The biggest reason advertising fails

By Ken Gasque        

I met Bob Evans Jr. several years ago at a convention. He was the keynote speaker. After his speech I introduced myself to him and told him how much I enjoyed and appreciated his speech. We talked for a bit and then he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was in advertising and marketing and that my company built brands. He said, “I can give you a testimonial.” Really, we just met? “Well, a testimonial for advertising.”

Bob Evans began his story, “Years ago when my father retired and I took over the company, my background was accounting and I saw everything from an accounting perspective. I reviewed the company budget for the year and saw the money we had allocated for advertising. I said to myself, I can save the company a bundle by taking that off. And I did. I eliminated the entire advertising budget. That afternoon I set the company back five years. That is how long it took to recover from my folly. Now there is no one who is a greater believer in advertising than me.”

I thanked him for the story and he said, “You can use it however you like, it’s true.”

Before I met Bob Evans, Jr. I had already discovered that unless my client believes in advertising it would not work for them. If you don’t believe it will work, it won’t. If you believe it will work, it will. So before I take a client that is the first question, do you believe in advertising?

It was a client that taught me “You have to believe in advertising for it to work.” When I started in business, one of my first clients was a newly formed company that believed there was a market for ceiling fans. The only company that was manufacturing and selling ceiling fans at that time was Robbins & Myers. They had a 65-year-old fellow named Charlie who was wiring the fans. As soon as Charlie retired, Robbins & Myers was going to shut down their ceiling fan business. My client believed that there was still a market for ceiling fans and that maybe the problem was no one had advertised the product.

My client bought 25 ceiling fans, considered a major order. We designed some ads and placed them in Southern Living Magazine. These were very small ads—a little more than 1 inch tall by 3 inches wide. Just enough room for some very carefully worded copy and a photo of a 52-inch ceiling fan. At the time, Southern Living offered a special—buy three classified display ads and get three “advertorials” free.

We placed the first ad and waited. Nothing happened. We placed the second ad and waited. Nothing happened. I began to worry because, even though these ads were small, they were very expensive. We were reaching 7 million people and nothing was happening.

I was disheartened and I called the client and told him I did not understand what had happened—the message was good, we had a product that I felt was something almost every home could use, and we were reaching the right audience. He interrupted me and taught me a valuable marketing /branding lesson. He said, “You have to believe and you have to have patience—we have the right ad and the right media. Have faith and wait.”

The next month, we ran our first free advertorial. Two weeks later, a letter and a check arrived. The customer wrote, “I have seen your ads for years and finally I asked myself why wait any longer, go ahead and buy the fan and enjoy it.” The consumer’s desire for the produce made it seem like he had seen our ad for years, but we had only run the ad three times over the previous three months. More and more orders and letters followed. My client believed in advertising, and we expanded the program to Sunset Magazine, Yankee Magazine and many other consumer publications. My client brought back the ceiling fan business for Robbins & Myers and became the largest ceiling fan dealer in the country.

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About Ken Gasque

Ken Gasque is a brand developer—a professional marketer with a design background. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing. Ken writes a blog and lectures on brand and brand development. To learn more, visit www.Gasque.com