• The Mystery of Advertising - Part I

 
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half.”

- John Wanamaker

I love this quote. I love it because it demonstrates a level of understanding (or misunderstanding) that is wide spread in our society. Sadly, many newcomers see advertising as the silver bullet that is going to make them wildly successful without understanding what it takes to make advertising work.

Most small to medium sized businesses don’t fully understand the process and consequently waste much of what they spend. Inventors and start-ups don’t always do a good job of understanding their prospective customer. Many medium sized businesses look at advertising as something foreign and rely on outside advertising agencies to tell them how best to spend their advertising dollars.

Advertising doesn’t have to be a mystery. There are some very basic concepts that need to be understood to get the biggest bang for your buck.

1. Who is the customer for your product? This basic question is probably the most important and least understood question in advertising. It is like shooting a gun. If you aim at the bullseye, you have a much better chance of success than if you aim at the target. The better the job you do in answering this question will be a major determinant of how successful your campaign will be.

Learn who your customers and prospective customers are, what they do, how they spend their time? What do they read? What do they listen to? Who or What influences them? How and When do they do these things? The more you know the better.

2. What are your Constraints? Most agencies and providers will start out asking you what your budget is because they believe that to be your biggest constraint, but your constraints can and do go way beyond just your budget. The truth is there may be political, economic, social, technological, legal and/or environmental constraints that must be considered as well.

On several occasions, I have had clients who wanted to advertise, but had limited quantities of product to sell. They hadn’t thought about the ill will they could create by convincing someone of the value of their product and then not being able to supply that product. It is imperative that you understand your constraints before you spend your advertising dollars.

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3. What is the purpose of your advertising? Not only must your advertising be targeted at a specific customer, it must also be targeted in terms of what you hope to accomplish. Today, we hear a great deal about “branding”. In the old days we called it institutional advertising where we were creating awareness for the company and all of it’s products rather than a single specific product. Encouraging the trial of a product is another possible objective and is much different than branding or direct response advertising where you hope to get someone to respond directly to your ad.

Know your objective and build your ad with that in mind.

4. What is your strategy? Once you have a target for your advertising and a purpose, then what are the best vehicles to reach that audience with your purposed message? What are you going to do? When is the best time to do it? Where or What form of advertising will offer you the best opportunity?

These are all areas where the media can help you especially if you have a well defined target and purpose because they know their audience. The media can provide demographic information about their audience that will allow you to compare your options.

5. What Creative Ideas can you develop that will draw people to your advertisement? This is one area where you might want some outside help and there are plenty of options. In fact, many agencies use freelancers to develop their creative. A little digging will go a long ways in finding some great creative.

(To be continued) Check back next month for the next installment of “The Mystery of Advertising”.

• Personal

The Campaign for the Ohio House of Representatives on top of my regular work load has been manageable, at least up until this point. As the summer progresses, I know the political demands will increase. If you would like to follow the campaign or even contribute to the effort to put a businessman in the Ohio legislature, you can do so at www.teapartycannon.com .

Have a subject you would like to see covered in future issues of “Taking Aim”? Please send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .