Are you for real? Why Sincerity in Advertising Matters!

I’m one of those people that watches the superbowl, not because I like football, but because I want to see the commercials. And I was doing that back before it became a thing. And it gets worse, it’s not just commercials I like to watch, it’s all advertising; billboards, magazine ads, mailings, social media ads, even those annoying pop up ads that we all get when we’re on-line.

Am I a glutton for punishment? Maybe, but my interest does have a purpose. I own a small business and marketing is everything. I’m constantly observing and evaluating. I don’t just look at these ads, I consume them, I study them and I try to learn more about why they are or aren’t effective. Often, I don’t even notice what they’re selling. What’s more important to me is how they’re selling it. Let me be clear, I’m not a professional marketer, although I think I might have been one in a past life. Like you, I’m a professional consumer. I look at all of these ads from the viewpoint of the person buying the service or product. Every time I see one, I’m evaluating what is it about that ad that draws me in or conversely makes me want to run in the other direction. I use my own reaction as a customer to better market my own small business.

I was watching television the other day and an insurance company commercial came on. Instead of trying to sell me something they were announcing that they were going to be giving rebates to every single one of their customers on their car insurance. They explained that they understood how difficult it was for everyone during this coronavirus pandemic and this was their way of helping their valued customers through this crisis.

I made a point to notice which insurance company was making the gesture and commented to my husband that I was impressed with their service. My husband chuckled and pointed out that the reason they were making this offer was that, during the pandemic, people have been staying home which means they haven’t been driving, which means they haven’t been getting in car accidents, which means the insurance companies haven’t been receiving claims which means the insurance companies have a lot of excess cash.

“This dividend is one of the ways we’re working to help our customers during this unprecedented situation,” said the president and CEO of one of the largest auto insurers in the world.

The facts behind the generous gesture are this, from late March to early April, personal travel traffic in the U.S. dropped 47% compared to traffic in late February (Marketwatch.com). Calculations show that reduced accidents could push insurance claims down by more than 85%. As a result, insurance companies could save $100 billion. Any rebates they’re providing will be more than off-set by their humongous savings. Not only are the insurance companies saving money due to the reduction in accidents, consumers are thinking, rightly so, that they’re lower risk and should be entitled to lower rates whether they’ve had an accident in past or not. They’re not just thinking this, they’re acting on this. Consumers have started actively shopping around for new insurance policies that can offer them the discounts they feel they deserve.

So, the unselfish act of “helping our customers during this unprecedented situation” turns out to be less unselfish and more self-preservation.

As a small business, what can I learn from this? There’s a valuable lesson here. Consumers are smarter today than they ever have been. They know when a company is sincerely trying to help them and when they’re not.

You probably started your small business in part because you wanted to do things differently. You wanted to actually value your customers and treat them with respect. I know I did. I wanted to provide for my clients what I often felt wasn’t being provided to me as a client. Businesses, all businesses, sometimes make decisions that are necessary for the health and future of the business. That’s okay, it’s actually desirable. I want businesses to make decisions that help them grow and thrive, especially small businesses. As a client though I also want transparency, honesty and respect, even when that means the decision may not benefit me personally. I want to feel that my service or goods provider values me enough to be sincere and not blow smoke. Put plainly, I value sincerity in advertising.

Here’s the key, in order to sound sincere in your marketing, you have to actually be sincere. There are two types of companies. Those to whom words of sincerity are just words, without any real honesty behind them. These companies can be difficult to spot. Larger companies in particular have an enormous marketing budget to spend on “creating” sincerity. They’re polished, well spoken, and they ooze sincerity in every advertising vehicle.

The second type of company is the one that has a sincere desire to help their clients and their community. These are the companies that don’t have to practice being sincere or pay someone to create a sincere message. They just are and they don’t have to scream it from the rooftops because their actions speak louder than any ad.

