A business can survive only if it makes profits, and to make profits, you need to sell your products and services first. In order to sell, you need someone to buy, and so you try and attract customers. How do you let them know that you have a product to sell? One way is through advertisements, on television and radio programs, on billboards and signboards, on bumper stickers, and in newspapers, journals and magazines. Some ads are subtle while others scream at you to get your attention; some are worded cleverly, while others are content to plainly state the facts; some make you want to buy the product immediately, while others turn you off for some reason or the other.
Love them or hate them, there’s no doubting the fact that ads do work wonders when it comes to selling a product or service. And so we come to the question, why do they work? Well, the answer lies in the word “suggestibility”. We’re all influenced by some thing or some person, and if marketers and promoters are up to scratch in their research, they base their ideas for advertisements on what people think they want.
Some ads are targeted at needs and others at wants. Not many people realize that there’s a vast difference between the two words – a need must be satisfied at all costs while a want can be deferred, almost indefinitely. Most “need” ads are not very aggressive, except when the competition is pretty tough. Then it’s a case of one-upmanship as each brand tries to outdo the other in pushing their product as the one that’s better in every way. “Want” ads on the other hand use human psychology to sell the products they endorse – they target children to sell confectionery, impressionable adolescents to sell fashion labels and accessories, housewives to sell kitchen appliances and so on.
Today though, marketers have to come up with all the innovation and creativity they can summon to stay in business because of the recession in the economy. People have lost a major part of their spending power and are tightening their belts as they prepare to wait it out till the economy starts to look up again. To get them to spend money in such an environment, companies have to reinvent their products, effect price cuts, improve their quality, or leave it to the advertisers to portray their offerings as must-haves.
Advertisements, especially the ones that are on TV and have catchy jingles or colorful displays, work because we’re able to associate them with the product when we see them on the shelves at the shopping malls. It’s a product we know, and so something we can choose over the ones we don’t. And if we like it, we’re likely to stay with it.
The magic words for a product to sell then become – Exposure, Quality, Consistence – customers will buy when they recognize a product, they will stay with it if they think the quality is good, and they will keep coming back for more when the product stays true to its initial quality. Advertisements play a large role in defining the way potential customers view the product; they provide the exposure, and this makes them very important as a selling tool.
This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of business school. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com.
