Рекламирование (Advertising)
Advertising
As
we begin to examine how advertising works and how we may best make it work for
us, it’s important that we first view in proper perspective this marketing
activity that has been going for so many centuries. Let’s look at advertising
in the past, at the part it has played historically in our lives. Advertising
has changed, as we have changed. If you had been a young Roman soldier in the
occupation army in Gaul, spending an afternoon at the chariot races at the
stadium at Names, you would have been exposed to advertising.
If
you, in your former life, were a tall straight-nosed Grecian beauty strolling
the streets of Corinth, with your market basket on your ears would have assailed
by the cries of street vendors broad calling their wares for sale. On walls and
buildings you would have read advertisements of a wide variety of products and,
most likely, there would have been some “lost – and – found” notices too.
Because
the notices on Roman walls often began with the Latin words si quis (If
anyone) as in ‘If anyone has information’, or, “If anyone wishes to obtain”,
for many centuries afterward any poster advertisement in England or in America was known as a siqui?
The Advertising Broker
It
was in this time of the growing attractiveness of periodicals to the national
advertiser that the modern advertising agency had its beginning. Brokers
purchased space from publications at whole sale rates, and resold space to the
advertiser at whatever markup the cold demand.
In
a larger sense, however, the agency’s chief service in this early period was to
promote the general use of advertising, and to aid in discovering cheaper and
more effective ways of marketing goods.
The
shift from “advertising broker” to “advertising agent” was very important; the
emphasis had been changed from working for the interests of the publication to
serving the interests of the advertiser. Thus today all of the advertising
agency’s services are directed toward helping the advertiser achieve his
marketing goals.
Advertising Grows up
In
the fist decades of the 20th century, advertising underwent two
marked and significant changes. The first was the recognition by advertising of
its responsibilities to society and business. This recognition of
responsibility was evidenced by the formation of numerous organizations whose
goals were the improvement in the effectiveness of advertising and control over
its taste and honesty.
The
second significant development in the early 1900s was the emergence of the
nation and regional advertising agency in much the same forms as we recognize
it today. Advertising agencies are tightly geared just to provide the
advertiser with all those services that will enable him to invest his
advertising dollars most effectively.
The New Face of Advertising
The
third development in modern advertising, and perhaps the most interesting and
significant of all, occurred in the first decades of the last century. Their
ingenuity, imagination, and restless curiosity changed the face of advertising.
It changed from something that was basically a ‘notice’ or a simply an
attention-caller, to a logical, carefully thought-out selling tool fully
integrated with the marketing strategy.
The Marketplace and What
Happens in it
There’re
as many definition of marketing as there are authors of textbooks on the
subject. Let’s look at a couple of them:
Richard
R. Still and Edward W. Cundiff call it “the business process by which products
are matched with markets and through which transfers of owner ship are affected”.
William
J. Stanton calls marketing “a total system of interacting business activities
designed to plan , price, promote , and distribute want-satisfying products and
services to present and potential customers” (more precise definition).
The
American Marketing Association defines marketing as being made up of ‘the
performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services
from producer to consumer or user’.
This
is a simple explanation of what happens. The key phrases are: ‘from producer to
consumer ’, and ‘the flow of goods’.
This
is the fate of every product as it makes its way from the manufacturer’s
loading platform to its final destination – into your hands. A great many
things happen to it.
Advertising
is one of the things that happen. These forces all work together.
1.
The quality, appearance, and performance
of the product.
2.
How much it costs.
3.
Where you can buy it.
4.
The promotional efforts, including
advertising, that help to sell it.
Sometimes advertising can be very important. For
another product, distribution may be the vital force.
The Consumer and Why He Acts the Way He
Does
Images
The ‘image makers’ are all around us, and they are not
confined to advertising. Publicists and press agents, retained by individuals,
are paid to develop or change images. The Hollywood drum – beaters have in the
past created ‘sex kittens’ out of some very ordinary country girls.
