I suppose I’m a little bit crazy, but I do love getting the junk mail out of the letterbox, or the stuff that’s an insert in the newspaper and falls out at my feet.
Why? Well, it’s because I see the good, the bad and the ugly, where people either make their advertising dollars work for them, or do nothing for them.
The Rivers catalogue is always one that I love looking at because they know how to write great advertising copy that sells.
Sure, they do have some specials where there’s just a photo of the product and a price, which I suppose is to drag people into the store, but when they’ve got something they really want to sell they do a great job.They remember the old adage of great advertising which is that people want reasons “why” to buy and they give plenty of features and benefits. You’ll see what I mean when you have a look at these ads for shirts, polos and jeans. They don’t just show a photo of the product, but give you lots of details that really demonstrate the great value of the product.
Compare it to this ad from a magazine directed at the high net worth individual, where they just show a photo of the product and their name and logo. I wonder does the advertiser believe that just showing their name and a photo is sufficient to have their target market stampede into the store (wherever that is, because it’s not shown in the advertisement). It may, of course, be that all luxury items are promoted this way but I wonder if they really set out chapter and verse about the features and benefits of the products whether their advertising would work even better.
Whilst I’ll never change the opinions of the luxury goods purveyors, I’m happy to stick with the Rivers approach. I reckon reasons why still works.
PS If you want to read “Reasons-why Advertisting” by John E. Kennedy, it might be tough to find. But even though it’s around 100 years old, I’d recommend it.
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