Branding Strategy Insider

Consumers Desire Authenticity In Advertising

We’ve seen it and heard it a thousand times – the flawless model posing in an ad for facial-blemish cream... an extremely powerful cleaner that removes every trace of dirt in one effortless wipe... the picture-perfect baby modelling the 100% waterproof diaper. In these scenarios, there’s not even a hint of a single red spot, a stubborn stain, or a bedraggled mother. This is the story of the past 50 years of commercials, and they all have one thing in common – they all feature perfect brands in perfect environments. En masse, we all must believe what we see, or do we?

Take for example the most watched videos on YouTube. Most are by amateurs whose work looks amateurish. We watch reality shows on television, and despite all predictions that they’re on their way out, they keep inventing ever-new situations.

Some months ago a major European cosmetic brand was forced to cut costs. They were not alone, but the only way they could do this was by reducing the length of their TV commercials. They aimed to cut their regular 90-second spots down to 30 seconds. The big dilemma they faced was which scenes should be cut out? Instead of taking the conventional route – opinions and guesswork – they used a neuro-scientific tool based on EEGs whereby brainwaves of consumers were measured and evaluated. By scientifically analysing the commercials they were able to assess which scenes were the most emotionally engaging.

Advertising Frequency Theory: Circa 1885

1.  The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
2.  The second time, he does not notice it.
3.  The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4.  The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
5.  The fifth time, he reads it.
6.  The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
7.  The seventh time, he reads it through and says, “Oh brother!”
8.  The eighth time, he says, “Here’s that confounded thing again!”
9.  The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
10.  The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
11.  The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12.  The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13.  The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
14.  The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
15.  The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16.  The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
17.  The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
18.  The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19.  The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20.  The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.

Thomas Smith, London, l885

Sponsored By: The Emotional Connection Workshop

Encoding Advertising In The Mind

   
While the first job of advertising is to get itself noticed, the second job is to be remembered. Otherwise, the third job, being persuasive, won’t typically have a chance for success until the advertising is being experienced directly at the point of sale. So, from both my study of how memorable advertising works as well as my decade-plus experience in using facial coding to scientifically quantify emotionally effective, impressionable advertising, what actually works in generating high recall?

Here’s a short primer, involving nine possible variables:

The scientific estimation is that a visual impression enters the brain’s sensory storehouse for no more than half a second. In that brief time interval, consumers intuitively make a decision as to whether the image if worthy of retaining. Everything else gets discarded, given that the brain is like a paper-shredder constantly trying to avoid overload. Radical simplicity is therefore the first secret. Just like the joke that has to be explained to you is never as funny as the joke you just get, visual complexity kills recall potential. Since half the brain is devoted to processing visuals, failure to leverage imagery is fatal.

Invoking emotional engagement through relevance continues to be another key attribute of memorable advertising. But relevancy isn’t only whether the offer fits our needs, or wants of what we don’t want (our fears). It could be that we relate to the talent shown on screen or in print, to a problem that’s being depicted, or to a story line or theme. Because visuals serve as metaphors to help us understand the world around them, leverage them to establish a need or want. A case in point: the famous Maxell audio tape advertising that shows a guy in a chair inside his house or apartment, the lamp shade and the guy’s scarf both blown back from the force of the music coming out of the guy’s loudspeaker. There, the visual metaphors being exploited consist of conflating loud (versus soft) and fast (versus slow), given that the guy is also dressed to resemble a motorcycle rider (think, Easy Rider). Excitement and rebellion is the evoked want, reminding me of the funniest request I ever heard on a radio station. A mousy, timid sounding girl calls in to ask the DJ to play Steppenwolf’s hit song, “Born to Be Wild.”

Associations aided by familiarity provide another point of leverage.

Brand Messaging For A Strong Emotional Response

Recent breakthroughs in neuro-science confirm what we marketers know in our guts, but sometimes forget in the day-to-day rush of preparing the next ad campaign launch. Namely, everybody feels (emotions) before they think (rational decision), and without generating the appropriate emotional response, no ad campaign can succeed.

