Apples, Oranges and Gasoline

The main point I’m about to share with you is that not all advertising is the same and that’s good.

Also you need to understand the differences before you say yes to spending anything.

Apple, Oranges, and Gasoline.

At first glance the first two, Apples and Oranges have nothing in common with Gasoline.

However consider this:

Apples, Oranges and Gasoline are all fuels.

Yes, Gasoline is the most obvious fuel because that is what we pump into our cars, but Apples and Oranges are fuel for our bodies.  It is because our forefathers were able to fuel their bodies with food including fruit like Apples and Oranges that the science and technology was invented and created to produce Gasoline.

And now, Gasoline, and other petroleum based fuels are needed to transport the Apples and Oranges from their trees to our homes.

I bet you never thought about Apples, Oranges and Gasoline like this before.

Perhaps you are also wondering what Apples, Oranges and Gasoline have to do with advertising and marketing.

I just used them to create a word picture or two as we dig deeper.

Let’s pretend Apples and Oranges are two different radio stations with different formats.  The Apple station plays Country Music and the Orange station features News and Talk as their format.

The expectation of what you’re going to get when you bite into an apple is very different than a bite of orange.  One isn’t better than the other, they are just different.  Some people prefer one over the other and it may also depend on the person’s mood or time of day.

Same applies to radio stations.  I know some people who only listen to News and Talk radio during the week, but on the weekend, they crank up the music of their favorite station.

Just like their are differences in the chemical and nutritional composition of Apples and Oranges, there are also distinct differences between music based radio stations and news talk radio stations that you should know about before you purchase radio or any broadcast advertising.  It’s not just as simple as picking your favorite fruit.

What about that Gasoline?  In our story today, let’s equate Gasoline with Social Media.

Both Gasoline and Social Media can be very beneficial.  They can both be very dangerous.  The properties of Gasoline that powers our cars are the same properties that can be explosively dangerous.

Same with Social Media.  With the growth of platforms like Facebook, I’ve connected with dozens of people from my past along with made hundreds of new connections.  That’s the good side.  Social Media sites like Facebook have also fueled some terrible things and created divisions and ignited countless negative things too numerous to mention today.

Apples, Oranges and Gasoline can work together for good.  I’ve seen Social Media work in sync with News Talk and Music radio stations too.

My challenge to you as a business owner is what I said at the beginning, that not all advertising is the same so please work with someone that understands how to use each and how not to use each.

It’s more than the cost, it’s the purpose of what you want to accomplish.

I just looked up the cost of a gallon of Apple Juice, gallon of Orange Juice and a gallon of Gasoline and while Gas is still the cheapest of the three, you wouldn’t drink a glass of gasoline as a substitute for your morning O.J. right?

Need some guidance figuring all this out for your business? Contact me.