Donald Varner asked:


1. Advertising is a service business. The dictionary defines “service” as the “occupation or duties of a servant.” Many advertising people bristle at the notion of their profession as a form of servitude. They much prefer the term “marketing partner” to describe the relationship between advertiser and client. It implies a utopian equality that is something to strive for but really doesn’t exist. From the chairman to the mailroom sorters, advertising agency employees serve the interests of their clients, the interests of their agency and the interests of their stockholders (if public). “The client puts food on my table and clothes on my back. If it wasn’t for the client I wouldn’t have a job,” says an account director. “And everyone who works for me better understand that.” At the end of the day it’s the client’s money, and money equals control.

2. Advertising agencies are pressure cookers. Deadlines are the bane of the business. Every work product in every department is subject to deadlines. “Client needs it first thing in the morning!” insists the account executive, or “The art and mechanicals have to go to the printer tonight!” yells the traffic manager. Media calls, “Unless you want to run ‘Compliments of a Friend’ instead of the new four color spread, you had better get that ad released to Sports Illustrated now!” Even with the best intentions and the best planning, things inevitably go wrong and tempers flare. “Things can get pretty hot around here sometimes,” says a copywriter. “Ads are due, and people are running in and out of your office asking where they are, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s the nature of the beast!”

3. There’s no place to hide. Advertising is not for the faint of heart. Every person on the account is visible, warts and all, to the client and other members of the agency team. Everyone has to pull his or her weight. An advertising agency is very much like a small town, and an account is roughly equivalent to a family. Word travels fast, good and bad. The stars, the achievers and the poor performers are quickly identified. “At one agency I worked at, there was a separate dining room for senior vice presidents and above,” says one experienced ad professional. “It was a very nice place with china and tablecloths. Every now and again, someone at the table would mention the name of an employee he was considering hiring into his group. Usually, most people would have positive comments. But on the rare occasion, the comment would be ‘Jim Smith? Yeah, I worked with him. I guess he’s all right. It was the kiss of death, and Jim’s career would be over, at this agency at least. He never knew where the arrow came from.” It is not uncommon for clients to ask that an individual be removed from their account or insist that certain individuals be retained or promoted on their businesses. To insure the quality of its staff, agencies perform rigorous, regular evaluations to grade staff. That grade determines raises, bonuses and in some cases, continued employment.

4. Advertising is a team sport. The word “team” is used so often today that it’s become almost meaningless. But not in advertising. Accounts couldn’t operate without smoothly functioning, hardworking teams. Teamwork is fostered in a variety of ways. Some agencies maintain softball teams and participate in inter-agency leagues, others have outings, an afternoon or an evening away from work. Still others offer cash bonuses to award winning campaigns. “Ogilvy had all sorts of activities for its employees to participate in,” says Robin Abrutyn, formerly of Ogilvy & Mather’s media department. “It helped me get to know other people at the agency, and make friends.” Whatever the technique, the goal is to strengthen the bonds that tie the teams together. Advertising agencies are not friendly places for slackers. Everyone is accountable.

5. Job security can be iffy. Account movement is an industry fact of life and the average life of an agency account is roughly four years. Clients move their accounts for a variety of reasons – the creative product has gone stale, key agency staff members have left, sales are slipping, new client management has a relationship with other agencies – but whatever the reason, the human toll can be great. “I’ve been through one agency-wide layoff and it wasn’t pretty,” says an account executive. “After 15 years with the agency, the client called for a review and invited other agencies to pitch for its business. We made the finals, but that’s it. Fifty people were laid off. It took four months to get another job.” Although agencies often do their best to retain staff after an account loss, especially if they’re good, it only works if there’s new business to replace lost business.

6. Your life is often not your own. See point number one. If you’re expecting to work nine to five, you’re in for a shock. People are usually at their desks between 8 and 8:30 in the morning – earlier if an early morning meeting is scheduled, and you’re part of it (or responsible for setting up the conference room). The business day ends when it ends. Ten-hour days are common and weekends are often used to catch up. When you’re sitting in meetings all day the work piles up. Agencies are rife with stories about cancelled dates, missed birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and just about anything else you might plan, including vacations. “I missed too many important events in my family’s life,” says a management supervisor. “Luckily, I have an understanding husband, and kids who accept the career that I’ve chosen. What helps to make up for it is the high that I get from the work.”

7. Only “people people” need apply. Becoming a skilled advertising practitioner isn’t as hard as, say, astrophysics. You learn the rules and apply them. But there’s another side to the equation, and that’s learning the fine art of persuasion. The agency is filled with people who don’t report to you, yet they’re essential to your job. Some are cranky, some live in a fantasy land, some are difficult, some treat schedules with disdain and some will make you totally crazy. Assume for a moment that you’re an account executive. At best, you’ll have an assistant as a direct report. How do you get everyone else – media, creative, production, research, your bosses and clients – to share your vision? “In a way, life in an agency is a popularity contest. First, they better like you,” says an account director at a Los Angeles agency. “And that only happens when you support, encourage, demonstrate a clear appreciation of their problems and stick your neck out for them. Do all of that and you’ve got them. Saying “thank you,” and meaning it, every chance you get, is a good first step.”



