Advertising for Sales Objectives Vs. Communications Objectives

This State Farm commercial always makes my dad laugh. There’s a line in the longer running commercial that has one of the barbers say, “Si quiere ahorrar, dejalo pelon” Translation: If your husband wants to save, leave your son bald. You’ll get it once you see it. The commercial takes both an informative and humorous approach, focused primarily for communications-based objectives. The commercial’s focus is in gaining the Hispanic consumer’s trust rather than an immediate action.

This K-Mart ad uses its special event discount to promote the store. This was meant to assist in generating sales for the holiday rather than trying to change the customer’s perception of the store.

Sales objectives are more appropriate for direct action, inducing an immediate buying response to customers. The purpose of sales objective ads is to generate short-term increases in sales.

Communications objectives are more appropriate for image-building campaigns. They are designed to create and improve a favorable perception that the customer may have on the product. Consumers are not expected to respond immediately.