Your wife is NOT a moron!

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David Ogilvy once observed; “The customer is not a moron. She’s your wife.”

It’s worth remembering as you try breaking through the noise in today’s marketplace.

Too many advertisers rely on loud noise and questionable language, hoping they’ll get your attention and make the sale.

Consider my YouTube feed, where really loud video ads keep appearing. As I’m an avowed jazz & classical guy, I’m completely disinterested in hearing these ads. When a button appears to skip ahead, I quickly push it.

Lately, I’ve noticed the ad ends…then starts again. When I again hit the SKIP AD button, the exact same ad starts yet again.

Yesterday the same ad ran FOUR TIMES before I switched to Amazon.

Lacking the foolishness gene, I recognize that all players in this equation have legitimate objectives;

·        The listener wants to hear music without lots of loud interruptions

·        The advertiser wants to sell some product or service

·        YouTube wants to make money connecting the advertiser to the listener

As a marketing professional, I find myself believing if the advertising was more appealing, perhaps listeners wouldn’t want to skip it so fast.

So, a suggestion for my friends at YouTube; someone listening to Mozart or Brubeck may not be a good prospect for loud rock concerts.

Furthermore, given the ability of today’s technology to personalize messaging to an individual’s demographics and real-time location, a little extra effort on your part can go a LONG way towards capturing (and keeping) my attention and closing the deal. 

Meaning if you’re talking to a middle-aged classical music guy, don’t hit him with something more appropriate for a college student. If you know he’s traveling in Hawaii, don’t advertise a store in Poway.

Making content more relevant, interesting, and entertaining can’t ever hurt.

And while message repetition is critical for making the sale, for Heaven’s sake spread it out a bit. Let me skip the ad now, because next time I might actually be of a mindset where I’ll hear what you have to say.

But offering listeners a chance to skip the ad, then denying them that ability, will only ruffle feathers and persuade customers to get a paid subscription elsewhere and skip your station altogether.

Treating consumers like idiots will annoy them and guarantee failure of your campaign.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

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Make good marketing redundant at www.askmrmarketing.com.

Rob Weinberg