Baking Bread in a Traffic Jam

FoYou are stuck in a noisy traffic jam with car horns honking all around you, and the smell of baking bread wafts into your car. What is more likely to captivate your attention, the smell of the bread or the noise of the traffic
Although the traffic-bread question may seem a simple one, anyone who understands the human mind would know that the answer depends entirely on which "felt need" is greater - your hunger or your hurry. If you are in a great hurry - the noise of the traffic will fill your mind, but if you are hungry, the smell of the baking bread is more likely to drive you wild. The point I'm trying to make here is that no single message will ever be able to gain the attention of everyone. Advertisers must choose whom they want to speak to in their ads.

Are the ads written to reach those who are currently in the market or for your product? Or, are they written to impress the much larger group who may not need what you sell today, but who will doubtlessly need it some day? Are you trying to target today's few customers or the many customers of tomorrow? How you answer these questions will determine the content of your ads as well as your long-term advertising expecations and results.

Most advertisers, I have come across think short-term, choosing to hold their ad rupees immediately accountable. They insist on seeing results right away, as if radio advertising were a giant casino slot machine into which they can place their radio advertising budget, pull the handle, and watch the results come out. As a result, their ads are written

and produced to gain the attention of the "immediately-in-the-market" buyer with lots of hype, limited offers…dah dah dah !!

I still remember something that I had read during my years of studies in radio broadcasting: "The greater goal of radio advertising is to win the hearts of those who are not yet into the market for what you sell."

Should you choose to advertise primarily to those buyers who are immediately in the market for your product, I then suggest that you dominate the yellow pages and run newspaper ads on days when you think the customer is most likely to be "in the market". But if your goal is to cause the customer to instantly think of you whenever they need what you sell, then you must tell the compelling story that is uniquely and wonderfully your own.

I have always felt that short-term advertising is a dice roll. Such radio ads are written to bring the customer to immediate action. Sometimes they pay off wonderfully, but more often they don't. The content, tone and style of short-term radio ads is dramatically different from those written to achieve long-term results. Long-term radio ads are written to stick in the customer's mind. A fair example of this would be a three-series radio ad written and produced for UCB India. Not only do these radio ads always work, they work better and better the longer they are used.

In short, are we looking at today's few customers, or tomorrow's many? What kind of clients are we writing our radio ads for?

Send your comments to Mohit S Balani