The Benefits of Plugging a Big Company's Products

Appearing in Ads Gives Small Firms MarketingWithout Any Costs
By RAYMUND FLANDEZMay 8, 2007; Page B9

In mid-February, Verizon Communications Inc. emailed its small-business customers in Philadelphia to ask if they would like to be featured in a radio ad campaign. In 48 hours, the telecom giant received 25 emails.

One came from Jill Gizzio, founder of DogToys.com, a Web retailer and wholesaler of pet products based in West Chester, Pa. Last month, her story -- that of a seven-employee business that has used Verizon's broadband technology for the past 10 years -- was showcased with two other local entrepreneurs in a regional promotion that brought significant attention to her tiny company.

"It was the easiest thing I've ever done" in terms of marketing DogToys.com, says the 50-year-old Ms. Gizzio.

Companies that provide products and services directly to small businesses, such as banks, credit-card companies and package-delivery firms, have for years used ads featuring entrepreneurs. But other big companies are increasingly realizing that using real people with real businesses in their ad campaigns lends credibility to their efforts and provides a cheap and effective way to target niche audiences -- be it the African-American, Latino or other communities, environmentally conscious consumers or even pet enthusiasts.

For their part, small businesses featured in these ads get the kind of marketing and recognition that might take them years to get on their own. And they do so with very little effort and on someone else's tab.

The one thing small businesses have to be willing to do, of course, is promote somebody else's product. Gloria Barczak, marketing professor at Northeastern University in Boston, says small-business owners want to be careful not to appear in ads in which the sponsor company may be going through a difficult time or whose image doesn't fit with the one they're trying to create.

"You want to be connected with brands that are saying something similar to what you're trying to say," Ms. Barczak says.

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