I was recently speaking to someone who insisted that “advertising was pointless” and offered Coca-Cola as an example. Her opinion was that it was ignorant for them so waste so much money when everyone already knows what they offer.
At first glance, maybe it seems logical. But when you look at why the situation is what it is, it all becomes a lot clearer. Everyone knows about Coca-Cola products because of the billions upon billions of dollars that they have wisely invested in their advertising over the last one-hundred and twenty-one years. To get even more granular, their investment was never to simply let people know that they existed. It was to create an emotional bond. Think about your own memories of their (or competing) products. They may involve trips to the beach or picnics with your family as a child, or perhaps your first trip to a baseball game. It’s these memories that made their advertising successful. If they had just came out and said “here’s who we are and here’s what we do,” the message would have quickly faded into obscurity and a different soft-drink company would be a household name instead.
Think about this when you’re advertising your own company. Your goal should never be to simply let people know that you exist, that’s what a press release is for. Instead, it should be to develop a strong emotional bond with your prospects. The big picture is what your company does and the benefits your products or services provide. The little picture is the emotional bond that your consumers have with your company, but this is the most important aspect of your advertising. Of course, it should also contain all the basics of any successful advertising campaign: a clear explanation of the benefits, a powerful call to action and of course, contact information.
