The late Kerry Packer was the man reported to have uttered
television's great axiom: "You don't go broke underestimating
public taste"
Even he would have been a little surprised to see that the
latest offering of so-called 'celebrities' in another
last-one-standing series topped the ratings this week....this time
appropriately called celebrity 'Apprentices'.
Australia will never be overwhelmed by a
serious crisis as long as this form of 'entertainment' can
capture the majority attention.
We can be bewildered by this phenomenon, shake your head
in disbelief that Warwick Capper, Pauline Hanson, the tosser of all
tossers, Max Markson and an equally embarrassing list of
insignificant others can collectively dominate the airwaves, or,
... we can learn a lesson or two.
The inescapable fact is that the the 'punters' who make up
this mass audience are the same consumers who make most of the
household brand purchase decisions, and who, right now and for too
many months past, have not found sufficient persuasive reasons to
maintain or lift their spending.
Maybe the sophisticated marketers don't know how to relate
their brand and product stories to them? Maybe their
researchers are still talking to the small band of paid
semi-professional respondents, not the real consumers?
Maybe the communications messages are too 'clever' and
self-indulgent to get their attention, and speak at them, not with
them? Maybe they are not all sitting in front of their
computer screens, or on their iPads or mobiles. Maybe the
only tablets they have a real need for are the ones they take to
help the escape? Surprise, surprise, they are watching local
FTA television.
How often have you heard "not the way I see it" when
judging a communications message? That may be the very point of the
problem.
How often do you read company outputs lofting about
'customer understanding' and their executives 'putting themselves
in the shoes of the customer'? The reality, unfortunately, is
something else.
As always, it pays to try and really understand the person
you are trying to persuade.
Kevin Luscombe is Chairman of Growth Solutions
Group