Lies Of Omission

Probably the best definition of selling I’ve ever heard came from Wizard of Ads^© partner Steve Clark, who said: “Selling is the transference of confidence from the seller to the buyer.”

Well, advertising is selling, isn’t it? Therefore, advertising should create confidence in the prospective buyer.

Good advertising does. Much of it does not. Why doesn’t all advertising create confidence?

Because people assume that the advertiser won’t say anything non-complementary about himself, his products, or his services when he’s paying for the ad. The public is always going to be skeptical of anything an advertiser says.

Should they be skeptical? Can advertisers be trusted? Humm. Let’s look at some.


Can consumers trust an advertiser that doesn’t tell the whole story?

Is not telling everything a lie of omission?

Most ads are factual, but incomplete. Hardcore fraud is illegal, but consumers have learned to be suspicious of one-sided presentations. Many deceive by implication. Many deceive with “weasel words.”

And beware the “*.” Whatever follows usually means “forget everything else in this ad. Here’s how we still intend to screw you.”

Can consumers trust an advertiser that contradicts what they already know to be true?

According to Al and Laura Ries “The ground rules for a successful advertising campaign start with acceptance. Accept what your brand already owns in the mind and move on from there.” A few pages later in The Fall Of Advertising And The Rise Of PR they also said “The true function of advertising is to reinforce an existing perception in the mind.”

A statement that your beliefs are wrong isn’t going to persuade you to pull out your wallet. Any claim that runs counter to your preconceptions of the world is treated in your mind as a lie.

(Note: I’m predicting the failure of Coca Cola Zero. In the mind of the consumer Coke is “the real thing.” So how does the consumer’s mind perceive the “real Cola taste with zero calories? As the phony real thing?)

(Question: Are there too many varieties of Coke? According to Coke spokesman Scott Williamson "We work hard to minimize that by making sure all of our brands have distinct graphics and marketing." Good work, Scott. Lie to me in a different type face.)

The keyword is verisimilitude – “the appearance of truth.” It’s not enough to tell the truth. You have to tell it in a believable fashion.

Are these claims believable?

“We’ll loan you thousands of dollars… even if you have bad credit.”

“Make thousands stuffing envelopes at home.”

“Buy my cash flow system and quit your day job.”

“If you have a job, we can put you in a new car.”

No. They are not believable. They don’t “ring true.” They have no credibility. Customers will conclude they’re probably lies.

And no one can change your mind, either. At least, not until they’ve acknowledged the validity of your current beliefs, and then given you additional information to help you come to a new conclusion.

Can consumers trust politicians?

Every politician basically says, “Trust me.” Few of us do.

Politicians know how to project the image of being expert, being sincere, and being on your side. Like many other advertisers, politicians flatter their targets by complementing their intelligence and taste.

Cartoonist Dan Perkins, (using the pen name Tom Tomorrow), takes on the absurdity of American politics in his weekly comic strip, "This Modern World." Dan says that people naturally “distrust advertising and politicians.”

Can consumers trust an advertiser that lies by association?

Evidence has taught us that there are entire industries that habitually lie. And it’s not just highly capitalized energy companies or their big international accounting firms (Enron / Arthur Anderson).

“If you’ve been hurt I’ll fight hard to get you the money you deserve for your pain and suffering.” A Braun Research survey of 401 random adults in March of this year indicates that 79% of Texans believe advertising by personal injury attorneys encourages people to sue even if they haven’t been injured.

Can we trust the pre-views of coming attractions to deliver the movie we’re going to plunk down dollars to see? Can they give us some sense of what to expect? Or, do we secretly believe the movie industry would tell us anything to sell another ticket?

What about car dealers? Stock brokers who call us at home? Long distance telephone service providers who call us at home?

Can consumers trust an advertiser that speaks in superlatives?

Amazing. Astounding. New. Improved. Bigger. Stronger. Faster. Highest power. Highest quality. Most secure. Least expensive. Revolutionary breakthrough. Better than you ever dreamed.

Why can’t we trust people who exaggerate?

Because exaggerations are lies.

Can consumers trust an advertiser that speaks in vague generalities?

Quality, beautiful, efficient, huge, none better.

OK, what quality? How does one measure it?

How beautiful? How does one measure it?

None better? Isn’t that another way of saying “we’re the same?”

To gain credibility, be very specific. You can be specific and still engage the imagination. “The vaulted ceiling is eighteen feet at it’s peak – so tall even Michael Jordan couldn’t jump that high.”

Can consumers trust a braggart?

A Fosdick Ad Readership study of 14,000 business-to-business ads shows that ads boasting about the company were four times as likely to receive low readership scores.

Companies who talk about themselves are like the guy at a party who won’t stop talking about himself. Eventually people get turned off and leave in boredom.

Congratulating yourself automatically keeps you from speaking of things of interest to your potential customer. “We’re number one!” doesn’t work. “Here’s how we can help” just might.

