How To look At Advertising From First Principles

A unique approach, that breaks down Advertising into it's fundamental elements and attempts to analyses their core utility.

What is Advertising?

Advertising today, has accrued a terrible reputation among the general public. Many of the common folk rather naively view advertising as a capitalistic tool used by big corporations to exploit and manipulate the little people.

They believe by leveraging the media, consumer insights and emotionally charged messaging corporations are just trying to sell products and services.

To be fair they aren't completely wrong in their assessment of the situation. What I feel however is that when looking at advertising, what most people fail to do, is look at the problem from a fundamentally object and unbiased stand point.

When looked at from this point of view one sees that advertising is fundamentally, just a "Means", a Tool, a fantastically effective tool that can bring about really change in society through eliciting action.

By its self advertising is largely amoral, it relies heavily on the individuals intentions and perspectives to give direction to the change it will bring about.

A very important part of advertising is having good product or service, that actually provides real value to the consumer.

What are the core elements of Advertising?

There are four basic core elements to advertising. Any and all advertising requires interaction between these four elements. The art of advertising is to tweak the interactions between these four elements to get your desired outcome.

The Medium: This refers to the all the infrastructure created that allows a singular message to be disseminated out to a mass audience. Examples include Social Media, broadcast television, radio and print mediums.

Each medium has is own unique characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Learning to craft the message to the medium in order to leverage the unique advantages that the medium has in order to reach your audience is a skill in an of its self.

The Message: Possibly the most important element of the process, the message is the vision and the dream. Crafting the right message requires one to have a larger vision or ambition for society and the brand. Articulating the a complicated or what may seem as a controversial message in a simple and powerful way is half of the game.

A well crafted, thoughtful message with a ambitious and noble vision behind it can literally change the world.

The Individual: This is the first element in the process that introduces a lot of volatility to the mix. The individual is who you keep in mind when crafting the message.

You must have a firm idea of who you talking to why you have chosen them for your message. Understanding their mentality, values, morals, sensitivities, biases, etc. is absolutely crucial if you want your message to resonate with them.

It is imperative to understand that message is always received and interpreted by the individual first. This is where the volatility comes in, a singular message can be interpreted in a multitude of ways by different individuals.

This uncertainty in how your message will be interpreted can be a boon or a bane in different circumstances and to an extent can be controlled.

Society: After the individual has interpreted the message, its societies turn. The network effect that your message has is largely an indication of how society has interpreted your message.

This is the second wave of volatility, where the individuals who have interpreted your message communicate and interact with each other and come to a consensus. This is a naturally emergent phenomena and largely a can not be controlled.

In this final stage many things can can happen, for instance your message can understood for what it is by the majority and real positive change can ensue. On the other hand your message can be misunderstood by a few, be viewed as disingenuous and public opinion can then be swayed way from what you intended from your messaging.

Most Advertising is aimless and wasted

Now days advertising is largely looked at as a gimmick with most brands opting for a celebrity brand ambassadors endorsement to sell their product. They believe that by mentioning their brand name 3 times in a 30 second commercial, their customer will be convinced and buy their product. This gross disrespect for the audience is why advertising as an industry is often distrusted and disrespected.

“Half of the money is spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” John Wanamaker

Good advertising is not about cheap gimmicks and endorsements or psychological manipulation tactics. It is instead about empathizing and connecting on a deep level with your consumer. Understanding his needs and wants and catering to them.

It is about reminding him/her that they should strive to be more and use the resources at their disposal to do just that. Buy doing that not only does a company develop sales, they also get loyal customers who believe in the brand which creates an asset to the company in the form of brand equity.

It is as this point that simple advertising for a company transitions to become the companies competitive advantage in the market.

Every Ad is an opportunity to change the narrative.