Advertising

"Advertisements are messages, paid by those who send them, intended to inform or influence people who recieve them."
-UK Advertising Association

Our definition is narrower:
Advertisements are messages (usually including headlines, pictures and copy), intended to inform or influence people, where it is clear to the reciever that the message has been paid for by the sender.

The use of messages, intended to inform or influence people, where the role of the sender is not clear to the receiver are discussed in the section on public relations.

"It is commonly said that people do not read advertising. That is silly of course. We who spend millions in advertising and watch the returns marvel at the readers we get."
- Hopkins (1923)

"When I write an advertisement, I don't want you to tell me that you find it "creative". I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product. When Aeschines spoke, they said, "How well he speaks." But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, "Let us march against Philip.""
- Ogilvy (1983)

"I have seen one advertisement actually sell not twice as much, not three times as much, but 19.5 times as much as another. Both advertisements occupied the same space. Both were run in the same publication. Both had photographic illustrations. Both had carefully written copy. The difference was that one used the right appeal and the other used the wrong appeal."
- Caples (1975) quoted in Ogilvy (1983)

David Ogilvy has been described as "the most successful adman of all time." His advice on producing advertisements is:

"Do your home work…

First study the product you are going to advertise. The more you know about it, the more likely you are to come up with a big idea for selling it…

Your next chore is to find out what kind of advertising your competitors have been doing for similar products, and with what success.

Now comes research among consumers. Find out how they think about the kind of product, what language they use when they discuss the subject, what attributes are important to them, and what promise would be most likely to make them buy your brand….

Positioning

My own definition is "what the product does and who it is for." I could have positioned Dove as a detergent bar for men with dirty hands, but chose instead to position it as a toilet bar for women with dry skin. This is still working 25 years later…

Brand image

You now have to decide what "image" you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place. The personality of a product is and amalgam of many things - its name, its packaging, its price, the style of its advertising, and, above all, the nature of the product itself….

Take Whiskey. Why do some people chose Jack Daniels's, while others choose Grand Dad or Taylor? Have they tried all three and compared the taste? Don't make me laugh. The reality is that these three brands have different images which appeal to different kinds of people. It isn't the whiskey they choose, it's the image. The brand image is 90 per cent of what the distiller has to sell.

Researchers at the Department of psychology at the University of California gave distilled water to students. They told some of them that it was distilled water, and asked them to describe its taste. Most said it had no taste of any kind, They told the other students that the distilled water came out of the tap. Most of them said it tasted horrible, The mere mention of tap conjured up an image of chlorine.

Give people a taste of Old Crow, and tell them it's old Crow. Then give them another taste of Old Crow, but tell them it's Jack Daniel's. Ask them which they prefer. They'll think the two drinks are quite different. They are tasting images."

What's the big idea?

It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product….

Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is as true in art, in science and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process.

Make the product the hero

Whenever you can, make the product itself the hero of your advertising….

A problem which confronts [advertising] agencies is that so many products are no different from their competitors. When faced with selling "parity' products, all you can hope to do is explain their virtues more persuasively than your competitors, and to differentiate them by the style of your advertising. This is the added value" which advertising contributes…"

"The positively good"

Ogilvy quotes his partner Joel Raphaelson as follows:

"In the past, just about every advertiser has assumed that in order to sell his goods he has to convince consumers that his product is superior to his competitor's.

This may not be necessary. It may be sufficient to convince consumers that your product is positively good. If the consumer feels certain that your product is good and feels uncertain about your competitor's, he will buy yours.

If you and your competitors all make excellent products don't try to imply that your product is better. Just say what's good about your product - and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it…"

Ogilvy comments:

"This approach to advertising parity products does not insult the intelligence of consumers.

Repeat your winners

If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops selling…."

"Factors which usually work"

Ogilvy has collected a list of 96 factors associated with successful advertising but has not published them all. They include use of:

• Copy in black type on a white background
• Photographs with "story appeal"
• Long copy (eg 600 words) rather than short copy
• Sexuality but only when it is relevant to the product
• Headlines that promise the reader a benefit
• Headlines that contain news.
• Headlines that contain "tried and true" words like amazing, introducing, now, suddenly.
• Headlines that offer the reader helpful information, like "How to win friends and influence people."
• Headlines that include the name of the product.
• Headlines that name and thus flag down the target group

Most advertisements follow the AIDA formula:

• attract Attention
• arouse Interest
• create Desire
• make Action easy

Advertising is very effective at the following behaviour change stages:

"It can create a better climate for the sales force to work in. It can also maintain usage where a convinced user requires reassurance."
- Lidstone (1987)

Advertising is a more cost effective way to overcome unawareness. This enables sales representatives to focus resources on moving people through evaluation to trial and useage. Advertising is often more expensive than public relations but may require less senior staff time and is much easier to control.

"Surveys of ad recall and awareness consistently produce the following results:

• 40 per cent of readers notice the ad.
• 35 per cent of readers remember the ad.
• 10 per cent read part of the ad.
• 5 per cent read all of the ad.

If an ad is simple, clear and with a distinct message, it will be up to eight times more efficient than if the message is contained in a mass of text. The major impact is non-verbal. The visual has immediate impact and sets the environment for interpretation of the words."
- Lidstone (1987)

Hopkins CC. My life in advertising (1927) & Scientific advertising (1923). Chicago. NTC Business Books 1996
Lidstone J with Collier T. Marketing planning for the pharmaceutical industry. Aldershot UK. Gower 1987