It was a lazy daybreak. A national holiday for Vinayagar Chathurthi and we were off from work. And my son decided not to go for his early morning tennis practice and that gave me some extra time to indulge in things I otherwise find it difficult to.
The first thing I did was grab a copy of the local vernacular newspaper and decided I will read it to the end today. News, views and advertisements – it had it all. It was a Chennai Edition and Page 7 and my eyeballs stopped at an advertisement from a leading Consumer Durable Dealer – approximately the size of over 600 square centimeters and yes, its an expensive ad.
And what did that ad communicate?
It was ad ad promoting special festival offers (read as Vinayagar Chathurthi, though the ad communicated it subtly with a Ganesha icon rather than saying it verbatim) with discounts upto 64%. Awesome! Discounts upto 64% is vow. But I feel they should have stopped with it. The layout went to list about 60 products with MRP and discounted price and some products in the layout needed a magnifying glass to read the print.
So what are they trying to achieve? A Point of Sale flyer with all the products and offers converted to an advertisement? Did they ever realise that the eyeball attention on a page on a newspaper is just a few seconds and what they have tried to communicate is too much to digest in too little a time?
Do prospects have the time to sit and go through the entire advertisement to see what products offers what discounted price? Would’nt it have been better if they just said Discounts upto 64% across their product range and just displayed a collage of products that they sell in their showrooms?
Debates are welcome! Feel free to write to me at mail@samjebadoss.com if you fee otherwise. Afterall, I have said I am ever learning!
Make that Sale! 
Leave a comment