Thursday 28 January 2010

Advertising Doesn't Work




There's nothing better than some nice bread. But what butter do you put on it?


I recently had to get a job to earn some extra cash. Unfortunately that place would be Tesco.


So it's boring, it's mid numbing and all the rest of it. But i thought since I'm here putting peoples shopping through the till i might as well do some research. 


So i've started to notice what kind of butter people buy. And it's actually quite surprising. 


I've always bought Lurpak, however it's not particularly popular with people I serve.


The most popular is Tesco English butter, okay that's not really surpising.


Except Anchor butter is only 3p more expensive than Tesco English butter.


Now i quite like Anchor ad's and i've been tempted to try it.


But the pattern that i've seen emerging out of my crude 'research' is that..


Advertising doesn't work.


Now of course, it does to a certain degree but there is far more to it.


To make your TV/Print/Poster/Digital ad's work, you need a follow through.


This isn't something you really think about when creating ad's for your book but it seems really quite important when you think about it. 


Whenever the latest Lurpak ad's break on TV, the posters follow on outdoor media, then shelf promotions begin in supermarkets like Tesco and the price of the product drops, it's on offer, it's BOGOF. It's cheaper and that's always tempting.


And that is how advertising really works. 

You need follow through, promotions and displays to catch the attention of your audience, not just a big 90' Second TV ad and some 48 Sheets.

On my rough estimation Country Life & Kerrygold butter, alongside Tesco English are the best selling.  They're not the cheapest or the most advertised (Tesco English aside)


Now work that one out?

3 comments:

Mike said...

There's a slight DT-esque styling to your writing. :)

Mummy Addled said...

Now try this with a new product, a non-essential product (I think butter is pretty essential anyway) and a product that you never, ever buy. See if you get any different results?

Biscuit Barrel said...

Yeah butter is pretty essential. Okay give me an example and i will report back on the results?

Also i was working tonight and Anchor is on offer, not one person bought it. All i got was Flora, Lurpak, Kerrygold and Tesco. hmm..