Cards In The Window now has its own Squidoo Lens and Google Knol, both featuring a new article on a fascinating part of the history of communication and advertising.
Please take look at our new products and please feel free to add your own comments:
http://www.squidoo.com/advertising-in-sw-london
http://knol.google.com/k/mark-richards/from-news-in-the-square-to-cards-in-the/2m1uh48upqnck/5#
Friday, 23 September 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Advertising, From the Newsagent's Window to the World Wide Web
By Mark Richards
One of the most enduring characteristics of the Internet is how that it has changed the way we look at the whole area of commercial advertising.
Many years ago my wife and I ran a business which involved distributing very large quantities of printed flyers to dwellings on a residential door-to-door basis on behalf of various restaurants, local tradesmen, self-styled nutritional experts and taxi cab operators.
Whilst even back then most residents failed to fully appreciate the benefits to them that the unsolicited arrival of wads of leaflets, cards and letters was supposed to bring, the rationale of it all was simple enough. Out of every thousand or so doors we called upon possibly a hundred leaflets would be viewed, even if only whilst en route to the waste paper bin (no recycling facilities in those days), twenty or so would be read and typically one or two would generate some business for the advertiser. This was enough to make the advertiser's efforts worthwhile after having covered the cost of having the leaflets printed and distributed.
A similar principle applied in the case of advertisements placed in the local newspaper. Most readers would pass them by, no matter how prominently they appeared, but the small number who read and heeded the message would make their insertion a profitable exercise irrespective of the often substantial cost of having them published.
One could argue that the placing of hand-written postcards in shop windows operated to a very different principle. Although the potential audience was a great deal smaller than was the case either with door-to-door leaflet delivery or newspaper advertising, they were there for the benefit of those people who did take the trouble to stop and read them. Thus there was no "nuisance factor", and the proportion of what we would today call "conversions" was therefore significantly higher.
Advertising on the web of course is a different game completely. Whilst some ads in online directories are free and others come at a price, what they do all have in common is that they can be viewed by anybody in the world who follows the appropriate links. The corner shop now sits, unpresumptuous, along the global super highway rather than at the junction of some residential back street in Richmond Upon Thames.
It was when I was browsing the classified ads in the window of a small shop in SW London recently that I found myself wondering whether it could be possible to combine the community spirit of the traditional cards in the window means of advertising with the global efficiency of the Internet.
An unobtrusive little shop occupying each and every corner of the world.
It is an intriguing thought, and just possibly one that is closer to becoming reality than some us may realise.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_P_Richards
One of the most enduring characteristics of the Internet is how that it has changed the way we look at the whole area of commercial advertising.
Many years ago my wife and I ran a business which involved distributing very large quantities of printed flyers to dwellings on a residential door-to-door basis on behalf of various restaurants, local tradesmen, self-styled nutritional experts and taxi cab operators.
Whilst even back then most residents failed to fully appreciate the benefits to them that the unsolicited arrival of wads of leaflets, cards and letters was supposed to bring, the rationale of it all was simple enough. Out of every thousand or so doors we called upon possibly a hundred leaflets would be viewed, even if only whilst en route to the waste paper bin (no recycling facilities in those days), twenty or so would be read and typically one or two would generate some business for the advertiser. This was enough to make the advertiser's efforts worthwhile after having covered the cost of having the leaflets printed and distributed.
A similar principle applied in the case of advertisements placed in the local newspaper. Most readers would pass them by, no matter how prominently they appeared, but the small number who read and heeded the message would make their insertion a profitable exercise irrespective of the often substantial cost of having them published.
One could argue that the placing of hand-written postcards in shop windows operated to a very different principle. Although the potential audience was a great deal smaller than was the case either with door-to-door leaflet delivery or newspaper advertising, they were there for the benefit of those people who did take the trouble to stop and read them. Thus there was no "nuisance factor", and the proportion of what we would today call "conversions" was therefore significantly higher.
Advertising on the web of course is a different game completely. Whilst some ads in online directories are free and others come at a price, what they do all have in common is that they can be viewed by anybody in the world who follows the appropriate links. The corner shop now sits, unpresumptuous, along the global super highway rather than at the junction of some residential back street in Richmond Upon Thames.
It was when I was browsing the classified ads in the window of a small shop in SW London recently that I found myself wondering whether it could be possible to combine the community spirit of the traditional cards in the window means of advertising with the global efficiency of the Internet.
An unobtrusive little shop occupying each and every corner of the world.
