SD#14: Multitasking, age of innovation and languages
April 17, 2022
Hi friends,
Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more. As the newsletter is still in it’s infancy I will experiment with the way I send you ideas. Do let me know if you like or dislike something you see.
Our seven ideas this week:
1. (Marketing) ESOV takes time! We know it works but it takes years to translate into share of market You are probably sick of me mentioning the great work of Peter Field and Les Binet on marketing effectiveness. But I’ll persevere. Their earlier work proved that improving market share-of-voice (SOV), i.e. the amount of attention your advertising occupies in the minds of prospects compared to the competition, will increase your market share over time. The key point is that your SOV needs to be higher than your market share. If you have a market share of 5%, then to increase that you should have a SOV of 8-10% to see results. That additional 3-5% on top of your market share is extra share-of-voice (ESOV). The more you have the more your market share will grow. Simple. Hold on, not so simple. Why? Because it takes years for it to take effect. We know ESOV leads to increased market share, but it takes years for it to do its job. Be patient. |
2. (Productivity) Heavy multitaskers are less efficient at multitasking than light ones It feels productive to multitask as we go about our day but new studies show that it can actually kill your performance. Research conducted at Stanford University found that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time. What about heavy multitaskers? Could we become good at it and increase our productivity? Well, researchers compared groups of people based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers—those who multitask a lot and feel that it boosts their performance—were actually worse at multitasking than those who like to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organising their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. |
3. (Technology) The pace of technological advancement has been much slower than people think since the 1970s We like to think that we live in the age of innovation. Things are changing rapidly all around us and technology is developing at the speed of light. But is it? If you were living in the 1950s and belonged to the ‘upper-middle class’, more likely than not you were able to afford things that most of your neighbours couldn’t – a fridge, television, a car, a washing machine. These things were unaffordable to many and they were life-changing material. Think about what your life would be like without a fridge? Or a washing machine? Now think about all the things that were invented in the last 40 years. Faster cars, more efficient washing machines, powerful computers (some that even fit into your pocket). You can now fly from London to Sydney without transfers and your seats may be a tad comfier than decades ago. But most things that we have now are improved versions of something invented decades ago. The pace of change has dramatically decreased and I could write a whole piece just on that. As a matter of fact, I did – I wrote an article arguing that Covid-19 won’t change many things and not to blow my own trumpet but I was mostly right. |
4. (Marketing) Having two to three marketing objectives increases ad effectiveness compared to none or too many What drives advertising effectiveness? This is the question that marketing legend Mark Ritson focuses on in some of his work. During his talk at thinktv’s “Media, Marketing & Effectiveness” event at the end of 2019, he drew on research and analysis based on almost 6,000 submissions to the Effies from the 1990s and outlined the 10 most important drivers of advertising effectiveness. At number 9 is marketing objectives. Not just having them but how many you need for your advertising to be effective. Based on his analysis, he found that two to three is the optimal number before success rates begin to dive after five. Trying to assume too many positions and target too many segments is ultimately more difficult to achieve and thus brands should stick to two or three key objectives. Per Hub.tv |
5. (Psychology) The language we speak shapes the way we think Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor, said ‘To have a second language is to have a second soul’. The principle of linguistic relativity states that the way people think of the world is directly influenced by the language we speak. English speakers name different shades of blue as dark blue and light blue. Russians (and other Eastern European languages) have two distinct words – it can be siniy (dark blue) or goluboy (light blue). Eskimos have at least three different ways to describe snow (even though some claims have said they have up to 50) – whether it is falling, has already fallen or is on the ground. Some Australian aboriginals don’t use words like ‘left’ and ‘right’ instead, everything is described as north, south, east and west. In order to have any conversation with others, these aboriginal tribes need to know their geographic orientation extremely well. This is a consequence. People who speak different languages will pay attention to different things, depending on what their needs are. Languages don’t limit our ability to perceive the world, rather, they focus our attention on specific aspects. How does your language shape yours? And what can you do to influence it? |
6. (Marketing) Mass reach works better than targeting, but you need both I have quoted the great work of Byron Sharp and his book ‘How Brands Grow’ numerous times in this newsletter. Come to think of it, you’re probably getting a free summary of the book just by reading Seven Dawns… One of his main arguments is that mass advertising works significantly better than small, highly-targeted campaigns. And he has plenty of research to confirm it. But my argument is not to try to convince otherwise, it is rather that marketing has a tendency to pick sides but it is at its strongest when we do several things good over one thing great. ‘The long and short of it’ by Peter Field and Les Binet proves that you need long-term emotional advertising as well as short-term activation. We also need the top of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel. Quantitative and qualitative research. As Mark Ritson puts it we need bothism in marketing. While mass reach is more effective than targeted activation campaigns, the combination of both is what truly drives value. |
7. (Psychology) Immediate emotions should be managed so they don’t unconsciously interfere with decision making We make thousands of decisions every day. From what to buy in the grocery shop to how to park the car and buy a ticket. And emotions are usually central to how we make those decisions. The part of your brain that is responsible for expressing your emotions (the ventromedial prefrontal cortex) is also involved in decision making. And contrary to what we might think, decision making is improved because of our emotions not in the absence of them. To improve our decision making we can practice emotional control, differentiating incidental emotions (those that happen in the background and have nothing to do with the actual decision, e.g. the mood you were in); and integral emotions (those that are caused by the decision itself, e.g. anxiety from the choice you have to make). Per PsychologyCompass |
Fun things to click on:
The weather forecast in emojis around the world. Clive Thompson made an online tool that lets you see only the questions in a piece of writing and it is truly remarkable – try it with a piece of writing you’re reading. What you should know about Ukrainian language.
Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.
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Speak soon,
Tom