Como parte de nossa série de resenhas de livros de marketing, revisamos recentemente “Truth, Lies and Advertising: the Art of Account Planning”, de Jon Steel. Embora focado na publicidade, o conteúdo do livro pode ser aplicado a outros ramos de serviços de marketing. Em particular, estávamos ansiosos para ler a sua perspectiva sobre pesquisas de mercado em campanhas publicitárias.

O objetivo da Steel é propor um novo modelo de publicidade baseado na complexidade das pessoas e nas suas emoções. O modelo incorpora uma parceria de stakeholders em uma campanha publicitária:

• perspectiva de negócios do cliente
• perspectiva criativa da agência
• opinions and prejudices of the people at whom advertising is aimed; In other words, the consumer needs to be probed for insecurities, motivations, habits, and prejudices

Ao “triangular” essas perspectivas, podemos chegar mais perto da verdade. Subjacente a este modelo está a sua apreciação pelo caos. A justificativa de Steel é que a soma do todo é maior que as partes individuais. Por outro lado, se for permitido que uma perspectiva domine, a qualidade e a eficácia de uma campanha publicitária podem ser prejudicadas. O caos, indica Steel, pode ser útil para fornecer o melhor trabalho aos clientes.

• Ambiente afetando pesquisas sobre publicidade
• Que tipo de humor isso os deixa?
• Chance (deve ser incentivada)

Steel continua traçando um paralelo inesperado entre a Física Quântica e a Publicidade, em referência ao caos. Em última análise, Steel implica que o caos e o desejo por perspectivas conflitantes na Física Quântica são semelhantes à sua abordagem de diversas perspectivas.

Steel continues to define Advertising according to Jeff Goodby’s definition: getting into one’s mind and changing one’s mind, but not telling one how to think. Along these lines, Steel asserts that Advertising cannot sell something; instead it influences the mind, which can influence purchasing.

So is advertising art or business? Goodby stated that Advertising was the Business of Changing Minds. Hence, it appears that Advertising is a mix of art and commerce, leaning toward commerce. Conceiving Advertising mostly as an art is problematic as it raises the problem of putting the interests of the creative above those of the client’s. Steel implies that Advertisers need to realize that the objective of their clients is to sell products or ideas.

Além disso, a publicidade é uma ciência ou uma arte? Steel afirma que a publicidade não é uma ciência porque negligencia a complexidade das emoções humanas. A ciência pressupõe que você pode decompor os componentes e reconstruir as coisas de acordo com o modelo de máquina de Margaret Wheatley. Dados excessivamente científicos podem, segundo Steel, focar nas árvores e negligenciar a floresta.

Steel writes about the power of the unscientific method. He cites evidence that some of the best brains, including Einstein, Oppenheimer (a physicist), and Watson/Crick, deviated from the scientific method by combining science and art (intuition, fantasy). Steel implies that this occurred because these great thinkers realized that the scientific method could not explain everything.

Contextually, advertising faces several problems in reaching consumers. Advertising is directed at people, and tries to tell them what to do. Messages have been overused. Consequently, people dislike advertising. Steel proposes that the Holy Trinity in Advertising consists of:

• simplicidade
• senso comum
• criatividade

Ideias sobre pesquisa
Steel asserts that clients assume that those on the outside share their same amount of knowledge, and that it was the role of the planner needs to change this. He indicates that the focus group moderator should have the power to introduce a completely new idea and deviate from the discussion guide. For example, he worked on a project on “Disability Insurance,” which by itself is a word that makes people shudder. Exploratory research was employed to allow the respondent to freely think and speak her thoughts. He found that respondents considered disability insurance as a necessary evil. As a result, the resulting ad campaign focused on the wide picture of the future and the realities that would impact some of the population. The message was that the company had your interests at heart.

Steel also claims that researchers need to look at what is not being said. Citing the example of a project for KPMG Peat Marwick, he had conducted many interviews with high-level executives. All research interviews consisted of the respondent telling the interviewer that what they were saying was all confidential. Hence, he came up with the idea to make a slogan conveying the exciting, stealthy, and confidential nature of what KPMG did.

Ultimately, the book has invigorating examples of creative advertisements. Its easy-to-read writing style is consistent with his overall theories on simplicity and common sense in advertising. Its theories on advertising campaign are helpful in conceptualizing the most effective advertising campaign. Our only displeasure was that its ideas on research did not add much in value from other authors in the genre, such as Clotaire Rapaille author of the “Culture Code.