Selective demand advertising involves the placement of advertising messages intended to persuade customers about the benefits of your specific brand. This is different from primary demand advertising, which involves messages promoting the benefits of a general product category. Companies typically pay for selective demand advertising outside of a few common situations.
Before learning the details of selective demand stimulation, it helps to understand primary demand and what it is used for. Primary demand means the advertising campaign intends to drive interest in the product versus a particular brand. Associations often pool resources to generate interest when they collectively struggle. The "Got Milk?" campaign, for instance, was used to cause people to drink more milk as a habit. Another common purpose of primary demand stimulation is to introduce an entirely new product category by providing customers with basic information of what the product does.
Outside of the aforementioned instances, most advertising campaigns involve selective demand stimulation. This term is so-named because each advertiser tries to present brand benefits that cause customers to selectively choose its product over that offered by a competing brand. This type of advertising correlates with the general purpose of business, which is to distinguish your company from competitors to get customers and earn profits over time.
Selective demand messages are fairly easy to identify relative to primary demand ads. Selective demand ads typically identify the brand through name mention verbally or in written copy, or show the brand's product clearly. They often involve comparative messages whereby the brand trying to distinguish itself is compared with another top competitor to point out strengths. Identification of unique benefits is a common strategy to indicate why customers should select the advertiser's brand over other options.
Another major distinction between selective demand and primary demand is that primary demand generally involves singular ad campaigns or short-term messages strategies. When delivered by industry associations, ad campaigns are used when the industry struggles. For new product innovations, primary demand is only needed initially. Once product categories become familiar, each competitor begins to use selective demand advertising to position itself to fight for market share and to build a customer base. This is a long-term process.
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