Why consumers think your ad is a ‘flop’
Consumers are naturally attracted to big, bold advertising, argues Zac Martin, and perception of ‘cost’ is everything.
Gazelles have been observed repeatedly jumping up and down, an act called stotting. This seemingly strange behaviour makes little sense at first glance – one assumes that if you could end up being chased by a hungry lion, the smart thing to do would be to conserve energy. But researchers hypothesise the opposite is true – the unnecessary exertion of energy is in fact a warning to predators. “Don’t even bother trying to out-run me, I have so much energy I can do this all day for no reason at all. Go find an animal that isn’t showing off, because he’s preserving the little energy he has.”
The world around us is riddled with signals, and as our industry continues to turn its back on traditional channels, we cannot overlook their value.
Hey mate,
Very well written, and given how many changes are happening in the digital/ad tech space, the truisms of good marketing can’t ever be replaced by fancy technology, and having access to all these tools distract us from that truth.
Great piece mate.
A solid synthesis of much of the emerging evidence of how marketing actually works… hence useful.
Kudos!
Nice article Zac, enjoyed the read and agree with many of your points.
Yes. If people who can’t afford a Ferrari didn’t know what one was, how many people who can afford a Ferrari would still buy one? It is only by being visible to lots of people at once that advertising can perform its most valuable role – shaping the cultural meaning of a brand. So, while a brand’s sales messaging (the short of it) can be micro-targeted, a brand’s meaning (the long of it) must be mass produced.
Great piece Zac
I’ve actually been pondering on this since a talk on signalling at Mumbrella MSIX last year (not the most recent one) which I think even used that same picture of the gazelle
I totally agree with the idea of signalling theory and that hyper-targeting might be eroding its effect. And similarly on the broader argument around long term brand building.
But I think there’s an important nuance to this signalling argument, in that the if the receiver doesn’t realise that they’re the only one who is seeing all the ads, then arguably the ads are sending exactly the right signals.
Crucially I think this only happens when they see a brand/campaign across multiple touchpoints, and probably not just digital. And ideally when someone else in their sphere is also talking about them or interacting with them.
Just a theory though…
There are two types of advertising :
1 Advertising a product which has features which are superior in form or use to other products or services in the category.
2 Advertising a product which is pretty well identical to other products or services in the category.
Marketers are principally concerned with the latter ; the “better mouse trap” will basically sell itself. You can really advertise it in any way.
Children develop different moral outlooks as they grow up. Infants are entirely egocentric and self-focussed. Older children and early adolescents have a “give and take” atttitude – I will do something for you for my benefit etc, this is essentially the economists model.
From adolescence, most children develop into the third phase, the group orientated phase where they seek approval and identification with valued peers.
Its this group which marketers target ; they seek to associate the product with the valued peer group. Cocal Cola, for instance, shows attractive young people of mixed sexes using their product to associate Coca-Cola with the valued peer group. Buying another product, like Royal Crown Cola, would make you look like a loser.
With older adults, the class factor becomes important.
A proportion of the population do not develop into the third phase, around 10-20%. These people buy simply on price and value.