Saturday, August 16, 2008

Advertising should be judged only by the goods it sells.

By Dennis Gartland II


Opinion should be left to politics and religion, Opinion has no place in advertising. Eight percent of the world's people being Protestants believe that both the Buddhists and the Catholics, and all others, are deplorably ignorant of the only true faith, which of course must be their own particular sect of Protestantism. And, neither Buddhist, Catholic, nor Protestant, can convince the 2 per cent of Jewish people that their opinion is wrong and should be changed. I can prove to you which advertisement will have the highest return on investment.

Too many CEO's seem satisfied to spend their money on mere opinions about advertising when they might have invested it on facts about advertising. Perhaps the salesperson was attractive you they got some good sports tickets. These are the Advertisers whose company must fail before they can be convinced that Branding is not enough and that customers have to be given a reason to buy.

They blindly gamble in Advertising when they might have safely invested in it. If they were to buy any other kind of Service, except Advertising, they would demand tangible proof of its efficacy before they spent money on it. If they hired a Salesman, for instance, they would expect him to prove he was earning his salary by making a satisfactory Record on Sales. They would not accept, for long, statements from him that he was? Making a General impression on the Trade? for his salary. Nor would they be satisfied with the statement that he was branding profitably enough to compensate for lack of sales.

Because, true Advertising is only "Salesmanship-on-paper" after all. When it is anything less than Salesmanship it is not real Advertising, but only "General Publicity." And, "General Publicity" admittedly claims only to "Keep the Name before the People," to produce a "General impression on the Trade," and to "Influence Sales" for the salesmen.

Bad Advertising makes the same lame excuses as a Salesman who failed to earn his salary in actually selling goods. But General Publicity, or any other Advertising, should be judged by the same standards as the Salesman is judged, viz., by the goods it is clearly proven to sell at a given cost per dollar invested in it.

About the Author:

No comments: