If the sole aim of advertising is to sell a product, it is important to know how to perfect the technique of advertising to affect the highest sales.
If the ratio of the money spent on advertising to the actual sales affected is low, then something is wrong with the advertising approach. As much as the product, the advertisement itself will need to be improved.
1. Stimulate Demands
Advertising primarily stimulates demand. That, indeed, is its chief function. It makes the consumer want to buy a product by manipulating his basic desires, activating latent or unrealised wants and finally to stick to the one product the advertisement is selling in competition with others.
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In this process what the advertiser would want to implement is the stimuli that will be most effective in evolving a desired response on the part of the prospect.
Human wants are inherent and deep-seated. They include the basic needs for food, drink, clothing, and shelter, the drive for happiness and for security, for social recognition and for excelling others. The smart advertiser would want to cash in on all these in order to promote his product.
No great advertisement campaign is necessary where a commodity is scarce. The buyer will go looking for it. In a hot desert, a sign Cold Drinks Available Here should suffice.
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Whether the shopkeeper is selling Limca or Thums Up or Coke or Pepsi would not matter to the thirsty traveller. All he wants is a sip of anything cold, even if it is plain water.
Advertising, then, pertains to the competitive society where more than one product is available and the manufacturer is aiming to get the customer’s attention, fealty and support.
2. Primary and Selective Demands
Basically, there are two different types of demand that advertising attempts to stimulate, depending entirely on the conditions surrounding the product, the consumer and the market. One is the primary demand; the other is the selective demand.
Advertising designed to create demand for a type of product comes under the category of primary demand advertising.
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Selective advertising is that which is designed to stimulate a selective demand, a demand, in other words, for a particular product; for Cibaca dental cream, say instead of for Close-up or Promise or Flash or Colgate or Pepsodent.
3. How to Advertise
Various advertising people will describe somewhat differently the specific functions or requirements of an advertisement if it is to be effective. These requirements can be stated as follows: they must gain attention, arouse interest, obtain readership, stimulate desire, establish conviction and secure action.