Effective advertising that wins customers

“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time. Do not do it!”

CREATIVITY without strategy is art. Creativity with strategy is advertising. In business, it is not helpful to be a creative and original thinker unless you can sell what you are promoting.

Advertising should tell and sell a story that resonates with your existing and potential clients.

Unless an advertising campaign contains a big idea, it will pass like a breeze.

Today, the practice of advertising in this largely digital world faces a number of challenges.

Firstly, businesses in Africa and beyond are now concentrating on product discounts and other forms of promotions with the objective of pushing sales volumes at the expense of advertising.

They are selling volumes by product discounting, instead of building strong brands.

Researchers have, however, established that price discounts can entice consumers to try a new product, but in the long term, the customers return to their habitual brands.

The second challenge is that the advent of the digital age has brought with it numerous content creators; in some cases, masters in everything, but with a glaring lack of intellectual, market and business depth.

Whereas a properly structured advertising agency, with its highly diverse skills set, would offer a well-thought-out and effective advertising service to businesses, many start-ups, entrepreneurs and sometimes large companies are now opting for lone creatives, in-house designers and art directors, with a view to paying less and save money.

Furthermore, there is now a large number of solo content creators who have taken advantage of the digital revolution and use WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, Twitter, LinkedIn and others in the name of “digital marketing”.

However, the question is: Can one designer have all the skills, marketing and business development acumen required to formulate an effective advertising campaign? Perhaps not.

The third challenge is that advertising agencies, notably in Africa, are now dominated by creatives who regard advertising as an award-winning art form.

They have never sold anything in their lives and they create advertising content with the objective of winning awards.

This practice poses return-on-investment challenges to business clients who pay thousands of dollars to market and sell products and services.

The fourth challenge is the lack of credible research, hence, without data-based decision-making and creativity, many advertising agencies in Africa still waste their clients’ money repeating product and service advertising mistakes.

Advertising agencies that prioritise research and development, data analytics and artificial intelligence offer much more innovation, creativity and active selling.

To think creatively, we must be able to research and look afresh at what we normally take for granted.

Creativity and innovation in advertising are about finding unexpected solutions to obvious problems, or finding obvious solutions to unexpected problems.

However, it is important to be creative while inventing ideas, but be disciplined while implementing them.

Therefore, for effective advertising that wins customers, successful businesses should choose strategy, marketing and advertising agencies or teams that have diverse skills and business development acumen required to formulate good advertising campaigns.

Effective advertising guidelines

If your commercial does not sell, it is not creative.

Picture it, there isn’t any significant difference among the various brands of milk, ice cream or cheese.

They are almost the same, and so are the beverages and detergents, and many other products or services in African markets.

The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit.

◆ Make it simple, memorable and inviting to view

I will outline four basic steps that can be used to persuade potential customers to make a purchase.

The first three steps lie in creating attention, developing interest and building the desire for the product, before the fourth step — the call to action — telling customers exactly how and where to buy it. ◆ Attract customer attention

Attracting the customer’s attention is the first challenge. This may be achieved by using an eye-catching phrase, offering a promotion or something for free, or demonstrating how a problem can be solved.

◆ Develop interest

Once the client’s attention has been seized, it must be turned into genuine interest. This is best done by providing a brief assessment of the product’s benefits to the consumer, rather than simply listing its main features.

◆ Build desire

Problem-solving claims, results-based advice or testimonials can be used to create desire, before finally laying out a simple way for that desire to be met — the means to buy.

◆ Call to action

In website and social media advertising, this might be a direct link; on TV, print or billboards, it may be a website/email address, store name or phone number. ◆ Commercial potential

In the film, music, television and arts industry in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria, the stages outlined above are used to great effect.

Film and television studios, for example, often begin their marketing campaigns months in advance with giant billboard posters to attract attention to the new production.

Short “teaser” trailers follow, which provoke interest by offering a tantalising glimpse of the production without giving away too much.

Desire is instilled by the release of the full trailer, which is carefully crafted to show the highlights of the production, from big explosions and special effects to witty lines of dialogue.

During the opening weekend, advertisements through influencer profiles and promotions in the digital media, newspapers and on TV spotlight the production’s release, provoking action by inviting the consumer to go and buy a ticket.

Conclusion

Founders, CEOs and career business executives should prioritise growing their business, service and product brands through effective advertising that wins the hearts and minds of customers in both good and bad times.

Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time. Do not do it!