Business Corner

When it comes to advertising many people are inclined to take the stance that advertising is just ‘making people buy stuff they don’t need.’

There is a lot of dislike verging on hatred towards the advertising industry. Perhaps not as a whole but certainly towards some areas namely, direct or personal selling. What is the main catalyst to this aversion to the advertising industry? I feel it is the fact that people just do not like being told what to do, it’s human nature to want to be able to make up your own mind with the thought that no one is telling you what to do. Although it has been proven that as part of the purchasing process information gathering is one of the main components; advertising is one of the main methods companies use to explain their products.

It can be argued that over the past years the ‘hard sell’ buy now luminous signs and in your face television advertisements have proven to be financially lucrative for all of those parties involved despite the cynicism surrounding them. There is the other technique used in the formulation and deliverance of ads. The ‘soft sell’ which in essence is trying to sell a product or service without trying to obviously appear as you are trying to sell. It is removing the sales pitch from the ad without losing any of the punch or effectiveness.

Today’s consumer is known as the post modern consumer. They are intelligent, brand aware, skeptical and in need of convincing or eye catching creativity and design if they are to give an ad more than five seconds attention. Never mind to part with their hard earned money.  Read more... (410 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

I’m sure there has been a time where you launched an advertising campaign and didn’t get the results you wanted. To the extent where you swore off direct mailers or ads completely, unfortunately, just like most endeavors, there is a right and wrong way. Understanding the proven fundamentals of what makes a great campaign will help you boost your advertising successes.

The most critical two steps, preceding the actual copy or design of the ad, the two steps that is often neglected, is establishing the specific goal of the ad and picking the media that fits your message. For instance, there’s a difference in the result of having increases in customer traffic to your retail locations and having people call you to schedule appointments. There’s a difference between asking for an RSVP to a special event and asking people to leave their contact information for further follow up.

Does that make sense? Again, what is the end result of your advertising? Are you selecting that newspaper, magazine, or web ad placement because your competition is doing it? Or did you select that medium because it’s the most likely place for the eyeballs of your most likely customer, target audience, to be? Always remember what it is that you are trying to accomplish and why.

Once you understand your goals and media, best suited, to communicate to your target audience, it’s time to get to work on the third step….

The third step is the headline. A helpful trial when deciding on a headline is whether it answers one or all of these four questions:  Read more... (1291 words, estimated 5:10 mins reading time)

• Who Cares?
• What’s In It For ME?
• Why Are You Bothering ME?
• So What?