Finding The Right People

Finding The Right People

HERE ARE THE RIGHT PEOPLE!

Advertising started moving backwards the day the scientific types got involved. Now don’t get me wrong, I think there is a place for every type of person, but scientific types should stick to scientific things.

As it goes a scientific person rolled around one day and enlightened the rest of us of a very assumable fact, “The secret to more effective advertising would be to reach the right people.”

Sometimes I wish I was there that day. I would have looked over at him and said, “It’s not who you reach, it’s what you say, stupid,” and the whole thing would’ve ended right there. But I wasn’t there.

Since he was a scientific type and what he was saying did make sense, everyone else started going around like zombies, mindlessly repeating, “Reach the right people. Reach the right people.”

The problem here is that advertising is not scientific. “Reaching the right people” usually leads to overtargeting and overconfidence. This has caused more frustration and failure than any other method in commerce.

It all starts with the advertising person proclaiming he’s got the right people. When the advertising campaign fails, you don’t consider the possibility that your ad wasn’t persuasive enough. You simply say, “He didn’t have the right people after all.” You blame the radio station for not having the right listener, the direct mail company for having the wrong list and the billboard company for being in the wrong locations.

Business owners everywhere are frustrated with their advertising because they keep trying to make it a science.

Advertising is not a science. Science is a science.

The assumption that an advertising person can give you exclusive access to a particular group of people is simply ridiculous. Every person is reached by multiple ads every day. Having the right message is what matters.

It’s not who you reach, it’s what you say. Ø

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity of advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business. – Derby Brown

- Martin

HERE ARE THE RIGHT PEOPLE!