Here are some guidelines to help avoid that fate.

Get Physical

Sight and sound are fine, but over-used. Leverage the sensory dimensions of feel, touch and taste to create more intimacy and differentiation. Remember: the brain originated with the sense of smell. So Descartes got it wrong: it's more like, I can smell, therefore I feel/think and will buy your product.

Keep It Simple

You've got three seconds to connect. The joke that has to be explained is never as funny as the joke you just get. The frustration of "huh" (message-itis) is marketing's hidden emotional cancer. Consumers feel lost more often than anybody wants to admit.

Why Consumers Reject Your Advertising

What do consumers think about advertising? Is it broken? As I noted in a recent post, “The 5 Truths of TV Advertising Effectiveness,” single source and syndicated ad effectiveness studies generally line up on the side of advertising continuing to be effective. But, as they say in NASA speak: “Houston, we have a problem.” And the problem is that consumers are increasingly telling us they are fatigued by and distrustful of advertising. How should brands respond? 

Advertising Viewed Through Anthropology

The Associated Press and Context Based Research Group recently published an intriguing report: “A New Model for Communication:  Studying the Deep Structure of Advertising and News Consumption.” The researchers used cultural anthropology methods to follow consumers from around the world throughout the day, observe their real world media behaviors, and question them about their attitudes toward news and advertising. This was an opportunity to go beyond hard numbers, to get insight into how consumers are thinking and feeling about advertising as a medium.

First, the news. Consumers feel bombarded by it, particularly the daily snippets and sound-bytes that provide basic facts and updates. Consumers felt these are necessary, but not sufficient. They also want the back-story behind the facts and to understand relevant “spin-off” stories. In short, they wanted news that provides depth and context.

What Consumers Say is Wrong with Advertising

Moving from news to ads, consumers expressed feelings of fatigue and distrust. There is just too much of it. It seems that if an ad can be served somewhere, it will be, whether consumers want it or not. And how does this leave consumers feeling? Taken advantage of.

Further, because of both its ubiquity and uni-directional nature, consumers are left feeling they are not in control. While advertising has never been seen as a high trust medium, the above factors work together to exacerbate the feeling that advertisers just can’t be trusted.

Brand Messaging: Visual Over Verbal

 
In a song, what's more important, the words or the music?

I think most people would agree that the music is more important. 

Take "Moon River," first sung by Audrey Hepburn in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The song itself won an Academy Award for composers Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, one of four won by Mercer.

Later, Andy Williams adopted "Moon River" as his theme song. Here is the first verse.
 

Moon river, wider than a mile

I'm crossin' you in style some day

Old dream maker, you heartbreaker

Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way
 

Johnny Mercer, in my opinion, was the best lyricist of the 20th century, but I'm sure those words on a piece of paper, even repeated millions of times, would not have made "Moon River" famous.

It was the music that made the words "Moon River" famous. Advertising needs visuals in the same way that lyrics need music, if you want to drive your words into the minds of your prospects. Without a visual hammer, an advertising campaign is almost certain to fail.

The Power Of Nostalgia In Advertising

 

As we age our nostalgic yearnings grow, making us more receptive to advertisers and marketers use of what researchers call "a longing for positive memories from the past." In addition to time's arrow, this desire for nostalgia is further intensified by society's present circumstance of receding predictability and opportunity.

While science is still struggling to unravel the neuro-dynamics of nostalgia, studies have identified some nostalgic cues that can be exploited and how images and sounds from the past can create favorable attitudes about products.

Despite being obvious, this strategy taps into something fundamental about the human mind and consciousness. Every time we remember a past event it not only evokes the earlier memory, but can re-cast the past into a more pleasing "remembered" version. Memory, thinking and feeling are an active, shaping process.

Music, Cars, Movies Live On Forever

The music, cars and movies you identified with when you were young stick with you throughout your life. Take music, recordings that were released when we were teenagers or young adults, are locked into our memories forever, to release a flood of vivid memories and emotions when replayed, especially in ads. For example, people who were 23 in 1964, when the Beatles appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show," will turn 70 this year, are a prime target for nostalgic marketing appeals.

