Did you know that 79 percent of shoppers episodes result in a purchase, 68 percent of shopping is planned and 31 percent is impulse and 86 percent of adults used at least one information source in the week to plan shopping?

Inese Kalnins explains to those at last week’s Douglas Chamber of Commerce luncheon how important branding is to a business' product. Trisha Maldonado/Douglas Dispatch

These are some of statistics that Inese Kalnins, Regional Account Executive for Wick Communications, gave at the Douglas Chamber of Commerce luncheon September 6.

The event, hosted by Wick Communications, also brought Jim Keyes, Digital Sales Manager, to explain how digital media can help any company.

Kalnins stressed the importance of reaching out to the customer and at what frequency. Kalnins stated it’s important to keep your brand out there in front of your customers. The more an ad is run the more it is seen the more it’s remembered.

Four key points to consider when advertising in a newspaper are:

· Newspaper advertising remains the primary medium for advertising information in 2011

· Reader engagement in newspaper advertisement translates to action

· Newspaper enhance the utility of the Web in the shopping process

· Newspaper marketing reaches elusive “thin markets”

Attention grabbing headline, complete and concise copy and simple format are the things you should include in your newspaper ad. Use white space, more is not always better, it may look cluttered, too much information may cause the customer to get lost, Kalnins said.

Not all ads have to be in color some look just as nice in black and white, include what the customer wants to know, urge the customer to act, and most importantly include the address of the business, phone number, website and hours of operation.

Keyes spoke about digital media and how it affects marketing strategies. Digital marketing is used to engage a customer with online advertising. Seventy-five percent of consumers use web browsing, 15 percent use mobile such as smart phones, ipads and laptops, this method is growing 100 percent annually. Email is also used to reach out to consumers; those who use email as a form of marketing are very loyal to this method.

Digital media is a quick and easy way for consumers to browse online instead of actually stepping in a store. Consumers may only spend three minutes viewing per visit at a high frequency.

Tom Riebock, Group Manager for Wick Communications, said “Smart Phones have been a game changer.”

Keyes shared the benefits of social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn in reaching customers. The benefits of using this type of marketing are that you can multiply your message with sharing; capturing “like” and “fans” gives the business and instant “preferred client and customer “list. Other benefits will be business will generate exposure for their business; increase traffic, subscribers and emailing mailing list. Overall using social media as a marketing tool will reduce a business marketing expenses.

Another form of advertising that Keyes explained was “Creative similar to outdoor.” Outdoor advertising is an incredibly rich and diverse medium that allows a very unique spectrum of creativity for designers to play with. Outdoor advertising can catch someone’s attention in a split second, other times the business can do something fun and interactive.

Keyes said that with outdoor advertising it should be a simple message, seven words or less. “Your audience will see it up to nine times a month and will be seen at a high frequency during that month,” he said.

Another key point he made was to keep the branding consistent with the campaign.

Chamber member Holly Berryhill said “it was great, I learned something” about the presentations done by Keyes and Kalnins.

Wick Communications also held a drawing for four free ads in the Dispatch; the winner was Mr. Brian Bickel of Southeast Arizona Medical Center.

The Douglas Chamber of Commerce is taking new member applications; the cost to join is $125 a year.

The Chamber will be selling posters for D-Week; the Douglas High School Art Association will be coming by all of the business on G Ave selling posters on behalf of the Chamber in the coming weeks.

Howard Henderson announced there are still vendor spaces available for the fiestas held September 14-15, pick an application at KDAP, 2031 N. Sulphur Springs Rd. He said, they are also still taking parade applications for Saturday, September 15.

The next Chamber meeting will be held on October 4, for more information contact your Greater Chamber of Commerce at (520)364-2477.