View Advertising as Planting the Seed

When analyzing results of an ad campaign, you’ll be misled if you limit your perspective.
     Consider what a current eMarketer article says about converting someone from viewing an Internet banner ad into making a purchase. Based on their analysis of MediaMind data for results of banner ad campaigns worldwide, eMarketer reports that only about 20% of the conversions come after a click on the banner ad at the time it is first viewed. The remainder of the resulting sales—about 80%—come later, stimulated by viewing the ad even though there was no click-through right then.
     An ad plants the seed, and this seed often takes time to sprout. Click-through rates are an overly limited index when assessing Internet-based ad campaigns. In the same way, looking at the results from only the first ad in an overall media campaign or only the next-day results from a single-ad campaign can mislead you.
     Actually, you’ll want to plant a few different types of seeds, each of which can take a different amount of time to attain the objective you intend:

• One type will sprout into the idea of purchasing a specific product from you.
• A second type of seed is the idea of purchasing other products in that category from you. Showing related products in the same ad helps accomplish this. If you’re using a single-product ad, research from London Business School, Harvard Business School, and Duke University indicates you’ll do a better job of planting the multiproduct idea if you list available accessories for the item—such as a tripod for a camera—then if you list alternative features for the item—such as alternative memory card capacities.
• A third type of seed will sprout into the idea of shopping at your store for a range of product categories. Accomplishing this is straightforward in the multiple-product ad: Show a range of product categories. In the single-product ad, aim to establish an appealing image. The formatting, background, and type fonts contribute to this. In the content, a country-of-origin statement for the product also can contribute. Shoppers associate certain countries of origin with desirable product characteristics. Sometimes the association is product-specific: Cheeses and perfumes from France have a special cachet, as do cutlery and timepieces from Switzerland. Sometimes the association springs from a nationalistic spirit: “I buy what’s designed, fabricated, and/or assembled in my own country.”

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Prime Customer Interest with Adjacencies
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