The Three Sacred Cows of Advertising
Rarely do ad campaigns for small business work as well as they should. I blame the three sacred cows of advertising: Demographic Targeting, Gross Rating Points, and Media Mix. I think it is time for these cows to die.
(1) Demographic Targeting
Each and every day, ten thousand advertising people ask ten thousand business owners, “Who is your customer?” and the business owners reply, “Blah, blah, blah.” Then the ad rep says, “What a coincidence! That’s exactly who we reach!" The business owner then buys the advertising because he wants to “target” the right people.
This is precisely how most advertising is bought and sold.
(Don’t be embarrassed that you’ve done it, cause I’ve done it, too.)
Unfortunately, this business owner has been asked a largely irrelevant question and has replied with an equally irrelevant answer. What the business owner has done is known as “overtargeting,” and it’s what invariably happens when advertising is approached from the perspective of pure logic.
Here’s why the perfectly logical approach so often fails: We’ll assume the business owner decides his target is a woman between twenty-five and fifty-four years of age. Do we assume that the woman has no siblings? Has she no mate, children, or boyfriend? Does she utterly lack co-workers and associates, neighbours and friends? Is she influenced by no one at all?
Overtargeting comes from the mistaken assumption that people make decisions in a vacuum. The really important question to answer is this: “Why would a person choose to do business with you at all?”
The best ads are those that impress someone - anyone - deeply. Are you ensuring that your ads make a deep impression, or are you satisfied in knowing that you’re boring the socks off all the “right” people?
(1) Demographic Targeting
Each and every day, ten thousand advertising people ask ten thousand business owners, “Who is your customer?” and the business owners reply, “Blah, blah, blah.” Then the ad rep says, “What a coincidence! That’s exactly who we reach!" The business owner then buys the advertising because he wants to “target” the right people.
This is precisely how most advertising is bought and sold.
(Don’t be embarrassed that you’ve done it, cause I’ve done it, too.)
Unfortunately, this business owner has been asked a largely irrelevant question and has replied with an equally irrelevant answer. What the business owner has done is known as “overtargeting,” and it’s what invariably happens when advertising is approached from the perspective of pure logic.
Here’s why the perfectly logical approach so often fails: We’ll assume the business owner decides his target is a woman between twenty-five and fifty-four years of age. Do we assume that the woman has no siblings? Has she no mate, children, or boyfriend? Does she utterly lack co-workers and associates, neighbours and friends? Is she influenced by no one at all?
Overtargeting comes from the mistaken assumption that people make decisions in a vacuum. The really important question to answer is this: “Why would a person choose to do business with you at all?”
The best ads are those that impress someone - anyone - deeply. Are you ensuring that your ads make a deep impression, or are you satisfied in knowing that you’re boring the socks off all the “right” people?