Corporate Images
People, through their own efforts or the efforts of others,
can reflect a certain image. Business can also fix a certain place for them in
the public regard. To many large companies the ‘corporate image’ is very
important and carefully protected. Sometimes a company must fight to overcome
an industry image. This is about corporate images for big companies. Does this
apply to a smaller businessman? It certainly does. When a local retailer
institutes a policy of ‘return the merchandise and your money refunded with no
questions asked’, the seller is saying to the consumer, “I’m the kind of strait,
honest guy you can trust me”. For example, a jeweler in a small town who
appears on TV every now and then, talks about his merchandise. He is talking
about them with pride and affection and knowledge. There’s absolutely nothing
professional about his accent or his delivery. Honest jeweler with whom you’d
like to do a business.
Trade
Marks, Labels, and Logotypes
To help remember who is doing the
talking, companies and products have ways of branding themselves just as a
rancher brands a calf so that he can distinguish it from other ranchers’
calves.
The ‘brands’ fall into different categories:
Brand names: Usually this is a mad – up name which should be
unique and memorable. Copywriters often spend hours
thinking up new names for products. Some well – known trade names are
Exxon, Teflon, and Maybelline.
Symbols: These
are literally ‘brands’ which could be reproduced in iron and burned into
surface.
Names: To
help keep its name memorable.
Logotypes: You
will usually find these at the base of the advertisement, and often they are a combination
of the company name, a symbol, and slogan if they have one.
Labels: By
means of color and design, labels brand a family of products, such as Campbell Soup,
Maxwell House Coffee.
Trade characters: The
symbol can be a human or a cartoon character.
Layout design: Sometimes
a brand will immediately identify itself by the design of its advertising layout.
Slogans: These
are catchy, memorable lines that put a ‘handle’ on the company. For example
Coca Cola’s “It’s the real thing” or “You can be sure if it’s Wasting House”.
It’s important to be very careful while thinking
up a brand name for a product. Many brand names have been thought up,
registered, and never used. All slogans, symbols, names, and so on, must be
‘searched’.
The Different Kinds of Advertising
Advertising people recognize a number of
different kinds of forms of advertising. They are differentiated from one
another according to the different jobs they are designed to do. Now let’s take
a look at these different kinds of advertising, and we will fix in our minds
the role they play in the marketing process.
Institutional or Corporate
Advertising
This often projects an image of the company. It’s
just as important for a company to have a good character and a good reputation
as it is for individual business person, and for exactly for the same reasons.
Your name has a great deal to do with the consumer – buying decision. The fact
is, all companies have characters and personalities of their own, and those
characteristics affect their relationship with buyers and sellers alike.
Trade or Professional
Advertising
Ordinarily you don’t see trade or professional advertising
unless you pick up a publication directed to a particular trade or a
profession. There’re a great many of these publications, and manufacturers fill
them with advertising addressed to retailers. The messages to the retailer are
very different from those addressed to the consumers. In trade advertising, the
manufacturer tells the retailer what he can do for him in terms of the
marketing mix – new, attractive products, money – making volume, and profit
spreads, ingenious distribution plans, and exciting promotional programs.
Retail Advertising
You see and hear retail advertising every day.
Without it, most newspapers and radio stations would not be able to exist. And
our television station might find itself somewhat pressed. In most cities of
any size, department store advertising represents an important source of income
for newspapers.
Promotional Retail Advertising
At Christmas, at back – to – school time, and at
many other times during the year, we can see a special kind of retail
advertising. This is advertising that does not directly advertise the products,
but advertises the promotion of a product or group of products. If a famous
author is going to sign autographs at the book store, or if a chef is going to
give omelet cooking lessons in the kitchen – wares section of the department
store, every effort must be made to let as many people as possible know about
the event. Often store promotions are sponsored by manufacturers. A cosmetic
manufacturer may make a ‘beauty consultant’ available. A manufacturer of
women’s sports car may provide a traveling fashion show. If so, the supplier
often pays for all or part of the promotion.
