One Thing They NEVER Taught You While Working in Advertising
June 7, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray
And that's the human desire for interaction, If this had been taught and the lesson put into everyday practice then billions of pounds and dollars would never have been poured down the black hole of television advertising!
So let's review that desire in terms of the marketing of products and, at the same time, hope that those people working in or with advertising agencies read this simple lesson and learn a little of what they should have already known.
And should have been doing on behalf of their clients and in turn, their customers.
All advertising is a form of learning whereby the advertiser is asking people to change their behavior after learning the benefits of the products or services on offer.
However, we all tend to filter out information, which we do not want to hear. This clearly alters the effectiveness of conventional advertising in quite a dramatic way.
The final purchase decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety; the worry that perhaps the decision was not the best or the right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce their choice and begins to take more notice of their chosen product's marketing communications.
Due to a lack of understanding of the communication process we have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years, where the whole process has been de-humanised.
There is now an extraordinary reduction in interaction because conventional advertising and marketing have become a one-way practice whereby information is disseminated in a passive form.
But, people still have this desire to be taken account of. To affect change, to learn and personalize their relationship with their environment.
There are a phenomenal number of reasons that cause people to interact, going far beyond just giving them things.
When people agree to participate in truly interactive marketing programmes they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers.
And most important to the advertisers, by participating and becoming involved, they then learn and understand the advertising message and do so at their own pace and to fit in with their schedule. Consequently, because they are being involved in the process of developing the product or service, it starts to re- personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products.
This takes the consumer through the barrier of not wanting to address change and takes that compromise, the anxiety and worry that perhaps the decision was not the best or the right one, out of the equation. In other words, there is no reason why they should not change from their usual brand in favour of this alternative that they have now learned, fulfils their needs better.
And isn't this the ultimate market the advertiser is after - the people who use his competitors' products?
Now the consumer can say, "Yes, I will change my behavior and I have a very good reason or series of reasons why". They can adopt this position because they have a well-in-formed opinion or have developed an image of why that product is appropriate for their needs.
Now the long silence - the industrial interruption of the human conversation is coming to an end.
With interactive communication every product you can think of, from fashion to office supplies, can be discussed, and argued over. Rather like the olden days when one went to the open-air market to do just that!
With one important exception, the manufacturer can now become involved with this give and take to every ones advantage!
People want to talk about value. But the value of a product and the company that sells them.
Not just the price of something. Reputation, position and every other quality that can be subject to an opinion!It has always been that way. The most effective form of advertising that there has ever been is word of mouth, which is of course, nothing more than a conversation.
But as we have examined, conventional advertising and marketing give little or no opportunity for the 'audience' to engage in any kind of conversation about the product or the company.
No opportunity to discuss value, reputation, position. It simply sends out a message of sorts, albeit a nice looking one with sublime attention to production values that in turn reflect the values of the brand.
But if it isn't telling the audience the information they desire and seek to make a decision or reinforce a decision already made, then just who is listening and who is it for?
More dangerous for advertising-as-usual, is that one-way advertising doesn't enable customers to learn the truth behind product claims.If true marketing is a conversation and there's no allowance made for a return message, a feedback from the customer, then what does advertising-as-usual actually do?
We hold the strong view that advertising-as-usual in any form and for any subject, is pitiable.
It's not funny.
It most certainly is not interesting and it doesn't even know who we, the customers are, or seemingly care for that matter. All advertising-as-usual wants us to do is buy!
Without a doubt TV is the best medium ever created for advertising-as-usual. The trouble is it doesn't actually sell a great deal of product!
Why?
Consider this, you might well think that Marketing Departments and their Advertising Agencies talk about communication and sales. Put simply... they don't!
As we have discussed, within an advertising agency scant attention, if any, is paid to the actual process of communication and as for an interest in sales, well that's a joke, to put it bluntly.
They are concerned with crafting messages, But not to sell product. If they did surely they would be happy enough to be paid upon results. Actual changes in behavior and actual sales increases resulting from the advertising they have created.
Are we alone in never having come across any agency willing to adopt this stance? The Creative Director loves to produce TV commercials smart enough to include on their show reel.
And who knows, like some of his predecessors' maybe they might get to direct a movie.
The Account Director? All he wants to do is keep the Client happy.
Nobody, it seems, is really concerned with the actual job of selling a product, apart from, of course, the client. Sadly, however, they in turn are fed the belief that creativity is King.
They get sucked in to advertising-as-usual, because after all, doesn't the agency know best? Isn't that what he is paying them for? And don't they have years of experience and expertise? Well yes they do but expertise in, yes, you're getting there... advertising-as-usual.
So they happily carry on the usual treadmill of crafting messages.In the form of advertisements; press releases; TV commercials and many other forms of what they genuinely believe is 'communication'.
Marketing departments, through their handmaiden advertising agencies paint a happy picture but no one out there in the real world of family life, believe what they are delivering and trying to force on them.
The reality is, we all know better and have been taught by a lifetime of experience to turn down the volume when confronted with a TV commercial explaining that the product is the best and brightest available or failing that, even walk out of the room and do something else. But more of that little reality check, later.
The old way of advertising, pouring out vast amounts of information in the desperate hope that somebody somewhere will connect certainly had one effect, it depersonalized and dehumanised the whole process of communication.
Thus wasting even more millions of Client money!
Consider their model of reach and frequency, who does this really serve? Does it serve the consumer, or does it provide the revenue the advertiser seeks?
It was so easy in fact, that each adult person in this country, according to a client we were discussing this with, receives an average of 3,000 advertising messages a day. In the advertising and marketing world, we call it commercial clutter. More appropriately, it should be called 'meaningless noise'.
Just consider the ways in which your customer can enter into a dialogue with you? You may have an 0800 number, which would be a good start if they could speak to a real person.
But in these days of automation and with luck, eventually getting through to a call centre, unless you tire with frustration or collapse with fatigue, where is the dialogue there?
Hey, they could go to the trouble of writing to you. But they are making the effort of putting pen to paper or more likely, tapping the keyboard keys these days.
Then they have to buy a stamp unless freepost is provided. Then the letter has to be posted. And finally, they sit and hope that it does indeed reach the right person and that their message is responded to.
And sadly, it is often the case that the process takes so long that they have lost interest but more importantly lost FAITH in your company and your product.
And everyone in marketing is fully aware that it costs more to find a customer than it does to keep one. But so far there has not been much opportunity to easily talk to you!
One of the problems that Advertising has created is the process of dehumanizing people. Advertising apparently, forgets that every customer and every prospective customer is a human being with a constantly evolving set of attitudes and opinions. And if Advertising is aware, then it does so very little to cater for this all-important human factor.
The other problem is advertising agencies don't realize that customers don't really like advertisements!
The advertising agency Chiat/Day had this statement on the briefing form for their creative brief:"The audience doesn't like you, doesn't trust you, and they can get rid of you immediately. Now go and create some advertising."
Precisely summing up the essence of today's adversarial relationship between the customer and advertising people. They really don't like each other, customers tolerate advertisements but they don't really like them in terms of the content.
However, when you create a dialogue out of your advertising it turns passive information into active, meaningful advertising and actually alters behavior during the learning process. It cuts through the psychological barriers, which prevent the individual from changing their attitude and behavior towards brands. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
