Targeting Your Audience

Starr Seigle Advertising’s Chuck Cohen talks about the need for sharp-shooters —and more than one arrow—in the Information Age.

In 1971, Chuck Cohen, then a rudderless, unemployed college graduate in New York City, found himself planted before a desk in an employment agency. The headhunter asked Cohen what he thought about a career in advertising. "My response was, 'I can't draw,'" says Cohen, who is an advertising veteran today, with 34 years in the industry, the last 14 in Hawaii.

Perhaps what was more important than his prior knowledge of advertising was Cohen's ability to roll with the punches. The industry is all about evolution, about change in response to the prevailing market forces. In 1971, the prevailing market force in Cohen's life was his growling stomach. "[Advertising] was better than the industry I was in, which was none," says Cohen, now the senior vice president of Starr Seigle Advertising.

Today, Cohen says when it comes to advertising he extols the Golden Rule of understanding your target audience first. "Everything goes back to research," Cohen says. Then make sure you have more than one way to reach them, once you know where to aim. With the advent of TiVo, satellite radio and Internet shopping, media consumption is only going to become more segmented in the future.

Photo: Jimmy Forrest

HB: What are the biggest changes in marketing strategies over the past 10, 20 years?

A: Twenty years ago, there were three networks, and those three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, controlled about 80 percent of all viewing. With cable, you have segmentation of audiences, which didn't exist 20 years ago. As well, you had major magazines that dominated great shares of the market. In the last 20 years, you've had the addition of a couple of hundred new titles. Add to that the Web. The Web has become an integral part of marketing programs. So the world has changed to segmentation as opposed to broad-based, one message reaches all.

HB: Local businesses have reported cuts in advertising budgets. Are marketing dollars being slashed or redirected?

A: They are cutting traditional advertising dollars, but their overall marketing budgets have not decreased. They have been shifted. They might be going into research, branding, POP (point of purchase). They may be outsourcing to an outside interactive agency to develop Web site presence, to develop Web site strategies. So dollars are being shifted. It has to be an integrated approach today.

HB: Is traditional media becoming less and less viable for advertising?

A: You have to ask yourself, "is the client national, local or regional?" If you want to be an integral part of the local community, newspapers are extremely important. If you are a Proctor and Gamble, newspapers may become secondary as a vehicle, because they are looking at sales on an overall national perspective. You have more trade publications that you need to have a voice in, if you want to reach the building community or lawyers or doctors. And, if you want to reach the business community, there are those publications you target.

HB: Does Hawaii present any unique challenges for marketing?

A: Have you ever walked out on Bishop and King? Over 70 percent of this marketplace is non-Caucasian. It is Asian and Polynesian. That is not what the other America is about. The other America, when they talk about ethnic groups, they talk about African American and Hispanic American. They talk about long-sleeve shirts and ties and subways. You need to localize creativity in this marketplace, to understand the cultural sensitivities and the cultural differences of this marketplace. You need to understand that you are not in Kansas.

>>FAST FACT:

The Hawaii Advertising Federation estimates more than $250 million is spent on advertising each year in Hawaii.

HB: How effective is the Internet alone to reach potential consumers?

A: If I want to know something about someone's company, the Internet is a wonderful environment. I can go on to the 'Net and learn about my client's product in depth. So you can purchase search-engine optimization, search-engine advertising, but you are not reaching the majority of the market. If I am a local bank and I am trying to reach everyone with my message, do I need to really to put that branding message on the 'Net? But, if I am trying to reach second-home owners who live in California that want to purchase real estate on Kauai, the 'Net is extremely important.

HB: Will the Internet become more dominant in the future?

A: The Internet today is a vital part of anybody's marketing program. But it will be more of a factor as my child becomes the primary consumer. As the generations progress, as the Web becomes second nature, it will probably become the marketing tool. And it is going back to my original statement where you had three networks dominating 80 percent of all viewing. They are under 50 [percent] today and will they go to under 25 percent 15 years from now? Probably. The world of media consumption will change. So it will always come back to research. Once I define my target audience - and understand the consumption of media - then how to reach the target audience becomes easy.

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