Running head: ADVERTISING COMPARED 1

Advertising Practices Compared

Kevin Templin

University of South Florida

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Ogilvy wrote (1985) “When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you

find it ‘creative’. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product” (P. 7) The

advertising industry has changed quite a bit since Ogilvy wrote that sentence back in 1985.

However, there are some principles of advertising that still hold true to this day. Characters can

be used to sell a commercial, research can set you apart from your competitors, and positioning

is important for both a company and its consumers.

According to Ogilvy (1985), “In some commercials, a ‘character’ is used to sell your

product over a period of years. The character becomes the living symbol of the product. Provided

they are relevant to your product, characters are above average in their ability to change brand-

preference (p. 108). Characters can help consumers relate to a brand on an intimate level. (Costa,

2014) A more intimate relationship with a company also leads to better brand awareness. Now

with social media companies can further use their characters to interact with its customers

(Costa, 2014). It’s better for customers to associate a brand with a lovable character than a cold,

unfeeling company (Costa, 2014) On the flip side to characters, some companies prefer to use

celebrities to help further brand awareness and to get their message across. The issue with using

celebrities is that sometimes they fall in and out of style (Costa, 2014). Ogilvy himself wasn’t too

keen on using celebrity’s testimonial’s either. Ogilvy said (1985), “celebrity testimonials are

below average in their ability to change brand preference… Viewers guess that the celebrity has

been bought…” (p. 109). A perfect example of a company using a character to help sell a

commercial is Progressive’s Flo. In the early 2000s David Pratt, Progressive’s Business Leader,

measured awareness of the insurance company (“Behind the Apron”, 2018.). Pratt wanted to see

if people could name progressive without prompting. Pratt was made painfully aware that at the

time Progressive’s market share was at four percent and only two percent of people could recall
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Progressive from an awareness test (“Behind the Apron”, 2018). Progressive was simply

producing ads that were different from its brand. Progressive hired Arnold ad agency to produce

new ads (“Behind the Apron”, 2018). Initially, Arnold came up with the idea of a white, pure

superstore to offset the awful insurance shopping experience (“Behind the Apron”, 2018).

Stephanie Courtney, the actress who played Flo, used improv with her lines and added comedic

whit (“Behind the Apron” 2018). After that first commercial, the focus was no longer on the

store but more so on Flo. Progressive’s Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Charney described this

change in direction as, “an advertising accident.” (“Behind the Apron”, 2018) This “accident”

proved extremely beneficial for Progressive’s overall brand awareness. As far as having a social

media following goes Flo has 4.6 million friends on Facebook and 53k followers on Twitter;

further strengthening the bond between Progressive and its customers. Eleven years and 150

commercials later Flo has helped Progressive solidify its self as a major insurance company in

the minds of millions of consumers (“Behind the Apron”, 2018). Charney said, “We have

arguably the number one icon in the country. When you see Progressive you think about that

icon. You think about the power of those 11 letters” (“Behind the Apron”, 2018).

Ogilvy went on to write, (1985) “Advertising people who ignore research are as

dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.” (P. 158) Research is an invaluable

tool for the advertising professional. Through Marketing Research, you can get to know your

audience, segment your market and develop insights about the said market (Arens, 2017).

Advertising agencies can also use IMC research to better help the creative process (Arens, 2017).

For example, after an ad concept has been decided on, a pretest is performed to flush out any

foreseeable issues that might arise with the new ad and the type of emotional response that the ad

might invoke (Arens, 2017). Most importantly, however, a posttest is performed to see how well
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an ad performed (Arens, 2017). One way of testing the performance of an ad is to look at product

sells after the ad has aired (Arens, 2017). Old Spice used market research to help sell their body

wash for men (Guerrero, 2015). In their ad titled, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” Old

Spice broke the mold of selling men’s body wash that used beautiful women and instead went

with humor and targeted women (Guerrero, 2015). Wieden Kennedy, the American ad agency

reasonable for the ad, conducted market research and found that it was women who did most of

the shopping for bathroom products (Guerrero, 2015). The market research also found that men

didn’t enjoy commercials that suggested that the only thing that made them attractive was the

type of body soap they used; similar to how Ax sets up their commercials (Guerrero, 2015). On

the flip side, Old Spice created a humorous Super Bowl Ad using NFL player Isaiah Mustafa that

won both women and men over.

Ogilvy writes (1985) “Now consider how you want to ‘position’ your product” (P.12) It

seems that positioning was in its infancy when Ogilvy’s wrote his book on advertising. Though

positioning wasn’t narrowly defined. Ogilvy said (1985), “This curious verb is in great favor

among marketing experts, but no two of them agree what it means. My own definition is ‘what

the product does, and who is it for” (P. 12). Ogilvy then goes on to talk about how his company

positioned Dove soap for women and the SAAB as the best car for winter (Ogilvy, 1985). Today,

positioning is an incredibly important concept in the world of advertising. Positioning is defined

as, “the place a brand occupies competitively in the minds of consumers” (Arens, 2017).

Positioning is important because it what helps differentiate your product or service from that of

your competitors (Arens, 2017). There are different ways to position a product or service:

Product attribute (a feature most important), Price/quality, Use/application (how a product is

used), Product class, Product user, Product competitor, and Cultural symbol (Arens, 2017). Both
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BMW and Volvo use product attribute positioning in their ads. BMW is looking to position its

cars as performance-based with a line that reads, “Joy was born for the left lane” (“Ad of the

World”, 2010). The ad is calling out to the consumers who see performance as an important

factor in the car buying process. Whereas Volvo’s Ad has a line that reads, “Life is better lived

together” (Kenwright, 2015). Volvo’s ad is calling out to consumers who see safety and family

as an important factor when buying a car.

David Ogilvy’s book was the most comprehensive book of its era. Ogilvy was one of the

major players that paved the road for future advertising professionals. Some practices of

advertising have changed to fit the ever-growing profession. However, there are some tried and

true practices of Ogilvy’s time that still apply today. Characters can be used to sell a commercial,

research can set you apart from your competitors, and positioning is important for both a

company and its consumers.

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References

Arens, W. F., & Weigold, M. F. (2017). Contemporary advertising and integrated marketing

communications. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Behind the Apron. The story of Flo. (2018). Retrieved from

https://progressive.mediaroom.com/featured-video

BMW: Joy Was Born for the Left Lane. (2010, June 01). Retrieved from

https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/bmw_joy_was_born_for_the_left_lane

Costa, M., Choueke, M., Woollen, P., Vizard, S., Shotton, R., Fleming, M., Joy, S. (2014,

October 17). Brand characters can bring home the bacon – Marketing Week. Retrieved

March 5, 2019, from https://www.marketingweek.com/2010/11/09/brand-characters-can-

bring-home-the-bacon

Guerrero, A., & Guerrero, A. (2015, June 28). 10 Most Compelling Ad Campaigns of the

Decade: Why They Went Viral. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/anna-guerrero/10-

most-compelling-ad-campaigns-of-the-decade-and-what-your-brand-can-learn-from.html

Kenwright, J. (2015, November 25). Volvo No longer 'Exclusive'. Retrieved from

https://www.motoring.com.au/volvo-no-longer-exclusive-5540/

Ogilvy, D. (1985). Ogilvy on advertising. London: Vintage.

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