"Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money you do not have something they need." – Will Rogers
The Case Study
In 1970 he hosted a show of force. Wild West without a romantic connotations, but a competitive rivalry in the business world. Participants were legendary Lester Wunderman direct marketing firm McCann Erickson and Madison Avenue, and the reason was the Columbia Record Club account. Wunderman is widely consideredthe creator of modern direct marketing, and among his list of credentials are the advent of the magazine subscription card, toll and loyalty bonuses. McCann Erickson has offices in over 130 countries and was named "Global Agency of the Year" in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Among his achievements is now famous slogan Mastercard "There are some things money can not buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard."
In 1970, as now, the Columbia was one of the largestclub match in the world, and since its founding in 1950 to the showdown in 1970, Wunderman has chaired the publicity. This was to change though, as Columbia has decided to take McCann to define a series of television commercials to support the marketing of print ads, direct Wunderman he was creating. While the same idea has been clearly positive, Wunderman took exception because he suffered from losing even a small part of the business to a competitior; understandableWhereas it had been in office for twenty years. And neither was the belief that McCann would be productive and increase advertising sales revenues in order to bring the matter to a head in a test is: Columbia should run his commercials on TV Guide and Parade magazine in 26 different markets means communication across the U.S., McCann would do his 'TV spots to raise awareness' in thirteen of those Wunderman as he ran his television commercials in other thirteen. Who is the televisedcreated more awareness in response to magazine ads would be awarded the entire account Columbia – meaning if Wunderman lost, he would not be right to sacrifice the small percentage was fighting for, but its entire stake. The results were tabulated after a month, and while the market rose 19.5 percent McCann, Wunderman has rocketed by eighty percent. It 'been a landslide victory for the advertiser experts.
Wunderman's success was not just because his ads were better – inIn fact, they may not have been better for everyone. McCann took the usual routes of advertising and used well, he also Wunderman outspent four to one to secure your advertising has reached the widest audience possible. Wunderman, moreover, was aware that successful marketing is not just telling a lot of people about the product, nor is it fair that they want: it is to believe that they need. So Wunderman created the campaign to exploit this and focused onrelationship with the consumer, rather than offer them the product.
The real key to his success was a subtle form of persuasion to entice the public to place trust in its advertising. The proverbial trick-up-the-sleeve, cited by Wunderman as the "treasure hunt" was a gold box. More precisely, every TV Guide and Parade spot contained a small gold box in a corner of the order, and his company followed this with a series of television spots that explained the "secretGold Box "if viewers are getting the gold box in their problems then they could write in the name of any recording for Columbia and receive a free list. The fact that every problem has a gold box since those articles were not to be cheated, in fact received the record. Wunderman long time objective sedated any anxiety to take an initial loss. To give readers something for nothing, have jumped at the opportunity and made a successful campaign Wunderman. as he saiditself, the gold box "made the reader / viewer part of a system of interactive advertising. spectators were not only an audience but had become involved. It 'was like a game. The effectiveness of the campaign was amazing. In 1977, none of Columbia ads in its magazine list was large profit. In 1978, with support from Gold Box TV, all the magazines of the calendar made a profit, a change unprecedented. "
What the competition is that it really showsthe power of suggestion and persuasion is far superior to other methods. McCann, for example, is a company renowned for its creativity and spent four times as much money on media Wunderman time as he did – Their adverts were in prime time television, while Wunderman were at times when most people were sleeping . McCann knew that a huge part of advertising is to make your message reach as many people as possible and focus the campaign accordingly. Undeniably, their strategy, which has far exceededof Wunderman. Yet they lost resoundingly, Wunderman is why the campaign went beyond to achieve a number of people – made sure that those who reached acted on it. McCann made a little-known message, but does not guarantee that people like. Wunderman opted for the 'quality of quantity "technique, he was aware that the achievement of one million people are useless and wasted money if it acted only one percent, but reaching 100,000 people with a spot that will makemajority will react much more successful.
The Takeaway
Reaching consumers is the most difficult for advertisers, even a small budget will allow the product or message to achieve a degree of population. The really difficult part is to create an ad that will capture the attention of potential consumers, and provide a message that they will remember and act. E 'for this reason that marketing strategists conduct mini-experiments with a panel testdetermine which ideas in tune with the market, although of course there are preconceived ideas about what makes a successful advertising: humor, advanced graphics and / or celebrity endorsements.
