Скачать или смотреть P&G faith in Advertising

Norman Levy - Director of Advertising Development at P&G for over 40 years - used to tell a story about a delegation of Saudi Royals visiting Cincinnati to hear directly the secrets of P&G’s legendary marketing prowess. A self-styled Jewish New Yorker with the proud surname of Levy he confessed to having faced these distinguished Arab dignitaries with some trepidation. However, his presentation had gone well and finished with his underlining a fundamental of P&G’s marketing philosophy – that research underpinned all their activities but in the end their belief in the power of effective advertising to drive their brands and their investment in the media necessary to communicate the benefits of their products was a matter of faith.
The leading Saudi prince raised his head at this point and asked, “Mr. levy - just how much money does Procter &Gamble spend globally on all this advertising” to which he answered –in 2017 money “about $7 billion”. “That” – said his majesty opening his large and penetrating eyes very wide – “that, Mr. Levy, is a lot of Faith”.
This story was told by Norman of course to illustrate a point. Every argument ever made invites a counter argument and for every piece of research which supports a decision there will be research which makes the decision questionable. P&G invests enormous sums on advertising their brands and has done so consistently for over a century. For almost all that time they have also invested large sums of money in research to tease out what it is about advertising in general that works and what there is in a given piece of advertising that works and what does not. But no research can give absolute comfort and no research can provide absolute confidence that an advertising investment is worth it. It is ultimately a matter of belief – of faith. That to survive and prosper a brand must be perceived to be better or different to its competitors – that it must be preferred to its competitors by such a margin that its customers will become loyal and the brands value will grow. But the magic will not work if the brands owner does not tell customers that it is different or better – that it is what they want or need and uniquely so vis a vis its competitors. That is done in what P&G calls advertising and what they identify as Copy.
You may call it belief or confidence or faith, but you must have it – in what you offer and faith in the power of what you say about it TO PERSUADE. If you do not have it do not spend – not $7 billion not $ 7 000 not $7. It is not what you spend which is in question it is whether you spend on advertising – communication – and when you spend on what you spend – the Copy content.
But once you decide to spend your $7 better you spend it well and that is where we are going in the next class – what is spending even the smallest amount of money on advertising WELL. Join us!