by Temel Aksoy
Almost everyone is familiar with the fairy tales told by their parents. The heroes of those fairy tales teach us that life is full of difficulties, but that these setbacks can be overcome. Everyone’s mental map has been shaped by these tales; our minds think in terms of them, which is why no one can ignore or object to a good story, no matter what format it takes. Robert McKee, the teacher of Hollywood’s most famous screenwriters, says that the language of our mind is the language of stories, and that if a person describes their ideas with stories, the listener can’t resist and will embrace the narrative.
Structure matters here. For something to be a story, there must be an obstacle that needs to be overcome, a conflict that needs to be resolved. Brands need to focus on this struggle. Every brand must first discover the conflicts that people experience and then suggest a resolution. The concepts of conflict and obstacles, difficulty and enemies are an essential element of any story, because in a world where everything is a bed of roses, there are no problems or solutions. And where there are no problems or solutions, there are no stories or brands.
To create an effective story, advertising copywriter and teacher Luke Sullivan says that every brand must
understand which problems people will solve and which obstacles they’ll overcome by consuming the category,
recommend the brand as a resolution for a human “conflict” (no convincing at this stage; only recommending), and
communicate this solution in the form of a story.
Following this formula will communicate the brand in consumers’ minds as a desirable choice when one of those category entry points arises.
This storytelling approach works because people inherently want to resolve problems. Every story begins with a conflict and reaches a state of equilibrium when the hero resolves the conflict. In terms of marketing, people pay money for brands to achieve this state of balance. Every brand is noticed and purchased in proportion to its contribution to overcoming the obstacles people face. Brands will be noticed and purchased if they contribute to making people’s lives easier; for example, through good nutrition, being healthy or being beautiful and powerful.
What brands have to do, then, is tell the story of how they solve a certain problem, and they have to do this in thirty seconds. What people must remember from the advertisement is the problem and what solution the brand is recommending to overcome it. The brand’s magic formula is its solution to this conflict.
If brands choose an indirect approach like telling a story instead of trying to convince people of their superiority, their advertising will be more effective (details in chapter 70). If the user feels like the hero of the story that the brand is telling, then the advertising is even more likely to make an impact. The brand that takes this approach is resolving a conflict that people experience and bringing them to a new state of equilibrium, but it goes one step further and actually gives the user a sense of accomplishment. As behavioral scientist Annette Simmons says, in politics, in business and in our personal relationships, “Whoever tells the best story wins.”
Stories work in advertising because they give the audience the opportunity to face their own internal conflicts without bruising their egos (without trying to persuade them) and give them paths to resolution. For brands, the most effective communication is the language of storytelling. The successful brands are the ones that tell their own stories the best.
72. The
Effect of Advertising Takes Time
Marketers are often under pressure to report positive results after a short period of time. However, expecting advertisements to show an immediate effect on sales is often a mistake. Advertising works on people slowly, and often in the background, but it does work.
When people are exposed to an interesting and creative piece of advertising, they’re impacted by it even if they aren’t really paying attention or even if they’re doing something else at the time. The advertisement makes an impression on their mind anyway, because people intuitively perceive what is happening around them and record it in their memory using the system of thinking that Kahneman calls “System 1” (details in chapters 11 and 12). As Byron Sharp says, the message of the advertisement is perceived passively.
Because the human mind’s perception of advertising is passive, companies are forced to take a long-term approach when it comes to planning their marketing. Brands that advertise for lengthy periods of time using the same concept and the same visual and audio elements boost their sales higher. But advertising on one day in the hope of higher sales the next is unrealistic.
Advertising in spurts with periods of silence is also a mistake because brand memory is volatile. Advertising is not riveted to the human brain; it’s not long-lasting. When people need to buy the category in question they won’t remember a brand that has taken a break from advertising. If they don’t remember this brand when they go shopping, they’ll buy another brand. That’s why brands should spread their advertising budget evenly over the entire year instead of doing an advertising blitz and then taking a long break. As Byron Sharp often points out, a steady, long-term approach is needed to first create a brand memory and then refresh it in people’s minds.
73. Bra
nds Must Be Consistent in Their Advertising
Many companies have a tendency to use one advertising idea (concept) for a while but readily abandon it to take a fresh approach. Executives live with the brand 24/7, so they tend to think that everyone else has had adequate exposure to the advertising visuals, the celebrity and the slogan—or even that people are sick of it.
