It’s Working… even when it’s not working

This is from one of my favorite marketing authors, Jay Levinson and his book Guerilla Marketing.  He quotes Thomas Smith, one of the first people that looked at advertising as a science in 1885.

“Think of this when you consider altering your marketing plans after a short time.  Lest you misunderstand, think about the following list each time you run an ad and get a response that doesn’t meet your expectations:

1. The first time a person looks at an ad, they don’t see it.
2. The second time, they don’t notice it
3. The third time, they are conscious of its existence
4. The fourth time, they faintly remember having seen it
5. The fifth time, they read the ad
6. The sixth time, they turn up their nose at it
7. The seventh time, they read it through and say, “Oh brother!”
8. The eighth time, they say, “Here’s the confounded thing again!”
9. The ninth time, they wonder if it amounts to anything
10. The tenth time, they ask their neighbor if he has tried it
11. The eleventh time, they wonder how the advertiser makes money
12. The twelfth time, they think it must be a good thing
13. The thirteenth time, they think it might be worth something
14. The fourteenth time, they remember that they wanted such a thing for a long time
15. The fifteenth time, they are tantalized because they cannot afford to buy it
16. The sixteenth time, they think they will buy it someday
17. The seventeenth time, they make a memorandum of it
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully
20. The twentieth time, he sees the ad, he buys it because he can’t live without it