Gary Dahl. Advertising for Dummies

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

Conventions Used in This Book

When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break

across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that I haven’t put in

any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using

one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book,

pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist.

What You’re Not to Read

You don’t have to read any text preceded by a Technical Stuff icon in order to

understand the chapter subject (though I urge you to read it if you’re feeling

the need for some surplus advertising brainpower). Some information also

appears in gray boxes known as sidebars. These sidebars are asides and not

critical to the text, so you don’t have to read them — though you may miss

out on some interesting information or anecdote if you skip them entirely!

Foolish Assumptions

This book is not for the CEO of a major corporation with virtually unlimited

funds for slick, glossy production, and mind-boggling amounts of cash for

media buys. Instead, this book is for entrepreneurs, owners of small to mid-

size businesses, and professionals selling important services — in other

words, anyone who’s trying to drum up business and create a successful

company with the help of advertising. This book is for the rest of us — the

people for whom an advertising budget represents an important percentage

of gross income and, therefore, a drain on the old take-home pay that must

be considered very seriously.

Over the years, I have helped numerous clients project clear, concise, cre-

ative messages within limited budget parameters. I used to dream of bound-

less production budgets with which to produce award-winning ads for both

print and broadcast. I always wondered what it would be like to take a com-

plete crew — cameramen, sound and lighting technicians, stunt drivers, fash-

ion models, actors, makeup people, hairstylists, even caterers — to some

exotic locale where I would have a one-month deadline within which to shoot

a 30-second, $2 million spot. It never happened. My guess is that less than

1 percent of all professional advertising people actually work on the major

national accounts, creating the ads you see each night during prime time —

the ads produced with unrestricted budgets, which, sadly, still seem to miss

Advertising For Dummies, 2nd Edition

03_045833 intro.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 2

the mark more often than not. The other 99 percent of advertising profession-

als are guys like me.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into five easily digestible parts, and each part is divided

into chapters. Here’s the scoop on what each part covers:

Part I: Advertising 101

From the moment you get out of bed in the morning, to late at night when you

turn off the television and turn out the lights, you’re bombarded with thou-

sands of advertising messages. Advertising is here, there, everywhere. And

into this clutter you now insert your own advertising. What you discover in

this part are the fundamentals of effective advertising. I also help you identify

your target market, set your sales goals, narrow your focus, and develop an

advertising plan that works. I delve into the complicated world of co-op adver-

tising reimbursement, in which your ad dollars are augmented by others.

I think you may be pleasantly surprised at the quality of media you can

afford, even on the smallest budgets. Mass media may, at first glance, appear

to be unaffordable. But regardless of the expense, when you consider how

many people you can reach with mass media, it’s the smartest way you can

spend your money. What you can’t afford to do is fritter away a limited ad

budget on questionable media that’s better suited to wrapping fish than it is

to attracting new customers to your business. So in this part, I help you plan

an advertising strategy that actually brings customers through your door.

Part II: Creating Great Ads

for Every Medium

This part of the book is the longest, because the depth of your media choices

is simply mind-boggling (and new forms of media, both good and bad, are

introduced nearly every day). In this part, I stick to the mass media choices

of online ads and your own Web site, as well as newspaper, magazine, radio,

television, collateral, and outdoor advertising. I walk you through the steps of

writing broadcast and print ads that motivate and sell. I show you what goes

into producing radio and TV commercials, as well as print ads and brochures,

Introduction

03_045833 intro.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 3

and I queue you in on what you need to know to build a Web site and adver-

tise on the Internet. I also show you why continuity, delivering the same mes-

sage across all media, is the all-important key to a successful ad campaign.

Part III: Buying the Different Media

This part gets down to the nitty-gritty — the actual spending of your hard-

earned advertising budget. Here I take a hard look at investing in Internet

advertising, negotiating with print media to get the best possible page posi-

tion at the lowest possible price, and why buying television time isn’t nearly

as complicated as putting a man on the moon.

Here’s the best part of these chapters: I give you the inside scoop on getting

all kinds of free stuff (even vacations) as part of your media expenditures.

The chapters in this part give you the information you need in order to maxi-

mize your ad budget by spending it wisely. Finally, if you’ve considered hiring

an ad agency, this part is where I tell you who the players are and the pros

and cons of going this route.