As mentioned earlier in this article, a key element of advertising is the power of persuasion. A researcher's ability to tap into the psyche of the consumer potential – without their awareness – can be the difference between success and failure. Proof of this is all around us, by how we respondthe language of the unconscious body to the impact of campaigns. A prime example of this can be found in the media moral panic, or warnings of an epidemic. The elements that make these things happened can be as seemingly trivial as a gold box Wunderman. The psychologist Howard Levanthal in 1960 conducted an experiment to see if he could convince a group of elderly College of Yale University volunteered to receive a tetanus vaccination. John Hallward explains in his book Gimmel!: Mannature of marketing success, 'Levanthal wanted to study the effects of "high fear" versus "low fear" messages.' Students were divided into two groups and each was given a brochure explaining the dangers of tetanus, what was important vaccination and inoculations were offered free to University Health Centre. The leaflets were slightly different, with the 'high fear' that contains graphic images – including a child with a tetanus-induced seizure and victimsnasal tubes and urinary catheters – and highly descriptive language to present tetanus in a very negative light, while the 'low fear' missing images and descriptive language. One group received the 'fear book up', while two groups received the 'low fear' one. The purpose of this study was simply to see if the various presentations of books impacted attitudes of students' different words, if the message 'high fear' frightened students into getting vaccinated more thanthe 'low fear'.
Predictably, the 'fear of a strong group' were more convinced of the dangers of tetanus and consequently were more convinced of the necessity of vaccination. Despite this, however, the group just three per cent of 'high fear' were actually motivated enough to get an inoculation. This is the same figure as the 'low fear' group, showing no difference in campaigns in terms of real success, although the group 'high fear' was higher awareness of the dangersTetanus of the 'low fear' of the group. So, then, for ninety-seven percent of both groups lessons (or fear) do not translate into action. For some reason, the contents of this experiment did not stick with the students.
In the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, the author describes the 'Viscosity Factor' as a factor completely imperative for any successful, and we were ignorant to its existence would be too easy to conclude that Levanthal booklet was nottetanus explain properly. For example, one might wonder if the attempt to frighten the students was the appropriate course of action if there was a social stigma that surrounds tetanus persuade admitted students were at risk, or perhaps that the idea of an injection was scary. Whatever the reason may be, it would be a universal agreement that some with only three percent of each group receiving vaccinations was there a way to be done to increase the numbers.
Stillthe 'Viscosity Factor' does not offer a very different explanation. This offer is that the libretto and the experiment had nothing bad in itself but was just missing gold window, the small feature that would take a while 'effectively at all successful. Indeed, when Levanthal repeated the experiment included a small change: the inclusion of a map of the campus that has clearly demonstrated the building of health in a circle, with a list of the times of vaccination. Levanthal's own goldbox increased the rate of vaccination of a substantial 28 percent. This small detail eradicated the possibility of students not vaccinated because they did not know when and where you could get inoculated.
Interestingly, the number of students who opted for vaccination was equal in both high and low fear groups, which means that differences in the presentation of books were irrelevant. Students, such as the elderly, were old enough to know the dangers of tetanus, andThere is a vaccine, do not need graphic images to encourage them to protect themselves. Moreover, they were college long enough to know where the health center and was most probably did not even use the included map. Therefore, the real reason for its success is more likely that the mere fact that it was more personal. Fear and imaginary chart was unsuccessful, what the students really responded was the knowledge of what could now go for avaccination at a time suitable for them. The addition of the map and the calendar has helped students to plan their day, like a chief secretary delivered his daily schedule. Because we are bombarded every day with an attack of advertisements learn to filter out, so the new presentation of the book made the students accept it as something to slot into their calendar. In this way, they were no longer feel compelled to visit the health center, but he made the choice to do so.Making them feel as if they had the opportunity to choose whether or not a vaccination made the book memorable, and that made it successful.
Yet another interesting example comes from the work of Dan Ariely, a visiting professor at MIT. An ad for the subscription of The Economist has offered three options: 1) a one-year subscription to all online content back in 1997, $ 59, 2) a one year subscription to the print edition of The Economist for $ 125 and 3) a one-year subscriptionboth printed and online all the articles in The Economist back in 1997 for $ 125 – the same price as option two. When this was shown to 100 people, the majority wanted to option three, the combo deal, and nobody wanted to option two. So with this knowledge, option two has been removed because it was considered useless if no one wanted to keep it. The offer was sent to appropriate an additional 100 students and this time the results are different: whereas previously the option three was the most popular anda less popular option, this time the results reversed. So we can see, then, that option two actually serve a purpose after all. The premise is that we are fully aware of our preferences or what we want and as such are easily influenced. When the advertisement was sent with only two options, people saw a low-cost option and an expensive option. When all three options were offered, however, have seen a cheap option, an expensive option, and what he considers a bargain. Optiontwo people encouraged to buy the combined subscription. This subtle difference accounted for thirty percent of sales revenue, which means that advertisers can affect their income by clever marketing. In essence, then, what has been shown is that we are totally in control of our opinions, but are very influenced by external factors, such as is presented dramatically alters how we perceive it.
