My Bestest Post Yet

Never try to use adult logic to win a debate with a 12 year old. I discovered that this week, while driving my daughter to her friend’s house.

Our conversation started with a simple question.

“Honey, which one of your friends is your best friend?”

My daughter rattled off several names, to which I responded, “But which one is your best friend?”

“Dad, they’re all my best friends.”

I explained, using the full might of my adult logic, that you can only have one best friend. My daughter, clearly not willing to concede to her older, wiser, pocket-money bearing Father corrected me.

“No, you can have lots of best friends.”

I won’t bore you with the rest of the conversation, though it went something like:

“No you can’t”

“Yes you can.”

“No you can’t”

“Yes you can.”

“No you can’t”

“Yes you can...”

Coming away from that conversation, I learned two things. My daughter can be extremely frustrating in a debate and, what we believe is reality is skewed by our own perceptions.

In marketing, perception is everything. This isn’t to say that advertisers shouldn’t be truthful, but sometimes truth itself is a matter of perception.

Years ago, during a rather unfortunate period in the airline industry, when airplanes that are supposed to stay up in the sky, didn’t, and didn’t at an alarming rate, airlines scrambled to do damage control. Some re-painted their airplanes. Others switched from in-flight peanuts to cashews. One even began playing Burt Reynolds movies during flights. They went out of business almost immediately.

But one airline did something very clever. They ran an ad campaign featuring a very simple TV commercial.

In the commercial, a long list of airplane parts scrolled across a black screen. An announcer narration re-assured viewers that this particular airline really cared about it’s passengers. So much so, the airline replaced every one of the parts listed, on every one of the airline’s aircraft, after every so many thousand miles flown. The commercial ended with the announcer reiterating the message, emphasizing that the airline ‘really cared’ about its passengers!
The commercial made a lot of people want to fly with the airline, realizing they were safer on the airline’s airplanes than on the ground where other airlines’ airplanes could fall on them.

The airline’s sales skyrocketed.

On the surface of it, it was a good ad from a company that went the extra mile for its customers. At least, that was the perception.

While it was true this particular airline did, in fact, replace every one of the parts listed after the amount of miles flown, as suggested, the ad failed to point out one important fact; The list of parts used in the ad was taken directly from the FAA regulations, requiring all aircraft to replace all these parts after the amount of miles specified in the commercial.

That’s right, every airline was doing exactly the same thing, as required by the FAA. But one airline said so, giving the impression it was doing more than the competition. Everything the airline said it was doing was true, and never did it actually say it was the only airline doing it.

Marketing is a business of perception, but not deception. As a consumer, what you believe is your reality. Facts count, but interpretation of those facts often counts more.

That’s this week’s column. If you agree with this column, feel free to drop me a line. If, on the other hand, you disagree with anything I’ve written, take it up with my daughter. Good luck with that.