When Is A Change Of Advertisments Good?
Why fix it when it ain’t broken?
You heard of that line umpteen times before. But, your print ad and that television commercial have probably been seen more than a million times by your target audience. They must be so sick of them now.
And, your logo. It was created some 5 years ago when you were a start-up. Now, your sales teams are of the opinion that it lacks lustre and don’t quite fit the corporate image, blah, blah, blah…
Wait, before you start pounding the table demanding your ad agency or design firm give you an original, out-of the-box idea, let us rein it in a little. Are you tired of your own stuff or is it your target audience who is sick of it? You breathe and live your product and services, you will notice even if a speck of dust drops on it. Your target audience, however, is nowhere near that level of intimacy with your products. They are not as aware of your brand, corporate identity, product features and benefits as you are. My suspicion is, they are starting to take notice of you just as you are beginning to get sick of your own marketing messages.
It’s like the folks who advocated the retirement of the “Singapore Girl” in all Singapore Airlines’ advertising. The sweet and demure ambassadors were created in 1972, and it took Batey Ads and SIA many years to make the “Singapore Girl” a world renowned icon. Ditch “Singapore Girl” because she has been seen for more than 32 years? That’s totally absurd. Many companies dream of creating such a strong corporate persona, and fail even when they dump in millions of dollars. A brand becomes famous not just because of a heavy war chest of advertising dollars. There are all these issues on trust, credibility, reliability, consistency, creativity, customer service and the works. Fortunately, SIA took the right approach. They said they are going to give the girls a make-over. I think that’s the correct approach. Blue eyeshadow and heavy make-up are just too 70’s.
It seems simpler to order a change of commercials, advertisements and logo, when what’s required is to dig deeper into your already entrenched brand. Are you giving value to your stakeholders, vendors, clients and staff? Will a superficial change of graphics get you better standing, greater exposure and higher profits?
Changing to keep up with the happenings around you is good. But changing for the sake of changing is not.
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[tags]How often to change advertisement[/tags]
3 Replies to “When Is A Change Of Advertisments Good?”
I agree with you that a brand ultimately stand the test of time – of quality and innovation.
Yet the brand should reflect the times and trends and passions of its TA continuously straddling all times.
Good post to mull over.
Solomon
Interesting post! I think that it’s important not to change logos and slogans too frequently.
It always amazes me how well I can remember advertising jingles from my childhood. The ones that I’ve heard recently I don’t remember nearly as well. It’s almost as though a certain amount of time has to pass before something really gets into my subconscious…
Laura, I agree- changing logos and slogans too frequently only causes brand confusion and weakens the impact of your campaign. Obviously it’s important to maintain an up to date image, but it’s possible to do this through making small updates rather than entirely overhauling your advertising. It’s true that you will get bored of your promotions before your customers do and I think it’s important to keep this in mind. Often, companies don’t reap the full potential of an idea simply because there adverts are changed too frequently.