Does Advertising work?
First let me say that spending money to advertise your one location bakery brand is a waste of limited resources. But when it comes to advertising brands with mass appeal, things are different.
The CEO of a mass brand our agency Pepper represents looked me in the eye last week and asked across the conference room table: “Does advertising work?”. Here’s the answer I wished I had time to give him.
I’ve overseen marketing for dominant brands like KFC and Coca Cola as well as underdog brands like Stag and First Citizens Bank and they have all needed advertising to be a part of their courting of customers and building relationships on the road to creating a desire relievable by purchase. (aka sales)
Differentiating Your Brand
At its core, advertising is about reminding people what your brand stands for. KFC is all about the 11 herbs and spices that a 55-year-old man conjured up, that would eventually become a billion-dollar brand. Advertising reminds people what is different about your company or brand. It’s your brand essence expressed through an electronic sound bite, online post, newspaper headline or billboard. The goal? To hold a place at the “top of mind” of customers (some even get into the heart) when they decide to make a purchase in your category.
“Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret . . . to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink”, said advertising great Leo Burnett.
Achieving your Sales Goals
Not a fan of clichés but out of sight out of mind just does the trick best here. That’s why Coca Cola with its dominant market share has consistently invested in their brand through advertising, public relations, digital marketing, events and sponsorships and corporate social responsibility projects. Part of the investment in advertising is focused on today’s sales, but it’s also about deepening the brand promise with its tribe.
If you’re a tiny “Mom and Pop” brand with a flower shop or bakery or pepper sauce brand, you still must find a way to get the attention of potential customers. You will not have the budget of the big guys, but you also don’t have their sales goals. For example, I’ve seen small companies use digital media to tell their story to earn attention and drive sales.
But for mass brands like the one our client CEO leads, Jeff Richards said it best: “Advertising is totally unnecessary. Unless you hope to make money.”
