Brands, consumers just aren't that into you - but here's how to change that

"Loyal customers are the backbone of brand success. Advertising that keeps this core constituency devoted will drive sales and growth. Or at least that's the conventional wisdom. As media buying has grown in sophistication, heavy users are now in the bullseye of brands' targeting. The assumption is these buyers will deliver the greatest ROI. In most cases, the opposite is true: the more successfully your media targets current users, the more likely your brand is to experience devastating losses."

"He concludes that a brand nearly always has far more to gain by winning over consumers from the large group of light/non-users than by trying to convince heavier users to buy more. There's more at work than just the limited capacity of those who already buy a lot from your brand to buy even more. Confirmation bias - the phenomenon whereby humans are much more likely to notice things that support what we believe to be true - is a well-known concept."

Advertising that concentrates on existing heavy users often harms advertising ROI, market share, and long-term brand health. Brands gain more by persuading light and non-users than by trying to increase purchases among heavy users. Confirmation bias makes current customers far more likely to notice and engage with brand ads, yet those customers are less persuadable because their opinions are already formed and daily experiences outweigh advertising. Studies show a brand's customers are about 60 percent more likely to notice ads for their brand than non-customers. Non-customers typically notice ads much less, making reach and persuasion among them more challenging.

Read at The Drum