243
See also: Stand out in the market 28–31 ■ Creating a brand 258–63 ■
Promotions and incentives 271 ■ Why advertise? 272–73 ■ Generating buzz 274–75
SUCCESSFUL SELLING
In practice, few messages
take the consumer all the way
from awareness to purchase,
but the AIDA framework
suggests the qualities of
a good message.
Philip Kotler
US marketing guru (1931–)Who invented AIDA?
Management expert Philip
Kotler references Edward
Kellogg Strong Jr.’s book The
Psychology of Selling and
Advertising (1925) as the
source of AIDA. However,
Strong’s book gives credit for
the idea to advertising pioneer
Elias St. Elmo Lewis (1872–
1948), maintaining that Lewis
formulated the slogan “Attract
attention, maintain interest,
create desire” in 1898 and
that he later added the fourth
term “get action.”
The first use of the AIDA
acronym is commonly
attributed to C. P. Russell’s
article “How to Write a
Sales-Marketing Letter,”
published in the US advertising
trade magazine Printers’ Ink in
1921—Russell was also one of
its editorial staff. He outlined
the basis of the four-step
process and pointed out that
“reading downward, the first
letters of these words spell the
opera Aida.” He advised,
“When you start a letter ... say
‘AIDA’ to yourself and you
won’t go far wrong ...”The AIDA model
ATTENTION
Make the customer aware of the product or service using an
eye-catching advertisement or an arresting offer.INTEREST
Hold the customer’s interest by providing infomation
about the advantages of the product or service and
its benefits to the customer.DESIRE
Generate the customer’s desire to buy
by convincing them that the service
or product will meet their needs.ACTION
Make it as easy as
possible for the
customer to make
the purchase.SALEtechniques. Before the movie’s first
showing, the filmmakers created a
website that offered an intriguing
insight into the background to the
movie. It presented snippets of
movie as “found film footage,” and
left viewers wondering whether
the story of the movie was fiction
or reality. The website grabbed
attention, and continued to gain
interest as more video clips and
audio files were added. The buzz
around the “myth” of the Blair Witch
grew, creating further desire to see
the movie. The call to action came
in the form of a very limited release;
moviegoers were urged to buy
tickets before those few showings
sold out. The movie cost just $35,000
to make, but generated revenues of
more than $280 million worldwide.E-marketing and AIDA
The advent of e-commerce prompted
award-winning UK copywriter Ian
Moore to suggest NEWAIDA as a
more relevant model for e-marketing:
AIDA preceded by navigation, ease,
and wording. It seems that as
markets have become more complex,
marketers require ever-clearer ways
of perceiving the customer journey. ■