Advertiser Missed An Opportunity

I was recently driving home and heard an ad on the radio, now the odd time there are good ads on the radio but often they are not.  In this case an advertiser paid good money for an ad but missed a great opportunity.

It was for a local building supply store who had recently changed their brand such that they now represented a different chain.

The ad, though I don’t remember the actual words, went something like,

“We still have the same friendly service, the same low prices, the only thing that has changed is our name”.

I thought what a wasted opportunity!

Here is a perfect chance to invite people in to the store to see what is different.  Why not project the message,

“not only have we changed our name, but come in and see our new line of…”

“We have recently changed our name and as a result, we now have access to many products we couldn’t get before”

and so on.

You see, if all they do is tell you that they are the same as they were, then why would I go in to the store?  What is the call to action? (There was none in the ad by the way).

The point here is that you need to use every opportunity you can to get people in to your store.  What better time than after a name change, or renovation, or new manager, or whatever.  In fact, any reason you can think of can be a reason to come.  And people like to have a reason.  You give them a reason and they will come.

And the reason should not be “because we are the same as we were before”.

A lost opportunity.