Strategic Analysis of "Ogilvy on Advertising"

Originally written October 2023

This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote analyzing the book Ogilvy on Advertising.

...The first key principle that Ogilvy provides in his book is the importance of research, or to “Do your homework” (Ogilvy, pg. 12, 1985). Ogilvy states that to make a good advertisement you need to research and understand the company and product that you are making an advertisement for. Research means to find every piece of information about the product or company you are advertising, research studies about competitors’ advertisements and studies about consumers. All these different types of research are very important, because if you don’t know enough about the brand you are selling then you cannot effectively sell it to other people.  In addition, if you don’t research you may miss information or features that you would want to have advertised. One example that Ogilvy gives is his Roles Royce advertisement that states, “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock” (Ogilvy, pg.509, 1985). This advertisement was extremely popular and is considered by many to be one of the greatest car advertisements ever written. Ogilvy states that the finding of this headline was the result of him doing research, “When I got the Rolls-Royce account, I spent three weeks reading about the car and came across a statement that… became the headline” (Ogilvy, pg.509, 1985)....

To read the full paper click here:

Ogilvy on Advertising Paper.pdf

Download PDF • 121KB