Ads are not just about “manipulate people into buying something they wouldn’t normally want”. Ads are also about “informing people about something they would want, if they only knew that it exist”, which is the most benign form of advertisement.
And, critically, ads are about building brand familiarity. Which is the easy-to-overlook aspect I’m going to focus on.
Imagine if you wanted a soft carbonated drink, and the three options at the nearest shop were: Oh Cola Soda, Coca-Cola and Penny’s Purple Drink. The price difference is, to you, negligible. You’re only willing to spend up to 5 seconds on the buying decision. With that, which one would you buy?
It’s probably Coca-Cola. You are familiar with Coca-Cola, it’s a known quantity, and you don’t hate the taste. The rest of the shelf looks like some strange off-brand drinks you’ve never heard of—which makes buying them a gamble. And why do you find yourself in a world where you’re more familiar with Coca-Cola than with the other two? Because someone spent literal billions a year on advertisement to make sure that anyone in the US, young or old, knows that Coca-Cola is a thing.
By spending money on ads, the Coca-Cola Company created the familiarity—which then served as a little nudge in millions of little buying decisions that happen all across the country. Millions of people would try Coca-Cola before they try any other soda. And millions of people who try Coca-Cola would like it enough to prefer it slightly over “unknown unfamiliar soda” for the rest of their lives. Which makes it all worth it.
Ads are not just about “manipulate people into buying something they wouldn’t normally want”. Ads are also about “informing people about something they would want, if they only knew that it exist”, which is the most benign form of advertisement.
And, critically, ads are about building brand familiarity. Which is the easy-to-overlook aspect I’m going to focus on.
Imagine if you wanted a soft carbonated drink, and the three options at the nearest shop were: Oh Cola Soda, Coca-Cola and Penny’s Purple Drink. The price difference is, to you, negligible. You’re only willing to spend up to 5 seconds on the buying decision. With that, which one would you buy?
It’s probably Coca-Cola. You are familiar with Coca-Cola, it’s a known quantity, and you don’t hate the taste. The rest of the shelf looks like some strange off-brand drinks you’ve never heard of—which makes buying them a gamble. And why do you find yourself in a world where you’re more familiar with Coca-Cola than with the other two? Because someone spent literal billions a year on advertisement to make sure that anyone in the US, young or old, knows that Coca-Cola is a thing.
By spending money on ads, the Coca-Cola Company created the familiarity—which then served as a little nudge in millions of little buying decisions that happen all across the country. Millions of people would try Coca-Cola before they try any other soda. And millions of people who try Coca-Cola would like it enough to prefer it slightly over “unknown unfamiliar soda” for the rest of their lives. Which makes it all worth it.