Customers don’t care how long you’ve been in business, which associations you belong to, which awards you’ve won, or your size vs. your competitors.

As my partner, Roy Williams has said:

“Heads look down and hands begin to write every time I say it in a public seminar, so I always give people time to write it down. It's one of those things that's so obviously true that people are surprised they never thought of it on their own. "Bad advertising is about you, your company, your product or service. Good advertising is about the customer, and what your product or service will do to change the daily world of the customer. Talk to the customer - in the language of the customer - about what matters to the customer.”

Can consumers trust an advertiser that advertises in a biased medium?

DON'T advertise in media outlets that don’t match your goals or standards.

As a Democrat, would you believe anyone who advertised in a Republican newsletter?

As a Christian would you believe anyone who advertised on an atheist web site?

Can consumers trust you?

Today's customers aren't just buying what you’re selling, they're also buying you. With all of the reasons not to trust advertisers, how can you be perceived as honest?

Start by reaching the customer through the most truthful channel of all – her own experiences.

Find things your customer has experienced, and refer to those things in your ads.

Promise a shopping experience that you can, and do, deliver. We call this the Personal Experience Factor.

Get satisfied customers to give you unscripted testimonials. These raw, unrehearsed, and totally believable comments from other people will always have more credibility than polished and produced messages from the business owner.

And then?

Tell the truth. Tell the whole truth. Even the non-complementary parts.

According to the Sloan School of Management at MIT purchasers will trust the recommendations of a sponsored web site if it’s clear the site will recommend competitors products. MIT’s professor Glen Urban calls this “trust based marketing.” “Give them as much information and advice as they need to make an informed decision,” Urban says, “even when it’s not necessarily in your company’s best interest.”

The more truthful you are, the more comfortable, safe, and unthreatened potential customers are with you. They are more likely to purchase because they worry less about getting their money back, getting their purchase repaired, getting it delivered in a timely fashion.

Call it honesty. Call it believability. Call it sincerity. Call it verisimilitude. It all comes down to this: help your potential customers to trust you, and they will buy with confidence.

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Feel The Need, Part II

In addition to a couple of readers disagreeing that remote controls for car radios are designed for, and marketed to immature men, I also got this comment following last week's essay on creating demand:

"McKay, read your claim that advertising can't create a market. Would you please explain Pet Rocks? Surely there wasn't a market for them before they were sold? - Jill"

Pet Rocks get quoted every few years as an example of advertising that created demand for a product no one needed. That's not really what happened.

In early 1975 a Los Gatos, California advertising executive named Gary Dahl had stopped for a beer after work, when his friends started complaining about the lack of time they had for their pets.

Dahl started riffing on his pet rock, which required very little attention. Gary’s pet never kept the neighbors up by barking. It didn’t chew on or shed on the furniture. It ate nothing, and never forgot to go on the paper.

His buddies cracked up, then went home to nurse their hangovers. Dahl stayed and started toying with an idea.

For the next two weeks he wrote a step-by-step guide to having a happy relationship with your geological pet: the Pet Rock Training Manual.

“Sit” and “stay” were fairly easy to teach. So was “play dead.”

“Roll over” usually required extra effort on the part of the trainer.

“Come” was determined to be impossible to teach reliably.

Housetraining was elegantly simple: “Place it on some old newspapers. The rock will never know what the paper is for and will require no further instruction.”

Dahl tried to find a buyer for his new book. No one seemed interested.

I did mention that Gary was an advertising man, didn’t I? As a stunt to promote the book, Dahl created actual pet rocks. He purchased Rosarita beach stones from a building supply store at a penny each, packaged them in gift boxs which resembled pet carriers complete with air holes.



He took them to the annual San Francisco gift show in August. Each book came with a Pet Rock. Neiman-Marcus immediately ordered 500.

Dahl quickly determined that the book was unnecessary. People seemed to want the rocks.

By the following month Dahl was shipping up to ten thousand per day. By Christmas he’d sold nearly one and one half million.

By January most daily newspapers had run Pet Rock stories – including Dahl’s claim that “each rock was individually tested for obedience at Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico before being selected and boxed.” He appeared on the Tonight Show twice and was featured in Newsweek.

A number of imitators tried to cash in on Dahl’s notoriety and rushed their own products to market, including Pet Rock Obedience Lessons and Pet Rock Burial-at-Sea Services.

Note: if you ever come across a “Genuine Pet Rock,” you can be assured that it’s fake. Dahl never used the term “genuine.”

They were, however, too late. By January the fad was over.

Yes, people use the Pet Rock as an example of advertising having created demand for a useless product.

I contend that the demand was already there, and that the rock wasn’t useless.
Remember the mood of the country in 1975.

As the 60’s came to a close Americans witnessed the daily killing of young men in Viet Nam as television brought the war into our living rooms.

