Be Aware of Selective Perception in Advertising

By Steve Bareham, GCOOL Instructor 

When you book ads, you likely go in active search to see and hear them. People we target, however, aren’t so emotionally invested. In fact, humans employ selective perception to filter out all but the most relevant adsif they didn’t, they’d suffer cognitive overload. It’s hugely significant, though, to understand what this means.

It means you need to advertise and promote often enough to be there when customers’ wants and needs all converge in your favour. Nineteenth-century marketer Thomas Smith knew this, as evidenced by advice he gave to advertisers in 1885. It applies more than ever today:

1. The first time people look at any given ad, they don't even see it.

2. The second time, they don't notice it.

3. The third time, they are aware that it is there.

4. The fourth rime, they have a fleeting sense that they've seen it somewhere before.

5. The fifth time, they actually read the ad.

6. The sixth time, they thumb their nose at it.

7. The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.

8. The eighth time, they start to think, "Here's that confounded ad again."

9. The ninth time, they start to wonder if they may be missing out on something.

10. The tenth time, they ask friends and neighbours if they've tried it.

11. The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.

12. The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.

13. The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.

14. The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.

15. The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can't afford to buy it.

16. The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.

17. The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.

18. The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.

19. The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.

20. The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what it is offering.

The foregoing is from the textbook, Marketing Golf: The Meta-Manual for Club Managers. The text is the key resource for a golf marketing course offered in Selkirk's Golf Club Operations Online (GCOOL) program, the only distance learning certificate offered by an accredited post secondary institution in Canada. People wishing to obtain knowledge and qualifications to succeed in the golf industry can complete the certificate in less than one year and "earn as they learn" -- a great concept for golf managers and aspiring club managers.

First published on April 04, 2009