Part IV: Beyond the Basics: Creating

Buzz and Using Publicity

In this part, I show you how to generate word-of-mouth and buzz about your

products or services. And I explain the difference between publicity and

public relations, help you write a good press release, and show you how to

get it published (hey, it’s free advertising). Finally, I walk you through the

unique nature of advertising specialties and premiums while showing you

how to increase their effectiveness, and I reveal how to become involved in

sponsored promotions and events. I even demonstrate how to invent suc-

cessful promotions of your own.

Part V: The Part of Tens

What, you may be asking, is a Part of Tens? It’s the part of every For Dummies

book that cuts right to the chase. If you don’t have time to read anything else

in this book, read these short lists of do’s and don’ts. In these lists of ten,

I instruct you on writing effective, creative, clear copy for all media and help

you decide whether or not your business could use the services of an adver-

tising agency. (If you’re too busy to even read that chapter, hire an agency

right away.)

Advertising For Dummies, 2nd Edition

03_045833 intro.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 4

Icons Used in This Book

Icons are those little pictures you find in the margins of this book. I use them

to grab your attention and steer you toward key bits of information. Here’s a

list of the icons I use in this book and what they mean:

Some of the points I make in this book are so important that you want to

commit them to memory. If you file these tidbits in your memory bank, you

will have gathered some very important details about the advertising

business.

This icon marks insider tips I’ve gathered over the years. They can help you

avoid some of the mistakes I’ve figured out the hard way and give you a leg

up as you navigate the various elements leading to effective advertising.

As I lead you through the hidden back streets of advertising, I don’t want you

to stumble and fall. So I’ve marked some of the larger potholes and cracks in

the sidewalk with this Warning icon.

Whenever I wax nostalgic and feel the need to share stories of my past expe-

riences or interesting examples from others in the ad biz, you see this icon.

The advertising trade brings with it a ton of technical stuff, and I’ve marked

these areas with this icon. The good news is that you can safely skip over any

paragraph marked with this icon. But if you read it, you may discover infor-

mation that you can use to wow (if not confuse and dismay) the sales reps

and other ad people you deal with, not to mention your neighbors down the

street.

Where to Go from Here

You’re holding this book because you felt a need to discover the ins and outs

of the ad game. Think of this as a traveler’s guide that contains the charts

and maps you need in order to find your way through the weird and wonder-

ful world of advertising. You can begin your journey in the beginning, or you

can dive right into the middle — whichever works best for you.

Introduction

03_045833 intro.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 5

Advertising For Dummies, 2nd Edition

03_045833 intro.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 6

Part I

Advertising 101

04_045833 pt01.qxp 11/22/06 3:40 PM Page 7

In this part . . .

dvertising: It’s here, it’s there, it’s everywhere!

Everyone is assailed with advertising messages every

waking moment. The obvious media –– television, radio,

newspapers, magazines, billboards, and direct mail –– are

just the tip of the advertising iceberg. Your cereal boxes,

milk cartons, clothing, bedding, fashion accessories, and

even your automobiles are covered in advertising. Into

this cauldron of advertising vehicles has been thrown

the Internet, grocery carts, the reverse side of cash

public restrooms –– and all of this hype contributes to

advertising clutter.

If you want to advertise your business (and you most

certainly should), you have to enter this world, jumping

in with both feet. Daunting? You bet. Impossible? No way.

In this part, I share the fundamentals of advertising, help

you develop (and stick to!) a budget for your advertising

needs, and show you how to boost that budget by part-

nering with others via co-op advertising. I also offer guide-

lines on defining and positioning your message and aid

you in developing an ad campaign that can be effective

for your business.

04_045833 pt01.qxp 11/22/06 3:40 PM Page 8

Chapter 1

Advertising: Mastering

the Art of Promotion

In This Chapter

 Being aware of the advertising around you (as if you could avoid it)

 Putting the fundamentals of good advertising to work for you

 Taking a few lessons from the pros

dvertising is a $300 billion industry in the United States alone. Plunkett

Research, Ltd. (the company that provided this figure) points out that

the large numbers don’t stop there. In the United States, advertisers flood the

following mediums in droves:

 1,749 broadcast TV stations (and that’s not including cable and satellite

TV outlets)

 13,599 radio stations

 2,250 daily and Sunday newspapers

And those figures don’t even take into consideration the thousands of maga-

zines, direct mail, Web sites, blogs, outdoor advertising (billboards, bus shel-

ters, and so on), or specialty or alternative advertising, which includes

everything from airplane banners at the beach to tchotchkes, small items like

tote bags, pens, and t-shirts that merchants and businesses give away to

remind consumers to do business with them.