Research today shows that consumers are loyal to companies and brands whose beliefs match their own. It’s not enough that the company says what those beliefs are, they need to demonstrate them. There’s a desire for accountability in business practices but also in going out and doing good in the world that isn’t necessarily directly tied to their bottom line.

REI is a great example of this. REI aims to cultivate a community of people who love being outside and want to invest in the world around them. They invest nearly 70% of profits into the outdoors, nonprofits and other causes. They love the outdoors and provide a community for people who feel the same (Campaign Monitor). For those of you thinking, that’s great but I can’t do that, I need to earn a living, think again. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do well by doing good”.  In 2018, REI made a record $2.78 billion, grew 6 percent and added more than 1 million new members, bringing the co-op’s total membership to more than 18 million. What they’re doing is clearly working. They’re succeeding year after year because they plainly communicate their values and they demonstrate a sincere and true belief in these values by their actions. And because of these actions, their sincerity comes across in their advertising.

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review on March 5, 2013 called “The best advertising is sincere”, “Without a sincere curiosity about and empathy for the people we hope to reach, we stand no chance of developing a compelling conversation with them. Indeed I would argue that sincerity drives the success of the best and most successful marketing”.

There’s a couple of phrases in this article that really caught my attention. One was developing compelling conversations. We live in a world of on-line relationships. We work to expand our relationships by accepting friend requests from marginal acquaintances or even total strangers on facebook. We send tweets and Instagram posts and comment on other peoples lives like we know them. As marketers of our own businesses we’re told to form real relationships and have those compelling conversations. So much of what we do is surface relationships. Real relationships take time and effort, and dare I say, sincerity.

The other phrase that caught my eye was empathy for people. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Companies and marketers need to truly put themselves in their consumers shoes if they’re going to have any hope of bringing empathy across in their advertising. Ann Hadley put it brilliantly in her book, Everybody Writes, “Empathy-like writing isn’t a gift. It’s a discipline. It takes some intentional effort and diligence to develop enormous empathy so that you can apply it to your writing.”.

We’re in the midst of a global pandemic. Everyone is looking for empathy and it’s tempting to try to provide it in the marketing of your business. You can’t turn on the TV or look at a print ad without seeing some company telling you that they understand your pain and they want to help you through this crisis. I’m as guilty as the next business owner of this. Ironically, my first reaction when I see this approach in other businesses ads, is skepticism. Yes, I know some of them are sincere and I applaud them for it but many are just a thinly veiled attempt to show an empathy I know they don’t really have. I know this because they haven’t taken the time to know me, to walk a mile in my shoes.

So the lesson is this, sincerity in advertising is key but you can’t and shouldn’t try to fake it. You may be tempted to say you understand and empathize with your customers but, before you do, take a moment to look inward and ask whether you’ve earned that right. If your primary motivation is a desire to grow your business and make more money than think twice about advertising your sincerity because people will see through it. If you’re truly driven by a desire to help others, that will shine through and as Benjamin Franklin said, you will do well by doing good.

Can you imagine an auto insurance commercial that says, “We’re saving billions of dollars in accident claims and because we want to keep you as a customer, we want to give back some of that money rather than lining our own, already fat, pockets.” As strange as this sounds, that company would get my business. As a consumer, I value sincerity. This message doesn’t deliver the warm fuzzy feeling that “we want to help our customers during this unprecedented situation” does. What it does deliver, that is infinitely more appealing to me, is sincerity.

We’re in crisis, there’s a very human almost desperate need to find comfort and be comforted in a time like this. We’re actively searching for validation, understanding and empathy from those around us. This extends to our family and friends but it also extends to the people we do business with. As businesses we’ve been given a gift. We’re in a unique position through a shared trauma to get to know our customers on a deeper level. That gives us the opportunity to demonstrate sincere empathy with our customers. If we do that our businesses will come back stronger and we’ll have touched our customers lives in a positive way in the process.

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza, her husband, and their three pets live in Nebraska. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.