“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention” — Herbert Simon, American Cognitive Psychologist, 1916-2001
I saw the quote in Jonah Lehrer’s How We Decide — a very interesting look at how the human brain processes and reacts to everything it has to handle. I thought of it recently when I heard a radio commercial for a Portland-area pet hospital. In 60 seconds, the commercial discusses:
- Open since 1972
- Offers the newest models of CT and MRI scans
- In-house ultrasound and lab testing
- Cancer treatment since 1978, including radiation and chemotherapy
- Dental care
- Flea and tic care
- Microchip identification
- Assistance with pet insurance
- Courtesy exams when you get your pet from the animal shelter
- Boarding services — dogs are walked 4 times a day at no extra charge!
- And they are pampered with grooming services
- National and International health certificates if you travel with your pet
- Monday-Friday hours
- Saturday hours, which are different from Monday-Friday, so we have to list them, too.
- Address
- Phone number
Can you get all that into 60 seconds? It turns out that you can, if you talk fast enough. Will listeners remember any of it? I’m not optimistic.
In my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them, this is Mistake #1.
If you want to make an impression on your busy, distracted customers and prospects, don’t make them dig through a pile of information looking for something of value.
Choose one thing for them.
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Good article and good white paper. Common sense, but often overlooked by people. Two other items that have recently become pet peeves of mine — forgetting the proper social roles of customers vs. vendors, and not treating customers with intellectual respect. (I just posted two recent examples of these here: http://domusinc.blogspot.com/2009/06/arrogant-marketing-part-2.html and http://domusinc.blogspot.com/2009/04/arrogant-marketing.html.)