“What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.”
– David Ogilvy
My take: I agree that it’s content that eventually makes consumers make a decision to buy. But I’m not sure it’s only content that makes people pay attention in the first place. Content marketing is a trendy thing right now (although it’s been around forever), and it is no doubt valuable and necessary. But it’s not everything. You still have to get people to consume that content. You still have to do enough to just get their attention. Content does it some of the time, but not all of the time.
You need form and content. You need emotional stimulus to make someone want to buy, and logical stimulus to make someone happy they bought.
Form and content serve different purposes, but they are both equally important.
David Ogilvy doesn’t want you to lie to his wife. Does your marketing tell the whole truth?
The 10 best posts in 2009 for Marketing In Progress, a blog dedicated to making sense of marketing communications for small business and direct sellers.
David Ogilvy, advertising expert, observes that the content of advertising, not the form of advertising, is what makes consumers respond to advertising by purchasing.
