Most of us are impatient; we want our advertising to spark an immediate sales increase. That's equivalent to giving a builder one week to construct a three-bedroom home without a blueprint. Think of the planning process as drawing a blueprint for your advertising campaign structure. First you design the framework, next you fill in the details, and finally you begin to build.

I. Design the Framework

What is the purpose of your advertising program?

Start by defining your company's long-range goals then map out how marketing can help you attain them. Next, zero in on possible advertising routes that are complementary to your marketing efforts, and be specific. Set measurable goals so you can evaluate the success of your advertising campaign. For example, do you want to increase overall sales by 20 percent this year? Do you want to boost sales to existing customers by 10 percent during each of the next three years? Do you want to appeal to younger or older buyers? Do you want to sell off old products to free resources for new ones?

We're surrounded by advertisements that desperately compete for our attention. Everywhere we look, we find ourselves inevitably drawn to images of scantily clad attractive men and women that are supposed to somehow inspire us to purchase products they endorse. Sure, this attention-getting strategy is popular. But, is it effective?

Sex appeal can increase the effectiveness of an ad or commercial because it attracts the customer's attention. It's human nature to be curious about sex. A pair of long legs on a billboard is more likely to catch (and hold) a guy's attention than a puppy, regardless of how cute it may be. Even women are drawn to them, perhaps with the desire of having goddess-like legs.

However, misuse of sex appeal can be costly. Many campaigns deemed offensive have started brand boycotts that affect sales and damage brand reputation. Abercrombie & Fitch has been involved in several scandals, the latest from their most recent catalog entitled "XXX Wet, Hot Summer Fun."

Ever hear the term 'sexy' advertising? It's not necessarily what you think. Sure, some people's idea of sexy advertising is hot babes in bikinis spraying beer all over each other, but that's overtly sexual and not what we're about to discuss here.

Do you engage sexy advertising in your marketing campaign? If not, you should.

"Sexy" advertising refers to ads that are highly targeted, yet artfully subtle - and therefore, extremely attractive to the key consumer

I'm going to try and curb my use of the word 'sexy' now because I think it's quite blatant, and therefore not sexy at all. So from now on we'll try and call them ads that are "attractive."

What makes an ad (or a person) attractive? People perceive the world through their senses- sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. So if you can appeal to them in any of these five ways, then you may very well become attractive to them.

Let's talk about the word sensual. Not sexual, but sensual. What's that mean?

You may want to know a bit of my advertising experience, I have been in the world of advertising for 6 years from cub copywriter to creative director. And I was privileged to attend a workshop conducted by Neil French, a well known advertising guru, I asked Neil to define advertising to me in one simple sentence and he in his flamboyant style answered me in one word: "Life!"

I agree with him totally because if you don't understand life it is very hard to be successful in advertising because advertising is about communicating well with people on your products and services to the extend that they just can't wait to get their hands on your products or use your services!

I love using acronyms to communicate my message and it makes it easy for you to remember the key factors or points. What Advertising means to you can be subjective too depending on what you were taught, experienced or have read about it. You can write a book on it, but I am only going to cover a little on the basic points. Let's agree on the fundamentals: