Advertising Should Create Sales
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
Opinion should be left to politics and religion, Opinion has no place in advertising. Eight percent of the world’s people being Protestants believe that both the Buddhists and the Catholics, and all others, are deplorably ignorant of the only true faith, which of course must be their own particular sect of Protestantism. And, neither Buddhist, Catholic, nor Protestant, can convince the 2 per cent of Jewish people that their opinion is wrong and should be changed. I can prove to you which advertisement will have the highest return on investment.
Too many business owners seem content to spend their money on mere opinions about advertising when they might have invested it on facts about advertising. These are the Advertisers whose business must die before they can be convinced that Branding is wrong and reason why advertising is correct.
Do you No a company that would give a salesperson a commission over a report from him that he was “Influencing Sales” for their other Salesperson? They would expect him to prove he was earning his salary by making a satisfactory record on sales. That is just what the advertising employer should demand from his advertising expenditure, proven sales, carrying a satisfactory profit. And, if he insists upon it he can get the kind of advertising which will actually produce sales instead of vague “Branding.”
Because, true Advertising is only “Salesmanship-on-paper” after all. When it is anything less than Salesmanship it is not real Advertising, but only “General Publicity.” And, “General Publicity” admittedly claims only to “Keep the Name before the People,” to produce a “General impression on the Trade,” and to “Influence Sales” for the salesmen.
Bad Advertising makes the same lame excuses as a Salesman who failed to earn his salary in actually selling goods. But General Publicity, or any other Advertising, should be judged by the same standards as the Salesman is judged, viz., by the goods it is clearly proven to sell at a given cost per dollar invested in it.
