Why Broker Ads Don't Work: By appealing to reason, most brokerage advertising ignores emotion - to its ultimate disadvantage, says ad wizard.'

How many times have you heard brokers say the following: "The secret of good advertising is to reach the right people. That's why I use direct mail; you can target it to exactly who you need to reach." "I let my firm do all the advertising and then wait for investors to find me in the phone book."

"I believe the only effective advertising is word-of-mouth."

"I know that advertising will work for some kinds of businesses, but I don't believe it's a good investment for a person in financial services."

Statements like these are almost always followed by some half- baked rationale the speaker has concocted to explain the simple but painful truth, which is usually, "I tried advertising and it didn't work." At the risk of sounding impudent, let me tell you why most broker advertising doesn't work and why brilliant people at leading financial firms force their ad agencies to create impotent campaigns. Oddly, the answer lies in the architecture of the human brain.

The brain is divided into two main sections. The left hemisphere is logical, linear, objective, and focuses on details. The right is intuitive, random and subjective, and sees "the big picture." If you react to life using your left hemisphere abilities (analysis and logic), you are left-brain dominant. If you prefer to use your right hemisphere abilities (emotion and intuition), you are right-brain dominant. These choices don't mean that the other half of your brain is impaired in any way. It just means that you prefer or are predisposed to use one hemisphere over the other, like being right- or left-handed.

In American schools, left-brain scholastic subjects focus on logical thinking, analysis and accuracy. People who prefer left- brain subjects often are drawn into accounting, sales, management, and yes, financial services. Right-brained scholastic subjects, on the other hand, focus on aesthetics, feelings and creativity. People who prefer these become artists, comedians, actors and writers.

The tragic assumption made by virtually every financial services executive is that human persuasion is a left-brain thing. As a result, they incorrectly assume that "giving people the facts" is going to somehow be enough to persuade them. In truth, human persuasion is very much a right-brain process. Every cognitive neuroscientist in the...