Kansieo.com

Jon Caldwell asked:


Modern day advertisers started in America at the turn of the 20th century. The fore fathers of this art or science designed and sculpted the landscape of advertising to reflect an image of ultimate professionalism and innovation that opened the eyes of consumers and capitalists.

The father of modern advertising was Claude C. Hopkins. With his skills, methods, strategies and techniques, he was able to lay down the foundation for advertising. His revolutionary idea on research and how things can be projected to attract more people had never been equaled during his time and new concepts were introduced at the beginning of the last century and this was seen to be very profitable.

The Internet has become a by-word for marketers and advertisers for it is more easier and more accessible to use but never underestimate the power of a well printed and well placed brochure, postcard or billboard when it comes to advertising. In fact, many companies has shifted their money in advertising online.

The print advertising has the advantage of remaining the “tried and true” method. For example, direct mail is an ideal for it is a cost-effective way to target specific neighborhoods quickly and easily. Use of posters and flyers to announce new services, special offers or grand openings is affordable and will ensure your name reaches your local area quickly and efficiently.

Online advertising may be limited to those who have access in the internet, not all people uses the technology very often. There is this problem to which some advertisers and companies, its limitations.

Just as there are ways of letting the people know what you do or products you sell, it is best to utilize both, definitely a case of one hand helping to feed the other. Avoid sinking your entire marketing budget into internet advertising, spread the wealth and make use of the print advertising. You will be surprised at the attractive return on your investment.

Companies trying to succeed in providing information to prospective customers use advertising as a tool and means that greatly provides a satisfying result. Here are some things to learn on successful advertising applicable to businesses in any form and turn negative profiting business into successful and profitable business.

1. Treasure your Existing Customers

2. Target the Right Player

3. Generate Informative Ads

4. Find the Right Appeal

5. Client Testimonials can Works Wonder

6. Monitor your Ads Response

7. Use the Right Gauging Tool

8. Test your Ads at Small Scale

Most people think of advertising as an ad in the local paper, billboards, posters, flyers, radios, televisions and the internet. There is a lot more to it than that like for example, when you walk down the street wearing a Coca-Cola shirt, you are in fact advertising for Coca-Cola.

Business owners can either use the free advertising or the paid advertising. Free is always good and can achieve some amazing results but paid advertising such as television commercials and magazine ads can really maximize a company’s profit.

Advertising may come in different forms depending on what you wish to advertise. The most powerful advertising comes from Word-of-Mouth, for example a friend tells me about a particular food establishment serves rotten food, do you think I would eat there? No I wouldn’t.



Caffeinated Content

F. Prida asked:


What is Advertising?

It is hard to find a satisfactory definition of advertising.

A picturesque way of putting it is to call it business imagination, an imagination that sees in a product possibilities which can be realized only by appealing to the public in new ways to create a desire where none existed before. It is a very broad word, an omnibus word conveying different ideas to different people.

No advertising definition is here possible except as this entire article may be accepted as a definition. So rapidly has advertising advanced through its various changes that even the latest dictionaries and encyclopedias are out of date in their attempts to define it. The advertising of yesterday is not the advertising of today. Men not so very old have witnessed its entire development from an untrustworthy instrument of quacks to its place as an engine in the conduct and expansion of business.

Advertising in the dictionary sense has a history as old as that of the human race. Just as soon as there were enough people in the world, some sort of formal announcement had to be made. The early history of such announcements – from proclamations to the beginning of pictorial and lettered inscriptions, from these primitive posters to the discovery of printing, and from the advent of printing to the beginning of real advertising – is of interest only to the archeologist. It is of no value to the business entrepreneur. It would be of no assistance to understanding modern advertising than ancient Phoenicians coins would be to comprehending the principles of a modern bank.

Every attempt to secure the sale of a product or service is advertising. The wares of the primitive merchant displayed invitingly in front of his booth is advertising. A want ad, to secure a job or an employee, is advertising. An inscription on a wall, the barker in front of a side show, the promises of an internet marketer, the announcement of a new online technology, membership in an affiliate program, wearing a peculiar shirt or distinctive sticker in your car – all these are forms of advertising in that they seek to attract attention to a product or a service that is for sale. For a product or a service of general use, rich and poor, high and low, men, women and even children, must be appealed to.

At least one principle we know of, stays constant, not eroding with the passing of time or the use and or abuse of men, not concerned with the weather outside, nor considering your personal health status, or taking into account your surrounding circumstances, and that is that you have to keep doing it, it has to be fed, no way around it, it keeps asking for every ounce of your commitment if you expect any kind of visible returns.

Whatever the appropriate definition of advertisement is, one thing is to conclude, it is because it has been. And every succeeding year since the beginning of the human entrepreneurship it has left its precious deposit of new ideas, better methods, larger and swifter efficiency, and the promise of an even greater growth.

 

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