Stores are environments we're all used to. We've been going shopping all our lives. We feel completely at home picking up a product and reading the label when we're shopping for things we need to buy, and that's exactly what you have to do when you're shopping for advertising subjects.
What you'll really be doing is your own little version of market research. What it looks like you're doing is plain, old, every day shopping.
Analyze everything there is to know about a product you like. Find out what's in it. Talk to the people who sell it. Talk to the people who buy it. And do those things for every product you're interested in. Become so intimately acquainted with those products that you could discuss them one-to-one with a friend. Because that's exactly what you'll be doing in an ad.
Stroll through the grocery store. Take a long leisurely look over the shelves. You might be surprised at what you find. You may even run across a few things you've never noticed before.
Maybe you'd like to do an ad or a whole campaign for Chinese vegetables. Or for a line of spices. Or for a turkey. Or for chili. One quick look at most waistlines will tell you that food is something with which we're all too familiar. So, just pick out something that whets your appetite and that you think would be interesting to work on. More important than anything else, pick out something for which you think it would be fun to make ads.
Do you know anything about tools? Take a walk through a hardware store. Look at the tools. Is there one that has a distinct advantage over the others like it? An advantage that could be exploited in an ad with an idea that would compel people to buy it?
What about auto mechanics? Do you know anything about cars? Visit an auto parts store. Or sewing? There are lots of places where you can check out sewing machines. Work with anything you want.
Another good way to make spec ads for your book is to invent a product. Aside from giving you something for which to make ads, inventing a product will also give you the chance to show that you're an idea person, and not just an advertising idea person either. Invent a product in a field that you know something about. Make a product that already exists do something better. Maybe you can even give it a new name.
Go to the other extreme. Instead of being practical and safe, be zany. Invent a product for a field that you know nothing about. Get crazy. Invent a product which performs a function that you invented, too.
If you do a great ad, no interviewer will care how insane the product it.
Just don't become an alchemist. Don't create a deodorant that lasts for a year, or a skin cream that instantly and completely removes all wrinkles. Anyone could sell products like those.
You could pick an existing product in a field you know nothing about and make yourself an expert in that field. Interview the people who buy the product. Find out what they like and don't like about it. Visit the manufacturer. Then do an advertising campaign for it. Granted, it's a little time consuming to base every ad in your book on either an invented product or on something about which you have made yourself an expert, but either one or both approaches would be great ideas for part of it.
There's another way to build your portfolio, and this might be the best. Go through newspapers and magazines; watch television and listen to the radio. Tear out all the ads you don't like. Remember all the TV and radio commercials you thought were boring and just plain bad. Take notes and make sketches if that will help. Then, take all that bad advertising and turn it into good advertising by re-doing it the way you think it should be done. Give your ads better concepts, better headlines, and better layouts. Make sure your ads exploit a product's benefits better than they've been exploited in the ads you don't like.
Maybe you can find a benefit which has been exploited, but you feel it's the wrong one. Perhaps there's another product advantage which you feel would be more saleable. Create some advertising which exploits that benefit.
Maybe one of the ads you picked has exploited the correct sales point, but you think it could be stated in another way. Do an ad with a headline that would hit quicker and a layout that would make your ad more visible than the one you think is weak.
Don't fret over whether you're right about what's wrong with an ad. Just be sure you honestly believe that your ad is better than the one you're criticizing.Stores are environments we're all used to. We've been going shopping all our lives. We feel completely at home picking up a product and reading the label when we're shopping for things we need to buy, and that's exactly what you have to do when you're shopping for advertising subjects.
What you'll really be doing is your own little version of market research. What it looks like you're doing is plain, old, every day shopping.
Analyze everything there is to know about a product you like. Find out what's in it. Talk to the people who sell it. Talk to the people who buy it. And do those things for every product you're interested in. Become so intimately acquainted with those products that you could discuss them one-to-one with a friend. Because that's exactly what you'll be doing in an ad.
Stroll through the grocery store. Take a long leisurely look over the shelves. You might be surprised at what you find. You may even run across a few things you've never noticed before.
Maybe you'd like to do an ad or a whole campaign for Chinese vegetables. Or for a line of spices. Or for a turkey. Or for chili. One quick look at most waistlines will tell you that food is something with which we're all too familiar. So, just pick out something that whets your appetite and that you think would be interesting to work on. More important than anything else, pick out something for which you think it would be fun to make ads.
Do you know anything about tools? Take a walk through a hardware store. Look at the tools. Is there one that has a distinct advantage over the others like it? An advantage that could be exploited in an ad with an idea that would compel people to buy it?
What about auto mechanics? Do you know anything about cars? Visit an auto parts store. Or sewing? There are lots of places where you can check out sewing machines. Work with anything you want.
Another good way to make spec ads for your book is to invent a product. Aside from giving you something for which to make ads, inventing a product will also give you the chance to show that you're an idea person, and not just an advertising idea person either. Invent a product in a field that you know something about. Make a product that already exists do something better. Maybe you can even give it a new name.
Go to the other extreme. Instead of being practical and safe, be zany. Invent a product for a field that you know nothing about. Get crazy. Invent a product which performs a function that you invented, too.
If you do a great ad, no interviewer will care how insane the product it.
Just don't become an alchemist. Don't create a deodorant that lasts for a year, or a skin cream that instantly and completely removes all wrinkles. Anyone could sell products like those.
You could pick an existing product in a field you know nothing about and make yourself an expert in that field. Interview the people who buy the product. Find out what they like and don't like about it. Visit the manufacturer. Then do an advertising campaign for it. Granted, it's a little time consuming to base every ad in your book on either an invented product or on something about which you have made yourself an expert, but either one or both approaches would be great ideas for part of it.
There's another way to build your portfolio, and this might be the best. Go through newspapers and magazines; watch television and listen to the radio. Tear out all the ads you don't like. Remember all the TV and radio commercials you thought were boring and just plain bad. Take notes and make sketches if that will help. Then, take all that bad advertising and turn it into good advertising by re-doing it the way you think it should be done. Give your ads better concepts, better headlines, and better layouts. Make sure your ads exploit a product's benefits better than they've been exploited in the ads you don't like.
Maybe you can find a benefit which has been exploited, but you feel it's the wrong one. Perhaps there's another product advantage which you feel would be more saleable. Create some advertising which exploits that benefit.
Maybe one of the ads you picked has exploited the correct sales point, but you think it could be stated in another way. Do an ad with a headline that would hit quicker and a layout that would make your ad more visible than the one you think is weak.
Don't fret over whether you're right about what's wrong with an ad. Just be sure you honestly believe that your ad is better than the one you're criticizing.
