What's wrong with Advertising today? - Part 2

You might ask about all the great ads you see on TV. Surely these ads meet the criteria. Well if you’ve got an advertising budget like McDonalds, IBM or Coke then you can afford to do these types of ads. Most still don’t meet the criteria but if you bombard people with enough of this stuff then some of it is going to work. It’s the old saying, “If you throw enough mud at the wall some of it is going to stick.” Relatively few companies can afford to do this type of advertising or play in the big leagues, so these companies often win by forfeit.

So what about “menu type advertising” you might ask. Surely if I advertise my products at great prices people will want to buy from me. Well just because your ads don’t meet the criteria doesn’t mean they absolutely won’t work. In fact, sometimes they will.

Why you might ask? Well it’s simply because most of your competitors aren’t doing any better job at marketing their products or services then you are and people have to buy from somebody. Your not advertising.. You’re just order taking. Take a look at the ads for car dealers in your newspapers. They all look the same. You have 20 different dealers all selling cars at the lowest price. No wonder some of the auto makers are in trouble. They are all competing on price.

Here’s another test you can use as you are looking at ads. Ask yourself these questions.

Well I Would Hope So? Does the buyer already expect you to say what you said? If so it’s just a cliché and meaningless.

Who Else Can Say That? Can your competitors say the same things you’ve said? If so then you haven’t differentiated yourself.

Cross Out & Write In? Cross out your competitors name and put yours in there. Is the ad still valid?

In the early days of selling most buyers were at the mercy of the advertisers. There were fewer choices and less competition. Buyers didn’t have the knowledge they have today, hence your ads worked because of this. However in today’s world, there is more competition and many more choices. Your products and services are more like commodities and buyers have all the power. Simply putting a clever ad in the paper doesn’t mean buyers will beat a path to your door.

So how do we change our advertising so that we can meet the three criteria we talked about earlier? What can we do to get more people to respond to what we are selling?

Well first of all let me recap what I said earlier. You first have to make sure that the products and/or services you are offering are the very best in quality and meet the highest standards. Your customer service must be top notch. If you sell inferior products, offer services that are not reliable and trustworthy, or have lousy customer service then your advertising might get them in the door the first time but they won’t come back again and will certainly use word of mouth to destroy your firm’s credibility. So what you do and how you do it is of tantamount importance.

We'll take a look at getting your message out there in our next segment.