Time after Time
Hi guys
I was sent this article by e mail from someone I don't know so thought it was worth a Sunday chuckle.
I recently came across an old article from 1885 (yes, over 130 years old, honestly!) in which London businessman Albert Smith offered the following advice to advertisers.
It is still applicable today!
The first time people look at any ad they don’t even see it
The second time, they don’t notice it
The third time, they are aware that it is there
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before
The fifth time, they actually read the ad
The sixth time, they thumb their nose at it
The seventh time, they start to get a bit irritated by it
The eighth time the start to think “Here’s that confounded ad again”
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they may be missing out on something
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbours if they’ve tried it
The eleventh time they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product
The thirteenth time they start to feel the product has value
The fourteenth time they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time
The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it
The sixteenth time they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future
The seventeenth time they make a note to buy the product
The eighteenth time they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offered....
I would like to think that although it may have been harder to sell things then through advertising we have moved in leaps and bound since then.
Our social standing has so most people have the internet most people buy something from the internet or have bought something. Our message to buy is much better much clearer to people.
People have the money to spend today even if they are food shopping in line.
How many tasks can you eliminate to make a sale?
Happy thinking
Steve
Recent Comments
4
Many thanks for this very informing post.
Lot to learn and bring on board in the post.
The world is more in a hurry now and that calls for more creativity in ads design and presentation. People are generally impatient nowadays which may elongate the steps.
Segun
Thanks for a fantastic piece of historical information. As a one time marketing manager I must agree. At one time in my marketing career I learned to shorten the time taken for the adv to be noticed by using tactics such as bold type, plenty of white space, dramatic short appealing statements, and even placing the Ad upside down.
Online marketing is much the same, you need to think outside the square
All the best. Jim
Thanks Steve for the share.
Michael