The lesson from these examples is universal to all the publicity, evenall campaigns. This lesson is simple: it is not the amount of exposure in a campaign or ad receives, but how well it relates to its target audience. Today, almost forty years after the campaign Wunderman concerned, we see evidence every day. The contents of advertisements are increasingly alienated from the product you are looking to sell, instead using the principle of relationship with something that you feel important to the target. This makes the announcement to bememorable for the consumer, which in turn leads them to buy the product. An example is how the advertising of products focus on the face levels of confidence of those who need them, saying those with fair skin are more confident and will be successful with the opposite sex. For the adolescent self-conscious, this will encourage them to buy the product.
Our capitalist society has reached such proportions that we are constantly bombarded by people or companies trying to convince us to spendour money for their product, be it a book or the latest technological innovation. The scale is so large that only the last decade has seen an increase in television advertising from six to nine minutes, and continues to grow each year. The New York-based consulting firm Media Dynamics currently estimated that the average American is exposed to 254 different commercial messages every day – a bombardment of various companies and individuals Attempting to convince us that we need their product. Morealarming is the fact that this figure is a 25 percent increase from mid-1970. This is understandable though, because in the mid-1970 the main medium for advertising were magazines, television and radio. In the twenty-first century we now have literally millions of Web sites hosting the ads or pop-up production, cable systems offering over fifty channels of programming, this increase in television advertising, and an almost overwhelming number of magazines -numbers which are growing rapidly – each full of ads and promotional information.
All this produces a greater publicity of a problem for businesses, is known as the 'problem disorder'. This problem is, inevitably, has made it increasingly difficult for any single message to stand out among others. With a seemingly endless supply of ads being thrown at us each and every day we are required to switch off and take something very special to grab our attention. Coca-Colapaid $ 33 million to sponsor the 1992 Olympic Games, but only twelve percent of viewers were aware that was the official Olympic soft drink. A further five per cent thought it was Pepsi that was a sponsor. In fact, an advertising research company produced a study that found that when there are four or more different spot than fifteen seconds in a time two-and-a-half-minute, the effectiveness of one of those commercials Almost wells zero- Take your time and money invested in it borderline wasted.
Yet the work Levanthal and Wunderman has shown that simple, cost-effective ways to improve the effectiveness of advertising. This was reinforced in another study, which took a large group of students to what I say WAS a market research study by a company making high-tech headsets. Each student was given a pair of headphones and the company said simply wanted to test how well the headphones when performed inmovement. Consequently, a group was told to nod his head vigorously, the second group was told to shake their heads, and the third group was told to stand still. Each group listened to the songs of Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles followed by a radio editorial arguing that their tuition fees should increase from $ 587 to $ 750. When this part of the experiment was complete, the students had to answer a short questionnaire. The questionnaire masked the true purpose of the study, askingquestions about the sound quality of the songs and the effect was shaking, if any. Hidden innocently at the end of the questionnaire was the question the researchers were more interested in 'What do you feel Would be an appropriate dollar amount for university education for years?' Incredibly, the group stood, felt it was right around $ 582 – a figure almost identical to the rate currently paid by highlighting their neutrality. The group had to shake my headvehemently disagree with a proposed increase and considered it appropriate to fall to about $ 467 a year, while the group who nodded his head found the editorial proposes an increase in very convincing and wanted to place an average of $ 646.
What the study clearly shows that subtle tactic to make students move their heads – or stand still – triggered their reaction to the proposed fee increase. The reason is simple: we associate our head nodding with the consentand our tacit approval of something, as he shook his head show discontent. Remaining shows still our opinion is quite flexible and we have no strong opinions either in agreement or disagreement. Thus, the study shows once again that subtle persuasion is unsurpassed as a means of influencing behavior.
