We're all adamant, aren't we?
Understanding why we resist change
There’s a powerful synergy at play between the laws of the universe and how they shape our mental capacities.
To explain what I mean, let’s talk about Newton’s First Law of Motion.
The innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body endeavors to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Sir Isaac Newton
In simple words, an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by another force that changes the way it interacts with its environment.
Stay with me; this is the extent of physics we’ll discuss in this post.
Now let’s look at this universal law from the lens of creators trying to understand how people would react to their communication, both physically and mentally.
Here’s how we can paraphrase 👇🏼
People driven by their own ideologies, perceptions and values will want to stay in the same state and resist change until a force (an idea, a perspective, or an emotion) helps them cross their mental threshold to invite, absorb, and process a new perspective. A powerful force that sends them in a direction to be excited by change and take an action.
People are pretty adamant about not wanting to change. The earlier we understand this, the better.
Here’s how Avis nailed their communication 👇🏼
Since its inception, Avis, the car rental company, had trailed behind the market leader, Hertz. Customers were comfortable renting from Hertz, so much so that Avis was incurring heavy losses of ~$3.2 million yearly.
It all changed in 1962 when Avis’s agency Doyle Dane Bernbach decided to embrace Avis’ second-place status.
They crafted the communication around their impeccable service, and the core brand message became, “When you’re only No. 2, you try harder.”
Avis’s new communication became the force that allowed them to change the state of their customer’s mental inertia and become profitable after a decade of being in the business, finally turning a profit of $1.2 million within a year.
Look for this force, dig deep, and understand what moves people you want to convince and what benefits you can convey to help them make an informed decision. Great ideas will always move the needle when it matters.
There’s a reason why I named this newsletter Adamant.
It’s not the first name that popped into my head, not even second, third.. or even tenth.
I considered many names - On the fence, Red Ocean, Harder to Trust, The Blank Page, and even Marketing Wizardry (Inspired by Harry Potter), where you’d learn about the magic of advertising.
Yup, I loathe myself.
But then I paused to think about the ‘why?’ behind starting this newsletter.
I was clear about what I wanted to write about, but I didn’t really think about the core idea that’ll be my north star, keeping me honest.
So I reverse-engineered the name.
And then it hit me -
The core idea behind writing about Advertising is pretty straightforward. It is the acceptance that people are naturally adamant and don’t like to be challenged or bothered unless something excites or inspires them.
As put very aptly by the legendary Howard Luck Gossage
Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them; and sometimes it's an ad.
People don’t want to change, and advertising still feels intrusive.
Adamant is about learning how to break through this adamancy.