Wanted: Advertising That Is Free Of All Confusion (Dead or Alive)
I will never forget that scene in Cool Hand Luke after Paul Newman was captured on a failed escape attempt. The warden stood on the porch on that unbearably hot day, and shouted so that all could hear–”What we have hear is a failure to communicate.” Those words still echo in my mind.
Those words should also echo in the minds of every person who is responsible for the advertising campaign of a small business. Whether you spend hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands every year on advertising, it is vital to make sure your target public is hearing the message you are trying to communicate, and not some other message.
Steve McKee wrote a very good article about that in BusinessWeek.com. In that article, he illustrates the point by referencing the “My Child Is An Honor Student” bumper sticker.
The parents’ purpose in displaying that sticker is to show their child how proud they are of their accomplishment. No one means to communicate conceit or “I am better than you” by having that sticker on their bumper. But some people take it that way. That’s why you see other stickers as spin-offs which say things like, “My kid can beat up your honor student.” Not everyone gets it. When you speak, there is a great potential for misunderstanding. In personal conversation, that’s OK. It’s easy to determine there has been some confusion and to start the conversation over again. But such is not the case in a costly advertising campaign. A small business only has one chance to make a first impression. If that first impression is made with a different message than the advertiser meant to convey, then money and opportunity have been wasted.
So, how do you make sure the message your target market is hearing is the very same message you are trying to convey? Mr. McKee has some good suggestions. I have included excerpts below:
The Message Is Everything
A marriage counselor friend of mine defines communication as “the meeting of meaning.” I think that’s as good a definition as I’ve heard. We don’t truly communicate simply by speaking to someone, we communicate only if they understand what we mean for them to know. The trick of creating effective advertising is to get inside the skins of your target customers, to see your message through their eyes and hear it through their ears.
How You Say What You Say
When you do, you might be surprised at how they interpret what you’re trying to say. Here’s an all-too-common example. When you hear retailers yelling (as they so often do), “There’s never been a better time to buy,” you don’t think, “There’s never been a better time to buy.” You think, “There they go again, trying to coerce me into buying a car/sofa/TV.” Not the message they intend, but by failing to take into consideration the fact that you may have heard that line once or twice before, advertisers can be their own worst enemy.
Or consider the positive example of companies such as Nike (NKE), Apple (AAPL), and Gatorade (PEP), which rarely overtly ask people to buy anything. They simply develop appealing, interesting, often thought-provoking advertising that involves consumers in the message and invites them to draw their own conclusions. Even more direct-response-oriented brands such as Geico, eBay (EBAY), and Capital One (COF) know how you say something is as important as what you say. Because they’ve done such a good job of understanding who it is they’re trying to reach, their ads have a positive effect.
You aren’t the target
Remember, it doesn’t matter what an advertiser intends to communicate, what matters is how the target audience interprets the message. Don’t just put an ad out there because it sounds good to you. You may like what your advertising has to say, but that can be misleading. You, after all, aren’t the target.market you’re trying to reach. Study the people Get to know them. Understand their attitudes and perceptions, even if you think they’re incorrect. And don’t just say what you want to say. Make sure you achieve the meeting of meaning, and save self-expression for the back of your car.
Break down in communication can be very funny. Who can forget the old “Who’s On First” routine Abbot and Costello used to do. But what is funny in make-believe show business can be devastating in real life advertising. No company, regardless of whether it’s small or big, has unlimited resources in the Advertising department. For that reason, it is essential to spend every penny allocated for the most effective advertising possible. The best advertisements are those which carefully and accurately convey the message they intend to convey. Overcome the “failure to communicate,” and your business will grow exponentially.
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