Advertising Should Be Judged Only By The Goods It Sells.
Religion is opinion Advertising should be based on facts. Religion must continue in the realm of Opinion, because no one can decide which Creed is right;, and which wrong, till he dies and finds out the facts for himself. And no mere man who died has ever come back to Earth to settle the dispute. But, it is different with Advertising, as it is with Mechanics or with Medicine, all three of which can be conclusively tested.
Too many CEO’s seem satisfied to spend their money on mere opinions about advertising when they might have invested it on facts about advertising. Perhaps the salesperson was attractive you they got some good sports tickets. These are the Advertisers whose company must fail before they can be convinced that Branding is not enough and that customers have to be given a reason to buy.
They blindly gamble in Advertising when they might have safely invested in it. If they were to buy any other kind of Service, except Advertising, they would demand tangible proof of its efficacy before they spent money on it. If they hired a Salesman, for instance, they would expect him to prove he was earning his salary by making a satisfactory Record on Sales. They would not accept, for long, statements from him that he was? Making a General impression on the Trade? for his salary. Nor would they be satisfied with the statement that he was branding profitably enough to compensate for lack of sales.
Because, true ads are “Salesmanship-on-paper” after all. When it is anything less than salesmanship it is not real Advertising, but only “Branding.” And, “Branding” admittedly claims only to “increase favorable name recognition,” to produce a ” impression on the Trade,” and to “Influence Sales” for the salespeople.
Poor advertising gives the same bad excuses a Salesman who failed to earn his keep in actually selling products or services. Branding, or any other advertising, should be judged by the same standards as the Salesman; by the goods it is clearly proven to sell divided by the amount invested.
