How Advertising Works

Hyundai tells us that their cars make sense, Apple Computer offers us the power to be our best, and most of us don’t believe a word of it. The fact is, when all is said and done, most people don’t believe, don’t remember, don’t even notice, most advertising. This has always been so and always will be so. The vast majority of advertising is ineffective and inefficient.

The message cited above for Hyundai automobiles (“Cars That Make Sense”) has little or no effect either upon our personal lives or even Hyundai’s sales overall. And we could say the same thing about thousands of other individual and isolated advertiser efforts. But the Hyundai advertising, combined with Apple Computer’s advertising, combined with advertising for Tide detergent and Chivas Regal and RCA and Johnson’s Floor Wax and limited -time specials at your local department store or supermarket, has very powerful collective effect indeed – it instructs us to Buy!

Advertising’s real message, to buy and to buy ever more, to replace what we have rather than repair what we have, at one time served us well When we were smaller in numbers, when we were still growing, still searching for a collective identity, when personal prosperity was touted as the primary reason for being alive, private property the only form of wealth, and when we were naive enough to believe it all, consumption and the ability to consume was not only a way of life, it was a respectable one at that.

Accelerate Brand Momentum

Effective brand advertising makes all other marketing activities work better. Over time brand advertising builds brand equity – a strategic and financial asset. Brand advertising can help rapidly growing firms dominate a niche. Established firms that are well liked but not well known can spark growth through a brand building campaign. Dominant players can use a campaign to defend a market position. Advertising can also be used tactically to support a trade show, announce a new product, or attract channel partners.

The first step is to find a point of difference that is meaningful to prospects. This insight leads to the position, which needs to be integrated into a media plan and the creative product. Additionally, the campaign must be interwoven throughout other marketing activities.

For example, in a restaurant that caters to a business clientele, sales in one of the locations had not grown in three years, and it needed to reinvigorate its business. Using an innovative research technique, it was determined that the primary reason people went to the restaurant was to affirm their place in society. Based on this insight, it developed the position, and a cohesive ad campaign ran in business publications, on city buses, and internally on promotional signage. The campaign succeeded – sales rose in a market marked by increasing competition.

Advertising and Brand Development

Branding, the deliberate and careful process of developing and maintaining a unique position with a clear set of associations, expectations and benefits for a particular company, product or service is a proven concept that has been successfully and widely applied by industry leaders, from athletic shoes to zoos.

Advertising plays an important role in branding strategies for social messages. In fact, the challenge posed in marketing various social issues requires the creation of advertising messages and images that are powerful enough to overcome competing or conflicting ones. As with corporate brand strategies, advertising can play a critical role in sustaining the position of a brand in the mind of the consumer and protecting against lost momentum.