Author: blogger

Breaking News Advertising is Dead!

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Don’t agree?

Please ask your wife, husband or significant other-in other words, the nearest typical consumer-to answer the following 7 questions:

1.Does viewing pop-up ads on your computer curl your toes in orgasmic delight? Yes or No?
2.Does a mailbox filled with junk mail cause your palms to itch and sweat with nervous anticipation? Yes or No?
3.Do you suffer from outbursts of violent anger when a TV commercial is interrupted by a TV movie? Yes or No?
4.Do you prance around the parking lot with ecstatic abandon whenever you find a flyer on your car’s windshield? Yes or No?
5.Does keeping a phone next to your soup spoon on your dinner table (for fear of missing the next telemarketer’s call) help your digestion? Yes or No?
6.Do you drink pots of black coffee at 10 pm so you can stay awake to watch 30-minute infomercials at 4 am? Yes or No?
7.Do you drool at the thought of spending $300 on an iPhone just so you can see interactive ads on its big, cool screen? Yes or No?

Have I made my point? Yes or No?

Advertising is dead. If you’re a marketer… save your money.

Consumers have been over-advertised to and over-sold.

Unless you’re conducting a white sale, fire sale or going out of business sale-and halving or quartering your prices-advertising won’t get you a bang, a whimper or a nickel for your buck. Not anymore.

The only ads that still earn their keep are those in newspapers and on supermarket windows that read:

Big SALE Buy 1 Can of Campbell Soup for 89 Cents and Get a 2nd Can-FREE! Supplies limited! (or something like that)

Beyond that, the first reaction most consumers have when viewing any other type ad is not to believe anything it says.

And if they have no need, desire or knowledge of you, your product or your service, their second reaction is to play basketball. Their arm and hand muscles reflexively contract, causing them to roll up your ad into a tight little ball and shoot for the nearest basket.

Beware the Consumer’s Anti-Ad Third Eye

Because the consumer has become so desensitized to advertisements in general, if you don’t shove your ad, sales letter or flyer directly and firmly into their hands-they won’t even notice it.

It’s as if they’ve developed an anti-ad third eye that instinctively alerts them to an ad’s presence and then immediately shoot’s a signal to the brain-instructing their other two eyes not to see it.

For example…

How often, when surfing the web, have you run across a web page with a bright red, 40-word, one-sentence headline, ending with an exclamation mark or two or three?

Unless you’re searching for that particular web page, the average information-seeking web-surfer will immediately recognize that site as an ad, and click away-without even reading two words of it.

The same thing happens when reading the newspaper, or driving past a billboard on the highway…consumers simply refuse to look at the ads.

So What’s a Marketer to Do?

Advertorialize!

Huh? I’ll explain…

The success of the internet has proven one thing above all else. Human beings, which includes consumers, are addicted to information.

Google, the internet version of a library card catalog, exists, thrives, dominates and will eventually own the world, because consumers are in a constant, never-ending search for more and more information.

And why do consumers want ever more information that will convince, compel and persuade them to a certain point of view?

So they can make the most efficient, prudent and intelligent choice about whatever it is they want to own, possess, consume or BUY.

Yes, BUY.

Though consumers hate to be sold; they still love, nevertheless, to BUY.

And their decision to buy is most effectively influenced when they are provided with information that supports, confirms and increases their already resident desire to BUY!

Enter the Advertorial

The advertorial is an ad disguised as an editorial. A cunning wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s roughly 80% useful, compelling and persuasive information and 20% sales pitch.

It will never mention the name of the product, its features or benefits in the headline. Because that would be too obvious-it would scream ad and will immediately activate the consumer’s anti-ad third eye.

Instead, in a newspaper, in a direct mail promotion, or on the internet the advertorial will attract attention and readership by merely dangling the tantalizing promise of free actionable and profitable information… if the reader will only continue to read on.

An advertorial headline won’t scream: LOSE 10LBS OF FAT IN 10 DAYS OR YOUR MONEY BACK!!

Instead, the advertorial headline will read: John Hopkins Research PhD discovers active ingredient in ice cream that causes rapid weight loss.

Then the advertorial will proceed to show and prove, in pseudo-journalistic fashion, the What, Why, Who, Where and When of how the product or service does precisely what the consumer wants and needs.

The advertorial delivers valuable, documented information that relentlessly leads the reader to the inevitable conclusion that the solution to their problem or need is… whatever it is you’re selling.

It doesn’t look, taste or smell like an ad, and the consumer’s anti-ad third eye will never see it coming.

Try it… you’ll like it.

Courses And Career In Advertising

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Advertising as a career field is very popular in India and even across the globe. It is one field that encompasses skill, creativity, recognition, money, rewards in ways not many career fields can boast of. Also, it is not a restrictive field in a way that students from across streams can aspire to enter into the world of advertising. There are various advertising courses that one can opt for after graduation or post graduation and get into this field. Combined with the right education and training, it is the soft skills of a person that ensure success in this career.

