Let us create a 3D eBook for you!
Let us create a 3d Digital eBook for you! DigyCat.com

 

A Lesson In Advertising From The Eighteenth Century


Back in the 1760s, the great Dr Samuel Johnson delivered himself of the dictum that 'promise, large promise is the soul of advertising'. It's a good thought, a great thought; and I contend that what was true then is equally true today. But it seems to me that modern advertisers are tying themselves into unnecessary knots in an attempt to reach audiences which they believe are becoming increasingly indifferent to their blandishments.

Well, yes, markets are turning deaf ears and blind eyes, but they always have done, though not for the reasons generally espoused by the world's marketers. I am convinced that despite all the sophisticated research and marketing effort that goes into advertising these days, the real reason that markets are indifferent to advertising is because much of it ignores the many splendoured principle that people don't buy products, they buy the benefits of owning those products.

Today, the great proportion of advertisers don't deliver sales messages, they tell what they hope are emotive stories with which the market can empathise, then they drop the product in as an afterthought, hoping that enough emotional cross-communication has been achieved for people to reach for their credit cards. That it doesn't and people won't has resulted in huge advertising budget cut-backs in the developed world in recent years. Only a manufacturer who has taken leave of his senses will throw even more money at a strategy that doesn't work.

The strategy responsible operates under the title Emotional Sales Proposition (ESP), thought in some quarters to be an advance on the Unique Sales Proposition (USP) which, on the contrary, does actually work. What has been overlooked or, more likely, ignored, is that in developing the principle of the USP in the late 1950s, the brilliant Rosser Reeves was striving to replace an advertising strategy that had been in situ for 30 or so years and was fast running out of steam. What was the device he was hoping to supersede? Well, by any other name, it was the emotional sales proposition. I won't bore you with the detail, but if you'd like to find out more, you should lay your hands on Reeves' book, Reality in Advertising (MacGibbon & Kee - 1961). It could be an eye-opener.

So, it's true - the one thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history. Let's go back to Dr Johnson. It's worth remembering that the kind of advertising old Sam was talking about in the 18th century was fairly innocuous and largely unexceptionable. It could be read in coffee- house flyers, in chapbooks and in rudimentary newspapers; and it consisted of sales messages as diverse as where to get your wig powdered and the date of the next public hanging at Tyburn. Even so, the products and services on offer were as important to the people of the time as mobile phones and computers are to us.

In the human condition, nothing much changes. Our egos still need to be massaged and we are all in hot pursuit of happiness. Only our methods for achieving these goals, only our technologies, vary with time.

So the next time you are tempted to commit advertising, think about Sam Johnson and give your market a reason for owning your product. A good reason.

About The Author

Patrick Quinn is an award winning copywriter with 40 years' experience of the advertising business in London, Miami, Dublin and Edinburgh. He publishes a FREE monthly newsletter, AdBriefing. Subscriptions are available at: http://www.adbriefing.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Advertising- Marketing - Google News

Get Noticed Get Found Releases Internet Marketing Book For Small And Solo Law ... - TopWireNews (press release)


Get Noticed Get Found Releases Internet Marketing Book For Small And Solo Law ...
TopWireNews (press release)
“There is so much misinformation out there, our book cuts through the clutter and offers straightforward tips for attorneys who want to better use the Internet as a marketing and sales tool.” According to Get Noticed Get Found, there are more than ...

and more »

“Ann Wood Partners with Internet Marketing Experts Aaron and Sophia Rashkin” - PR Web (press release)


“Ann Wood Partners with Internet Marketing Experts Aaron and Sophia Rashkin”
PR Web (press release)
Ann Wood, marketing consultant, recently teamed up with Aaron and Sophia Rashkin who are well known in internet marketing circles as top producers. This partnership will successfully leverage each of their businesses. After investing tremendous time, ...

Internet marketing class offered - The Union of Grass Valley


Internet marketing class offered
The Union of Grass Valley
An Internet marketing class for beginners on Wednesday will teach you these tools, including how to pick the right keywords for your business and market locally. In the intermediate internet marketing class on Feb. 22, you will learn how to set up an ...

Protect Our Data! A Digital Consumer Bill of Rights - PCWorld


Protect Our Data! A Digital Consumer Bill of Rights
PCWorld
A social network or other Internet company should be required to inform me if it intends to collect, store, and aggregate my data with that of other Netizens to support the company's advertising efforts on or off its network, or for the benefit of ...

and more »

Old Milwaukee's End Run Around Super Bowl Advertising - BusinessWeek


BusinessWeek

Old Milwaukee's End Run Around Super Bowl Advertising
BusinessWeek
The ad has since been viewed 760000 times. By comparison, Budweiser's slickly produced Eternal Optimism Super Bowl spot has been viewed on YouTube some 320000 times. All this means that Old Milwaukee managed to piggyback on the wave of Internet ...

and more »

An Animated Ad With a Plot Line and a Moral - New York Times


New York Times

An Animated Ad With a Plot Line and a Moral
New York Times
Chipotle said that Zeta Interactive, a digital agency that tracks the impact of commercials, rated “Back to the Start” one of the top 10 advertisements in Internet buzz in 2011. It was one of only two ads on the list that did not make its debut during ...

and more »

Internet Patents Corporation Announces Ex-Dividend Date of March 12, 2012 for ... - Marketwire (press release)


Internet Patents Corporation Announces Ex-Dividend Date of March 12, 2012 for ...
Marketwire (press release)
The special distribution follows the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of InsWeb Corporation relating to its insurance lead generation and marketing business by Bankrate, Inc., via a transaction that closed on December 21, 2011.

and more »

Google's Foray Into Hardware Will Be A Total Disaster - Here's Why (GOOG) - San Francisco Chronicle


Google's Foray Into Hardware Will Be A Total Disaster - Here's Why (GOOG)
San Francisco Chronicle
Google is really good at building fast, useful, responsive software that runs at Internet scale, and at hooking up the users of that software with advertisers to make gobs of money. That's a great business. Google utterly dominates it.

and more »

Top Email Marketing Firms 2012 - International Business Times


International Business Times

Top Email Marketing Firms 2012
International Business Times
By Surojit Chatterjee: Subscribe to Surojit Chatterjee's RSS feed Email marketing is one of the oldest tools of Internet marketing and one of the most economically viable methods of increasing sales conversion. However, over the years, ...

and more »

Internet Broadcasting and Exact Drive to Provide Comprehensive Digital ... - Sacramento Bee


Internet Broadcasting and Exact Drive to Provide Comprehensive Digital ...
Sacramento Bee
By Internet Broadcasting WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Internet Broadcasting and Exact Drive announced today an agreement to provide political and issue advocacy campaign advertisers with digital advertising offerings that will combine ...

and more »

Click here for Best Buy In-Store Pickup

StreetSideAuto.com

Looking For Royalty Free Photos for your Website, Business or Advertising?

My Life Through The Lens

YourFree.biz Domain Is For Sale - $5,000 For Enquiries eMail Us

© www.YourFree.biz 2009

home | site map | links

 

eXTReMe Tracker