Q: does advertising work?

It amazes me how a client can produce a statement along the lines of: “Why hasn’t the new sports car advertisment worked? The advert ran yesterday and I haven’t sold any.“

Simple answer is that advertising does not force a viewer to buy a product.

Even though the client hasn’t made a sale after one day, in reality it has worked in placing a seed into a potential purchaser of expensive exotic sports cars for the future. The future may be this afternoon or in 6 months+ or longer.

What has taken place is that your product has now been placed in the memory bank so that when consumer Joe Bloggs decides the time is right to finally purchase the car he has been saving for, he will turn to you over a competitor who hasn’t advertised and hence remains anonymous on his radar.

The key to remember is that you can’t dictate the timing of when a consumer is in a position to purchase, limited offers are an incentive to counter this, but still if the consumer hasn’t the means to pay now they simply can’t/won’t.

After all, we have all seen loads of great memorable advertisements promoting cars, homes, wigs, shampoo etc, but it hasn’t made me or you run out and instantly buy a new home. What an advertiser needs to remember is that advertising whilst positioning and giving brand presence only makes the consumer aware of your offering.

Apart from the ability to pay, the consumer has to have the need. I have no need for a wig as I am not bald so no matter how great the creative is; or superior the product; or great value for money, it won’t make me buy one. However, should I go bald in the future I will know where to go, the same with building a house, I have a few builders I will check out when it comes time to build again.

The want of the product is another requirement that a consumer needs in the process to making a purchase. Of course advertising aims to create a desire to make the consumer want the offering but some people just don’t want some things! I will never want that gym that attaches to my door and in a few easy steps will turn me into a muscle man even though I have seen the advertisement a million times.

Targeting your market helps here, however I am not going to go into the long list of strategies that increase the effectiveness of advertising such as media, planning and promotion etc in this blog.

So if you think that just putting an advertisment out there means that consumers will instantly flock to your store, then the answer is NO!