Awareness isn’t the problem
We have a client for whom we’re doing some influencer perception interviewing. This involves speaking to a sample of their influencers to find out what they think of our client versus their competitors. We measure awareness, favourability and approachability (= willingness to engage).
This is one of the fun projects to do. It means we get to call a bunch of influential people and ask fairly straightforward questions. It’s fun because our clients can’t do it (“Hi. Can you tell me what you think of me?”). It’s also fun because it invariably yields some pretty uncomfortable truths about how a firm is perceived. (And you now understand something about what I perceive as fun…)
Anyway, for this particular client they scored a very high mark for awareness.. Nearly all of their influencers are very aware not only of the firm but of the specific technology offering that was the focus of the research. They have 91% awareness amongst influencers.
Powerful, no?
Err, well, no, in fact.
Because they also scored horribly badly in our favourability score. Influencers hate them.
I mention this story because last week I was talking to a prospective client who was fixated on creating awareness, as an end in itself. It’s common amongst marketers detached from the sales process. I think it may stem from the AIDA mantra common in business schools and marketing courses: Awareness leads to Interest leads to Desire leads to Action (i.e. someone buys something). Awareness, then, is a prerequisite to a sale.
Of course this is a very vendor-orientated view. Decision-making buyers take the same steps, but in reverse. (Buyers buy backwards, as Skip Miller says.) It all starts with a need to take Action in response to some sort of problem or opportunity. This creates a Desire to solve the problem, leading to Interest in prospective solutions. With a need to find three or more vendors, in order to reduce risk and find an optimal price, the buyer makes themselves aware of, or responds to pre-existing awareness of, solution options.
Awareness is the last thing on a buyer’s mind.
So back to our client, who shall remain anonymous for obvious reasons. Awareness isn’t the problem. No amount of awareness-building PR and marketing will fix the problem. Lack of interest and desire is the problem. The solution to which requires a very different answer.
I like this post. I never thought of the difference between customer-centric view of the ‘buying chain’ versus the business-centric view. Pretty powerful.
Actually, at least as I learned it, the first A in AIDA stands for Attention.
Meaning that in order for an ad (or other marketing action) to be successful, you must get the attention of your prospect. Simple logic tells you that this is true as if you don’t get their attention they won’t see the advertisement and therefor it cannot influence their buying decision.
This is one of the reasons why Guerilla marketing has gotten so much attention as it tends to be out-of-the-box ideas that generate attention. Too many guerilla actions however forget the rest of the AIDA model, especially the Desire and almost always the Action part.
Thanks, all, for the comments. I guess my takeaway from Duncan C and Kari is that a focus on awareness (or attention) may be necessary but it certainly isn’t sufficient. Too many marketers measure awareness to the exclusion of other metrics that (I assert) matter more (like revenues).
“Awareness” ranks right up there with “positioning” theory as one of the false gods of branding. As you point out, awareness is a long way from engagement. “Positioning” theory is even worse. It’s unmeasureable, which means it lack accountability. It’s competitor, not customer, focused, and creates a focus on market share (“#1 or #2 in market), not profitability. We all see what happened to GM when it focused on market share. And, finally, it presumes to tell the consumer what to think. That might have worked 40 years ago, when the theory first emerged, but is a recipe for disaster in today’s era of user-driven marketing and branding.
Hat tip to Skip Miller, then. Nothing is ever invented nowadays, just recycled.
Hmmm. Apart, maybe from Siftables…