Were they an entertainment company?
Did they sell something that’s a physical object?
Yeppers
Was it a food product?
Were they trying to avoid directly competing with other companies that advertise a lot? (Like a soda company trying to stay out of the cola wars?)
Word count.
???
Was the business doing something illegal (meaning that publicly calling attention to themselves would likely get them shut down)?
Nope.
Choosing from your list, I’d say service.
Was it a luxury brand? Like one of those “we don’t have to advertise because if you’re not posh enough to already know about us, we don’t want your business anyway” type things?
Was it still mentioned in the media in ways other than paid ads? Like songs or movies or memes?
Did they let people know they were no longer advertising?
Like, was that part of the hook? “We can keep prices lower because we’re not wasting money on annoying ads” or something?
Did they stop advertising because they were bought by a well-known company?
Is this a local business?
Keep 'em coming.
Is it that they figured, hey, we now have all the customers we want, buying our stuff in amounts we like; since we don’t need to increase sales any further, couldn’t we — in effect — make money, by pocketing the difference upon spending less money on ads?
Or: is it, like, a restaurant that always claims they’re booked solid and you can’t get a reservation any time soon — in hopes that people will, y’know, figure the secondhand report is like unto word-of-mouth advertising from satisfied customers?
NO
NO.
Was this decision the result of a shift in demographics in the marketplace?
A change in general attitude about something among the public?
Keep 'em coming.
Was this a real business?
Was this business before social media?
Did this business stop advertising because they closed, liquidated and kept the profits?
Perhaps the market for their product/service has aged to the point where they would rethink their approach to advertising. Or maybe the appeal has shifted from primarily one sex to the other. I guess it’s a vague question, but I would think that if the answer is yes (in whatever sense “yes” might apply), it would immediately be apparent.
Does the business have a special clientele who wouldn’t want to share the service with outsiders?
Is it that, with advertising, they’d need to include a really discouraging disclaimer — but by simply putting it on shelves or whatever, they can just sort of sidestep that requirement?
Like a bad valedictorian speech, I feel like we need to define success.
Does “success” mean making more money?
Attracting more customers?
Just staying in business?
Branching out into other kinds of business?
Branching out into other markets?