We are living in the Age of the Internet and it is forcing advertisers to be truthful or be gone. Buyers, whether household or industrial, have learned that the Internet can be used to ferret out truth or untruthfulness in product claims and even read of the experience of other previous buyers in their product reviews. No more do prospective buyers have to rely only on what you say in your advertising. In fact, they don't anymore.
Once upon a time, prospective buyers read advertisements and hoped they found enough information there on which to make a buying decision. Perhaps, in reliance on your product claims, they experienced a "moment of discovery," an "aha!" moment when they felt that what you were offering was what they needed. It seldom works so simply these days.
The moment of discovery, the aha! moment now is much more likely to come to the buyer after due diligence research into your product claims, actual product attributes, a sampling of science and reading of the experience of others. Only very rarely has it been recorded that great insights have come to great minds--even Einstein's--without research and study. Buyers today accept the need for such mental exercise, even at considerably less than the genius level. Research and study is being aided and abetted today by computers and easy access to the Internet.
The ubiquity of the Internet is being matched by the proliferation of computers. It would be unusual today to encounter a prospective buyer who does not have any or all of the available array of desktop, laptop and hand-held devices that enable due diligence research about product claims. Bear in mind that the device in the prospective buyer's hands is perhaps being used to investigate what you have said about your product, plus what others have said about your product. And it may be that he is using it to do so right there in front of you.
According to one authority, insight is a psychological term describing the process that occurs when the solution to a problem becomes suddenly clear and obvious. We can call it the Moment of Discovery, we can call it the aha! moment. It is that point in time when the buyer has penetrated through product puffery into real honest-to-goodness product attributes and decides that your product is actually, really and truly, the solution to his needs. Bringing the buyer to that point demands--requires!--truth and truthfulness.
And remember that an aha! moment also happens when the buyer uncovers an untruth.
Chuck Swann is Senior Editor of Paperitalo Publications. He can be reached by email at chuck.swann@taii.com.
For more information on Paperitalo Publications, feel free to contact:
Curt Gifford
cgifford@taii.com
770-367-4823
Helen Roush
helen.roush@taii.com
937-403-8602
Jim Thompson
jthompson@taii.com
678-206-6010
100% Renewal Rate
Something to think about when you consider where to spend your advertising dollars this year--what media company in the pulp and paper industry can say it has experienced a 100% renewal rate with its advertisers in 2014? Paperitalo Publications. Our service after the sale, our delivery of what we say we can deliver, our monthly correspondence all add up to a relationship people want to continue. Do you feel this way about your current advertising media? Perhaps it is time for you to take a look at Paperitalo Publications.
