Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore

Advertising

The advertising industry calls to mind a scene in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 where Gen. P.P. Peckem is describing a new term he created.

A bomb pattern is a term I dreamed up just several weeks ago. It means nothing, but you’d be surprised at how rapidly it’s caught on. Why, I’ve got all sorts of people convinced I think it’s important for the bombs to explode close together and make a neat aerial photograph. There’s one colonel in Pianosa who’s hardly concerned anymore with whether he hits the target or not.

Advertisers trying to rise above the constant cacophony in the marketplace understandably focus intense attention on the creative aspect of the communication. However, similar to the colonel who was more focused on bomb patterns ...