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January 20, 2009

Radio Advertising Insight: "Knowledge Influences Perception"

If you're in advertising, particularly direct response radio advertising, and you want to be good at your craft, it is essential that you have a healthy curiosity about human behavior as it pertains to preferences and the processing of stimuli.

One of the most exciting fields to emerge recently is the field of behavioral economics. One thing I've noticed is that it takes some effort to translate the findings of research in behavioral science to advertising. Often the full applicability is not immediately clear. So chew on this one:

Dan Ariely is the author of a fascinating book called Predictably Irrational. In this video (you'll have to click the link below because the embed code is not working) he describes an experiment he conducted with ... beer. It is both fun and insightful. Can you distill how this experiment applies to direct response radio advertising?

http://research.duke.edu/predictably_irrational/

Okay, that one is a bit tough. Here is Dan discussing research that is much more obviously applicable, and equally fascinating and insightful about human behavior:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1422253606?bctid=1424672826

Understanding research about consumer buying behavior is absolutely essential. One reason for this is that absent this research-based insights, people very often will substitute their own opinions or beliefs (assumptions) about consumer behavior and extrapolate those to all target customers. This can be a huge mistake. Of course, your assumption could be right. But in reality you are a sample size of one, not statistically significant, and not accounting for the often wide variability of human preferences and behaviors.

Posted by Jeff Small & Brett Astor at 08:39 AM | Permalink