12 Reasons for Advertising Failure
- The desire for instant gratification.
- Attempting to reach more people than the budget will allow.
- Assuming the business owner knows best. Too much knowledge leads to answering questions that no one is asking.
- Unsubstantiated claims. Such as ‘high quality at the lowest price’
- Improper use of passive media. Passive media are poor at reaching prospects prior to their need.
- Creating ads instead of campaigns.
- Obedience to unwritten rules. For some reason advertisers want ads to look and sound like ads. Why?
- Late week schedules. Why compete with so many other messages when you have clients more to yourself early in the week?
- Event-driven marketing. The real test is in what your ad says to the 99% of those exposed to it that never show up.
- Great production without great copy. ‘Slick, clever, funny, creative, and different’ are poor substitutes for ‘informative, believable memorable, and persuasive.’
- Overconfidence in qualitative targeting. In reality, ‘saying the wrong thing’ has killed more ads than ‘reaching the wrong people.’
- Confusing response with results. When we confuse ‘response’ with ‘results’ we create attention-getting ads that say nothing.
Source: Roy Williams