It is an intriguing thought, and just possibly one that is closer to becoming reality than some us may realise.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_P_Richards
The Psychology of Advertising
By Saberi Roy
On why it is important to understand mass psychology and the psychological processes of cognition for any successful advertising endeavor...
Advertising has been a form of glorifying or gaining publicity for goods and merchandise since very early times. In fact, advertising has been around as an informal concept since the beginning of civilizations and former methods were oral advertising or claiming the benefits of products verbally when merchants sold goods to people directly on the streets. However with the advent of paper and writing, advertising took a more formal shape.
Egyptians and Ancient Greeks used the papyrus for advertising and rock painting was also used. Advertising in English in magazines as we know today dates back to the end of the 17th century and newspaper advertising in America began during the first part of the 18th century with advertisements for estates. With the growth of mass media and different forms and avenues of communication like radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, and of course the internet in the 20th century, advertising started becoming an important aspect for commercialization of products. People started understanding the potential of advertisements and it became a business with the establishment of advertising agencies with the first advertising agency in US opened in 1841.
With advertising becoming a business in itself, the methods of using advertisements became even more formalized, controlled and systematic and the advertisements for products started appearing as newspaper ads, on billboards, hoardings, as handbills, leaflets, on magazines, newspapers, on TV and radio as commercials and more recently on the internet. Web advertising is now a very powerful means to take the message across to the customers. However to actually appeal to customers, advertising will have to work in accordance with the principles of psychology and sociology. Thus an advertiser or an advertising professional will also have to be a sociologist and a psychologist to really have an impact on the minds of consumers.
The principles of advertising are largely based on cognitive psychology and the psychological processes of attention, perception, association and memory to bring out the complete impact or uses of a product or 'brand'. Any advertisement will have to first focus on the attention that it is able to capture of the consumers. Strong messages, strong visuals and glaring colors are sometimes used on hoardings and billboards. For commercials, attention catching clothes and attractive models are sometimes used.
Once the attention is drawn with the colors and the sounds or words, the focus is on retaining consumer interests by using 'association'. Themes or products which a particular segment of customers could associate with are used thus for baby food, mothers and babies are featured so association would have more to do with relevance or context of the advertisement. Certain colors also have associative value and certain brands and companies use a specific color to promote their products. For example easygroup uses orange and Vodafone uses red as standard color for all advertising. The company logo or symbol is also a part of developing a brand and helps in giving identity to a brand and has a strong associative value.
The association should be such that it not only serves the purpose of quick understanding and perception of the consumers but is also retained in their memory for a long time. Thus memory or retention is an important aspect of the psychology of advertising as only an advertisement that consumers can easily remember for a long time for its novelty or use of words, colors and figures will be the most effective.
The development of a 'brand' is just as effective because a brand helps in driving attention, in developing association (for example, we associate Coke or Pepsi with youth, celebration and a soft drink popular for all occasions) and in memory or retention of any image associated with a service or product. So branding is vital in advertisements as brands help in giving a name and distinct identity of a product. So a Gucci bag or a Sony camera is known for the brand rather than the product.
A brand is recognized in terms of its name, its quality and its reputation with advertisements these days highlighting the uniqueness of brands. For example, HSBC recent advertisements across airports around the world, focus on the differing points of view and different likes and preferences of people across cultures. So when you see such advertisements showing two different perspectives for the same thing, you know this is HSBC. Certain brands develop taglines or motto that sets the brand apart and gives it a distinct character.
You might have wondered why models look lifeless on fashion shows. Fashion shows are usually arranged for designer brands selling clothes and accessories and usually these fashion shows try to accentuate the clothes and that is why the models tend to be rather 'expressionless'. Although these fashion shows project the clothes sans the emoting, in case of commercials, expressions are widely used because through visual medium, emotions have to be transported through the screen to the consumers to create an effect. Putting across a message through a medium is a challenge and advertisers use emotions widely to help people retain the message that describes the product.
Whatever it is, the mantra is to create an impact and have a lasting effect on the minds of the consumers. The message of the product, the motto of the brand and the mind of the consumer, these are the three Ms that are important in advertising.
However it is important to understand that advertising will have to be different for different media. Radio ads should focus on the strength of sounds and words; internet ads will focus on visuals and colors; newspaper ads will focus on space and the theme; and TV ads would focus more on the emotions and the context used. Using motion, capitalized letters, contrasting colors etc are all important and in order to draw attention to the product, some form of highlighting of the product is also done.
How does all this affect the masses, the consumers who will actually buy the product? Apart from the attention drawing process, the retention producing sounds and words that help memory and the associative value of the products and the advertisements, there is another factor namely necessity of the consumer. Advertising is not just enough, as a customer is driven to buy a product largely considering the necessity, quality, features and price of the product.
