Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 206 Location: Camp Verde, AZ
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject: Decision times
I was reading in a book over the week end. The author was talking about how quickly people make up their minds. It went on to say that with a TV ad, the sale is made in the first three to four seconds. For print ads, 75 percent of the sales are made or lost on the headline alone. In a sales presentation, the decision is made in the first 3 minutes.
If these times are accurate, it makes me wonder, why run a big long ad?
_________________ David Wittmayer
Owner / Manager
Hansen Enterprises Fleet Repair, LLC
Camp Verde, AZ
www.hefrshop.com
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:19 pm Post subject: Re: Decision times
Dave wrote:
I was reading in a book over the week end. The author was talking about how quickly people make up their minds.
It depends on what they are buying, or not buying.
It went on to say that with a TV ad, the sale is made in the first three to four seconds.
Strange. What do you mean by 'sale?'
For print ads, 75 percent of the sales are made or lost on the headline alone.
That's more accurate, at least in explaining how important the headline is.
If these times are accurate, it makes me wonder, why run a big long ad?
Products have been sold successfully with both types, but the strategies are different. Some of that was covered in these forums. Remember the Rolls Royce example given here? They used long, full-page newspaper ads successfully to sell cars to people who had never considered one as expensive as a Rolls.
Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 206 Location: Camp Verde, AZ
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:43 pm Post subject: Re: Decision times
Dave wrote:
It went on to say that with a TV ad, the sale is made in the first three to four seconds.
Bud wrote:
Strange. What do you mean by 'sale?'
Sorry about not being clear. I should have said the decision of whether to buy or not was made in the first 3 to 4 seconds.
If the decision, to purchase or not, is made in the first few seconds of a person interacting with an ad. Then it seems to me that the rest of the ad should just reinforce that positive decision and/or give general information. The ad really is not going to be selling much after the first little bit.
_________________ David Wittmayer
Owner / Manager
Hansen Enterprises Fleet Repair, LLC
Camp Verde, AZ
www.hefrshop.com
Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 47 Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:04 pm Post subject: Re: Decision times
Dave wrote:
I was reading in a book over the week end. The author was talking about how quickly people make up their minds. It went on to say that with a TV ad, the sale is made in the first three to four seconds. For print ads, 75 percent of the sales are made or lost on the headline alone. In a sales presentation, the decision is made in the first 3 minutes.
If these times are accurate, it makes me wonder, why run a big long ad?
The big long ad is for a small minority of the population who like a lot of detail due to their personality type. For the majority of customers in today's busy society, the brief and to the point ad is normally the best.
To see this in print ads, grab a copy of newspaper and tack to the wall. Then stand 6 feet away and see which ad(s) stand out. The ones that cannot be read are junk for the most part. Typically there will be one or two or maybe none which are readable. Try this with several pages of a newspaper, find the ones that grabbed your attention, then create yours to look like them.
Further, when you create ad text (ads, business cards, web pages, specials, etc)....
List what you want to say.
Then get rid of half of it.
Then get rid of half of what is left again.
Now you should have something that will work reasonably well.
Of course there are some situations where a lot of text is appropriate, but most small business owners use too much verbage in most situations.
_________________ Tom Ham
AutomotiveManagementNetwork.com - Hams Management Systems
There could be a lot of discussion on this point. Most advertising by small businesses does not work well, and often loses money. The owners never learn why, or learn how to correct it.
Therefore, my posts here have begun to explain how advertising professionals in big businesses work their specialty. Their work is all based on scientific research, done at the cost of millions of dollars each year, and takes time to learn.
Tom, on the other hand, presents quick, simple, random ideas taken from paperback books. It is like 'instant advertising.'
So, we have two opposing positions here. As a business owner with a lot to lose, or gain, how do you decide which avenue to follow?
Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 47 Location: Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:55 am Post subject:
Bud wrote:
There could be a lot of discussion on this point. Most advertising by small businesses does not work well, and often loses money. The owners never learn why, or learn how to correct it.
Therefore, my posts here have begun to explain how advertising professionals in big businesses work their specialty. Their work is all based on scientific research, done at the cost of millions of dollars each year, and takes time to learn.
Tom, on the other hand, presents quick, simple, random ideas taken from paperback books. It is like 'instant advertising.'
So, we have two opposing positions here. As a business owner with a lot to lose, or gain, how do you decide which avenue to follow?
Quick, yes.
Simple, yes.
Random, no.
Paperback books, no.
At least you were half right.
Our approach has proven to effective through use of detailed tracking....and I don't have millions for research...so, at least for me...the answer is pretty easy.
_________________ Tom Ham
AutomotiveManagementNetwork.com - Hams Management Systems
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