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Too Much Information
Neil Wilkins
Monday, June 14, 2010
Every waking moment of every day we are bombarded with information so getting your message through is your biggest challenge
In every industry sector, for companies large and small, getting your message through about your product or service is becoming more and more of a challenge.
Back in the day you could advertise or do some PR and if you were clever your message stood out in the crowd against your competition and your job was done.
Today, with the plethora of sales and marketing channels, online, social networking, digital TV, e-marketing, word of mouth, viral, online PR, traditional and digital advertising, integrated campaigns, sales promotions, telemarketing and telesales and, oh the list is endless....
That's your problem. Every one of your customers, much as we our ourselves, are bombarded with information and messages throughout our waking days.
So how do you get your message across and at the right time and in the right medium?
The answer should be simple and in many ways it is. It's clarity of message. Doing what it says on the tin is by far the best way of conveying effective sales and marketing messages.
Don't get too clever. Gone are the days when we say 'ooooh' and 'aaargh' when we see clever creative advertisements. We have seen them too many times now. This is the age of clarity. The age of simplicity and the age of just saying it in plain english.
If a potential customer has to stop and think for even a second about what you are trying to tell them then you just missed your moment. Research has shown that it takes less than one second for a visitor to your website to form an opinion about what they see. You have so little time so why waste what precious time you have.
Keep it simple and you'll be amazed how much more effective you'll be.
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Comments
Bradlen
14 June
I’m writing a book on Consumer Behaviour and the chapter on Perception includes the following:
To show the numerous sources of information presented to us every day let us examine the UK situation. If we take television viewing figures (BARB 2008) we find that the average person’s weekly viewing of channels with commercials is around 20 hours per week, if we apply a conservative number of 20 adverts per hour then we are exposed to around 400 adverts per week, over 20,000 per year. We can apply the same formula to radio listening where the average person’s listening to commercial channels is 13 hours in a week (RAJAR 2008), and we again assume 20 adverts are included in each hour’s broadcast then we reach 260 per week and over 13,000 per year. We can continue these calculations for other media such as the Internet, cinema, newspapers, magazines and so on, which simply increases the number of exposures.
We cannot possibly process so many messages from so many sources of communication, so we are selective about our exposure to the media types themselves. This is called selective exposure; it is the act of deliberately observing or avoiding specific sources of communication. This can mean not switching on a TV or during the commercial breaks on television, we may
• Switch channels
• Leave the room
We do of course watch or hear our favourite programmes and so expose ourselves to media of our own choosing. On the whole we give these our full attention because paying attention is the key to fully perceiving communications.
However there is evidence that we also deliberately do not pay attention to communications that are in front of us. For example during the commercial breaks on television, we may watch the adverts attentively, but we have other options, we may:
• Turn the volume down
• Start a conversation
• Start reading
This is called selective attention, it means that although we are exposed to a message, from whichever source, we distinguish and decide what to accept and what to ignore or avoid. It is the act of observing certain communications but not others.
The third area of selection is selective perception – the act of observing specific features from a communication. These features will match the person’s desires at that particular time. We are noting the advertiser’s speech characteristics, we are assessing the phonetic appeal of a brand name and we are drawing conclusions, we are preparing ourselves for decision making. The end result of this is selective retention - the act of remembering specific features from a communication.
Neil Wilkins
14 June
I’m particularly interested in your work on Selective Perception. I did Psychology at Uni and this was one area that always fascinated me. I’d be very interested to expand on this blog in that area when you have finished your writing. Thanks for your comment above.
Kiran
15 June
I’ve just been listening to a BBC Radio 4 programme on the use of sounds/music in branding, including an interview with the man who invented the Intel bongs. Very interesting, if light-hearted, programme on an important but subliminal aspect of branding. “Tag Me Amadeus” on Radio 4, 15 June 13.30, available through iplayer.