Return on Advertisement Investment

Advertising is a paid form of communication through a non-personal medium by an identified sponsor. It is based on the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) model that deals with attracting the attention, arousing interest, creating desire and finally securing action on the part of consumers.

A lot of money is invested in producing a good advertisement. In spite of that, at times, employing good advertising tools, results are sometimes not up to the mark. In order to avoid such situations, advertisers need to keep the following points in mind:

Power of Advertisement: 

Advertising is often considered to be one of the most powerful tools to influence audiences’ choices and preferences. Customers tend to identify the products through the ad itself. A good ad can enhance the image of the advertiser & the increase the sale of the products. Otherwise, it can have a negative impact on the sale of the products, as well as the advertising agency that designed the ad.

A Mix of Features & Benefits:

Your advertisement needs to have a blend of both product features & benefits.  While features are valuable and can certainly enhance your product, benefits are what motivate people to buy. Keep in mind its benefits, not features that appeal to people's emotions. Safety, good health, financial security, the desire for love, status, success, saving  time, and appearing attractive to others these are all examples of needs all people have. To help you do determine your most important benefit, answer the following questions:

      ·         Competitive Benefit: What can my product or service do that my competition's can't?

      ·         Unique Consumer Proposal: What do my customers get from me that they can't get from                    the competition?

An ad copy should be long enough to cover at least the unique selling proposition of the product & crisp enough to be interesting.

Visuals:

To add life to your advertisement, add visuals to it. There are simple yet effective options you can choose for your advertisement's visual component:

·         A photograph of the product in use or the benefit of using it. For example, an advertisement for soap would have a visual of a person with glowing skin.

·         The end result of the product. If you're selling a washing machine, show a picture of piles of clean laundry with dollar bills on top.

·         Before and after using the product. For your shampoo product, you would show an illustration of someone with unattractive, tangled hair, then a photograph of the same person with shiny beautiful hair.

·         Use a diagram explaining the benefits & usage of the product. For example, a printing machine can be shown with diagrams pointing out the switches for various purposes.

·         Show a humorous cartoon or illustration. This works well for getting people's attention.

Right Mode of Communication: 

There are various modes of communication & at times it might turn out to be confusing. So, it’s very necessary to make a proper selection of the medium.  This choice requires a detailed study of the target audience & the product/service concerned.

Feedback:

A communication process is complete only when the feedback to the message is received. In order to enhance the response to your advertising you need to modify certain aspects of your advertisement copy such as the words, colours and the size of the ad. Besides these, you can:

·         Market Effectively: Marketing is one of the most significant aspects of advertising that depends on identifying the right target market. It can be achieved by determining the needs and demands of a particular target group.

·         Time Slot: The time slot often changes the fate of an advertisement, as well as the sale of the product. For example, if you telecast an ad related to children late at night, then you will never get a favourable response. Instead if you advertise in the evening or during the day, you are likely to get the desired response.

·         Add an Interesting Headline: More often than not, people tend to scan through headlines and do not read the entire advertisement. Therefore, it is important to add an interesting headline that can summarize the complete advertisement and get the message across effectively.

·         Determine the Right Price: It is important to set the right price for your products. If you quote high rates, people will not buy them and if you quote a low price, the products will be discarded as low quality. Therefore, it is important to determine a suitable price for the advertised goods, services or ideas.