As an advertising agency we feel that it is important to identify your audience and talk directly to them. Papa John’s Eugene/Springfield began advertising in the Eugene Weekly. The Weekly is a local paper that focus has a younger demo and one that is certainly in tune with the local movement that is taking place in a lot of markets.
Tim who owns the Eugene/Springfield Papa John’s, lives, works and employs members of the community and also sends his kids through the schools system, pay’s plenty of local taxes, volunteers for many non-profit organizations and boards, as well as supplies product to them. The only thing that keeps him from really being locally owned is the name outside the building, otherwise when it comes to be a locally owned business owner, Tim is!
In designing his ad for the Weekly it was important for us not to just place an ad that looks like a national Papa John’s ad but to design and ad that has relevance and that most readers of the weekly would recognize as being local.
As a business owner identify your audience and whether it’s a print ad, radio commercial etc. talk to that audience using their language.

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I like how you emphasized on identifying your customers first before creating an ad or a full blown marketing campaign. Bringing out something familiar to you target market can make it easier for them to identify your brand and the product or service you sell.