The Rules of 95

Why does marketing struggle?

In a recent DMA webcast on "marketing to your customer's brain" Roger Dooley gave an overview of neuromarketing.  In it, two previously unrelated facts collided.

First, 95% of most marketing doesn't work.   The argument was that since direct mail, email and other direct-to-consumer campaigns are often measured in single digits they can't be defined as 'successful'.

Second, 95% of decision making is due to subconscious thought rather than an explicit process.  That is, for all the research we're not actually quite sure how consumers come to a decision.

If true, I doubt the relationship between the two is mere coincidence.  So I began to wonder what the relationship between those two 95's might be and what questions we need to consider.  We should ask ourselves:

1. How do consumers actually make decisions?
2. How do marketing events and campaigns work?
3. How do different types of content affect decisions?
4. How do consumer need states impact choices?
5. How do messages effect the odds of choosing one option over another?

Ultimately, the question is how do we relate this to ROI?