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8. Time for a New Approach
In a series of articles in The New Yorker on cable television
by Thomas Whiteside, video consultant Michael Dann wrote:
When Warner Brothers put a movie into the theaters,
it was rolling dice; the public decided right at the box office how
successful it was. Well, that's quite different from the modern marketing
of consumer goods. Procter & Gamble doesn't do things that way.
Procter & Gamble doesn't roll dice. Procter & Gamble tests
markets. Procter & Gamble picks cities, marketing areas, it test-markets
variations of the product, test markets this, test-markets that -
it's done by computer.
But do they know how many sales were produced by one particular
advertisement in one particular publication? How many more or fewer sales
were produced by a different advertisement receiving completely equal
exposure? The names and addresses and brand preferences of the people
who buy as a result of their advertising? (This is another benefit which
grows out of including a direct-response element in your advertising.)
Achenbaum says bluntly:
Marketers must avoid the use of unreliable. nonpredictive
evaluation techniques no matter how desirable they may seem. There
is no sense in spending money on research tests that don't work. Traditional
market tests and copy research are not doing the job. Marketers must
begin to seek better ways of evaluating copy and marketing
variables.
How Response Testing Makes Advertising More Realistic
Many ads that we see in magazines and newspapers are a
product of what we call the "all you gotta do is" school of advertising.
"All you gotta do is" show the product or a striking picture with a few
provocative words. The Apricot computer ad cited earlier is a good example.
Usually the words are a clever twist on the English language
that leaves it to the reader to figure out what is going on. (The graphic
element may give you a hint, but just barely.)
We believe that when advertisers try more than one kind
of approach and carefully tabulate and compare the responses, reality
begins to intrude and may change the entire character of the advertising.
Instead of the advertiser telling or showing the public
something it ought to respond to, the public begins to tell the advertiser
what it actually does respond to. And all-you-gotta-do advertising begins
to give way to true creativity based on appeals. facts, information, explanation,
persuasion, positioning.
However, another warning is in order. This process of incremental
improvement is possible only if the various approaches and elements tested
are distinctly and intelligently different.
Each variable tested should be an expression of a clearly
stated hypothesis based on a strategic consideration, such as:
- Maybe we can reach these prospects better with a cartoon than with
a photograph.
- Maybe we ought to provide more background information and romance
about the product.
- Maybe we ought to emphasize convenience rather than economy in the
headline.
We have even tested one celebrity spokesperson against
another in direct-response television commercials for Save The Children
Foundation, with startling differences in results.
A brand-advertising creative team, schooled and experienced
in the art of developing "the" best advertising approach, may find it
difficult suddenly to shift gears and express the same message ten different
ways. But the talent and capability are there, waiting to be used
in this way.
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