The Most Important Element of Good Advertising

Coke-Cola sells refreshment. Apple sells the sense of cool. Your physician sells peace of mind.

What do you sell?

The most important element of good advertising is not the product but the benefit. It is the emotional connection you create through images and words that deliver an empathetic connection to the customer. Take this classic example produced for Coke by McCann-Erickson in 1971.

Apple’s iPod is has been a stellar marketing success not only because the iPod is a good product, but because Apple connected with their potential customers right off the bat in the original iPod commercial.

Having perfect pitch, though, doesn’t require multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Here is an example of a B2B ad that I created on a short deadline for a client. Discount Technology Workforce is a business computer solutions company, and they had been losing some of their small business clients to the Geek Squad.

The bottom line is this: the quicker you understand what benefit you sell, the quicker your advertising will become more effective in attracting customers.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• Twelve Reasons Why Advertising Fails
• New Television Spot for Appellate Court Judge Mary Schostok
• Joe Birkett Endorses Dan Cronin
• New Television Campaign for Appellate Court Judge Mary Schostok
• Two New Commercials for Dan Cronin
• Back In the Studio
• God Wants Me to Purchase Baseball Tickets? Really?
• Catholics Come Home to Chicago, Joliet and Rockford
• New Television Commercial for Dan Cronin
• Shooting and Editing This Week