What's The Point Of Advertising?

Today's blog post takes the form of a question. I know quite a cross-section of people read this blog; clients, creatives, planners, senior types, juniors, students, researchers, account men, photographers, producers and randoms. So I'd be interested to find out if we all agree on the fundamentals of what we all spend our days agonising over and thinking about.

So, over to you, dear readers.

What is the point of advertising?

17 comments:

  1. What some academics say: To make people blindly and without any will power buy products because ads told them to.
    Actual advertising people: to make a product become a consideration in the buying process or, at a minimum, increase a brand's salience over time.

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  2. To sell products or services to punters. Products or services. Not fucking brand images or user experiences.

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  3. The goal of advertising is to sell, but perhaps the point of it (especially through digital channels) is to entertain.

    There are plenty of examples of challenger brands doing this well and seeing the sales curve go north.

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  4. So you can make a brew without missing your program ;)

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  5. Awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty.

    I'm leaving "advocacy" out as it's been hijacked by the brand experience bullshitters.

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  6. Advertising has to make people change brands or to change their behaviour.

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  7. I think we've overcomplicated the living hell out of something fundamentally simple: we've got to make a product seem interesting enough to sell.

    Everything else is all smoke and mirrors and decks and meetings.

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  8. This is a nice way of putting it. http://martinweigel.org/2013/04/08/weakness-with-consequence-why-marketing-is-like-gravity/

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  9. Sell.
    if you're not shifting some fucking product, then why are you wasting your shareholder's money?

    Any other answer is bollocks.

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  10. The point is to earn more than you spend.

    Or in other words, earn more money for your client than what they paid you.

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  11. Mostly agree with comments above, except we're not always selling products or services. We also get people to donate money, give blood, stop drinking and driving, take up exercise, etc.

    Therefore - the point of advertising is to communicate ideas in the most effective way possible.

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  12. To get people to do something they MAY not have otherwise done - buy a specific drink, watch a specific film, go to a specific meeting, give a specific bodily fluid, donate some money to specific cause, look out for your lost cat in a specific area, look to the left before crossing a specific road, phone a specific phone number, click a specific link, like a specific facebook page.

    IMO that's it's purpose/ point.

    Methods and effectiveness is another matter.

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  13. To crush your enemies, drive them before you and hear the lamentation of their women.

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  14. To sell. All the rest of it is the means to that end.

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  15. As Martin Headon pointed out, we do not always help sell goods.

    Thus, affect/change behaviour and generate awareness, most commonly with a commercial interest.

    As I see it, save for Direct Mail, advertising can not purely sell, but helps punters consider a buy-action/feel good about buying-doing.

    @Rob Hatfield: may Crom always guide your sharp copy!

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  16. To create sellability.

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