For marketers, the key is finding the right music and images, which do not even need to directly relate to their products, as long as warm feelings are stirred up. It is the emotion generated from that good feeling that influences people's evaluation of the advertised offer. Recollection provides context and context impacts on how we evaluate things.

Super Bowl Advertising and Pre-game Buzz

 

The high price of a Super Bowl ad leads many brands to explore how they can maximize their association with the Super Bowl well beyond their 30-second spot.  This has led a number of brands to exert effort in generating pre-game buzz.  For example, GoDaddy.com has evoked the perennial strategy of generating buzz around the fact that their Super Bowl executions are almost too risqué to be aired (or, “are too risqué for prime-time network TV).  Other brands, such as Doritos, have engaged consumers to create their ads through contests, which calls attention to their presence in the Super Bowl in the weeks before the big game, and also provide an opportunity for pre-game consumer interaction. 

With such efforts in place, a natural question that arises is whether there is ever a concern about generating too much buzz.  On the surface, it might seem like anything that garners attention for a brand is a big step toward capitalizing on the lofty price tag of entering into the Super Bowl.  However, pre-game buzz carries with it at least two risks that brands and agencies need to be sure to navigate.  First, there is a chance for wear-out or reduced novelty of the execution by the time the spot actually airs on game night. If the concepts employed by the brand are not crisp and exciting, they might lead to a “ho-hum” response once they are aired.  Second, pre-game buzz builds consumer expectations further, which means a brand had better deliver in the execution. An execution that might have been well-received could falter if consumers’ expectations are set too high.  The key, of course, is to be aware of these issues so that pre-game buzz can be used effectively and risks are known. 

This year there’s a solid list of companies signed on, including Hyundai Motor America, Dr. Pepper, GoDaddy.com, Denny’s, E*Trade, Motorola and Anheuser-Busch, to name a few.  

Which brands have successfully used pre-game buzz to attract your attention?  Have you seen their buzz?

Marketers Need To Better Understand Creativity

 
It can be said that creative advertising is like brain surgery. When advertising is artfully done it cures people of the status quo by activating neural circuitry.

To be creative artfully requires a dynamic mix of imagination and understanding of how the world might work. This is not a matter of being correct, but rather a matter of making the audience wonder,

provoking a self-referring reverie that elicits an expanded idea of ones-self and how the world works. As a result, we see anew.

This, of course, flies in the face of traditional methods of measuring advertising effectiveness. It also runs counter to today's corporate metric-mania and near incapacity to conceive bold strategies and innovations.

Insight is the coin of business success. While numbers can provide a means for measurement they cannot "embody," or suggest, meaningful insights into the human experience. At worst, numbers provide an excuse to abdicate decision-making responsibility while placating executives desirous of propagating 'business-as-usual.

What's Needed for Creativity?

Neuro-Marketing's Limits and Advertising Creativity

 
As a cognitive anthropologist, who some 20 years ago traded backpack and quinine for Dramamine and a Hartmann three-suitor, I consult with marketers to assess the base beliefs and longings of various publics. 

My method is to talk to people as people, not consumers. In that way, I learn about how they transform the world into their world. The twists of paradox, compartmentalization and irony are always exquisitely on display. 

By-passing Langauage- Straight to the Brain  

Recently, a client asked me to work with a company that is using brain wave activity, or measures of blood flow in the brain, to assess central nervous system response to certain advertisements and products. The idea being to bypass consumers' language and rational thought in the name of metrics, and its lookalike, objectivity. 

What I discovered was that no matter how good the scientists were at designing stimuli and reading fMRI results, the very best they could do for our client was to warn them what to eliminate from their ads. The advice garnered from peering under the consumer's skull could only suggest what NOT to do. Unfortunately, the data from their procedure could not help us to determine what TO DO to enhance an advertisement's effectiveness.