A good rule of thumb is that a prospective customer must be exposed to your advertisement somewhere between three and eight times before he will be moved to act on it. The progression goes more or less like this:
First Exposure
Your message gets onto your customer's radar screen. However, you can't go so far as to assume he is now aware of your message.Second Exposure
This time your customer pays some attention to the ad but probably still does not listen to the message carefully.Third Exposure
If you are lucky, your customer may start processing your message. At this point, you can probably assume that you have established some degree of awareness of your advertising message.Fourth Exposure
By now, your advertising is creating interest in your customer's mind. He is not only aware of your product, he is considering how your product may enhance his lifestyle.Fifth exposure
Interest begins to evolve toward commitment.Sixth Exposure
The advertisement triggers a response.
The point is, your advertising is going to have to work long and hard to trigger a response. A little impatience on your part can kill an advertising program before it has the chance to succeed. Repetition is a good thing! Frequent advertising campaign changes also result in unnecessary advertising development costs. These are dollars that could otherwise be invested in additional media to deliver your sales message to more people. Every dollar invested in creating and producing ads is a dollar that cannot be used to deliver your message to your customers.
Finally, frequent advertising campaign changes can result in the delivery of multiple messages, which may confuse your customers. If every ad is different, your customers are not going to know who you are because in their minds, your brand is suffering a split personality. Conflicting brand messages make for confused customers, which ultimately spells disaster for your product. The end result is that you won't establish your sales message.
A good rule of thumb is this: the typical Underdog advertiser generally does not have the funds to maintain a sufficiently heavy advertising weight to wear out a campaign in less than a year. Furthermore, a good campaign should be sustainable over a number of years, no matter what the spending might be. After all, the Marlboro Man and Jolly Green Giant have been with us for a long, long time. Be consistent!
