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Top 12 Advertising Mistakes to Avoid Spending all your money
on advertising but getting no results?
Find out whether
you're guilty of committing one of these huge blunders
Q: I've spent a ton of money advertising in lots of
different media, but it doesn't seem like I have much to
show for it. Can you tell me plainly and simply how to
advertise so it will work?
A: I applaud your honesty. The simple truth is, most
advertisers feel just like you do, but their pride won't
let them admit it. Unfortunately, I don't have a "success
pill" for you to swallow, but I can describe each of the
most common mistakes you will need to avoid:
1. The quest for instant gratification: The ad that creates
enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is
the ad most likely to be forgotten immediately once the
offer expires. It is of little use in establishing the
advertiser's identity in the mind of the consumer.
2. Trying to reach more people than the budget will allow:
For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix
must have enough repetition to establish retention in the
mind of the prospect. Too often, however, the result of a
media mix is too much reach and not enough frequency. Will
you reach 100 percent of the people and persuade them 10
percent of the way? Or will you reach 10 percent of the
people and persuade them 100 percent of the way? The cost
is the same.
3. Assuming the business owner knows best: The business
owner is uniquely unqualified to see his company or product
objectively. Too much product knowledge leads him to answer
questions no one is asking. He's on the inside looking out,
trying to describe himself to a person on the outside
looking in. It's hard to read the label when you're inside
the bottle.
4. Unsubstantiated claims: Advertisers often claim to have
what the customer wants, such as "highest quality at the
lowest price," but fail to offer any evidence. An
unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliché the
prospect is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say
in every ad. Do your ads give the prospect new information?
Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be
disappointed with the results.
5. Improper use of passive media: Nonintrusive media, such
as newspapers and yellow pages, tend to reach only buyers
who are looking for the product. They are poor at reaching
prospects before their need arises, so they're not much use
for creating a predisposition toward your company. The
patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as radio
and TV, will win the hearts of relational customers long
before they're in the market for your product.
6. Creating ads instead of campaigns: It is foolish to
believe a single ad can ever tell the entire story. The
most effective, persuasive and memorable ads are those most
like a rhinoceros: They make a single point, powerfully. An
advertiser with 17 different things to say should commit to
a campaign of at least 17 different ads, repeating each ad
enough to stick in the prospect's mind.
7. Obedience to unwritten rules: For some insane reason,
advertisers want their ads to look and sound like ads. Why?
8. Late-week schedules: Advertisers justify their obsession
with Thursday and Friday advertising by saying "We need to
reach the customer just before she goes shopping." Why do
these advertisers choose to compete for the customer's
attention each Thursday and Friday when they could have a
nice, quiet chat all alone with her on Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday?
9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting: Many
advertisers and media professionals grossly overestimate
the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the
wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching
the wrong people. It's amazing how many people become "the
right people" when you're saying the right thing.
10. Event-driven marketing: A special event should be
judged only by its ability to help you more clearly define
your market position and substantiate your claims. If 1
percent of the people who hear your ad for a special event
choose to come, you will be in desperate need of a traffic
cop and a bus to shuttle people from distant parking lots.
Yet your real investment will be in the 99 percent who did
not come! What did your ad say to them?
11. Great production without great copy: Too many ads today
are creative without being persuasive. Slick, clever, funny,
creative and different are poor substitutes for informative,
believable, memorable and persuasive.
12. Confusing response with results: The goal of
advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company
and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most
advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear
from the people around them. The slickest, cleverest,
funniest, most creative and most distinctive ads are the
ones most likely to generate these comments. See the
problem? When we confuse response with results, we create
attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.
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Leap, and the net will appear.
Julie Cameron
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