If a company solely focuses on the physical aspects of any product, like say - an Apple iPhone looks good on the table, then it's probably not the best method to have an impact on the market. The features are as important as the price. Then of course, the 'hype' that triggers a certain mass psychology in a certain way so people sometimes queue up for newly released products. But trying to tap in on mass psychology or a kind of hype or hysteria for a product is only a short term advertising strategy. The longer term establishment of a product is through real quality, usability and price and all companies should emphasize on these ultimately.
Competition may have a lot to do with the type of advertising used by companies, so the weaknesses of other similar products by other companies are highlighted subtly although this may not always have a positive impact on the mind of the customer. Usually most products advertised as unique and not even remotely similar to other products can have a positive effect and can effectively generate hype and consumer curiosity. Focusing on the unique and highlighting the dissimilarity and novelty of a product in a way that attracts curiosity is a certain method to improve popularity of a product, so this gives consumers the reason to know more and they will enter the shops to enquire about the product. Although celebrities are largely used in advertisements to endorse products or promote a brand, the celebrity culture affects only the youth strongly so the entire value of celebrity advertising may be a bit overrated. This will require a separate discussion on celebrity culture.
The final goal of all advertisers and promoters is to ensure that products and services sell and to increase sales and potential consumer interest creating curiosity is a first short term step while introducing a new product into the market. Retaining customer interest is a different ballgame and requires reputation of the brand, product quality, right pricing and continued high quality advertising to ultimately ensure success of the product.
Reflections in Psychology - Part I - by Saberi Roy (2009)
http://www.lulu.com/content/5865445
Saberi Roy - Books
http://saberiroy.tripod.com/books
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Saberi_Roy
On why it is important to understand mass psychology and the psychological processes of cognition for any successful advertising endeavor...
Advertising has been a form of glorifying or gaining publicity for goods and merchandise since very early times. In fact, advertising has been around as an informal concept since the beginning of civilizations and former methods were oral advertising or claiming the benefits of products verbally when merchants sold goods to people directly on the streets. However with the advent of paper and writing, advertising took a more formal shape.
Egyptians and Ancient Greeks used the papyrus for advertising and rock painting was also used. Advertising in English in magazines as we know today dates back to the end of the 17th century and newspaper advertising in America began during the first part of the 18th century with advertisements for estates. With the growth of mass media and different forms and avenues of communication like radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, and of course the internet in the 20th century, advertising started becoming an important aspect for commercialization of products. People started understanding the potential of advertisements and it became a business with the establishment of advertising agencies with the first advertising agency in US opened in 1841.
With advertising becoming a business in itself, the methods of using advertisements became even more formalized, controlled and systematic and the advertisements for products started appearing as newspaper ads, on billboards, hoardings, as handbills, leaflets, on magazines, newspapers, on TV and radio as commercials and more recently on the internet. Web advertising is now a very powerful means to take the message across to the customers. However to actually appeal to customers, advertising will have to work in accordance with the principles of psychology and sociology. Thus an advertiser or an advertising professional will also have to be a sociologist and a psychologist to really have an impact on the minds of consumers.
The principles of advertising are largely based on cognitive psychology and the psychological processes of attention, perception, association and memory to bring out the complete impact or uses of a product or 'brand'. Any advertisement will have to first focus on the attention that it is able to capture of the consumers. Strong messages, strong visuals and glaring colors are sometimes used on hoardings and billboards. For commercials, attention catching clothes and attractive models are sometimes used.
Once the attention is drawn with the colors and the sounds or words, the focus is on retaining consumer interests by using 'association'. Themes or products which a particular segment of customers could associate with are used thus for baby food, mothers and babies are featured so association would have more to do with relevance or context of the advertisement. Certain colors also have associative value and certain brands and companies use a specific color to promote their products. For example easygroup uses orange and Vodafone uses red as standard color for all advertising. The company logo or symbol is also a part of developing a brand and helps in giving identity to a brand and has a strong associative value.
The association should be such that it not only serves the purpose of quick understanding and perception of the consumers but is also retained in their memory for a long time. Thus memory or retention is an important aspect of the psychology of advertising as only an advertisement that consumers can easily remember for a long time for its novelty or use of words, colors and figures will be the most effective.
