People say they prefer to watch television without ads, yet they enjoy programs that have commercial interruptions more.
The Harvard Business Review recently published the results of a study and asked the authors to “Defend the Research”. The authors found that People who watched a program with commercials were willing to pay 30% more for a DVD compilation of similar programs than people who watched an ad-free version, according to a team led by Leif Nelson of UC Berkeley.
The researchers concluded that it was not the commercial itself, but the interruption. Think of a massage. The longer a massage goes on, the less you really enjoy it. But if it stops briefly, then starts again, it retriggers that initial enjoyment. People report enjoying interrupted massages more even though they predict they’ll like uninterrupted ones more. Think of the law of diminishing return. You enjoy the thrill of your first car purchase more than the last car you bought.
I hope that helps us all to reconsider much of our feelings and impressions about traditional marketing and advertising, including direct mail.
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