The Longest and Hardest . . .The first 3″ (1 of 4)

This post is the first in a four part series on AIDA (awareness, interest, desire and action).  I’ve taken excerpts from an article that will be published this week as part of the PMA’s  Annual Integrated Marketing Conference.  

The article is entitled, “The Longest and Hardest 9 inches”

Subtitle: Marketers need to take an integrated ‘sensory’ approach to win over the minds and hearts of their target audience.

The first excerpt discusses AWARENESS:

Awareness – The first 3 inches . . .

The average distance between the stem of the brain and the strings of the heart is 9 inches.  This is undoubtedly the longest and hardest journey for any marketer.  The end game of any marketing strategy is to win the heart of your target consumer.  This article will analyze how a sensory approach to integrated marketing can create attention, interest, desire and ultimately action. 

The mind is always the starting point.  Generating awareness is the foundation.  You need to introduce or reinforce the product or service into the consciousness of the target audience.  Radio, print and direct mail can cast a wide net to get attention and tend to be the most utilized mediums.  The upside is that you can reach high numbers with a low CPM.  The downside is that they tend to engage only sense in either sight or hearing.  These mediums are difficult to track from an ROI perspective and are prone to getting droned out in the clutter.  The average consumer receives hundreds if not thousands of commercial messages per day.  The messages at this stage tend to be left brain driven and logical in nature, ie. features and benefits.

Today’s Lagniappe – An awareness test courtesy of the UK.  Don’t pass this one up:

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