Advertisements

Nobody knows who made the first advertisement. Perhaps it was a potter, thousands of years ago, who identified his pots with a distinguishing trademark.

Today advertising is a phenomenon of tremendous magnitude. Creating effective advertising is a long process in which many experts participate. The first step is getting needed facts through research. Marketing research seeks specific facts about potential consumers and about appropriateness of the possible advertising mediums (newspapers, magazines, radio, television, etc.). Some of the questions to be answered are: Who uses this product and why? How does the product come to the attention of the consumer and how does it get into his hands? What factors, positive and negative, determine a person’s choice? Although no one will ever have all the answers in final form, marketing research helps advertisers to gear their advertisements to the potential consumer.

Psychological research is concerned with the general and specific human reactions to varied kinds of display and copy. It has given advertising experts such findings as these: size increases attention approximately by the square root of the space used (for example, if the attention value of a full page is 100 percent, that of a half page is about 71 percent and of a quarter page about 50 percent). Position is important: the first and last pages of periodicals get most attention, right-hand pages are preferable to left-hand; if less than one page is used, the outer column captures more attention than the inner (interior) and the top more than the bottom. Contrast, unexpectedness, and difference endless are almost always worth while for a time, at least, but they may not be held up under repetition. Colour catches the eye, and this is a very fundamental point. It should centre the readers thoughts and feelings on the product, service, or idea for which the advertisement was created. It fails if it merely attracts attention to itself.

The second step is planning the advertisement, whether a single one or an entire advertising campaign. A theme or an idea, in both text and illustration, is developed from the research results and out of the advertising experts' imagination and ingenuity. Anything that is external or inapplicable, or that divert interest from the basic idea weakens an advertisement just as it would weaken a painting, statue, or building. It is somewhat easier, though, to weed out the unnecessary in advertising than in most other art expressions because the aim is single and simple to sell. To succeed it must capture attention, arouse and hold interest, make a lasting impression and lead to the action deemed desirable by the man.

The final step is checking the effectiveness of the advertising, which amounts to a type of marketing and psychological research.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16