Impressions Don’t mean Jack!!

“What do you mean by impressions?” one prominent CEO asked me over coffee in a swanky hotel of his choice, and his bill I may add! I wondered how much his lovely suit cost! It certainly gave me a good ‘successful’ vibe about him, however, his question seemed to suggest another impression.

“Views,” I said, not wanting to be patronizing as I am sure he knew more than me.

“What do you mean views?”

“I mean how many people will see your advert, your company name and logo”

“Yes, but how does that get us business?” He felt this was an intelligent business retort, however his credibility with me just dropped like a lead balloon in a matter of seconds, and my new impression of him was a reverie of his Mum telling him to buy a nice suit. “All good business is done in a nice suit and first impressions last son!”

Maybe Mum knew he was not the sharpest tool in the shed but at least the family can buy him a good position and at least dress him well!

I harked back to a famous Steve Jobs Quote:

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Branding and Marketing, like Sales, is a career and those of us who love doing it study the hell out of it, and it is of no surprise that the best marketeers are avid readers of economics and social sciences, and that constitutes the workings of the human mind, behavioral science, what makes people tick, and what makes them buy stuff and the trust that comes with every sale.

Leaps have been made in the last 50 years in the realm of the human brain especially the unconscious brain. Neuro Linguistics has become a major career and business. NLP can help you understand what you are probably not aware of and can fix many underlying traits you may have by using skills and techniques to influence your subconscious thinking.

Taking all this into consideration, studies now tell us that any potential client needs to see your company logo, your business name or just you at least 7-9 times before there is some trust, and no sale will ever be made without trust, because a sale is an emotion, whether you think it is or not. Think “retail therapy”. The ladies will be more familiar with the term, but men know what it means to smell the fabric of a new car and how that makes you feel.

I remember in the 1980’s researchers working in shopping malls and offering a gift for some market research. I took part wanting to know how this works, wondering where the money is, will I be sold anything? We sat down and were shown several logos on huge placards they held up. They then scrutinized your face as they asked you questions like, “Do you know this logo? How do you feel when you see this logo?  What are the first words you think of when you see this logo?”

We were shown Fortune 500 brands at the time like Nike Sports shoes, track suits etc.” and insurance companies like Provident, “Erm hiding behind coach, fast loans” They would be scribbling down our reactions and words we used. This was market research 1980’s style, and those researchers got paid very well for the time as the blue-chip companies wrote an open check to find out what potential clients were thinking of their brand. What ever words we used become their pre-internet era keywords and they bounced of that and evolved.

Big corporations are successful because they try very hard to understand their end user and what new users will be into in the future. They also understand impressions.

I learned from a recent seminar that Coke, the brand, has not really needed to advertise since 1885; they just continue to invest billions in branding. To keep their name in front of you always, you know what Coke is, but as long as you, the end user gets reminded now and again to drink Coke, they will still impress their investors!

So back to my meeting with the CEO dressed handsomely in his suit to look good and not understand that every sale must have trust and trust comes from being seen through impressions on bill boards, banner ads, sponsor deals etc. So no he did not buy any ads for the impressions.

Did you know some very prominent and successful branding companies buy Google ads that they do not want you to click, they just want you to see the advert as much as possible. They choose irreverent un-clickable key phrases as they just want impressions because that means more sales in the long run. Try to explain this to a CEO who has never invested in himself to learn branding and you have more chance selling baby care services in a retirement home.

I have a friend who runs a barrow in the market place. He sells statues and trinkets from the Far East. He told me one afternoon, “if I start trading and don’t stay in the same place for at least 3-6 months and turn up every day I would never be profitable.” He told me 80% of his success is just being there, and being patient for the first few months, because it is mainly the same crowd that turn up at the market each week. He says 10% are new people, you get to see this 12 hours a day. He knows to be very amiable to the browsers as they will become the buyers given enough time and rapport. He is in his 12th year and has bought two houses from the profits of his little market stall. So even a small-time trader with basic education, with a barrow in the market, understood Impressions.

To quote Jeff Bezos, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Perhaps you think Impressions are not important any more because people turn off banners on websites and just close their eyes to advertising. Well then you need to study more about subconscious learning; some of it will frighten you!

Darren Brown, has numerous videos on You Tube, and he relies of the fallibility of the human subconscious to trick your mind. He explains how advertisers have been doing this to you for years. He explains that although you see ads on public transport every day but take no notice, your subconscious mind does notice, and it sees everything, and can influence your buying decisions later at any time!

Leads4 biz sell banner ads and we can help you brand your business. If you need sales quicker, then maybe you should have thought about this 6 months ago. Success in branding is long term commitment!