Tuesday April 28, 2009

getting people out of their cars.

Journalist and public transport researcher, Steve Melia recently reported, “we are fooling ourselves if bus services think they can attract large numbers of people out of their cars”.

It’s an interesting take on a long debated subject, and agree with his viewpoint or not, the article raises an important issue for all of us in the business of selling public transport.

But if we can’t sell public transport to people, is there any point in advertising it at all?

People are beginning to think this way. I wonder how many boardrooms have heard a conversation recently, along the lines of - "Do just what we have to and no more, if it doesn’t make money, don’t do it".

But there is another way. There are around 2 billion train journeys and 5 billion bus trips made in the UK every year. That’s 7 BILLION journeys!

These trips are made by people that either want to use the service or need to. So why bother trying to convert people who don’t want to be converted – SELL TO THE ONES THAT WANT WHAT YOU DO!

Why should transport companies take on such a financial burden, especially when it costs six times as much to get a new customer than retain an existing one?

So it makes sense, sell more services to your existing heavy users! It’s cheaper, its more effective, as they already know the benefits and they are easier to target, especially if some effort has been made to learn their purchasing history.

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change behaviour, not attitudes.

One of the fundamental questions about advertising that no-one seems to ask is this: is advertising best suited to change behaviour or attitudes?

The answer to this question has huge consequences for a public transport advertising strategy.

Common wisdom says that you first have to change a consumer’s attitude that leads to a change in their behaviour. The only problem with this model is that attitudes are extremely hard to change.

Once you’re a Liverpool fan, you’re probably going to stay a Liverpool fan. Once you’re Coke rather than Pepsi, Mac over PC, your mind is not likely to be easily changed.

As author and neuroscientist Sam Harris puts it: "It does not require any special knowledge of psychology or neuroscience to observe that human beings are generally reluctant to change their minds". Marketing consultant Jack Trout says: "If your assignment is to change people’s minds, don’t accept the assignment!"

Faced with the facts, we believe it is usually a lot easier to change behaviours than attitudes.

It's easier to convince you:

• to eat a Big Mac, than to convince you that eating a Big Mac is a good thing to do.

• to go to Blackpool, than to convince you that going to Blackpool is a wise thing to do.

• to use the train, than to convince you that using the train is going to be a relaxing experience.

It’s not that attitudes are irrelevant, and it’s not that they don’t affect behaviour. It’s just that they’re very difficult and very expensive to change. Your marketing spend is much more likely to prove productive if you focus on changing behaviour.

To illustrate the implications of this principle, let’s take a little trip with Virgin Airways (nothing against Virgin – it was the first one I thought of).

We know a heavy traveller who dislikes Virgin intensely. He’s had years of unpleasant experiences with and goes out of his way to avoid them. This year alone, Virgin will spend millions of pounds advertising to him and people like him. They can play Frankie goes to Hollywood till they’re blue in the face, but it won’t change his attitude or get him to like the airline any better.

But they can change his behaviour very easily.

All they need to do is promise him a 60 second security check or a £399 fare to New York, and he’ll have his shoes off and his boarding pass out so fast you won’t believe it! Nonetheless, this year Virgin will continue on a fool’s errand – running millions of pounds in advertising that tries to convince people who don’t like them, to like them.

According to traditional advertising practices and most marketing and branding experts, Virgin is doing the right thing. We beg to differ.

Taken from the excellent The Ad Contrarian book.

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