24 hours around the clock in your consumer shoes

This is one of my number one tools. It is all about media and communication.

One of marketing’s classical problems is actually to reach your target audience in an efficient way. Many years ago, the answer to that question seemed easy – you just put an ad on TV and on the most read newspapers and that was it. Well, actually, that was probably not the most efficient solution – but it was the traditional one and everybody would be happy with it. But now, the myriad of media that surrounds us make this an especially tough question.

The 24 hours clock is actually one of my preferred tools to solve it. Just put yourself on your consumer shoes and map its day, being aware of all the opportunities that might be around. Let’s think about a 30-something working mother of 1, married. She (Kate):

6.30am – wake up, with the alarm clock on her radio station;

Till 7.15am – take a shower and get ready for the day. Keep listening to radio and dress her daughter (Anna).

Till 7.30am – breakfast with Anna and Paul (husband). TV is turned on for quick news, meteo and traffic news

Till 8am – drive and leave Anna at school. Cross billboards and listens to radio

Till 8.30am – drive to work. Listen to radio

Till 12.30pm – work. Occasional 15 minutes stop to read online news, go to her facebook, read her emails in her smartphone

Till 1.00pm – lunch time at her desk. Surf the web a bit – facebook / youtube/ going through some travel sites / blogs to pick up ideas / dream a bit.

Till 6.00 pm - work. Occasional 15 minutes stop to read online news, go to her facebook, read her emails in her smartphone

Till 7.00pm – Pick up Anna and drive home. Listening to radio and driving past billboards.

Till 8.00pm – Her time to cook. TV on

Till 9.00pm – Dinner with Anna and Paul. TV on.

Till 10.30pm – Watching TV with Paul while answering and writing emails, facebooking, maybe a bit of web surfing.

So, looking at this 24 hours clock, what media mix would you choose? The fact is Kate follows an average pattern, and she is kind of conservative in her media choices – she is not on Twitter or on Google+, she is not checking in on FourSquare, not watching any movie on NetFlix. We could easily spice it up a bit – but, for that, we would need a tighter profile. And, as usual in marketing, if you have your target well defined, then, the number of opportunities and their importance and potential increases.

The fact is this simple tool can help you a lot on defining which media to consider. The weight you give to each one of them, the way you will explore them and make them interact based on the same campaign idea will then depend on the work that has to be developed based on actual penetration on target, impact, budget and prices,… But the 24 hours clock is a good starting point!