A near-sacred marketing myth holds that when advertising is truly creative, sales inevitably follow.

The Creativity Myth has four effects, all of them unfortunate: One, clients waste money by giving agencies more incentive to “out-creative” one another than to build sales. Two, creative people prematurely and unwisely dismiss the tried-and-proven. Three, some creative people develop an annoying, more-creative-than-thou attitude. Four, those of us who create direct mail for a living often end up subjects of their ridicule. (Cue disdainful art director: “Another envelope with stuff in it. How original.”)

The history of the myth

The myth grew to prominence during the Creative Revolution of the 1960s. This was the era of charming, daring campaigns for small cars, stomach remedies, car rental agencies, women’s hair coloring, 100-milimeter cigarettes and more. Sales of these products soared. And, for the first time, advertising itself became popular.

Advertisers leapt to the conclusion that creativity was all it took to rocket a product to success. It was a classic display of selection bias — the tendency to fixate on what confirms preexisting beliefs and overlook what doesn’t. Had they bothered to consider creative campaigns during that period that failed, or mundane ones that succeeded, they would have concluded otherwise. (Selection bias can sneak up on anyone. Delivery room nurses, for instance, commonly avow that more births occur under a full moon. In reality, they fail to note the sky on other busy nights.)

Flawed logic: how Creativity Myth believers support their claims

Yet the misconception endures, often accompanied by the post hoc fallacy, that is, the assumption that what happened first caused what happened next: “We ran the ads and sales went up. What more do you need?” Well, a lot more. Crediting a sales surge to a prior campaign with no more criteria than relative timing is like deciding your neighbors painted their house because you painted yours. Without more information, all you know is that you might be right.

Another Creativity Myth defense resorts to tautology — fancy-speak for an argument that relies on itself for proof. It goes something like this: “Because creativity sells, a campaign that flopped wasn’t truly creative.” This is like saying, “Because cows are brown, black ones aren’t cows.”

Profiting from a rational approach to creativity

Don’t waste your time pointing out these leaps to Creativity Myth devotees. They won’t care. But you should. Having dispatched the myth for yourself, you’re in a great position to profit from a rational approach to creativity. When you do, two vital facts emerge:

1. Creativity cannot carry the entire load. Not even the most brilliant direct mail can induce people to buy what they don’t want, nor to act when they’d rather procrastinate. So, defer dreaming about copy and layout until after you have determined how to target people who will want your product. As for procrastinators — which is most people — make it worth their while to act now. Offer an attractive FREE GIFT for prompt response. (Yes, “free gift” is redundant. Tell your English teacher to live with it.)

2. Creativity is a powerful tool for increasing response. The direct mail industry has accumulated vast knowledge about what works in the mail, and has made it widely available. Take advantage of it to avoid the expense of needless reinvention, but don’t assume that all possible creative thinking has been done. Rather, use the knowledge as a foundation on which to build. There’s no telling what might break through.

Simple measures show the power of creativity

Sometimes testing new creative ideas will entail scrapping existing work and starting over, but not always. You might re-work a headline or turn your creative eye to the envelope. Try a new size, add graphics, add a sticker, change the color. An international not-for-profit organization increased response by 73 percent by switching from a black to a white envelope.

Overhauling your sales letter can multiply response. Short of that, try reworking the parts people read first — the P.S., headline, Johnson Box and double-indented paragraphs. Don’t have a sales letter? Try adding one.

Make sure that calls to action are impossible to miss, directions are clear, incentive offers are showcased and reasons to “act now!” are compelling. If you’re using a brochure or other enclosure, be sure headlines punch, copy motivates and layouts are accessible.

These probably don’t sound like the most imaginative measures, but each of these activities illustrates the power of creativity — the real thing, not the myth. And although such creativity may not win advertising awards, it wins big on the balance sheet. As for the more-creative-than-thou crowd, unless impressing them is a marketing objective, I recommend not worrying about what they think.

Steve Cuno heads the RESPONSE Agency in Salt Lake City. He is the author of the book Prove It Before You Promote It: How to Take the Guesswork Out of Marketing and a popular convention speaker for the Direct Marketing Association, the American Marketing Association, the James Randi Educational Foundation and others. He can be reached at Steve@ResponseAgency.com.