If you are also looking to take up an advertising course to get into this field, it will be good to get a realistic picture of what the career is all about, what the different fields are that one can pursue and what is it that one should expect after joining this field. It does look quite glamorous from the outside but those who work in it will vouch for the fact that the kind of hard work and perspiration that goes behind it is quite something. It comes with its share of fun and fulfillment that one may not be able to find in other career fields but all of it is earned the hard way. So, if you are also searching for the right courses in advertising to make a career in this field, this write-up will give you an overview of what advertising is all about.

Advertising is basically a service industry that facilitates the communication of ideas and information to promote products, services or even individuals to consumers. Since, the world and market demands are changing very fast, it is expected of the advertising world to keep coming up with the most creative and innovative ideas to promote a product. So, the value of and idea and then of course its execution is very important in the world of advertising. That way, it is very people oriented. Once the idea hits a chord with the consumers, it helps build a relationship between the consumer and the producer. What will work is a tricky thing to figure out. Depending on the product that is being promoted and the target audience, the advertising campaigns have to differ in flavour and content. Sometimes, very simple ideas work wonders and at times, grand ideas fail to enthuse the audience.

There are various big and small advertising agencies that take up assignments from clients and produce campaigns that suit their specifications. The campaigns are meant at promoting sales, to create a positive image of the product being promoted and also to educate the public about anything that needs to be communicated. Within advertising, there are various fields that one can work for. For instance, there is client servicing, creative department, media department, production, television and film, photography, market research, exhibition and event management. As per the skills, one can take up the field that one wants to work in. Those who are very creative obviously become a part of the creative department.

Usually, advertising courses are offered at postgraduate level. There are degree, diploma and certificate courses in advertising that one can opt for at government or private colleges. To pursue an advertising course, generally the eligibility is that one should be a graduate in any discipline with minimum 50 per cent marks. There would be an entrance exam or interview before the admission is granted. Some private institutes bypass this step and give admission basis the number of seats available.

In the curriculum of the course in advertising, a collective training of all aspects of advertising is given. There would be an overview of communications to understand the basics of communicating well an defectively. Then there is an introduction to research methods, combined with an understanding of marketing issues. Since advertising is primarily a wing of marketing only, it is essential to get a hold on what marketing is all about. Apart from this, the course would include financial and creative aspects of advertising; public relations; media planning and the required technical training in graphics and production. Since, graphics play an important role in producing advertising campaigns, it is essential to know the basic know-how of advertising.

One could either opt for a specialized course in advertising or a general course in mass communication, where advertising is taken up as a subject along with public relations and journalism. Since there are many career opportunities in this field, there is a lot of demand of this course too. One could work with advertising agencies, market research agencies and companies, advertising sections of radio, television and newspapers or join the marketing and advertising department of private and public sector companies. This way, advertising offers quite a promising career if one is willing to put in the required effort with loads of creativity.

Few useful links:

http://www.shiksha.com/
http://media.shiksha.com/getCategoryPage/colleges/media/All/All/Advertising

What Are The Main Objectives Of Advertising

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Advertising is defined as a non-personal form of communication deployed through various media by industries, non profit organizations, business firms, individuals etc. Advertising persuades, informs, instructs and educates target audiences about a particular brand or service and influence the purchasing behaviour or thought pattern of the audience. Advertising is one of the most important tools of marketing and can be coupled with other marketing tools such as sales promotion, personal selling tactics, publicity etc.

Advertising as a tool of marketing is quite different from personal selling. In personal selling, the customer is guided by a sales person, but publicising the advertisement is shown to the customer and the decision is in the hands of the customer. Therefore, advertising may be called written personal selling. Advertising is effective for every single brand, service or business to gain its position in the market.

Advertising creates an impact on every walk of life irrespective of age, gender, caste, creed or religion. Advertising is carried out in various proven tools and mediums and with defined techniques. In this article let us discuss about the four main objectives of an advertising campaign.

Objectives of advertising

The objective(s) of advertising imply the communication tasks to be accomplished. These tasks are directed towards specific customers that a company or organization is trying to reach during a defined time frame. An organization which involves in advertising activities usually strives to achieve at least one of the four common objectives of advertising i.e. trial, continuity, brand switching and switchback.

The purpose of trial objective of advertising is to encourage customers to make an initial purchase of a new product which has been launched in the market. Companies typically deploy creative ad strategies during product launch so that they can stay ahead in the competition. Repeat purchase of the product follows suit so trial objective of the ad campaign should be given more emphasis so as to invite targeted customers.

The next objective of advertising is continuity. Continuity is a typical strategy to keep current customers to stick to the same product. To keep the customers engaged the company usually provides new and different information about the product which is designed to build brand loyalty.

