Repetition
“Advertising works through repetition. When using print advertising, do not plan on the one-shot approach. Be consistent. Never assume that your clients know what your company is or does. Create a consistent image. It will make you look professional and will make you appear more entrenched.”
-- From one company’s promotion instruction manual
On average, we each see 3,000 different commercial messages daily! Amazing, isn't it? That doesn't mean however, that we comprehend 3,000 different commercial messages daily. It means merely that we see them. Advertising is everywhere. It's on your computer screen. It's in your car. It's on the ball cap your son wears. It's on socks and shoes. Belts and pants. It's on billboards, of course, and sign posts. It's on windows, in supermarkets, on cups and flatware. Advertising messages are everywhere!
We can't possibly read every advertising message we see, or even begin to comprehend each one. And surely we do not respond to most of them -- although subconsciously, we may respond more than we realize. (Was buying that leather jacket a matter of need, or was it the result of seeing, over a period of days or weeks, numerous advertisements for leather jackets?)
In spite of the preponderance of advertising, most of it generates few or no results. It was the great department store developer, John Wanamaker, who said, "Only half of my advertising is effective. The problem is, I don't know which half."
Coffee News provides advertisers the inexpensive repetition of ads needed to establish buyer patterns – weekly exposure with additional exposure through second and more readings. Restaurant patrons are free to take one to share with other friends or put it back in its holder for the next customer to enjoy.
When Coffee News ads are used in conjunction with other advertising – TV advertising for example – the Coffee News ad BECOMES A RE-RUN OF THE TV COMMERCIAL IN THE READER’S MIND. This is connected to the topic of Ad Residue, which we discussed in an earlier.
Hints to Intending Advertisers
By Thomas Smith, London, 1885
- The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
- The second time, he does not notice it.
- The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
- The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
- The fifth time, he reads it.
- The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
- The seventh time, he reads it through and says, “Oh bother.”
- The eighth time, he says, “Here’s that confounded thing again.”
- The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
- The tenth time, he thinks he will ask his neighbor if he has tried it.
- The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
- The twelfth time, he thinks perhaps it may be worth something.
- The thirteenth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
- The fourteenth time, he remembers that he has wanted such a thing for a long time.
- The fifteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.