Go big, go small, go targeted, go broad... Everyone seems to have a different opinion on how to do effective advertising. But whatever you do, don't let them wake up – like Roddy Piper and his 'truth sunglasses' in They Live, or Neo taking the red pill in The Matrix.
According to consumer insights firm BrandHook, doing too much broad, scattergun advertising can actually be counterproductive for your brand in the long run.
The problem, says BrandHook partner Pip Stocks, is you don't want consumers thinking too much. By throwing out ads blindly and "talking to everybody", you risk the chance of them "waking up" and reconsidering their purchasing behaviours.
"If you just put an ad on TV, it's generally not very targeted. Are you talking to people within a habit? You're wasting your time – you've already got those guys," she said.
"Are you trying to disrupt a habit? Then you've got to focus on the cues and triggers that cause people to buy a certain brand. Messages within ads have to have an objective – either strengthening an existing habit or disrupting one.
"You don't want to encourage people within a habit [of buying your brand] to wake up and think too much. You want them to be on autopilot with you. You could be throwing out ads everywhere and talking to everybody, and actually disrupting some of your own behaviours.”
In other words, don't feed them the red pill by accident. If you want to disrupt a behaviour, focus on the triggers. If you want to strengthen one, focus on the reward. You're wasting your time and money with large-scale advertising if you don't take the psychology into account first, says Stocks.
In a new study, Consumers Buy On Autopilot, BrandHook found that 46% of consumers' daily lives are driven by rituals and routines, with women in particular found to be creatures of habit – 65% indicated they purchased based on brand loyalty.
Dr David Neal, a psychologist specialising in consumer habits, said: "This study is a powerful reminder that consumers are much less consciously engaged in many product purchase decisions than we typically assume. When marketers ignore the role of ritual, they often miss the boat in terms of influencing actual behaviour."
Stocks pointed to Continental's '3:30-itis' Cup a Soup campaign and VB's 'Friday Arvo' radio ads – designed to run only between 4-6pm weekdays during tradies' 'knock-off time' – as good examples of time-based triggers in ads.
She also praised Tontine's award-winning 'Dated Pillows' campaign by the now-defunct Happy Soldiers: "This disrupted the habit of keeping pillows too long by reminding us that pillows have a shelf life and need to be replaced – just like you need to change the batteries in your smoke alarm. It's been a successful strategy given sales have grown 20% year-on-year since 2010."
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