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Less is … less.
September 1, 2011
Today begins life insurance awareness month (who knew?). And, since much of my family is in the insurance business, I decided to help them out by creating an info graphic about life insurance. The idea was to give people (mostly prospective clients) a number of life insurance-specific things to think about. If you’re curious, you can view the whole thing by clicking on it below.
Now, the idea behind an info graphic is to cram a lot of relevant information into a clear, usable format. But apparently, at least according to the family, the above info graphic has TOO MUCH information. They requested I make a few changes, which I did. The result?
This is certainly “less information.” In fact, there’s no longer enough information for it to qualify (at least in my mind) as an info graphic. By changing the headline and focusing exclusively on one statistic, you’ve changed focus from informational/conversational into sell, Sell, SELL. Their full post (which includes a link to this graphic) can be found here.
Now, I hope this revised graphic works well for them, I really do.
But here’s my concern. Marketing is storytelling. Too often, marketers, advertisers, designers and pundits give people just enough information to elicit an emotional response (usually something primal, like fear, greed, hunger or lust). They then present the recipient with an easy solution that will either eliminate or enhance that emotional response—or so the claim goes.
All too often, however, their solution isn’t the best solution for you—it’s the best solution for them.
Deserve a break today? Go to McDonalds.
Hungry? Grab a Snickers.
Sad? Open happiness (with a Coke).
To be fair, I enjoy McD’s, Snickers and the occasional Coca-Cola. But I rarely feel like any of these have given me a break or made me a happier person. And though I have grabbed both McDonalds and Snickers to sate hunger pains, afterwards I’m more likely to feel sick, not satisfied.
Less may sell more. But it tends to satisfy less.
comments
That is a cool, informative info graphic Nate! And I think the first one you did, with more info and graphics, looks best.
