The Lesson – Act And Think Like Your Customer
By Wolfgang Franke
This is a true story. I’m in the Montreal office of a client who operates three locations in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Four other folks are at the meeting and all are “white-haired” men of a “certain age”. The purpose of the meeting is to review a campaign we’re proposing.
Before presenting the creative, I review the strategy, which represents a fairly significant departure from what the client has done in the past, a necessary step because the client has specifically requested a new approach that will improve sales. I note that our proposed campaign is “female skewed” because the client’s product is most often selected by women, not men. The stony silence is not encouraging, but I continue my review, which addresses everything from media selection to messaging.
One of the “white-hairs” notes that the background colour of the ad has been changed. “We always had a black background,” he notes. “We like black.” “Exactly,” I reply. “You like black because you are a man and men like black.”
“I also like the red headline,” he replies. “Yes,” I reply. “Red and black are warrior colours and men love them because they are competitive. I’m recommending we move away from those colours because our primary target is women, not men. Women don’t like war colours, they love colour, so it makes sense to use colour.”
The other white-hairs jump in. All want the red and black. I decide to take another approach. “How about we show these ads to some women in your office?” I ask. “I have two layouts that are identical except for the colour. One version is red and black; the other has the colours we’re recommending.”
The audience agree – reluctantly – to the test. A woman in her thirties (within our target audience) comes in and instantly picks the layout with the female-skewed colours. The white-hairs decide to bring in another woman. Same result. A third woman comes in and – surprise – picks the bright colours.
“We could do focus groups to confirm this finding,” I note. “Not necessary,” says the white-haired company president, with barely concealed displeasure. “We’ll go along with your recommendation to use colour.”
I realize that while we may have won the battle, we’d lost the war. When our colourful ads don’t produce an immediate sales spike – a virtual impossibility for numerous reasons – the white-haired clients order us to go back to the red and black colouring. Why? Because the client wanted ads that appeal to white-haired men – a fine strategy if your target audience is white-haired men; a disaster if your target is women over the age of 30. The red and black ads proved counter-productive and sales of the product decreased further.
The lesson – if you’re responsible for approval of advertising, act – and think – like your customer. Don’t approve what you like, unless, of course, you are a member of the target audience. The problem is that too much advertising is contracted and approved by white-haired men who never consider gender or age during the targeting process and assume that everyone likes what they like.
Do yourself a favour by taking a closer look at the advertising all around us. Note the ads that use a lot of colour. Then look at the product. Chances are you will instantly see that the product is primarily for women or the buying decision is made primarily by women. You will also know (thanks to this article) that the ad was not approved by white-haired men!
Wolfgang Franke is President of Words at Work Advertising & Marketing
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