A former Rand Corporation military analyst leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. We learned that our government knew early on that the war would not likely be won. We learned that they knew the war would lead to many times more casualties than had been admitted publicly.

We also learned that our President had been involved in an illegal break-in of the office of his political opponents.

Woodstock became acknowledged as the official end of unfettered optimism and free love.

The introspective singer-songwriter of the 60’s had been replaced by the cynical rocker of the 70’s.

The U.S. was experiencing a major financial recession.

We lined up for hours to fill our tanks as the first Arab Oil Embargo gripped the nation.

It was a grim time. By mid 1975 we needed a good laugh, and the Pet Rock provided one. The Pet Rock hit the market, peaked, and was over in that tiny window of opportunity which existed in the four and a half months between the August gift show and Christmas. Had Dahl had the idea two years earlier or two years later it would likely have been a total flop.

A joke is only funny the first time, though. The Pet Rock spin offs didn't even get any chuckles. Since one laugh in such a grim time wasn't enough, we quickly became enamored of toe socks, mood rings, Deely Bobbers, Wall Walkers, and streaking.

The Pet Rock was the beneficiary of timing, but it wasn’t useless. The Pet Rock was just silly enough that people could forget the dreariness of their everyday lives and have some fun.

And that demand for a good laugh already existed, even though people hadn’t expressed it.

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Feel The Need

Phineas Taylor Barnum’s most enduring quote is “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I suspect he was right. But then, Barnum never expected to see the same customer twice.

Hucksterism can create a sale, but it can't create a market.

Advertising can’t create a market, either, because advertising can’t convince people to purchase something that they don’t already feel the urge to own.

Whether or not they are yet conscious of this urge, customers must feel the need to own the product or service, or nothing happens. I was watching TV with my sister when an ad for the Clorox^® Bleach Pen^® came on. “I need that” was her comment. She instantly knew that he “needed” a product which (in her mind) didn’t exist 30 seconds ago. Although she'd never articulated it, she'd already felt the need.

This has a couple of obvious implications. For instance, you can’t “test” advertising effectiveness by featuring items in your ads that aren’t selling on your sales floor. (Think about it: if your regular customers are passing on those items, telling more people about them isn't going to move ‘em any faster).

Also, shouting “We will not be undersold. Call me NOW!” doesn’t make people want whatever you’ve got any more than they wanted it before being exposed to your shouting.

Advertising does not create demand. It can only direct people who already feel that need to buy from you rather than from someone else. My sister already felt the need to apply bleach to a tightly-controlled area. Once the ad brought her attention to the product, she purchased one within hours.


Example #1: Refrigerators

When refrigerators were new they were obviously superior to the old ice boxes. The first generation of these devices sold by satisfying the need people already felt to make their lives easier.

Unfortunately for retailers refrigerators are appliances which have an exceptionally long purchase cycles. Consumers don't usually replace them until they break down.

We call such breakage a “triggering event.”

The trigger suddenly moves customers from “not interested” to “I need one… NOW.” (Probably the pressure of hundreds of dollars of food spoiling). Until the trigger they’re largely oblivious to the new models. Hold all of the tent sales that you want, only a very few people will have a broken ‘fridge today.

Note to appliance stores: since there is no possible way to predict when an appliance will break, make sure that customers think of you immediately after the trigger is pulled. Think Top-Of-Mind Awareness (long term; relational) advertising rather than Call To Action (short term; transactional) advertising.


Example #2: Feminine Hygiene Products.

During World War I personal toiletry supplies were nearly impossible to obtain at the front. Red Cross nurses in military hospitals started using the new cellular cotton bandages as sanitary napkins.

Until the 1920’s menstrual pads had been made of cloth and needed frequent laundering. But having learned of the nurses’ use of their product, Kimberly-Clark in 1921 started marketing a modified cellular bandage under the brand name, Kotex^®.

Important point: although they created a whole new industry, Kimberly-Clark did not create demand. The demand for disposable sanitary napkins already existed. Since no one spoke of such things (Puritanism lives), the existing need hadn’t been articulated, or addressed by manufacturers.


Example #3: Remote Controls for Car Radios

Ever seen a remote control for an automobile radio? Most of the time the driver has to reach farther to pick up the remote than he would to reach the radio. Then he has to pull his arm back far enough to create the correct angle of application to allow the remote to function.

Does advertising sell these things?

Well, yes, but not to the general public. The general public does't care. They don't feel the need.

Car radio remotes are purchased by men (primarily) who haven’t outgrown the “Hey… lookit meeeee” stage. They felt the need to show off long before any manufacturer ever considered offering a new technological toy.

You can sucker someone to buy from you one time – if you’re particularly good at suckering. But without taking advantage of people, you can’t convince them to buy what they don’t want. And you'll never convince them a second time.

Until they feel the need, they probably don’t want it.

Once they feel that need, we want them to think of you.

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