With all these choices of how to get your message out there, how do you

decide what’s the best medium to reach the customers you’re looking for?

And how can you develop an ad campaign that won’t get lost in the morass?

You don’t have to hire an ad agency (though you can: Chapter 16 offers guid-

ance on how best to do this, and Chapter 20 gives you ten ways to know

whether you need outside help). But you can also do it yourself, and this

book tells how.

05_045833 ch01.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 9

In this chapter, I fill you in on the basics of advertising — what’s effective and

what isn’t. Then I give you a short course on all your advertising options —

radio, TV (network and cable), magazines and newspapers, direct mail, out-

door, the Web, and more — and I show how you can put them to work for

you. Finally, I end with stories about two legends of advertising as well as

brief introductions of more recent ad giants, because if you focus on the

best and figure out what they’ve done well, you can try to incorporate some

of their genius into your own advertising — and come out ahead of the

competition.

Making Advertising Work

Effective advertising sells a product or a service that fulfills all the promises

made about it. On the other hand, effective advertising also sells inferior

products or services, but only once!

So what makes advertising effective? Effective advertising is:

 Creative: It delivers the advertising message in a fresh, new way.

 Hard-hitting: Its headline, copy, or graphic element stops readers or lis-

teners dead in their tracks.

 Memorable: It ensures that the audience will remember your business

when they think about the products and services you’re selling.

 Clear: It presents its message in a concise, uncomplicated, easy-to-grasp

manner.

 Informative: It enlightens the audience about your business and prod-

ucts, while giving them important reasons to buy from you.

 Distinctive: It is unique and immediately recognizable as yours.

The well-established brands that most people use every day — brands like

Coca-Cola and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Burger King, Budweiser and Miller,

Bayer and Advil, Ford and Chevy, Tide and Cheer — live up to the promises

made in their advertising. In fact, the products live up to the promise in such

a dramatic fashion that those products have become a part of the everyday

lives of millions of people. These products have been branded, which simply

means that when you think of soft drinks, fast food, beer, pain relievers, cars,

or laundry detergents, these brands come to mind. As surely as the cowboys

of the Old West branded the haunches of their cattle, these products have

been branded into your psyche — and the psyches of millions of other

consumers.

Part I: Advertising 101

05_045833 ch01.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 10

When you begin to create advertising for your product or service, keep these

suggestions in mind:

 Don’t make promises you can’t live up to. Although your ad may draw

more people to your product initially, you can’t retain these people as

loyal customers in the long run if you make promises you can’t keep.

 Identify the best features of whatever it is you’re selling and develop

your advertising around these features. Think about how your product

stands out from the competition, what sets it apart, and then focus on

those attributes.

 Try to create a memorable advertising message for your product. You

want people to think of your store, your product, or your professional

service whenever they’re in the market for such a thing.

If your message is creative, clear, and concise, if your product or service is

something that can truly benefit people and live up to its hype, then you’re

on the road to producing effective advertising.

If your advertising makes bold promises about your product, you may con-

vince a lot of people to try it. But if those people buy your product and give it

a try, and the product turns out to be less than you advertised it to be, you

will most certainly never see those consumers again. Think about it: How

many times have you responded to an advertising message for a new,

improved, astounding product, only to be disappointed with the item after

you tried it? You probably even felt like you’d been ripped off. If your adver-

tising message leaves consumers with the same feeling, you simply won’t get

anywhere.

Getting to Know Your Media Options

Advertising comes in all shapes and sizes. And a big part of developing your

ad plans and campaign is to decide which mediums are best suited to adver-

tising your particular business. Following is a brief overview of your options,

with details from Plunkett Research, Ltd. to give you a ballpark idea on how

many billions of dollars are spent annually in each medium in the United

States.

Regarding radio

Radio advertising is a $20 billion business — and it has expanded both

because listeners can now tune in on the Internet and because of the devel-

opment of satellite radio (Sirius and XM subscriber-based programming). But

Chapter 1: Advertising: Mastering the Art of Promotion

05_045833 ch01.qxp 11/22/06 3:39 PM Page 11