Sanket on Advertising

Ogilvy on Advertising marked my initiation into the world of media and copyright. Admittedly, I hold strong opinions, particularly towards marketing and advertising—my mind repulses them, almost like an allergic reaction. I perceive advertising as a bag of clever tricks, attempting to influence consumer behavior by targeting emotion, instinct and subconscious to bait into consumption. A poison.

Enter Ogilvy’s book, elegantly altering my viewpoint. It presents a nuanced perspective on advertising, not focused on manipulation, but rather on genuine education about the product in a rather creative wrapper. The book features a plethora of visuals showcasing ads crafted by Ogilvy’s agency—renowned for their excellence. Noteworthy is their appeal, not rooted in trickery, but in being engaging, interesting, and a pleasure to read. Ogilvy shares insights in the book, unraveling the elements that make these ads exceptional.

Now, I find myself more attuned to the advertisements in my surroundings. I tend to evaluate them based on their creativity and effectiveness, referencing principles gleaned from this book. While skepticism towards deceptive marketing practices persists, I’ve developed a newfound appreciation for the ingenuity and creativity that underlie ads capable of capturing my attention and those that make me go “nice..”

Ogilvy on Advertising

  • Always provide your customer with one important benefit - your pitch. If it turns out to be very successful and well understood, expand to two important benefits through separate ads.
  • Do the research on the product
    • More if it's more complex
    • More if it's misunderstood
  • What kind of advertising are competitors doing? To what degree of success?
  • Consumer research (More on this later)
    • Their preferences, what do they think about your kind of product - think category level, not SKU level
    • What language do they use when they think about your product? Positive, negative, words luxury or scum?
    • What are the most important attributes of the product they care about?
    • What promise would be most likely to make them buy your brand/product?
  • Positioning
    • Means many things, but simply - what the product does, and who is it for?
    • Example - can position the Dove bar as a soap for men with dirty hands OR a toilet bar for women with dry skin (latter was the choice, incredibly popular and dominant positioning - all subsequent ads were adapted with this position)
  • Personality - products, like people, have a personality.
    • Personality is an amalgamation of name, packaging, price, style of advertising and above all - the nature of the product itself.
    • Often, it's not the specific product people choose, it's the image they choose for themselves. Products in the same category are often fungible with no real differentiation. It's the brand and associated image.
  • Need a big idea - a big idea if
    • Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?
    • Is it unique?
    • Does it fit the strategy to perfection?
    • Could it be used for 30 years?
  • Make the product the hero
    • When the product is the same as others - you can only hope to explain the virtues more persuasively than your competitors. And differentiate with your style of advertising.
    • If a customer is choosing between yours and another product, the most powerful factor that will tip the scale is certainty. Not necessarily superiority.
      • Don't imply your product is better, just say what is good about your product - and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it.
      • If the customer feels uncertain about one product, but positively good about another, they will choose the one without the uncertainty.
  • Focus on a moment of confirmation - when the lead in the ad pauses for a second and visibly thinks "hmm, this is better/works/quality" etc. In the tide commercial, the lady looks at the tide shirt, compares with neighbors shirt and is visibly satisfied with the product - that is a moment of confirmation.
  • If a product is useful in a bathroom, show it in a bathroom. If useful somewhere else - show it there, not in a lab (exceptions like Dyson where the selling point is technical superiority - hence the lab).
  • In everything you do, keep your eyes glued to the heavy users. They are unlike occasional users in their motivations.
  • When your product is unique/new/Too new- it helps if the point of differentiation goes hand-in-hand with something familiar (light beer, diet cola, paper towel, disposable diapers)
  • People who merely know a company well are 5x likely to have a favorable opinion of it. Just spread that awareness. It can impact morale of employees and make it easier to hire new employees.
  • Sales are a function of product value and advertising. Promotions cannot produce more than a temporary kink in the sales price.
  • In recessions, companies that don’t cut back ad spending report higher profits than those to cut back ad spend. Share of market also goes up in bad times when ads and marketing are included in the budget. Ads should be considered a production cost, not an opex.
    • Some might even go to the extreme and say save money on ads during boom times and instead spend during recessions.
  • With most things, consumers have top 3 - 4 brands of each product that they can buy - soap, detergent, coffee etc. They switch between those based on time of the year, income fluctuations etc. When you launch a new product, it HAS to be promoted among those top 3 or 4 brands in the first year of launch. If it doesn’t get there, its dead. With post-sale advertising, you are promoting that brand to the top three, and then slowly getting customers to buy more of your product than the other two. This is difficult because consumers mostly ignore advertising for brands they are not already using.
  • Figure out how to measure the impact of your ads.

Why Research is Essential

  • It can measure the reputation of your company among consumers, security analysts, government officials, newspaper editors and other influential people
  • It can estimate the sale of new products and expenses required for subsequent ads and the optimization algorism for sales per ad $ spent
  • Research - through pre-testing, can inform if a product is likely to take off among the targeted consumers - if not, bite the sunk cost.
  • Once a product is ready for market, research can show how people are ranking it compared to what they already use. If it is perceived as inferior, go back to R&D before it dies at delivery.
  • Research can tell you what attributes (colour, fragrance, formulation and flavour of the product + packaging etc.) will appeal the most to your consumers.
  • Research can identify who your target audience should be - divide into gender, geography, age, economic status etc.
  • It can tell you what are the most important attributes consumers think are relevant to this product - informs what words you use to communicate, where you focus at ad content and shape brand preference
  • Research can determine what that persuasive and unique Promise should be, what will convert the most consumers - a large, bold promise is the soul of any advertisement. Sometimes that promise is already being used in the market (great way to eliminate the research component).
    • Coffee that 'makes a perfect cup every time' is persuasive but not unique.
    • One way to do this - show the consumer a number of promises, telling them that each promise if for a different product. The consumer is asked to rate the promises for importance and uniqueness.
    • Split runs - Write two ads for your product each with a different promise in the headline. At the end of the copy, offer a free sample of the product - the ad which comes back to you with the most applications for the sample wins.
  • When you say something - make sure you have said it; the chances of you saying what you are saying are only average. Research makes sure what you are saying (and what you want to say) is what the public is hearing.
  • Research can tell you how many people read your ads (or watch them) and how many actually remember them
  • Research CANNOT answer:
    • Which campaign will make the biggest contribution to your brand over period of years? Need judgement
    • What price should you charge for your product? This is not an answer you get through ads