lesson: Perhaps the person you're speaking with isn't interested in what you offer, but there's a good chance s/he knows someone (or 249 others) who may be.

A great way to get problems solved by networking is to let people know about your problem in a way that they naturally want to help out. For example, if business is slow, mention that you would really like to have more regulars dining at your restaurant but don't know how to best attract them. You will be amazed at how many people will offer observations, advice and assistance.

8. Use attention-getting devices--become very visible. Always have business cards on hand to distribute. Give every diner a copy of your menu with all contact details. Offer a free dessert or coffee or liqueur for subsequent visits and order of a first and second course. Have a t-shirt personalized with your business name and wear it when you run errands.

Wear an outfit or uniform that shows the world who you are. When you see an abstract snail positioned vertically and looking down (it's meant to be a stylised AP) and big boxy, bright red trucks, you automatically know that they represent Australia Post.

9. Talk and teach. Approach local organizations about being a guest speaker at their next meeting. Give a workshop that is open to public and is low-cost/no-cost for participants and discuss a particular aspect of your business, or demonstrate what you do. Offer them valuable information, but leave them hungry for more.

Have you noticed how many chefs and specialists run courses on seafood cookery, specialty cuisine (Thai, Japanese, Tuscan - well no, not Tuscan any more, Umbrian is now the fashionable trend). Or even chocolate work, coffee or wine tasting and so on? It builds reputations and starts on the relationship of teacher-client. You could also work with your local college or recreation department and get paid to teach what you know.

10. Implement 5 a day. Make a list of all the creative ways you can market your business and implement 5 of them per day. Having trouble thinking of new marketing ideas? Visit http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/ideas.htm. You’ll find hundreds of them.

Remember, in Tightwad Marketing™, you're limited only by your imagination and your efforts!

Copyright 1999 SOHO Solutions with edits copyright by Vic Cherikoff. Read it. Use it. But do not reproduce the text without full referenced credit to the authors.

Donna Gunter, President, SOHO Solutions, helps SOHO owners achieve outstanding results with the virtual administrative and marketing assistance she provides. She can be contacted at 409-489-1148, seen on the web at www.homestead.com/SOHOSolutions or emailed at dgunter@datarecall.net.

Vic Cherikoff, Managing Director, Vic Cherikoff Food Services P/L

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email: vic@cherikoff.net