Lovaglia’s Law at work in marketing

A friend of mine, Shawn Callahan from Anecdote, drew my attention to Lovaglia’s Law and sent me this link.

Lovaglia’s Law: The more important the outcome of a decision, the more people will resist using evidence to make it.

It got me thinking about how this applies to marketing. Especially as in a recent Adage audio interview with Greg Stuart, co-author of the new book “What sticks”, he says that “the practice of basing advertising-campaign decisions on gut instinct rather than scientific research is responsible for the massive waste of marketers’ money”.

Is Lovaglia’s Law the driver that will often see marketers reject research that does not support their beliefs or “gut instinct”? Or commission research with a predetermined outcome to support their decision?

Occasionally after benchmarking or reporting an obvious cost savings that can be achieved in their advertising spend, we have seen marketers ignore the recommendations based on “gut instinct” rather than minimize their exposure to failure through adopting our recommendations.

Author: Darren Woolley