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Hearing Vs Listening

Do you know the difference between hearing and listening?

Parents of young or teenage children would be very familiar with this phenomena.

You’re talking to the child giving some instruction or request and looking for a response but you may as well be ‘talking to a brick wall’, right?

Or perhaps your man is engrossed in watching a game of late night footie and you ask in your nicest non-confrontational voice “don’t forget to take out the garbage dear” (yeah ok – no worries!).

And it’s not just kids, teens or football loving blokes either…
Although they will all deny it categorically, females can also have trouble ‘tuning in’. Have you ever wondered who is actually ‘listening’ in that group of ladies having lunch at the next table when all of them appear to be talking at the same time? (Ok – let’s not go there - but you get my very tongue-in-cheek meaning I hope!)

In fact getting we human beings to LISTEN – getting us to PAY ATTENTION is actually an advertiser’s worst nightmare. There’s so much of it in our faces every day, in newspapers and magazines, television and radio, on billboards and vehicles - is it any wonder we all start to ‘TUNE-OUT’?

This is why advertisers and their agencies are always looking for ways to ‘grab our attention’. The same is true for anyone making a speech, doing a presentation or even going for a job.

Clever Advertising
Not so long ago there was a very clever radio and TV campaign starring comedienne Julia Morris.

The ads were all very well written and recorded - a series of three or four of them I think - with Julia cutting across other people who are trying to sell her something which she obviously is not the least bit interested in.
That particular ad campaign grabbed a lot of attention. But did it actually get across the message to ‘buy brand X breakfast cereal?’

Well – it certainly grabbed my attention which is no mean feat because I know I tune-out of ads most of the time. That’s probably because I’ve written and produced several thousand ads over the years as a radio producer.

But I guess if I was ‘in the market’ for breakfast cereal and saw the brand mentioned in the supermarket then I’d probably try it at least once – and THAT’S all the advertiser wants you to do. At the end of the day they have succeeded in getting their message across. You’ve listened and ‘taken that message on-board’ – they win.

And YOU can win too – getting YOUR message across to the listener.

But you need to understand a few of the ways we listen first.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime.com

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