Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2011, in the middle of the economic crisis, and its references to the current year and business climate reflect that time.

In times of crisis, your business needs more visibility, innovation and originality. Sometimes the best advertising is impact, which is why bag manufacturers came up with a profitable business by offering shops novelty bags of a kind you simply can’t help looking at when you see them in the street.

These original bags are the latest thing for shops, and so far, in American department stores, they have proved more than profitable enough.

This is what’s known as “advertising impact“. The designs are related to what each shop sells. Advertising agencies are doing a great job of creating eye-catching campaigns that grab everyone’s attention and make people want to know which shop is behind the ad.

This doesn’t mean your business will have massive influence tomorrow, but after a few days the shopper’s subconscious won’t pass up the chance to walk into the shop that showed them such original advertising.

So it’s undoubtedly a great idea for your business; at the very least, it breaks away from the everyday routine as far as advertising is concerned.

After its original, striking campaign, the men’s magazine FHM saw its sales rise by 35%, although the campaign also stirred up controversy. But in business, controversy sometimes generates money: being talked about is a good thing.

As we’ve discussed before, in business the one who ends up beating the competition is the fastest, the smartest, the most innovative and the most original. But for all of that, first and foremost, consumers need to know about you; they need to know your product.

So this 2011, the advertising for your business should be striking but always make sense, and be original and innovative. That cocktail ends up translating into greater visibility, which leads to higher profitability for your business.

Further reading

Featured image: Jemattox, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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