Great idea, wrong approach (maybe)

Rarely do I see an example of marketing brilliance and stupidity combined in one place as great and obvious as this ad.  This is not a criticism of the contractor who placed it.  He apparently published the ad on the advice of a consultant and says in the Contractortalk.com posting where he described the advertsing is a worthy test.  Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but can you see what could be obviously out of place here?

Of course, the idea of a free fix-up visit is potentially quite effective and is one of the best approaches to get you in the home for repeat and referral business, but would I advertise in this manner publicly to new potential clients?

No way, Jose (. . . or Ralph, Bill, or Mark)

As other posters on the contractortalk.com thread observed, how can you qualify the tire-kickers, freebie seekers, and unemployed and desperate people from people with the money who need and want your services?  Sure, you can say you can qualify the callers based on the “some conditions apply” but you are potentially asking for trouble because the people with the most time to receive the free services also can have the most time to complain to the media, friends, and consumer authorities if you fail to deliver.  (And if you deliver this service through public advertising — with an ad that looks like it would appeal to lower-middle class and poor people — do you think the referrals and relationships you build from it will be worthy of your business?)

Now the story is entirely different if you offer this kind of free maintenance service through direct mail or even email to existing and previous clients.  Then you have found the magic key to marketing success because you are delivering exceptional after-service value to clients who respect you and want to do business with you.  You get back in the homes of people with money to spend.  You could also give “referral certificates” to your best clients and invite them to provide this message to their friends and colleagues.

The best parallel I can give of a great marketing methodology needing the right context could be our own business.  We earn most of our revenue by profiling successful construction businesses, inviting them to work with us on features with supplier-support co-op advertising.  If we advertise our offer publicly, we’ll generally obtain response from small, start-up or otherwise unsuitable businesses for the offer.  They would love the free publicity of course, but don’t have enough of a supply chain to qualify and refer potential advertisers to us.  We could spin our wheels with these inbound inquiries which can go nowhere.  (As it is, when we receive these calls without seeking them, we treat the potential client with respect, of course, and suggest inexpensive or free alternatives to the special feature — but we certainly don’t advertise to look for these people.)

I will keep my eyes on this story and if I’m proven wrong and this advertising proves to be effective and profitable for the contractor, will reverse my position.  Right now, however, my reaction is:  Great concept:  Dumb promotion.

P.S.  Note the contractor placing this ad, H & S Construction, may be wiser than the ad appears.  He has a brilliant domain (http://renovatingpro.com) and a clearly defined New Jersey service area which presumably has  upper-middle class and high end homes.  In this case, assuming he is using community media, the qualification process is defined by the media and the service area he in.  So in his case, the ad may be valid and effective.

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