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Why likability matters
Likability is also one important criterion we use to test advertising. Even as advertising and advertising research have become much more sophisticated over time, likability continues to be a useful predictor of effectiveness.
Read MoreMarketing and selling to the reptilian brain
Tim Riesterer’s recent HBR blog post about stimulating the customer’s “lizard brain” to make a sale correlates with Isurus’ work on messaging and sales effectiveness. Riesterer points out that most sales messages fail to compel buyers to move away from the status quo because our “lizard brain”—the brain stem and other structures responsible for our survival instincts—prefers safety and avoids risk. Implicit in this message is the idea that a purely logical message often isn’t enough to drive change. To make a sale that breaks the status quo, the sales message must appeal to the lizard brain.
Read MoreWhat have you done for me lately? Marketing short-term benefits
Across a diverse range of b2b and consumer product categories studied by Isurus in the last six months, the messaging strategies that best resonate are ones that speak to short-term benefits. Messages that speak only to long-term benefits failed to motivate buyers, even when the eventual benefit is very meaningful (a life-saving therapy, a significant ROI, etc.).
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