Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [16]
Measurable objectives
Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.
Walt Kelly, cartoonist
Measurable objectives enable advertisers to assess the success of a campaign. “Measurable” means that progress should be assessed in quantitative terms that specify the period over which they will be achieved. For example: “This campaign is expected to produce a return of 1.3 times the advertising investment within the year following its launch.”
If the objective is to increase profits, plot profit for the subject of the advertising campaign for as long a historical period as possible. Then forecast profit if the proposed advertising campaign is launched and compare it with the profit if the proposed campaign is not launched.3
Some advertisers seek arrangements whereby their agency shares the gains from a profitable campaign in order to bring the agency’s objectives in line with the advertiser. This was done by Coca-Cola in 2009.4
Product
I use the word “product” in the most general sense here. It applies not only to the features of a good or service, but also to its image, price, method of distribution, support, and guarantees.
The following conditions represent the most important aspects of the product. Understanding them helps in using the advertising principles.
Comparative advantage?
Does the product offer meaningful benefits that competitors’ products do not offer? If yes, advertisers can make strong arguments in their ads.
Advertising is difficult if a product has no advantage. In the 1950s, Rosser Reeves said: “Our problem is that a client comes into my office and throws two newly minted half dollars on my desk, and says ‘Mine is the one on the left. You prove it is better.’” But Reeves would then show them that they had a comparative advantage.
High or low-involvement products
In the early 1900s, experts described “short-circuit” approaches for goods (i.e., when customers do not do much thinking when considering a purchase), and “long-circuit” approaches (i.e., customers think carefully about the purchase). In 1965, Herbert Krugman coined the terms “low involvement” and “high involvement” for these concepts. In a high-involvement situation, people think about an ad’s claims; however, in a low-involvement situation, customers are influenced by seemingly irrelevant considerations because they are paying little attention. These are important concepts for practitioners and researchers.5
People are easily led astray when they are not involved. Consider these questions. You might try your hand at answering them. Are you feeling involved?
1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
2. If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long will it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
When these questions were presented to 3,235 students at universities (e.g., at MIT, Princeton, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon) with no time limit on responding, only 17 percent were able to correctly answer all three, while 32 percent missed all three (Frederick 2005).
If people are involved enough to think carefully about their answers, and to check them, they are quite likely to answer correctly. However, if they are impatient and answer quickly, they are likely to make mistakes. If you answered them quickly, you could see how easy it is to be misled.
Involvement is not the only factor, of course. There are also substantial differences among people. So, for