History behind AIDA

Staff Reporter. The marketing term 'AIDA' (attention, interest, desire & action) and approach are commonly attributed to American advertising and sales pioneer, E. St. Elmo Lewis. In one of his publications on advertising, Lewis postulated at least three principles to which an advertisement should conform:

• "The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement."

However, in 1893, Joseph Addison Richards (1859-1928) wrote an advertisement for his business containing virtually all steps from the AIDA model, but without hierarchically ordering the individual elements. Richards was an advertising agent from New York City who succeeded his father in the direction of one of the oldest advertising agencies in the United States:

• "How to attract attention to what is said in your advertisement; how to hold it until the news is told; how to inspire confidence in the truth of what you are saying; how to wet the appetite for further information; how to make that information reinforce the first impression and lead to a purchase; how to do all these, - Ah, that's telling, business news telling, and that's my business."
  

For more on this interesting and iconic marketing acronym, visit Wikipedia.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_%28marketing%29
Image source: http://bekindrewrite.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/aida-2.jpg?w=490