The Attitude Problem

Many advertising and marketing people have a mistaken belief that attitude change causes behaviour change.

But when it comes to consumer products and services, getting people to feel positively about your brand does not mean they’ll then buy your product.

This notion is not only mistaken, it’s leading to increasing amounts of vacuous advertising – bland and egocentric ‘brand films’, or brainless dancing baby or cute animal ads that do nothing but waste money and patronise customers.

Those advertising folk and marketers obsessed  with the idea of people ‘loving’ their brand need to realise that the most successful way to get someone to love your brand is to get them to buy and use your product or service.

That’s because, in reality, behaviour change comes before attitude change – people like the brands they use.

That means to make most effective use of your advertising, you should stop trying to get people to like your brand, and use it instead to bring people closer to choosing your product.

             

“We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand  by convincing them to try our product.” Bob Hoffman.

Our new book ‘How To Make Better Advertising and Advertising Better – The Manifesto for a New Creative Revolution’ – is available exclusively at the Design Museum.