However, remember that every brand’s typical customer is a light buyer of the brand (details in chapter 43). Because people aren’t that interested in brands, it usually takes them a long time to even notice brand advertising (details in chapter 37). Changing an advertisement’s copy in a short period of time because you think that it’s worn out—but in reality the masses aren’t yet familiar with it and haven’t yet memorized it—is a very bad habit. These changes short-circuit the formation of brand memory in existing and potential users.
Innovation and staying current is obviously a priority for every marketer, but too frequent changes in advertising ideas (or concepts and copies) is an issue that must be handled delicately. With the exception of fashion brands, which need to stay current with trends and seasonal designer collections, advertising generally takes a lot longer to grow stale than marketing executives think.
If a brand feels the need for a new advertising campaign, it should keep the new creative work consistent with former campaigns and stay faithful to the language and tone, as well as the visual and sound elements. Brands that change advertising concepts and language too often are preventing the formation of brand memory (details in chapter 69).
Preserving a single narrative over many years really does require creativity. That’s why the small number of advertising specialists capable of achieving this goal are so sought after. The greatest benefit brands obtain from creative advertising agencies is their ability to accomplish this challenging task.
Creating brand memory is an even greater challenge for large corporations because they must advertise different products for different departments. Every large corporation in categories like fast-moving consumer goods, banking, clothing and telecommunications produces dozens of ads every year. Because they do so much advertising, they have difficulty consistently managing the fundamental brand elements that create brand memory. This important issue is often missed during the advertising approval process and is only noticed later, after the advertising is already being used, and sometimes not until the campaign is finished.
The concept of creating brand memory is easy to explain and understand, but in the frenetic tempo of daily business, it’s one of the issues that companies that do lots of advertising have the most difficulty with. Advertising consistency may be negatively affected by day-to-day changes like a newly h
ired marketing director or a new agency, or by a heavy workload.
Creating and maintaining brand memory should be a priority. Advertising consistency requires creative advertising agencies and experienced marketing executives who are aware of how important this issue is.
74. Peo
ple Don’t Watch TV Anymore Is a Marketing Myth
Contrary to what many think, social media like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram haven’t reduced the impact of television. Many people still watch at least one series on TV. One of the most common topics of daily conversation is still what happened on these series and to their characters. The masses still watch tons of TV, ranging from reality shows and talk shows to contests, tabloid news and sporting events.
In most countries, watching TV is the third most important activity after sleeping and working. Television has become an inseparable part of every activity in almost every home. The TV is always on, whether we’re eating, chatting or doing some type of housework. The fact that there is an average of two televisions in every house indicates just how important TV is. According to ComScore, in the United States live TV accounts for 84% of total TV viewing time.
Young people in all countries watch less TV than older age groups, but they still spend a significant amount of time on this activity.
We all know that when commercials begin, people change the channel or get up and do something else (or fast-forward the commercials, if they use digital video recording devices). It’s also a fact that people watching TV are distracted by their smart phones, tablets or computers. But in spite of all these distractions, TV commercials still manage to influence people. Every brand that advertises for a long time and with sufficient frequency will create a brand memory in existing and potential users. Advertising that affects people passively (details in chapters 69 and 72) increases the likelihood that they’ll remember and buy a brand while shopping. Therefore, the most effective and economic advertising for brands that engage in mass marketing is television.
According to the laws of marketing, every brand’s typical customer (consumer) is a light user of the brand (details in chapter 43), so brands should use the advertising that has the biggest reach, and, if possible, that should include television. When it comes to reaching the masses, television is far superior to social media. Don’t believe rumors that say otherwise.
Not enough marketers are talking about this. Instead, what we hear today is that advertising and content creation on the Internet and social media channels is more effective than advertising on television. This narrative is being pushed by persuasive propaganda from huge corporations like Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube, but it’s simply not true. Television is still the most common place to watch any type of video. In fact, when it comes to video viewing habits, television ranks number one even among young people, who watch less TV than middle-aged people.
It’s difficult to predict whether or not people will stop watching TV in the future. It’s also impossible to say with certainty how widespread TV commercial-blocking technology will become, but for now, the numbers tell us that television is still the most effective channel for mass marketing.
If this is the case, why do people persist in believing that television is no longer useful? Part of the reason for the popularity of this narrative is the addiction marketers have to any new trend that comes along, and their propensity for believing myths instead of relying on scientific data.
The claim that people don’t watch TV anymore is a marketing myth.
