The Basics of Advertising

The original mad man once said:

'The customer is not a moron. She's your wife. Don't think you can impress her by using some fancy words or jargons. Provide her with all the information you have to help her make an informed judicious decision'

He also said that the only objective of advertising is adding value.

This original mad man of the advertising world is none other than yours truly :)
ok, I'll stop it here before u kick my ass....he's David Ogilvy, The Maestro himself !!!

But more importantly he revealed the secret ingredient in the recipe of advertising....& for all the ardent Kung-fu Panda fans, yes 'There is a secret ingredient'.....

The secret ingredient to value addition in advertising is that:
a) The ad should result in an increase in Sales
b) The ad should help in brand building

My Rumination:

The 1st reason for advertising is pretty straight forward. The 2nd reason although convoluted actually boils down to the 1st reason only. Look at it this way.... if by advertising i'm helping build the brand which means brand image & top of the mind brand recall I'm doin pretty well...right?
Not actually....what is the use of this brand building if I'm not able to drive sales? Sounds strange !!! Think about the many instances when you thought this ad is really kool but how many times did you actually end up buying that product/service? For example, i've always been fascinated by the Mentos ads - the 'dimag ki batti jala de' concept is very catchy but I rarely buy that product. SBI won the best ad award in 05 for its famous 'Chimanlal Charlie' (its a must watch...if you guyz haven't watched catch it on youtube) but will you switch to SBI after watching it....may be not.

So, the point is that though brand building is important, if it does not ultimately lead to sales (esp within the TG (target group)) then there's no use of advertising. Hence all advertising should lead to sales either directly or after brand building.

Marketing managers are increasingly being very demanding of ad men because of this very reason.

Guess, it's time to deliver :-)

Please drop in a comment if you agree with me or think otherwise.