Does It Work?

01 Oct Does It Work?

Food advertising on television increases automatic snacking on available foods in children and adults, according to a series of experimental studies conducted by researchers from Yale University. (for more information on the study: http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=6770)

Many conversations I have with clients and friends will include a variation of the following question: “Your ads, emails and marketing look nice enough, but do they work?”

If you trust these psychologists at Yale, it seems they do.

Most of us aren’t selling food or even a product that meets one of our most basic needs like food but these researchers found that:

In one experiment, seven- to 11-year-old children who watched a cartoon that included food commercials ate 45 percent more snack food while watching the show than children who watched the same cartoon with non-food commercials.

In a second experiment, the researchers found that adult participants exposed to unhealthy food advertisements in TV programming also ate significantly more . . .

In the experiments with both children and adults, food advertising increased eating for all available foods, even foods that were not specifically presented in the advertisements.

So, advertising does work. As social animals, we are influenced by the stories we are told, the opinions of our peers and pretty much everything else that enters our gray matter. Entering the conversation essentially creates a situation where your company will be considered for whatever ails your potential customer base. This fact can be used for good or ill but we are influenced by what we see and experience.

I know I am susceptible to it. A burger never sounds better than when I sit down to watch a baseball game and an advertisement for In-n-Out or Carl’s Jr. comes on. There are times when I’m ready to run out the door after just eating dinner.

The point is not that marketing and advertising will cure every issue or make your sales for you. The point is that marketing and advertising are an important part of the sales cycle. Ads and information help to influence prospects to consider your company to satisfy their needs. After that all we need to do is to deliver on our promise.