Comments on: More Myths-Based Marketing

By: Rob Moser

Rob Moser — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 02:40:58 +0000

Sort of aside from your central point, but I am constantly astounded by how much of marketing seems to be based entirely on mythology. A friend of mine was working for a company running software that automatically placed ads in various media for them. At a meeting, he proposed that they track when and where those ads were placed, and what the surrounding content was, and correlate that with clicks on their website “so we can see which ads are having the most effect.” He received blank looks from the entire room. No one had ever considered actually tracking the effectiveness of their ads.

Or take political advertising as an example. We all know that candidates spend millions of dollars on ad spots and yard signs. Do people really change who they’re going to vote for because they drove past a yard sign 3 months before the election? I find that… problematic to believe, and I would like to see some research please. Personally, I’m still voting for the first (non-horrific) candidate who takes their entire ad budget and donates it to a decent charity…

By: Clark

Clark — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 17:24:11 +0000

DM, I think your points are apt. It’s easy to go with the gut (2), and we have fewer gut-*checks* (1). And we are fighting vested interest. Guess we will keep have to keep plugging away.

By: DM

DM — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:24:12 +0000

Off the top of my head, I think there are a few issues that contribute to it all.

1) The general angle toward anti-intellectualism in the US leads to a constant mistrust of actual scientifically-obtained data.
2) Something that feels intuitive but is wrong is easier to believe than something that doesn’t but is right.
3) Good practice in this industry is comes from the science of learning, but the people who have products to sell can speak much louder. You see this in K-12 education as well, where the companies who develop the mandated standardized tests are of course the biggest political advocates for their use. It’s less political for corporate L&D, but not dissimilar.

That doesn’t mean the situation is hopeless of course, not as long as we’re willing to fight the good fight.