1. Mike Slover
www.whatsthemeat.com
mikeslover@wizardofads.com
618-889-0674

3. 12 Causes Of Advertising
Failure
And How to Avoid Them

4. John Wanamaker once
said, "I know that half
of my advertising
doesn't work. The
problem is, I don't
know which half."

5. A Harvard Study on Brand Loyalty
Revealed Three Types of Customers:
• Type 1: Non-Switchable
There is essentially nothing you can do or say to cause these customers to switch
from the product/service they currently use.
•
Type 2: Switchable
These customers may be won, but only if you say the right thing and keep on
saying it until the prospect is finally convinced.
• Type 3: Switchable for Reasons of Price Alone
The study strongly recommended that you NOT pursue these customers. If
you appeal to these customers, you will likely enjoy initial success, but your
position will never be a strong one, because these customers will switch from
you just as quickly as they switched to you, and for precisely the same reason.

6. “How Advertising Works”
Wharton School of Business: A 2500 page report monitoring the impact
of advertising on hundreds of small businesses over a period of 7 years. Only three
conclusions were reached:
1: There is No Direct Correspondence
between Dollars Invested and Results Gained:
No mathematical formula can be devised to
answer the advertiser’s question, “If I spend
this much on advertising, what can I expect to
happen?”

7. “How Advertising Works”
Wharton School of Business: A 2500 page report monitoring the impact
of advertising on hundreds of small businesses over a period of 7 years. Only
three conclusions were reached:
2: The Variable Which Prohibits a
Mathematical Formula is The Power of the
Message. Two advertisers can reach precisely
the same audience with exactly the same
repetition. One advertiser is successful, while
the other fails miserably. The difference? The
Message.

8. “How Advertising Works”
Wharton School of Business: A 2500 page report monitoring the impact
of advertising on hundreds of small businesses over a period of 7 years. Only three
conclusions were reached:
3: When a message has been uncovered that
generates a positive response, a mathematical
pattern does emerge. The benefit experience in
year two will be twice the benefit experienced
in year one, provided everything else remains
equal and the core message does not change.
The benefit in year three will be three times the
benefit in year one.

9. SO WHAT THE
HECK IS THE
RIGHT
MESSAGE?!?!

10. The Right Message is
Derived From:
•
•
•
•
A good business.
A good business owner.
A strong selling strategy.
The right combination of words.

12. Good advertising can’t fix a bad
business, a bad business owner or
a bad selling idea.
- Roy H. Williams

13. #1. The desire for instant
gratification.

14. Immediate response will be
immediately forgotten.

15. The frequent and consistent use of a
message that has salience will become
stored in long term procedural memory,
causing the customer to think of you first
when they need your product or service but
don’t expect too much too soon, it takes a
lot of patients to become a household name.

16. The chickening out
period usually happens
around the 3rd or 4th
month of a campaign .

18. #2. Attempting to reach
more people than the budget will
allow.

19. #2. Attempting to reach
more people than the budget will
allow.
• Will you reach 100% of
the people and convince
them 10% of the way?
• Or will you reach 10% of
"There is more money
the people and convince
wasted in advertising by
them 100% of the way?
under spending than by
•
overspending. Under Own what the budget
spending in advertising is like
will allow with a
buying a ticket halfway to
frequent & consistent
Europe."
message.
- Morris Hite

20. #3. Assuming the
business owner knows best.

21. • “It’s hard to read the label
when you’re inside the
bottle.” - Mike Webb
• Too much product
knowledge causes the
business owner to answer
questions no one is asking.
This makes for extremely
ineffective advertising.
• What does the customer
care about?

22. #4. Unsubstantiated
claims such as “highest quality at
the lowest price”.

24. #5. Improper use of
passive media.

25. • All media works if done right.
• Which is the highest and best use of your
time and money?
• Print is a great 50 yard dash runner but
intrusive electronic media is the champion
marathon runner.
• With patience, the consistent use of intrusive
media (such as radio and television) will win
the heart of the customer before he is in the
market for the product.

26. #6. Creating ads instead
of campaigns.

29. • Good ads make one point, like a
rhinoceros.
• An advertiser with seventeen different
things to say should commit to a
campaign of at least seventeen
different ads.

30. #7. Obedience to
unwritten rules.

31. If You Put A Black Background
Behind A Black Background

33. You’ll Have A Black Background

34. For some insane reason,
advertisers want their ads
to look and sound like
ads. Why is this?

35. #8. Late week schedules.

36. •

37. #9. Overconfidence in
qualitative targeting.

38. • Saying The Wrong Thing has killed far more ad
campaigns than Reaching The Wrong People.
It is amazing how many people become “the
right people”, when you are saying the right
thing.

39. #10. Event driven
Marketing.

40. • If one percent of the people
who hear your ad for a special
event actually choose to
come, you will be in desperate
need of a traffic cop.
• Yet your real investment will
be in the 99% who did not
come to the event.

41. #11. Great production
without great copy.

42. • Too many ads today are creative without being
persuasive. “Slick, clever, funny, creative and
different” are poor substitutes for “informative,
authentic, humanistic, believable, memorable and
persuasive”.

43. #12. Confusing “response”
with “results”.

44. • The goal of advertising is to
create a clear awareness of
your company and its Unique
Selling Proposition. When we
confuse “Response” with
“Results” we create
“attention getting ads” which
say absolutely nothing.

45. Avoid The 12 Causes
“Concentration is the key to
economical success” - Peter
Drucker
"If you have a good selling idea, your
secretary can write your ad for you."
- Morris Hite

46. You’ll Know Which Half IS Working
John Wanamaker once said, "I know
that half of my advertising doesn't
work. The problem is, I don't know
which half."

48. Mike Slover
www.whatsthemeat.com
mikeslover@wizardofads.com
618-889-0674