Foster, Bias & Sales. An Agency In Transition.
I’ve written a few times about my desire to open an ad agency named Foster, Bias and Sales – staying away from the surname convention. Foster meaning raise or promote. Bias intended to suggest “create bias” toward a product or service. And sales meaning, well, the cha-ching of the cash register.
I was reading about racial bias today in an Op-Ed piece by Nicholas Kristof which referenced some interesting studies of racial bias among children and realized my new agency should not attempt to create bias toward a product or service, but leverage existing biases. Big difference. By leveraging ingrained product context, one can create a richer purchase environment.
An example:
At a car dealership, to create bias towards Toyota a salesperson might cite JD Power data on safely. Or higher resale value after 5 years. These are good logical proofs of product value.
Were we to leverage existing consumer biases on behalf of Toyota, maybe we’d look at the percentage of Americans who only buy America made products. Those people who don’t like to buy imports. What would it take to get them to value the brand? That’s a negative bias. Let’s look at a positive bias. Toyota was once, if not still, known to be the best selling single car brand in America. Leaders and overdogs are sometimes thought to be complacent. How about turning that bias on its head. Position the brand not as the leader, but as the hungriest car company. A company with an underdog mentality. Almost start-up like.
I can’t tell you when, or if, Foster, Bias and Sales will launch. But it’s a great brand name and always evolving. Hee hee. Peace.
