Direct Response “Yell & Sell” Vs. Branding
But wait there’s more! Call now! These calls to action used to dominate the airwaves especially in the overnight hours. It was known as Direct Response Advertising or As Seen On TV Advertising. Recently, with the proliferation of social media platforms, people do not want to subject themselves to the “yell and sell”. They want to be entertained and not sold. But now. A more elegant, “soft sell” seems to be replacing Direct Response Advertising. The new softer sell commercials strategy is being dubbed “Branding”. Although the name branding has become the new marketing department favorite catch word, it’s not new in any sense. Proctor and Gamble has been doing it and excelling in it since the dawn of the soap operas.
There is a huge difference between Direct Response Advertising and Branding or Image Advertising also known as Consumer Advertising. Direct response advertising is designed to sell immediately. It seeks to get the viewer to take a specific action and buy the product now. Click on this, go online and order, or call now! Direct Response TV advertising always has an offer and a Call To Action in it. Brand or Consumer Advertising seeks to instill a good feeling and an emotional response to a brand.
Driving a BMV is an exhilarating escape experience even though you are stuck in the mundane world of commuter traffic. Coke is a drink you serve to entertain the friends you love and build relationships. Chanel No. 5 is a fragrance that opens your everyday world to new adventures, fantasies, exotic lovers, and irresistibility. Brand advertising tries to evoke an image or a feeling and not a specific buying action.
The good thing about Direct Response Advertising is that it is measurable. You can know within minutes of a commercial running whether it sells or performs well or not. In fact, we have several industry measures that we monitor to judge a commercial’s success. We use statistics like the Media Efficiency Ratio (MER) which is a ratio that divides the amount spent to run the message versus the amount earned. Let’s say you spent $100 to run the spot, and it generates $200 dollars. You would have an MER of 2 ($200 Earned/$100 Spent= 2 MER). A ratio like that tells you that you double your media investment every time you run the spot. That normally is considered a good return.
You can run a Branding commercial for months and not understand how well it is working and whether it is profitable or not. If sales are growing, most marketers do not want to fix what isn’t broken, but they will never figure out the actual contribution to sales their advertising is making.
If you are a marketer, here is a guide to understand whether you should use direct response advertising, branding, or some combination of both. Basically, you should “always be branding” even when you have an offer and a call to action in your message.
Usually in an advertising message you give information that will help solve a problem and highlight the product you are marketing. In direct response advertising you give an offer and try to sell it right at that moment. When you are branding, you are creating a good feeling and confidence about your brand and product so when a consumer goes into a retail outlet or on the internet, they would rather pick your brand over another one.
If you are just starting out, you may not have enough capital to devote the advertising dollars to a branding campaign that takes time to develop a consumer impression of your brand. In that case, a direct response campaign is a necessary choice. However, even though you are just starting out, you should also brand your product within the DRTV spot.
If you have survived for awhile, and you now have distribution in retail outlets, it may be a good strategy to evolve into a branding strategy. That way, the consumer can have a favorable impression of your brand over others when they see your product sitting on a store shelf right next to another brand.
In the long run, branding can be more valuable because it builds confidence and trust in your brand name so your new product can be released with the power of your brand name behind them. In the short term, if you are immediately trying to recoup advertising costs and launch a product you can grow, direct response may be the focus of your marketing strategy.
Where is your product in its evolution or lifespan? A long-term, soft sell, branding strategy can be disastrous for a start-up product launch. A DRTV “Yell and Sell” strategy can severely limit the potential growth and expansion of a product that would benefit from the power of a brand.
It is important to understand where your product falls in its product lifecycle and what your company can afford before making the choice to sell well today or sell fantastic tomorrow. Branding costs more because it takes longer; however, the potential for future profits can be greater. Direct Response generates sales immediately, but if perceived as another “As Seen On TV” product, it’s growth and future could be limited.
Both branding and direct response are advertising options. It is the savvy marketer’s choice to balance the two and optimize their sales and profits.
For marketing advice, branding, and award-winning copy writing, direction, and commercial production contact Michael Dugan: mdugan@ThrillStreet.com