Advertiser Missed An Opportunity

I was recently driving home and heard an ad on the radio, now the odd time there are good ads on the radio but often they are not.  In this case an advertiser paid good money for an ad but missed a great opportunity.

It was for a local building supply store who had recently changed their brand such that they now represented a different chain.

The ad, though I don’t remember the actual words, went something like,

“We still have the same friendly service, the same low prices, the only thing that has changed is our name”.

I thought what a wasted opportunity!

Here is a perfect chance to invite people in to the store to see what is different.  Why not project the message,

“not only have we changed our name, but come in and see our new line of…”

“We have recently changed our name and as a result, we now have access to many products we couldn’t get before”

and so on.

You see, if all they do is tell you that they are the same as they were, then why would I go in to the store?  What is the call to action? (There was none in the ad by the way).

The point here is that you need to use every opportunity you can to get people in to your store.  What better time than after a name change, or renovation, or new manager, or whatever.  In fact, any reason you can think of can be a reason to come.  And people like to have a reason.  You give them a reason and they will come.

And the reason should not be “because we are the same as we were before”.

A lost opportunity.

What Is The Point Of Advertising?

I was recently looking through some of my local Yellow Pages and also local business websites in my area when I started to think about the purpose of advertising. I get the weird feeling as I am flipping through some poorly constructed ads and websites that some (ok, a lot of) businesses don’t understand the purpose of advertising.

I think that some businesses advertise in the Yellow Pages or get a website or on the radio or on local TV… because they feel they have to. They think that this is the “thing to do”, they do it because it is expected. They also see it as an expense.

Now, this last one blows me away because advertising is not an expense. Advertising is an investment to be made in your business and it should be using a tested and proven method. You should have a good idea what your return will be and it is best if you can turn it on and off at will. If your advertising is costing you money and you don’t know why you are doing it,

THEN STOP!

Because you are flushing money down the toilet.

You don’t advertise when you can afford it, you advertise when you want to produce results (typically sales). When times get tough for a company, they often cut back on their advertising first. Oh dear. How can a business expect to make money if they are not advertising? They should be advertising more to boost sales, revenue and profits.

The problem is that most advertising is done poorly and is wasted money. Poor headlines don’t connect with customers, poor copy doesn’t interest them, poor (or no) call to action doesn’t invoke the driving urge to run to their phone and call you right now to place their order.

If your advertising does not produce a predictable, positive result for your business, then stop wasting your money on it. Get it fixed. And then turn on the tap of new profits.