The Limits Of Marketing

Mark Di SommaDecember 26, 20132 min

The hardest thing a brand can do is convince – to go against what people already believe and to ask them to believe something different.

Actually, that’s not just true for brands, it’s applicable to anything or anyone. In the scheme of natural human interactions, conversion is relatively rare. To succeed at convincing, you need to overcome all the natural resistance that comes with encountering something new. Essentially, you need to break down all the inclination that has already amassed for an idea or a storyline. You need to destroy the loyalty that already exists for what people have and replace its equity. That’s amazingly difficult. As Seth Godin once observed, “If the story of your marketing requires the prospect to abandon a previously believed story, you have a lot of work to do.”

Redirection is simpler. You change soaps. You change airlines. You change shirt brands. Particularly if soap, airlines and shirt brands don’t mean that much to you. Changing from a brand that says and does one thing to another brand that seems to say and do the same thing under a different name is easy. That’s why and how things commoditize. When we see no difference between them, when changing makes no difference for us, because it doesn’t represent a change to our core belief system, we can do it without hesitation. Add in a good price, and we’re gone.

The irony is that as consumers, we all say we welcome change. We don’t really. What we really welcome is improvements, additions or extensions. And we have strong preferences and priorities. Some things, packaged in some ways, appeal to us more than others – but only if those elements conform with our worldview. A dispositionalist would explain this by saying that as humans we are significantly, if not completely, influenced by the cache of beliefs that we run behind the scenes and that subconsciously decide huge amounts of what we agree with and disagree with every day.

Marketers are optimists. We naturally believe that the power of a strong, well-presented argument must win through. It’s simply not true.

The easiest thing a brand can do is confirm – to give us more, by way of physical product or perspectives, of what we already know and agree with. Loyalty jumps when brands tell their customers, show them, present them with something they had always wanted to hear, see or think about. Launching iCloud, Steve Jobs told Apple fans the world was entering a post-PC age. It was an idea that was readily and speedily embraced, because it confirmed what Apple fans believe, or would like to believe, anyway.

Marketing may help decide preference but it cannot alter fundamental inclination. On the contrary, inclination pre-decides the success of so much marketing.

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Mark Di Somma

2 comments

  • Russell Granger

    December 28, 2013 at 4:38 am

    Agree on the whole, but allow me to point out one exception:

    The notion that inclination must precede preference is true save for one instance: The introduction of a new category. We are involved, for example, in the branding of a premium coworking franchise to the corporate market. Our research tells us that even those corporate employees with workplace flexibility are unaware of any alternatives – they’ve had no exposure to coworking because it’s traditionally been the bastion of independents and entrepreneurs. Once they realize there’s an option beyond coffee shops and hotel lobbies (i.e. through marketing communications), there is suddenly an inclination. Technology is also rife with examples of products for which consumers had no a priori inclination, but which suddenly became necessities.

  • Mark Disomma

    January 3, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    Good point Russell, and well made – but only if, as per the iCloud example, the new category is “something they had always wanted to hear, see or think about.” It sounds like your coworking franchise idea might be exactly that for your target audience. Best wishes with your endeavour. Regards, Mark.

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