Thirdly, brand switching is one of the widely employed objective of advertising. This technique is adopted when companies want customers to switch to their brand from their competitor’s brand. Brand switching strategy needs a convincing communication so that the mindset of the customer is changed.

Last but not the least brand switchback objective is another strategy used by advertisers or brand owners to win back their former customers. For this a particular company may highlight new features about the product, discount of price, provide useful information about the product- all these to attract back their former customers.

Advertising is a tricky art for brand communication. As an advertiser one should have exceptional advertising skill(s) to influence the right target group and to provide a lasting impression about the brand so that customers stick to the same brand in the future.

Reference Website: – www.tdiindia.com

Detailed Information On How B2b Websites Work

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B2B websites can offer huge opportunities for international traders. This article offers detailed information on how these business to business websites work.

A B2B website serves two parties – the buyer and the seller. These are also known as leads. The main function of this website is to enable visitors to find the leads they want in the shortest possible time. A buyer may be looking for seller leads, and a seller may be looking for buyer leads.

By using the search function, one can easily locate the right type of leads on a B2B website. The search tool will allow a visitor to search by country, and to view only buyer or seller leads. The search starts when the visitor enters a few keywords (likely to be keywords for some product or service), select the required options, and click on the search button. The website will then make a query to the database and return the search results.

Alternatively, a visitor may choose to browse the leads in the business directory. Similarly, he can choose to see leads from a certain country, or only buyer or seller leads. These two simple functions will help the visitor locate the leads that he wants quickly.

To serve the needs of international traders, the better B2B websites even allow freight forwarders to list their services for free. This is important for any import export business. With the information, an online visitor can easily check the charges for using these services when importing from various countries. In addition, you may also expect to see information for trade show events that are posted for free by trade event organizers.

Given the numerous benefits offered by B2B websites, one would expect a listing to be pricey. However, contrary to popular believe, a listing in a B2B website can cost as little as 25 USD a year. Often, B2B also allow businesses to sign up for free. They do so because they want businesses to try out their services, and also because they want to attract as many leads as possible. Active B2B directories with many active business listings are certainly more valuable to international traders.

Sometimes, when visiting a B2B website, you may come across a special feature called “Keyword Auction”. Keyword auction allows businesses to bid for higher positions in the B2B directory. For example, when a user searches using a keyword phrase “phone”, your contact details may be listed at the bottom of the page. As such, the user didn’t have a chance to contact you. For more exposure, you may want to consider using this feature to bid for a higher position. This gives you greater visibility, and will allow you to receive more leads.

Finally, for maximum exposure, you can always buy banner advertising on a B2B website. This is more costly than listing services or keyword auction, but it will attract attention more easily. If the products and services you offer have a more general appeal, this advertising channel may work well for you.

As you can see, there are many ways to advertise your services on a B2B website. Be sure to choose those that will give you the maximum return on investment.

Visual Marketing Concepts And Visual Advertising Techniques

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When we talk about visual advertising then we are talking about a form of advertising focused on the visual perception: for advertising it’s meant every action directed to make something known and public, visual advertising is just a variant that focuses mostly on the appearance and how is perceived by the human eye and therefore the term visual comes to put in evidence this concept. What appears to the human eye is very important: let’s think for example to traffic signs and to the concepts they are able to convey and at their meanings written down, in the first case they are soon absorbed with no time spent in reading. Photos are understood also by analphabets while written things only by who is able to read. Let’s think, for example, to a magazine: where does our attention go ? On the images or on the text ? On the images is the right answer since an image is able to convey concepts and feelings in a blink of an eye. Visual advertising pays also attention to the colors that can be warm or cold and that play an important role in the image choosing process.

Images are one of the most important things on the internet that is the advertising channel of the third millenium, let’s think at when we see a website and at how our attention first focuses on the images, then on the title and last on the text: Google, in the section entitled “Webmasters/Site owners Help”, at the voice “webmaster guidelines” says “Make sure that your title elements and alt attributes are descriptive and accurate”. Really important is the ALT attribute, in which an alternative text can be specified and appears when someone moves the mouse over an image, since is put along with the title tag that is known for its primary importance: this shows how the text attached to images is important for ranking high in the SERPs. Then we want to pay attention to the images and their colors when we build our website but also out of it in external pages in which we can post images like the forums that allow to do this. Today a very used technique is article marketing that is about writing articles, including a link to our website for further informations, and sending them to the article directories that can be found by searching Google by article marketing.

PubblicitAdvertising is an article directory that allows to insert images along with descriptions, in this way more keywords will be specified making articles found by more queries. Really we can talk about Visual Article Marketing, article marketing enriched by a graphic appearance and therefore more attractive but also more powerful in conquering the top ten in the SERPs.