“You don’t need more sleep.  You need more coffee.” is a new billboard campaign for the am/pm convenience store chain.  This is an excellent example of using advertising to build behavior.  Unfortunately it builds category behavior rather than brand behavior.  You can respond to this ad positively and stop and get coffee at any number of places other than am/pm.

That is because there are multiple different places that serve hot coffee in the U.S., including quite a few that are much better known for coffee than the am/pm chain.   Interestingly I have seen these billboards several times, and not a one has been anywhere near an am/pm store.  Think about it.  Here is how ads work.  I see the ad.  It registers.  I decide to act and what do I do?  I stop at the next place that I see for coffee.  If there is not an am/pm store nearby, it won’t drive me in.  If one of these billboards added “just 500 feet” and there was an am/pm store 500 feet down the road, they might actually work to build business.  As they are now run, the best they can do is make me remember coffee when I see an am/pm store, if I notice it at all.

Contrast this campaign to another category building message on coffee, which is the slogan for CoffeeDay, a chain of coffee shops in India where there is virtually no competition.  The CoffeeDay slogan is “A lot can happen over coffee.”  This is a brand building, business building thought for CoffeeDay because they are competing with tea in India, not with hundreds of other coffee shops.

Net, net.  Good idea for am/pm.  Not executed as well as could be.