© by Wayne Ens
The quest for measuring advertising’s ROI (Return on Investment) has been going on ever since the late 1800’s when department store magnate, John Wanamaker was quoted as saying, “Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”
Newspapers have published coupons in their ads, yellow pages have issued ‘traceable’ phone numbers to advertisers, and some misguided radio stations have even aired ads which said, “say you heard it on the radio”, to prove their results.
In the late 1990’s it was the dotcom kids in silicon valley who made millions capitalizing on marketers’ thirst for measurable advertising results, promising measurable ‘click-throughs’ and responses.
But online marketing expert, Ari Rosenberg, wisely says that online media taking credit for the actions of consumers is “like taking credit for the sale of coffee because you work at the Dunkin’ Donuts cash register.”
Human action is preceded by a complex chain of influences that takes place over time, long before action is actually taken. Before any action or purchase, our minds travel from unawareness of a product to awareness and from awareness to interest, from interest to liking, from liking to preference and on to actually taking action.
The dangerous and underestimated irony in this process is that the closer we get to measurable action or response, the less opportunity marketers have to influence or change that action. Once the consumer has clicked on the Ford truck website or has their checkbook out to buy the Ford truck, they are less easily persuaded that the Chevy might be a better truck.
In radio, we are at the important leading edge of the thoughtchain, reaching unaware consumers and influencing them long before they are at the preference or action end of the decision-making scale.
Our problem is, consumers don’t really know why they do the things they do, so the last point of contact receives credit for the purchase decision, like giving credit to the girl at the Dunkin’ Donuts counter for the coffee sale.
Online media reps can only sell the action end of the chain. In radio, we can be at the influential beginning of the chain, creating the desire for the donut with our advertising, and the measurable action with the donut coupon on our website…. we are online marketing’s important missing link!