The Three Worst Reasons To Advertise
Thursday, March 26th, 20091. You did it last year.
2. Your competitors are doing it.
3. You think “getting the word out” is the answer to all of your problems.
The Great Fallacy of Marketing
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The great fallacy of marketing is that it can be delegated to a few people in your company and to inanimate objects, such as ads, brochures and web sites.
The most effective marketing is human to human; everything else is a compromise.
Advertising should be the last thing you consider in your marketing plan.
Think Brand Harmony, not brute force.
(This isn’t my opinion. It’s your customers’ opinion. It’s how they evaluate you.)
Recalibrate your approach to marketing.
The Differentiation Ladder
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009We all want our customers to think, “I can’t get it anywhere else!” when they think of us. How do we do this? How do we differentiate our companies in our customers’ minds?
Consider four different ways of differentiating your company:
- The least effective way to differentiate your company is through advertising and other traditional marketing communications. Ads are easily copied and more easily forgotten. This is the main tool of differentiation employed by advertising and marketing agencies on behalf of their clients.
- The next way to differentiate your company is through price or price-related promotions. These tools are generally more effective at driving sales than advertising, but are still weak differentiators, because they get your customer to focus on the wrong reasons for buying from you. (Unless you want your customers to focus on price, which, for most of you, is not the case.)
- Next, you can attempt to differentiate your company with superior products and services. This is increasingly difficult, because your customers, no matter who they are and no matter what you make, are convinced they can buy similar products elsewhere. Welcome to our land of plenty, where too many sellers are chasing buyers with limited spending power.
- The best way to differentiate your company in your customers’ minds is to help customers focus not on your advertising, your prices, your promotions, your products or your services, but on the relationship they have with you.
Relationships are, simply put, the most powerful differentiators. Your competitors can copy just about everything you do, but they can not copy the private relationships you have with your customers.
In your mind, flip the four bullet points written above upside down, with advertising differentiation on the bottom and relationships at the top. The higher you can climb on this ladder, i.e., the higher on this ladder are the reasons your customers buy from you, the more differentiated you will seem to your customers, and the more loyal they will be.
The Advertising Algorithm is an Anachronism
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009I just don’t buy it, now more than ever.
The equation:
(super-duper creative ads + big audience) = buzz = changed customer behavior = great advertising ROI
… is virtually always false.
This week’s Super Bowl proved it even more. A few hundred million dollars were spent on media, plus another, let’s say, $100 million on ad production, and most of it was lost in a cacophony of guacamole, Pinot Grigio, competitive noise and a great, buzz-worthy football game. Yes, conversations about your business can spur sales, but those conversations can rarely be manufactured and drilled into consumers’ minds with the self-indulgent “creative-based” pseudo-science that the advertising world tries to foist on corporate America.
If I hear one more person defend Super Bowl advertising because “it’s the only time you can reach such a big audience at one time,” I’m going to vomit. The only time reaching a large audience all at one time matters is when you want to generate timely, collective behavior, like voting in an election. But, last time I looked, we all go to the grocery store one at a time, so why is there any advantage to reaching all of us at once? In fact, it’s a huge disadvantage to reach a large audience at one time, because the number of people who don’t want to buy your product increases at an increasing rate as audience size increases, and the audience begins to resemble the entire population.
“Oh, but what if you’re Coke or Budweiser? It works for them, doesn’t it?” It might, but if it does, it’s not because the ads themselves worked, but because the ads are just one small part of the brand harmony these products create. Coke and Budweiser can afford to spend this kind of money to complement the rest of their customers’ experience with the brand.
“Hey, but Monster.com hit a home run in 1999, and came out of nowhere with only one Super Bowl ad, so why can’t we do that?” Yes, crazy, speculative, risky investments like Super Bowl ads once in a while work, and you might also win if you put all of your money on Red 14 at the roulette table. But, it’s much more likely that you will lose your money. Exceptions don’t prove the rule. They only prove that exceptions are possible once in a while.
