In the 1950’s, “credibility” was THE critical factor in advertising, and integrally, inextricably linked to being believed. In the 1990’s, they became distinctly separate component parts of an advertising or sales story, and it became possible to function with zero credibility if you had sufficient believability. In the new millennium, believability takes precedence (except for customers over age 55 or 60.)

I’ve been talking about this quite a bit for the last 10 years or more. To quickly review, “credibility” is typically illustrated with years in business; years in the community; the firm having been founded by grand-dad, a direct descendant from the Pilgrims; a photograph of the big building housing the firm; that sort of thing.

“Believability” used to require “credibility” as its foundation. But that rule is broken. Anyway, “believability” is presented with social proof or peer proof, such as testimonials; dramatic, easy to grasp physical demonstrations (even if rigged), being seen on TV, being used or patronized or endorsed by celebrities (even if they have no credibility), as well as via the convincing style of the presenter/presentation.
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