What some people forget in Advertising

This is something even Jim Straw has seem to forgotten. When You advertise your customer may have to see you ad more than 3 times more like 12 times according to some of the great guru's of the past. And they knew better than the current Guru's.

I know I personally have to see an ad many times before I buy. Although at times I have impulse buying too. But in expense ones I think for a long time.

Joe,

I really doubt that Jim Straw has "forgotten" anything about how advertising works. He's been doing this far longer than you and I put together, and I've got 30+ years in it!

In the "real" world, the number is more like 7 times to get the sale if you're talking print advertising.

Pete

Originally Posted by Pete Egeler

Joe,

I really doubt that Jim Straw has "forgotten" anything about how advertising works. He's been doing this far longer than you and I put together, and I've got 30+ years in it!

In the "real" world, the number is more like 7 times to get the sale if you're talking print advertising.

Pete

Which is why I believe in and sell promotional advertising. When a client drinks from my customers auto mug, and refers to his calendar every workday, he won't be likely to forget my client.

Dennis

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Which is why I believe in and sell promotional advertising. When a client drinks from my customers auto mug, and refers to his calendar every workday, he won't be likely to forget my client.

Dennis

I posted before registering on the new board.

Dennis

Your right about the the mugs and calendars. Not a bad idea. I still think it is about 12 times, and that is according to some of the great guru of the past. That is all on things. Print, classifieds, and other media. People do not have a large span for ads, that is way you need about 12 or even more. Look at Radio and TV ads, You see the same ones every day again and again.

Just 3 might work on occasion but that does not mean 12 is not best. You have test and test and test and see what works for you. I have had display ads work great for free stuff. But paying is something else. The display ads for free work in day one. But that shows nothing. Even a newspaper editorial by me worked the first day with the phone off the hook. That was again FREE. Did not have anything to follow through at that time. Kept the names and numbers thought. That was for bars. Bars are always looking to make more money. Some don't make much at all.

[Ankesh]

Nope - you don't need a repitition of 12 times... if you blow them over in your first attempt.

Here's a formula:

Power of an ad = Impact * Frequency

The stronger impact your ad makes, the fewer times you have to repeat it (frequency).

What does that mean? It means that you can save mucho money by reducing the frequency of your ads if you spend more time in making your ads and sales pieces more impactful.

yes, Your right in one sense but that is very hard to do. Give me some samples of doing that my friend. I told you free can do it, but the follow up for money is hard.

Here is the piece I read so long ago about ads. It is from the 1800's
need for repetition when advertisting. This was written in 1885 by Thomas Smith: That is not 12 but 20 times seeing an ad. How true it is only testing for each product or service you have can tell.

1. The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
2. The second time, he does not notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
5. The fifth time, he reads it.
6. The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads it through and says, "Oh brother!"
8. The eighth time, he says, "Here's that confounded thing again!"
9. The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.

Greetings Joe,

It's amazing how advertising was conducted back in the pre-radio, tv, and internet days. I believe that back then 20 times was probably considered conservative advertising.

It's been my experience, that 3-7 times, get's the client looking your way and you make the conversion, the first time. It's the 8, 9, 10, & etc.... times, that has them coming back over and over.

Retaining a customer, is a never ending process of advertising, over and over and over again. Look at your retail establishments. Month after month, it's this coupon sale, and that % off sale. Only to be started all over again the next month with different coupon sales and "X" amount off bargins.

Thanks for the history lesson.

Woody Quiñones
ImpactYourArea.com