Why does modern advertising often miss the target

There’s a lot of advertising in the world. What’s sad is there’s a lot of bad publicity. But of course there is also good wall mural printing, which attracts visitors. The Millward Brown study says that out of 2900 advertising messages, viewers only remember four.  Eight out of ten new products launched cease to exist after the first year. Not least because of the fact that advertising ignores what it means to be human. Why is that? What’s wrong with that?

There’s probably a lot that marketers don’t know in their profession. More precisely, we don’t know for sure what exactly and how the consumer gets from the TV screen to the shelf. To this day, many marketers use a traditional model of decision making called AIDA – an acronym derived from the words Attention – Interest – Desire – Action. According to the idea, this model shows the sequence of interaction between advertising and the consumer, it should be taken into account at the stage of creation and production of commercials, that is, the product should be available in stores. But whether this is actually the case, you can learn more about it here.

AIDA was invented long before cinema, radio and television – in 1880 and was used to standardize ads at trade exhibition stands. It is difficult to find a clear answer to why this model is used there, for which it is not intended. Research in psychology and neurology of the brain proves that our idea of the described linear logic of perception is superficial, especially where the question is about basic motivations.

In 2002, Daniel Kahneman studied the mechanisms of human decision making in a situation of uncertainty and received the Nobel Prize. There is still a lot going on in the old rails – relying on human logic, maximizing the consumer’s interest in the product in the hope of common sense. Then why do we buy simple water hundreds of times more expensive than our cost? Why are sea view rooms more expensive than courtyard windows?

Any, even the most thoughtful decision is driven by emotion. Everybody probably knows people who will never get on a plane. If you bring statistics proving that the chances of crashing in the plane is not more than drowning in the bathroom, they will immediately bring a number of crashes over the past few years. This phenomenon is called “ignoring probability”. If you have at least once chosen an office or apartment, you know how many facts to consider – price, location, size, etc. But going to the fifth, sixth, tenth room you just feel – like it, and the logical mind is already adding the right details.

The priority of emotions in decision-making is clearly illustrated by the case with an American financier named Elliot. He had an operation to remove a benign tumor, which affected the area of the brain responsible for emotions. Elliot stopped experiencing any emotions of any kind. In everything else, he remained a perfectly normal person. He fully preserved motor and speech functions, his IQ did not decrease by a single point (and by the level of IQ he was in the upper 3%). Despite the clarity of his thinking, he could no longer make decisions. He could not make any more decisions. He could spend several hours studying the nearest restaurants, up to drawing up hall layouts and studying table lighting, but he couldn’t decide which one to have lunch at.

Our brain operates with clear logical constructions, can always weigh the pros and cons, and explain why he came to this result. The human brain is ruthless to no emotional advertising. If there is no emotional involvement, there is virtually no chance that the information will stay in your head until you go shopping. Surprisingly, contradictory advertising, but does not leave indifferent – works almost as well as the one you like – the brain seems to erase the minus sign.