Industrial Advertising
Industrial advertising is simply advertising
directed to a customer who happens to be an industry. Most people are not
particularly conscious of industrial advertising because they have little
occasion to see the publications in which it appears. But there’s hardly an
industry we might think of – from steel to coal, or from perfume to fishing –
that doesn’t have its own ‘trade book’ devoted to the interests of the
industry. Some of the businesses that advertise in a publication directed to
the fishing industry are: boat builders, rope makers, engine manufacturers,
makers of depth – sounding equipment, marine hardware manufacturers, paint
manufacturers, and publishers of nautical charts and books.
Trade Association Advertising
If you work for a manufacturer, the chances are
very good that your company pays annual dues, is devoted to your broad industry
wide interests.
This kind of advertising, which encourages the
consumption or use of cotton, leather, bananas, or mild, is known to marketing
people as ‘primary advertising’. It’s differentiated from ‘selective
advertising’ that promotes a particular brand of cotton, leather, and so on.
National Consumer Advertising
National consumer advertising is the kind that
makes up the bulk of the advertising you read in your magazines and see on TV.
For the most part it is product advertising by the manufacturer, appealing
directly to the person who will make the purchase at the store.
The People Who Make Advertising
It can make us be surprised to know how many
people in our hometown are concerned with the making and running of
advertising.
Not knowing who can do what, and for how much,
can turn out to be expansive. The day may not be far off when you will be given
the responsibility for producing a booklet for your company or getting a 30 –
second television commercial made. It is important to know the services that
are available to you in your area, and to be acquainted with their individual
capabilities.
Marketing Services
The principle of the advertising agency should
and probably will have a good grasp of marketing theory. This person will
undoubtedly have a good knowledge of the marketing situation in the community
and in the region he is working in. He should be able to sit down with the
sales manager and to work out a sensible marketing plan for the product he will
advertise. He should know the demographics of the region, and the tastes and
background of its people.
Copy
The advertising agency should be able to provide
the company with headlines and body text that are attractive, interesting, and
hard selling.
Art
Attractive, clean, well – designed layouts should
be presented to the company for each ad the agency makes.
In addition, the advertising agency should have
the capability of purchasing photographs, drawings, and other art work for the
company.
Media
The company is going to need expert advice on the
amount of advertising the company will run, and where to run it. The
advertising agency should know media (all the vehicles by which advertising is
brought to the consumers); have the means for placing orders for time and
space, and promptly and accurately provide the company with invoices and
records.
Radio – TV
The agency will be able to have prepared and
produced for the company radio and television commercials of competitive
creative ability and quality and in a wide price range.
How Advertising Is Written
The Copywriter
Copywriter is the person who conceives and writes
advertising. The responsibility for writing ads and commercials rests with the
copywriter. But in smaller agencies this task is often performed by someone who
might also be an account executive.
In fact, in times when agency profits are
slimming, even the larger agencies begin to seek out people who can be both
account executives and copywriters.
What Does The Copywriter Do?
The term copywriter is not an exact job
description. It could mean ‘the person who writes the words that go into the ad
or commercial’. But that is not quite it. It’s not as simple as that. The
writer doesn’t just write words. He or she creates selling ideas that are
expressed in words and sounds and pictures.
Fortunately the copywriter doesn’t have to work
alone – at least not in big agencies. Before and after the act of getting
something down on paper, there are account executives, research directors,
marketing directors, and art directors with solace, help, and advice. But, of
course, the greatest deal of the work belongs to the copywriter.
What Is a Copywriter?
Writing advertising copy is hard work. It is hard
work because
1.
it is constantly demanding;
2.
it calls for the command of a variety of
writing styles;
3.
it calls for a peculiar combination of
natural talents and inclination that rarely occurs in one person.
How an Ad Is Written
Before a copywriter gets to the point of actually
putting on paper the words for the ad or commercial, he has gone through
several steps.
1.
He has taken a good look at the market
segment, and knows the kind of people he will be talking to.
2.
He has diligently searched for the Main
Attraction, and has it firmly fixed in mind.
3.
He has also sought out the Subsidiary
Main Attraction – the other advantages that are built into the product.
4.