The development of a 'brand' is just as effective because a brand helps in driving attention, in developing association (for example, we associate Coke or Pepsi with youth, celebration and a soft drink popular for all occasions) and in memory or retention of any image associated with a service or product. So branding is vital in advertisements as brands help in giving a name and distinct identity of a product. So a Gucci bag or a Sony camera is known for the brand rather than the product.
A brand is recognized in terms of its name, its quality and its reputation with advertisements these days highlighting the uniqueness of brands. For example, HSBC recent advertisements across airports around the world, focus on the differing points of view and different likes and preferences of people across cultures. So when you see such advertisements showing two different perspectives for the same thing, you know this is HSBC. Certain brands develop taglines or motto that sets the brand apart and gives it a distinct character.
You might have wondered why models look lifeless on fashion shows. Fashion shows are usually arranged for designer brands selling clothes and accessories and usually these fashion shows try to accentuate the clothes and that is why the models tend to be rather 'expressionless'. Although these fashion shows project the clothes sans the emoting, in case of commercials, expressions are widely used because through visual medium, emotions have to be transported through the screen to the consumers to create an effect. Putting across a message through a medium is a challenge and advertisers use emotions widely to help people retain the message that describes the product.
Whatever it is, the mantra is to create an impact and have a lasting effect on the minds of the consumers. The message of the product, the motto of the brand and the mind of the consumer, these are the three Ms that are important in advertising.
However it is important to understand that advertising will have to be different for different media. Radio ads should focus on the strength of sounds and words; internet ads will focus on visuals and colors; newspaper ads will focus on space and the theme; and TV ads would focus more on the emotions and the context used. Using motion, capitalized letters, contrasting colors etc are all important and in order to draw attention to the product, some form of highlighting of the product is also done.
How does all this affect the masses, the consumers who will actually buy the product? Apart from the attention drawing process, the retention producing sounds and words that help memory and the associative value of the products and the advertisements, there is another factor namely necessity of the consumer. Advertising is not just enough, as a customer is driven to buy a product largely considering the necessity, quality, features and price of the product.
If a company solely focuses on the physical aspects of any product, like say - an Apple iPhone looks good on the table, then it's probably not the best method to have an impact on the market. The features are as important as the price. Then of course, the 'hype' that triggers a certain mass psychology in a certain way so people sometimes queue up for newly released products. But trying to tap in on mass psychology or a kind of hype or hysteria for a product is only a short term advertising strategy. The longer term establishment of a product is through real quality, usability and price and all companies should emphasize on these ultimately.
Competition may have a lot to do with the type of advertising used by companies, so the weaknesses of other similar products by other companies are highlighted subtly although this may not always have a positive impact on the mind of the customer. Usually most products advertised as unique and not even remotely similar to other products can have a positive effect and can effectively generate hype and consumer curiosity. Focusing on the unique and highlighting the dissimilarity and novelty of a product in a way that attracts curiosity is a certain method to improve popularity of a product, so this gives consumers the reason to know more and they will enter the shops to enquire about the product. Although celebrities are largely used in advertisements to endorse products or promote a brand, the celebrity culture affects only the youth strongly so the entire value of celebrity advertising may be a bit overrated. This will require a separate discussion on celebrity culture.
The final goal of all advertisers and promoters is to ensure that products and services sell and to increase sales and potential consumer interest creating curiosity is a first short term step while introducing a new product into the market. Retaining customer interest is a different ballgame and requires reputation of the brand, product quality, right pricing and continued high quality advertising to ultimately ensure success of the product.
Reflections in Psychology - Part I - by Saberi Roy (2009)
http://www.lulu.com/content/5865445
Saberi Roy - Books
http://saberiroy.tripod.com/books
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Saberi_Roy
Monday, 16 May 2011
About Cards In The Window
Everybody has lingered at some time outside the window of the local newsagent's, scanning the cards - items for sale, tradespeople offering their services, local events going on - and we’ve all probably acted on those little ads, perhaps more so than on any other form of classified advertising.
Why? Because of course you can simply nip around the corner to view something for sale. Somebody can be with you to discuss a service or job within a couple of hours and it is all so very local and convenient.
So that was the idea of Cards In The Window really. To combine the power of the Internet with the personal touch of the postcard in the shop window, so that instead of having a card on display in one newsagent’s window you can have the same card in the equivalent of all the newsagents' in your area.
On top of that we provide a forum area where you can ask for recommendations and chat about local neighbourhood issues, plus an area for local events and notices. We hope that overall we are providing a real community-building service.
We want to keep it all very neighbourly and democratic and so we will monitor things carefully with the help of our users.
We hope you enjoy using this service - please let us have any feedback or ideas to help us improve it still further.
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