“But the ads are so entertaining, that people pay attention to them.” I’ve got a great idea. Let’s have a new category in the Academy Awards for Super Bowl advertising. DDB Chicago and Weiden & Kennedy can accept their awards there for amazing creative, and we won’t confuse ourselves trying to prove that the advertising experts have any special insights into what makes consumers buy and what drives business results.
Now I’m going to really surprise you: In one sense, the Super Bowl isn’t a bad idea because it is so expensive, but because it is so cheap. Huh? Here’s the story: $3 million spread across 100 million people is 3 cents per audience member. If you only spend 3 cents on a customer encounter, how can you expect it to be meaningful? All you are doing is bouncing light off of 200 million retinas, and the effect can only be superficial. The Super Bowl is the epitome of “a mile wide and an inch deep.”
We are living in a never-before-seen economic meltdown, where customers are scared and strapped for cash. If you want to earn the love, loyalty and business of today’s customers, you can’t do it just by interrupting their days, millions of people at a time, with :30 second or :60 second ads. You need to focus on connecting with fewer people, but in a much more meaningful way.
Differentiating yourself with advertising is usually futile and, at its best, very short-lived. Differentiating yourself with relationships is lasting.
The new equation:
(Brand Harmony across many interactions) x % of those interactions that are relationship-building encounters = clear, compelling customer beliefs = profitable customer action = profitable business.
It’s time to criticize Super Bowl advertising again
Thursday, January 29th, 2009Ah, the week each year where I get to be extra-contrarian and make fun of people who waste shareholders’ money on vanity publicity. It’s time for the Super Bowl!
Tomorrow morning, January 30th, I will be interviewed on Fox Business News (click here to find the station in your area) between 7:45 and 8:00 AM eastern time. I’ll be interviewed by Charles Payne.
Then, on Sunday during the game, author Sally Hogshead and I will engage in a fun, real-time, online debate on tompeters.com. We’ll be tweeting back and forth on Twitter, with the tweets being continually updated to a post on tompeters.com where people can comment. Join us! (Sally will interviewed from the game site Sunday morning on The Today Show)
So, what kinds of questions do you think people are asking this year about Super Bowl advertising? Is it a better idea or worse idea in this economy? Who is it right for and who should stay away?
And, here’s my Super Bowl Rant on tompeters.com from last year. I still hold to my convictions, only more so.
Retro Bud
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Ok, this is a pretty crappy ad. But I find it more persuasive (and genuine) than “The Great American Lager.”
The answer is “Yes.”
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis. The Men’s Room, 10 minutes before Springsteen takes the stage.
I overhear a man commenting on this ad …
… asking his friend, “Isn’t it strange to advertise advertising?
At least everything else was well-targeted in the vicinity.
(And, by the way, Bruce got 10,000 people’s undivided attention for 2 hours and 20 minutes.)
They bounce right off of you (and your customer)
Thursday, March 13th, 2008If you are a typical American, you will be exposed to something like 5000 marketing messages today. These will cover the spectrum from logos on shirts and ketchup bottles to impassioned pleas for your business.
Throughout the day today, notice how many of these messages actually have an impact on you. Even if they don’t encourage you to buy something, do they at least stick with you after the exposure?
You will probably notice that very few of these messages make a difference for you, let alone even get noticed by you.
Now, think about your customer, who will also be bombarded with 5000 messages today, in addition to an avalanche of emails, text messages, memos and voicemails. What happens if you send message number 5001? Will she be happy to see it? Will she notice it? Will it move her?
You can not shout your way into your customer’s life. A bigger marketing budget and more brute force is rarely the answer. Focus on creating an experience of brand harmony for your customer, where all interactions with you blend to tell one, cumulative story. And focus on relationship-building encounters, instead of impersonal transactions.
What can you do – today – to rise above the noise of your customer’s life? (Hint: It’s not a direct mail campaign)
Snidevertising
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Have a look at my recent post on tompeters.com, discussing an adage.com article about the trend of snideness and sarcasm in advertising. Great comments from the tompeters.com community!
Interview – Super Bowl Advertising is Stupid
Friday, February 8th, 2008Here’s my interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Network, talking about the waste of Super Bowl advertising.
A couple of days after The Super Bowl, but a timeless message!
Read