He has determined the most important
benefits that his product can offer the buyer.
5.
In terms of psychological “needs and
desires”, he has calculated which of these benefits will have the greatest
appeal to the consumer.
6.
He has begun to run over in his mind the
ways in which this appeal may be expressed.
It is their work to sit and think, hoping to
catch that flash of inspiration that will make the reader stay and read.
How
Good Ads Act
It is important to know the way advertising
achieves the five basic steps of getting attention, creating interest,
stimulating desire, imparting conviction, and asking for the order. It’s not
enough that an ad should take the required steps. The real test comes while
realizing how well the steps were done.
Getting Attention
Of course, we have seen and read very many ads,
even if we weren’t interested in them. Every time something makes us to read
these advertisements. So it can be interesting what it might have been.
THE HEADLINES:
1.
The headline talked directly to you.
Chances are, it used the pronouns “you” or “your”. But, it didn’t leave any
doubt that it was talking right at and to you – and not someone down the
street.
2.
The headline said it was going to do
something for you. Or, it was going to show you how you could do something for
yourself. The world is full of people who want to know how to do things – how
to be happier, how to have a clearer complexion, how to be more secure etc.
3.
The headline made you wonder. “What’s it
all about?” Maybe it offered you something brand – new, different, better, or
something you’d never been able to get hands on before. That’s why we will see
headline words such as “At last”, “Now”, “New”, “Announcing”, “Here’s”.
4.
The headline gives you a promise of the
good things to come. For example, it can be a soap, which is kinder to your
skin or a cream, which makes you to get thinner and thinner. The copywriter
probably has some very good and interesting things to say about the product.
Creating Interest
Sometimes people complain about ads and
commercials that bore them stiff. They hate those ads. So the copywriters try
to find ways to make people be interested in the product they are advertising.
It’s one of the most difficult things for copywriters.
Stimulating Desire
A good piece of copy makes you want what it has
to sell. This, as every good salesperson knows, is the heart of the selling
proposition.
It is not enough to offer a furniture polish that
will make tables glow more attractively; the ad must make the buyer see herself
being complimented by her friends. It is not enough to save money or invest it
wisely; ad must make the customer see themselves at the rail of cruise ship,
reaping the benefits of such a saving or investment program.
Time after time, all through the history of
advertising, the most successful ads as measured by their coupon returns have
made the prospect see him.
What It Takes to Be a Copywriter
Writing successful advertising copy is a tough
and demanding job. It takes knowledge of basic selling fundamentals; a polished
writing talent; the opportunity to have learned and absorbed and benefited from
the coaching of the best of the business; and it takes experience.
There are people around, including advertising
people, who feel that writing successful advertising copy is not so very
difficult. But studying the procedure of making ads we will understand that the
copywriter picks up a pencil with the seriousness of taking a scalpel.
Writing a successful ad is much more difficult
than removing an appendix; and it takes at least as much skills, knowledge, and
experience. Fortunately, bungling the copywriting job won’t cost someone’s life
– just a few thousand dollars in lost sales, somebody’s job or business.
Advertising
Design, Art Director and Copywriter
Nothing happens with the piece of copy until
someone breaths life into it. Nothing happens with the radio commercial until
sound technicians and musicians and actors do their work. And the greatest
piece of newspaper or magazine copy is lifeless until someone visualizes its
appearance and arranges its parts in the most effective way possible.
That “someone” is called an art director.
The fact is that no two segments of an
advertising agency have so much in common as art and copy – although this may
come as news to some art directors and writers. The mode of expression is
different (one use a typewriter, the other a drawing pencil), but the goal is
identical. Both are in the business of getting a message across with a fresh
approach.
Making Layout
Art directors recognize a number of different
elements that may play a part in the making of a layout. They are:
·
Headlines
Picture caption
·
Subhead
Trademark
·
Main
illustration
Slogan
·
Subsidiary
illustration Logotype or
signature
·
Body
text
White space
Of course, all these do not occur in every
layout; but it is the art director’s job to arrange the elements so that the
design of the ad is eye – catching and attractive.