We live in an overcommunicated society.

That was the core thread of Al Ries and Jack Trout's fascinating 1981 book "Positioning".

It is even truer today.

One of the groups of companies that have contributed to this problem is the dot-coms. They spent tens of millions of dollars, and often millions of dollars in one shot, trying to get people's attention.

Most of them failed, and they failed because they extrapolated.

To understand this, you need to acknowledge that a lot of good research has proven that...

Advertising can entertain people.
Advertising can influence how people feel about a product.
Advertising can influence how people feel about the company that produces a product.
Advertising can make people aware of a product.
Advertising can motivate people to try a product.
Unfortunately, while the research has shown that advertising CAN do the above things, it has also shown that...

ADVERTISING CANNOT PERSUADE SOMEONE TO BUY A PRODUCT

Persuading someone to BUY a product is much harder than persuading someone to TRY a product. This is due to the fact that people's attitudes towards an experience change when they are asked to part with their hard-earned dollars.

PERSUASION TAKES A NON-BIASED PERSON

You can persuade yourself. Someone else, whose opinion you value, can persuade you. This person can be your friend or a writer for a magazine. They can be any authority in the field.

An ad cannot persuade you.

There is a simple explanation for this...

CREDIBILITY

Everyone is exposed to hundreds of ads every day, so people understand advertising. People know that companies will say anything to make a sale.

Every company says that their product is the leading brand. Every company says that their product is the best-performing. Every company says that their product never breaks down.

What do you expect them to say?

Unfortunately, people know from experience that this can't possibly be the case. As a result, most people tune out most ads. Maybe they actually hear and act on a few, but it's a very expensive, hit or miss process.

Now, you ask, if advertising doesn't work, then why is there so much advertising out there? There's actually a pretty simple explanation...

EVERYONE ADVERTISES BECAUSE EVERYONE ADVERTISES

This makes perfect sense if you think about it - and if you accept the premise that people buy based on what others say, not because of advertising.

Many people have products to sell. Since we typically base our behavior on what others are doing, and we see so many people out there buying advertising to sell their products, most of us buy advertising to sell our products. Most people do what everyone else is doing because they assume that everyone else knows what works (Most entrepreneurs get rich by questioning assumptions like these).

However, I would argue that the reason everyone is buying advertising is because buying advertising is easy, not because it is effective.

Think about it. Creating an ad campaign can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it, but the key is that it can be as simple as just writing a check. As soon as the check is written, the ad agency will do the rest. They will come up with the campaign. They will test the campaign. They will buy the media. If you want to, all you have to do is sit in on a couple of presentations and everything else will be done for you. You don't have to do any thinking at all, just keep the money coming.

That makes the process of advertising easy. And largely ineffective.

Just look at all of those dead dot-coms out there who spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising.

Copyright © 2001 Chris O'Leary