Basic advertising techniques

 

1. One of the first principles that you must understand in advertising is that it is limited in both time and space. Television and radio commercials are usually only 10 to 60 seconds long. Print ads are usually no larger than two pages, and usually much smaller. Therefore, an advertisement must do its job quickly. It must get the consumer's attention, identify the product, and deliver the selling message in a small time or space. In order to do this, advertising often breaks the rules of grammar, image, and even society.

2. The second basic point is that advertisements usually have two parts: copy and illustrations. Copy refers to the words in the advertisement. These words give the sales message. Illustrations are the pictures or photographs. Most ads are a combination of copy and illustration. Some advertisements have small illustrations and a lot of copy. Some are only an illustration with the name of the product.

3. The decision about how much copy and illustration to use depends on how the advertiser wants to present the sales message. Understanding how advertisers make this decision is complex. First you must understand how humans process, or work with, information because we do not process all kinds of information in the same way. We process some kinds of information intellectually. In other words, we think about the information in order to

understand it. We process other kinds of information emotionally. This means we use feelings rather than thinking to understand the information.

4. We generally process copy in ads intellectually. That is because both reading and listening are thinking processes. These thinking processes translate symbols (written words) or sounds (spoken words) into meaning. Of course, words, especially if they are spoken, can be very emotional — they can bring memories that make you laugh or cry. However, even though spoken words are often very emotional, we must first translate them. In other words, we do not see words as reality.

5. The mind also interprets drawings and paintings intellectually. Like words, drawings and paintings are not the things themselves, but an artist's idea of them. The viewer must translate the lines, colors and shapes into meaning. Illustrations can have a lot of emotion, but again they are not reality.

6. In order to understand this idea better, think of a well-know painting such as The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid: The Executions on Principe Pio Hill by Goya. This painting upsets many people. However, think of the same scene in a photograph. Most people would find the photograph even more disturbing. That is because we process photographs emotionally. To us, they are real. Therefore, photographs do not need translation. Research supports this idea. It shows that photographs attract more readers, are more believable and remembered better than illustrations.

7. Just as there are two kinds of mental processes, there are two basic ways of presenting a sales message: intellectually and emotionally. An intellectual presentation uses ideas to get a consumer to buy a product or service. For example, computer buyers usually do not think about what the machine looks like or the effect it might have on their social life. They are looking for technical information. How fast does the computer work? How large is its memory?

8. Advertisements that present a message intellectually have a lot of copy. The copy explains the uses and benefits of the product or service. In addition, such ads are not usually seen on television because television ads are very short. It requires time and careful thinking to understand a message which contains a lot of ideas. These kinds of ads usually appear in magazines or newspapers where the consumer has unlimited time to process the information.

9. Ads with an intellectual presentation usually have few illustrations. If they have any illustrations, they will probably be drawings or paintings. In this way, both parts of the ad are processed in the same way. If they have photographs, the photographs will usually be simple, with little emotional content, usually showing only what the product looks like.

10. The second basic way to present a sales message is emotionally. In an emotional presentation, the use of the product is often not the most important sales message. Instead, the ad focuses on the buyer's social, psychological or economic needs. For example, an emotional ad may show how the product or service will make the consumers’ social life better by increasing their appeal, making them feel more confident, or making them rich. Some of the most effective ads today are ones that use an emotional presentation.