How does good advertising & marketing work? 12 basic patterns

There are hundreds of thousands of advertising messages - but only 12 basic patterns of good advertising. An overview with good and bad examples.

Whats wrong?

Some time ago I was on the street and saw this advertising poster for the civil rights movement Solidarity (BüSo) across the street. And exactly as you see it now: In other words: The headline, the picture and the call to choose “BüSo” were recognizable. Not the yellow small print.

Perhaps I will now come out as politically uninterested, but until then I was completely unknown to BüSo. I vaguely suspected that Bü could stand for citizens and So for social or solidarity. What all of this had to do with Africa and agriculture during the European elections was a mystery to me. Maybe a trick to make the viewer curious?

But for me this is not about BüSo or its content and I certainly don't want to drag it through the cocoa. In my opinion, it is much more a successful example of how poster advertising shouldn't be: namely, simply too complicated.

Less is more!

The books on the subject (advertising)

Because the party has apparently decided to press all of its complex content onto one poster. This did not result in a clear content with which the viewer could find out at a glance what the party stands for, but rather a bit of a mess:

You automatically ask yourself: is it now about agriculture, Citizens of Aid for Africa? It doesn't get any better with the fine print either: what is the Peccora Commission? Why should the auto industry of all things be converted for Africa? And investments in construction - in Europe or Africa?

And it can be done better

As I said, it's not about the content: It would have been better to simply pin the most important keywords on a neutral background. These are keywords with which everyone can start something and everyone can see at a glance what the party stands for.

Quite simply: less is more. Especially when it comes to poster advertising. Because it is already expensive enough - and if it is Companys and also parties in already posters invest, these should also be meaningful and show at a glance, even from a distance, what the company stands for.

Good advertising is creative

Discounts for your success (advertising)!

A good one for a change Idea Deutsche Bahn had: They let their service staff who serve drinks on the train wear T-shirts with a drink menu and prices printed on them. Practical, because: That's how they see it customers no matter what the drinks cost.

She could Solution for all pubs whose staff thinks it is too much effort to bring their guests the drinks menu before ordering the drinks - a fact that always surprises me personally. After all, I have to Customer first know what's available before I can order! And above all: The effort for this extra service is extremely small, but brings a great benefit!

Original promotional gifts are fun

An idea that is now old, but is still used far too seldom: USB stick shapes, for example a sushi, a car - or even a sperm! The author argues that companies should give them to their customers as promotional gifts instead of the usual, boring USB sticks with company names.

The reason is psychological obvious: original promotional gifts increase the memory value significantly, contribute to branding and ultimately increase the customer retention. So a great idea. However, I have a small point of criticism: The USB sticks are much more unwieldy for the handbag, for example!

My sofa can already run!

However, creative advertising is not always good. And not every advertising idea can be applied to every product. Coffee-To-Go, for example, is in: fast, hip, cool. successful Marketing! Who would have thought that cup coffee could ever have such an image? But the to-go hype can also be whole fast Becoming a paradox when applied to other objects. Sofas for example!

Does everything, no matter how banal, have to be hip all of a sudden? There are eg things that you could already take away 'on the Hand” when nobody was talking about coffee-to-go. Döner Kepab, for example. Or – even further back in history – ice cream. bag or cup. That's how it's known. In New York, absurdly in Little Italy, they made Gelati-To-Go out of it. It's still the same, just supposed to sound hipper somehow. And it sounds a little strange to me in the Italian plural form, actually every customer just wants an ice cream.. well, let's leave these subtleties.

Well, that still fits somehow. But I found an advertisement that I recently saw in Berlin Kreuzberg to be completely idiotic: Sofas-to-go. The idea of ​​making furniture cheaper because you don't have it delivered but take away with you is not new either. But: You always need a car for that. When I go to go, on the other hand, I always think of something that I can pick up and carry away. Doesn't work here. But who knows, maybe that is meant differently? Maybe you can put the sofa on a leash and walk home all by yourself?

Advertising failures in social media

That you can do with targetingOnline-Advertising can also do a lot wrong, as this example shows. I like Italy, the food, my friends there. And I'm interested in Italian politics. Fac has all this tooebook notices – and regularly suggests Italophile Pages to me. That some suggestions fit, others don't - ok. Here, however, it was light tasteless.

Facbook suggested me to like Nutella's page. Well, now, as far as I know, Ferrero doesn't use palm oil in their products, so there's probably nothing so reprehensible about that. However, I found the explanation shocking: “Many people who like Giovanni Falcone also like Nutella”. At least in this connection. Perhaps one or the other still remembers: Falcone was an investigating magistrate in Palermo and the Italian symbol in the fight against organized crime in Italy. In 1992 he was awarded with his Ms. and three bodyguards killed in a bomb attack. Maybe that's why I'm so frightened because I'm dealing with my own Eyes saw what in Naples poverty and organized crime can make an entire region.

Of course is me clearthat the connection for Facebook, which automatically displays recommended pages, is somehow logical. Nutella is from Ferrero, an Italian Company, Falcone was Italian, both apparently have many identical fans. However, that is exactly where it shows for me weakness of the automated search algorithms, which simply display everything at random without a feeling for cultural subtleties - and as you can see, sometimes go horribly wrong. Here would be Facebook It is advisable to show a little more cultural instinct, also with a view to global expansion, and perhaps to refine the search filters accordingly - otherwise Zuckerberg will be stuck in some fat bowl.

The 12 basic patterns of good advertising

But what are the 12 basic patterns of good advertising? Seth Stevenson watched commercials for a year and demonstrated the results in detail and illustrated his site. Accordingly, good advertising follows one of these 12 Pattern:

1. Show the product
2. Show the problem for which the product is the solution
3. Show a symbol or analogy that demonstrates the problem
4. Show a symbol or analogy that demonstrates the solution to the problem / benefit of the product
5. Present the product better compared to competing products
6. Wrap the advertisement in a good story that highlights the benefits of the product
7. First, present a series of examples that show the advantages of the product - then explain the product at the end
8. An expert or even more familiar to the viewer explains the product
9. Link your own product with a celebrity
10. Link the product to a specific situation, a specific experience
11. Emphasize what is very special and very typical about the product
12. To make a parody of something already known

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