According to Gladwell, another example of publicity stunt can be seen in 'Market Mavens'. The word itself, Maven comes from the Yiddish and describes a person whoaccumulates knowledge. Economists have spent much time in the last ten years studying the market Mavens for the obvious reason that people with the most important information for a market. An example of this is the supermarkets, or more specifically how supermarkets trick the public into thinking that buying have reduced their prices by advertising 'prices in store' when in fact the prices were not suitable for everyone. The only difference is that the product will appear morevisible inside the shop, thus attracting the attention of more people to it. Research has shown that when supermarkets used this technique to drastically increase sales of products on a scale similar to if they were actually for sale. The skill lies in deception: while the product is not regulated in the price, the shop has not explicitly said that it has either, but merely advertising it was a low price. The public, however, still interpret this to mean the lowest price. Despiteplace an outright lie in question is disturbing because the supermarkets are directly targeting our line of reasoning, as we know, the public purchase, are attracted to what we consider good business. In this way, supermarkets appeal to our materialistic side indirectly deceiving us. The disturbing part is that if you really fall for this as expected, there is no need for supermarkets to lower their prices, why the public increase their profit margins to be lureda sign declaring low prices. Sure, the supermarkets, like most stores, lower prices and sales periods offer. One reason for this is undoubtedly because management does not want to risk a client note that the prices were lowered and not readily tell all your friends and family to avoid the store. These people are known as 'vigilantes price' or 'Market Mavens' and are responsible for keeping the market honest. Despite their existence, can still be seen astechniques of persuasion subtle ad on potential impacts consumers by offering us one thing, but to make us believe that is another thing, we complacent purchase.
The common factor among the four examples in this study is that success depends on subtle persuasion of the public. First, the public has been defined. Secondly, the message directly applied. The study of headphones is perhaps most alarming, however, since it demonstrates that our decision-making can behandled by way connote things that shake his head during a publicity makes us think 'no' and then our opinion is negative. There are clear implications of this for advertisers in that now the owner of the field tests show how to improve their campaigns and drive up sales. The dream scenario was placed in front of marketing: they have direct knowledge of how to minimize costs while maximizing sales and profits.
Wunderman shownconsumers, such as participation, while Levanthal showed that personal touch and clear instructions on how, where and when you can get the product in question. The sale offers supermarket emphasize that we believe what you see – even if prices were not lowered, they think they have because we are told so. Ariely work has demonstrated that the issues of presentation, our decision to buy or not to buy can be done essentially for us depending on how the tender is submitted. Finally, thestudy showed our opinions headset can be printed simply by associating positive, negative or neutral movements with an ad. Therefore, advertisers can restrict advertising to their target audience and improve the chances of success to be as clear as possible about how the product is obtained and why they need it. They can also see that the success of participation offer may be enhanced further, and if they are able to create a situation such as the headphone study whereby they have contacts withtheir consumers then they may subconsciously persuade a sale.
In almost every sector, we accepted the truth, the conventional wisdom that guide decisions and actions. And in almost all sectors, including advertising, marketing and many professionals are unable or unwilling to observe the world systematically because they are trapped by their beliefs. For example, the casino or gaming industry is full of conventional wisdom, some so common that it is known outside the industryas well. The common mistake is: casino must build 'Las Vegas style' theme park full of restaurants and entertainment to attract high rollers and gamblers. data-driven research has shown that it is simply the case and profit margins can be maintained or even increased without such a 'rich' blandishments.
Management, managers tend to espouse the virtues of "do unto others what you would like done to yourself." Research has shown that treating the most popular managerstheir subordinates individually and "do unto others what you would have liked the way" instead. To quote the author "Everyone is an individual, and would be treated or managed is not necessarily the same for you or anyone else"
A rooted belief in advertising is that advertising must be extremely graphic in order to be visually engaging and effective. The experiment results showed that any extra muscle Levanthal convincing top items graph canbe rendered virtually ineffective when other factors are taken into consideration. Another belief is that advertising on radio and television is one of the best ways to build customer traffic and revenues, which often overlook other more effective methods, such as digital signage and transit-TV.
What has been repeatedly demonstrated that 'consumer / public management' is crucial for advertisers. Evidently, the management of consumers is very simple and very effective, aseemingly infallible measure for success (if you know what you're doing). To paraphrase Professor Ariely, "… we wake up in the morning and feel to make decisions, we decide what to wear when we go shopping we decide what to do when we see an advertisement that we decide what to buy, actually Many of these decisions do not live within us, people living in the person who designed the announcement of the person who designs the announcement will have a major influence on what ends updoing. "
Perhaps if Will Rogers were alive today he would say "advertising is the science of persuading people to spend money they do not have something they need."