The Fine Art of Selling

My name is Raymond and this is my Advertising Blog. I'm a third-year student in Singapore Management University and my majors are Marketing and Corporate Communications. Those two majors are the closest I can get to advertising, which is what I'm most interested in. Actually, I'm most interested in girls, and in flirting with them, but that's not really a wise career move. So as a practical decision (advertising is NOT a practical decision, I am living a lie), I decided that when I do finally get a career, it will be in the advertising industry. 

After all, advertising is essentially how brands flirt with consumers. 

There used to be a time when a product or service can survive on the basis of its practicality alone. For example, if Scissor A can cut better than Scissor B, then of course, Scissor A will sell better. Scissor A simply has to prove that its better than Scissor B, and that's that.

But times have changed. The market is flooded with so many brands of scissors, and its hard to see which one can or can't make the cut (heh). Moreover, they can be priced differently, or maybe the fact that they can't cut paper doesn't even matter anymore, because they're so beautifully and intricately designed (imagine iScissors, holy balls). A more practical man may say that for scissors, its ability to cut is the only thing that matters, but let's face it, that's no longer how the world works - for your pair to succeed in the market it has to be different...somehow.

And this is where advertising comes in. Advertising distills the special features of the product (it smells like roses!) and then crafts a message which will communicate the benefits of those special features to a particular target audience (Girls will love these pair of scissors, because holy shit, it smells like a rose!).

Ultimately, the goal is for the consumer to take action. To extend my "flirting" analogy, advertisements hope to get the consumer to go on a first date with the brand, and then finally, marry the brand by becoming lifetime customers. (Note: I'd love to talk about brands more, but that'll be for another post).

Last summer, I had the honour of interning in an advertising agency. I had a really great time over there - I loved the culture, the creative energy, and the fast pace. I thought that it'd be really great if I could do this as a full-time thing...because after all, I have ideas, I guess. So I read up on advertising, tried my hand at a few pieces here and there, and opened my eyes to the myriad of advertisements (the good, the bad, the ones which aren't even worth a second look). Heck, I even tried watching Madmen.

I'd like to be a copywriter when I join an ad agency (more on the jobs in advertising in a future post)...and a copywriter needs to be able to write really well. So here I am, killing two birds with one stone by (1) writing more and (2) writing about advertising. Most of my posts will be analyses of advertisements which have caught my eye, and from time to time, I'll post general stuff about advertising which I might have learned in school, or from reading advertising books, and other stuff.

On a final note, before I sign off, I'd just like to say that I'm not all about advertising. I like running, reading, movies, eating, american sitcoms, being Filipino, making jokes, and most importantly...I like girls.

PS: I know the blog looks kinda crappy at the moment. I'll jazz it up soon!