The “American Owned” porn shop: brilliant branding or cognitive bias running amuck?

My drive home from work takes me through a somewhat seedy part of town. It’s just a short stretch - maybe half a mile. In that short stretch are two liquor stores, a discount cigarette joint, and two adult video shops.

This little bit of dystopia is an unincorporated part of the county, so my guess is that there are no local municipal laws and, as such, it must be pretty easy to open up a store to cater to just about any vice.

Recently, I was driving through and noticed one of the adult video stores put up a sign that said, “American Owned”. This was no temporary banner. These were large, bright red, three-dimensional letters fixed to the side of the building. It made me laugh. And then it made me wonder what led to this decision and ultimately the outlay of cash to pay for a sign that couldn’t have been inexpensive to purchase and hang. I have two scenarios.

Scenario 1: brilliant branding

I’m no expert on the operations of adult video stores. But as evidenced by the investment in this sign, maybe there is significant industry research that points to adult video store customers’ predilection to patronize an establishment where they can be sure that their porn dollars stay right here in the good ol’ U. S. of A.

Heck, maybe there is no hard research on this topic. Maybe it’s just anecdotal evidence from the frontline folks. I imagine something like this exchange:

Customer: "Excuse me, I’d really like some of your porn, but how can I be sure that my dollars stay here and support American porn workers?"

Clerk: "No worries, sir. If you hadn’t noticed the big sign on the building, we are 100% American owned!"

So in this scenario, “American Owned” is a brilliant exploitation of a high-value brand attribute. Hey, it could be.

Scenario 2: cognitive bias at work

Cognitive bias is a tendency to think in a way that can lead to an illogical conclusion. It’s kind of like talking yourself into a decision by rationalizing that it must be right.

So here is my imagined cognitive bias situation for the porn shop operator. One day he’s driving to work, and he passes his competitor’s porn shop up the street. He’s irked. He was the first one here. He shouldn’t have to put up with a sub-par porn purveyor (his competitor). Besides, his competitor is some foreign guy. Heck, he’s probably shipping all the porn profit back to the homeland. That’s just un-American! If only the local porn aficionados knew the truth! Then he has a brilliant idea that involves a sizable signage expenditure. He is thinking to himself, “How could this be anything but brilliant?!!!"

Even porn shop operators can teach us something about branding

Every time I drive by the “American Owned” sign, I’m reminded that we all have biases. And those biases can lead to less-than-optimal conclusions. If left unchecked, they could cause us to make some downright expensive and embarrassing choices.

When in doubt, I try to remember to check the evidence that the prospects have given us. Whether that’s through analytics (quantitative proof) or anecdotal prospect comments (qualitative findings). These will tell us or show us what is important to the people who really matter. We just need to pay attention. And not let our biases talk us into putting up big, red irrelevant signs. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

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