Great story in The Guardian on Saturday.
Apparently the motor trade is in deep doo-doo - to the point where one car dealer actually reduced the price of his Dodge Avengers by 50%. And even then, his stock wasn't moving.
But when he had the idea of offering the cars on a Buy One Get One Free deal - he got 22,000 customers.
That's right. The exact same product. At the exact same price.
It was purely the way the offer was marketed - the power of words - that generated desire.
And that's what we do, ladies and gentlemen. That's what we do.
P.S. In keeping with today's money-off theme, a friend of mine has set up a company selling British wool and sheepskin clothes called Woollen Salmon. Their whole collection is knitted by small family-owned companies within the British Isles.
As an ex ad-person, she is offering ad people a 20% reduction. Just go to their website and enter the code AD01 to get the discount.
P.P.S. Keep the atheism ideas coming in. We've had loads of great stuff, but there's still time - the first meeting is Wednesday.
Monday, November 10, 2008
I Believe In Advertising
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23 comments:
Scamp - there's a typo in the last sentence - the one after you talk about the power of words. Or is it irony?
Stick the word "free" into anything and the let greed sell your stuff. It isn't rocket science. It's understanding how vacuous, greedy, lazy, stupid and selfish human beings are.
Er, it wasn't irony. Just bad typing. Thanks for pointing out, I've fixed it.
great for sales and for the dealer but not sure that i'd be too chuffed if i were Dodge... surely there should be a brand consideration... free works short term but the longer term impact needs to be considered otherwise we would see it everywhere.
nice. reminds me of this post on dave trott's blog. which is nice also.
No. It's what we used to do.
Now we make films about water slides.
wieden should do a nike spot featuring the woman in this story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7712306.stm
It seems that some people believe too much in "advertising"...
Sure, maybe it moved a lot of product, but we're forgetting the most important thing here: did it win any awards?
bit rah rah account man, those jumpers aren't they?
Anon 9:58am;
'It's understanding how vacuous, greedy, lazy, stupid and selfish human beings are.'
Er, no, it's common sense. Why would you pay for something that you could get for free? It's anything but stupid.
Anca Radu Radu...who are you?
We got some work to do now.
Anca Radu Radu, where Are You?
We need some help from you now.
9:17 -- Yes, I can see you're needy. And you probably need a better understanding of how internet works. Anonymous comments are so lame at hiding your IP, ISP, browser, resolution, location (and I mean EXACT location), browser activity and many more. See, that's why I like being surrounded by the best programmers and automation engineers. Have a sunny day.
Enough of the philosophy, can you just put an ad up so we can all slag it off?
Don't mess with Anca, muthafuckas!
Oh, and Anca - chill out :)
This may shift cars in the short term but what damage will it do to the brand in the long term? This advertising tells me that they can afford to sell their cars at half price, which means they must be cheaply made. When the credit crunch is over, this thinking will tend to stic in most peoples heads
don't worry, Simon, I take it as fun. I also reply with a smile to all the I-want-to-touch-you guys in the street -- I thought it was just my 90cm long hair but it appears I'm obvious everywhere. :)
Scamp -
This article (and the original) are incomplete and therefore little to do with marketing (power thereof), and everything to do with numeracy (lack thereof).
To prove your first point you'd need to know what the piece doesn't specify: if people WERE paying for two to get one free; or did they just start buying in at 50%?
(Yes, there's a difference. Ask your calculator.)
And what happened in the gap between the 50% offer and the two for one - oh yes the banking crisis.
That might perhaps have inspired people with money to buy stuff rather than risk keeping it in their bank accounts or in equities.
Genius. Thanks Scamp.
The whole point of an ad is to sell things, but what is a 2 for 1 offer on cars, gonna do to the few remaining polar bears out there?
Can that genius who thought of 2 for 1 cars sleep, with the knowledge that he's gonna add to the death of the Earth?
Hey Anca
I just saw you on the 'Don't' page in Vice magazine.
The comment was "Hey eurotrash white guy with your longhair and trench coat. You need to stop jerking it to your Trinity screen saver and get a job."
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