75. Pri
oritize Reach When Using Media
Most marketing executives have a bad habit of spending their advertising budget to show advertisements more frequently to a narrow audience. The logic driving this narrow target is the belief that sales increase because of heavy users, and that concentrating on this segment will grow the brand. However, per the marketing laws, heavy users only account for 20% of any brand’s user base and 60% of sales. Light users and first-time users, on the other hand, compose the vast majority of the user base—around 80%—and account for 40% of sales (details in chapter 28). Even more importantly, nonbuyers (people who have not yet bought the brand at all) are more numerous than both of these groups (details in chapter 43). The real potential of almost any brand lies with those who have never used it before.
Most marketers are unaware of these characteristics of the user base of their own brands. As a result, they target existing users and work to make sure this group sees their advertisements more frequently.
In fact, every advertisement should aim at segments that will grow the brand. And these segments are the nonbuyers and light users. As Byron Sharp has pointed out, brands that target a broad audience should have no fear that their heavy users will somehow miss their advertisements, as aiming at a broad audience will hit existing users anyway.
Showing advertisements to a small segment of users is the wrong approach because it prevents the brand from reaching potential users. Instead, brands should target the largest possible audience with their marketing budget and make reach—not frequency—their priority.
76. 360
-Degree Communications Is a Marketing Myth
Brands that advertise must make sure their communications are integrated. For example, retail brands must replicate the ads they run on TV to use at their sales points (and sometimes on their packages). Brands that fail to integrate the advertisements they run on TV with their points of sale will fail to achieve their sales targets because for the brand’s message to be effective, it must not only find its way into people’s minds, it must be remembered when shoppers are making purchases. The communications used by the brands at points of sale will remind them. If shoppers there see the same message that was communicated in TV commercials, they’ll remember the brand, which increases the likelihood of their purchasing it. If they don’t see the messaging repeated at the point of sale, the impact of the original TV commercial will be compromised.
However, integrated communication of this nature is not the same as using every advertising channel (360-degree communications). No brand normally has a budget big enough to effectively use all communication channels. With the exception of large-scale campaigns conducted by large corporations with extensive financial resources on special occasions, any advertising budget falls far short of being exhaustive in all communication channels.
Although the buzz about “360-degree communications” that marketers are so fond of may describe an ideal approach to media buying, actual 360-degree communications isn’t something we see in real life because of expense. It is a marketing myth.
Nevertheless, most marketing executives believe this myth and believe they need to be everywhere if they’re going to reach the consumer. As a result, they spend the company’s limited media budget on everything from billboards and magazines to newspapers, social media, the Internet and radio, thus by their own actions reducing the impact of their advertising campaigns.
If a marketing director spreads their budget thin by insisting on using every single channel, the impact will be diluted and the budget won’t be sustainable for very long. The most effective approach is to select a primary channel that will ensure the greatest reach and then buy a limited number of additional channels that will complement it.
As David Ogilvy says, “The essence of strategy is sacrifice.” (See Bob Hoffman’s presentation, in References, for more about online advertising.)
77. Adv
ertisement Planning Should Be “Channel Neutral”
The world’s most powerful media companies, i.e., Facebook and Google, have in recent years instilled the idea that digital media is the most effective advertising channel. Their propaganda has been so influential that today most marketers in every country around the world have adopted the “Digital first” narrative. Today, most marketers think it’s better to spend a significant portion of a brand’s budget on digital rather t
han on traditional channels.
However, television, radio, newspaper and social media sites are all just a means of communicating the brand’s message. The decision about which media channel to use is the wrong place to start planning an advertising campaign. The right way to plan is to
first decide what message to give to what audience, then
specify a budget for reaching this goal, and finally
choose the best advertising channel for reaching the target audience with the available budget.
The digital channel is simply a technology, and as such it’s neutral. When, where and how much of this technology will be used depends on what the brand wants to accomplish. If advertising on the Internet and social media is the best way to achieve the brand’s advertising goals, then this is what the company should use. But resources shouldn’t be wasted just so that it can say the digital channel was covered.
In recent years, when an advertising campaign was being launched, company owners and CEOs I’ve worked with have requested from their marketing directors that their brands show up on the digital channel. In fact, even when there was no objective need, they wanted the brand to have a presence on the digital channel and engage in show-off rather than proper marketing communication. I obviously understand the desire of company owners and CEOs to keep up with the times, but in many situations, these efforts are just a waste of company resources.
The selection of an advertising channel should be neutral. When I recommend that my clients use television as much as possible, I do so because TV is the most effective way to reach potential users with the biggest bang for the buck. It’s not because I have some special love of television.
