Never underestimate the intelligence of the buyer

Perhaps the greatest promoter of all time was P.T. Barnum of Bamum & Bailey Circus. Barnum is famous for having said: "There's a sucker born every minute." This is the philosophy he used to drive his show to astounding heights of prosperity.

The American columnist H.L. Mencken is considered one of the greatest writers and social observers of the previous century. He is famous for having said: "No one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

The great British writer W. Somerset Maugham said: "When you consider how stupid the average person is, it should be no great compliment for anyone to be considered above average."

If we are to take the advice of these major figures of history, it would seem wise to treat our target markets like they were idiots, and feel free to do everything we can to trick them into buying whatever we want to sell them.

Is this true? In fact, this is NOT TRUE! Barnum, Mencken and Maugham have a right to their opinions, but they were men from another era. Especially today, the average customer is more sophisticated than ever. Listen to what Prof. Fairfax Cone of the Foote, Cone and Belding ad agency says:

"That woman in the supermarket isn't an idiot, she's your wife! And she's the smartest shopper in the world. There are 30,000 items on the supermarket shelves, and when one of them goes up a nickel, she knows it. So when you're writing your ads, don't treat her like an idiot, treat her with the respect she deserves!"

This means that you need to be straightforward in all your marketing efforts. If you expect to 'pull a fast one' on your buying public, sooner or later, it's going to catch up with you, and probably sooner.

If this is so, why then do we all see so many deceptive ads all the time, and why do we see them everywhere? The answer is obvious: the vast majority of those ads fail! Just because you see a lot of deceptive advertising does not mean that all those ads are successful. They simply are not. Yet, people never learn. Everyday, a new seller thinks he or she is going to make a killing with a less-than-honest ad campaign. Every day, those people crash and burn. They learn the hard way: deception and dishonesty do not pay!

If you want to succeed, never go down the road of deception, no matter how clever you think you're being. The public is a lot smarter than you think. So when you write your ads or direct marketing materials, don't make the mistake of thinking Barnum was right when he said "a sucker's born every minute." Rather, when you write your marketing materials, think of your wife, your brother, your husband, your parents, your best friends. These are the people you're trying to reach and trying to sell. How easy is it to fool these people who are close to you? Would you want to? I don't think so, and even if you did, you'd be making a mistake - and I think you know that.

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