Think about your family and your friends. Do you know people who fast forward through the commercials if they can? Do you know people who hang up on telemarketers? Do your friends use pop-up blockers and spam filters? Does everyone you know do these things? Do you?
Based on this evidence, it seems to be clear. People hate advertising. Look at how much we go through to avoid listening to sales pitches!
But it’s not so simple, is it? I don’t think people hate advertising like they say they do. For example, everyone loves Superbowl ads. The whole internet went crazy for the Old Spice viral marketing campaign during the summer. Starbucks has 1,119,261 followers on Twitter (at time of writing), and Coca Cola has over 16,629,200 people on facebook that Like them. These people aren’t following on twitter, interacting on Facebook and passing around links because they hate ads. These people are clearly getting something out of the advertising – be it entertainment, information, interaction with the brand or a chance to talk with like minded people.
“People Hate Ads” is probably the biggest marketing myth in the world. People don’t hate ads. They hate ads that are forced on them, ads that don’t respect their intelligence, ads that don’t give them anything back to the consumer for listening to the sales pitch. People hate CRAPPY, STUPID ads. Not all ads – just the bad ones.
What the Twitter and Facebook numbers tell us is that consumers will actually seek out ads – as long as they’re relevant to their interests. People actually want to see ads from Starbucks and Coca-Cola, otherwise they wouldn’t choose to include them in their social media circles. Therefore, if an ad has: relevant content, great writing, and meaning for the person watching it, it’s a good ad. Chances are consumers will find it informative, entertaining and enjoyable. Maybe even all of the above, as in the case of the Bud Light Real Men of Genius commercials. Seriously, listen to them, they’re great.
So – what can we learn from these examples of great advertising?
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- Advertising is important – every product needs advertising, even if it practically “sells itself” – for example, beer (as above) and iPods.
- Advertising isn’t just about one sale – it’s about building a relationship over time between the brand and the consumer.
- Consumers aren’t stupid. Far from it. Consumers are you and me. I’m not stupid, and you aren’t either. (You’re reading this blog post aren’t you?)
- Bad advertising is ignored or tuned out; good advertising gets the message through.
- Good advertising is something consumers choose to listen to. Good advertising is funny, relevant and useful.
- Consumers want to engage with brands, not just receive the message passively.
Therefore, in order to sell your product or any product the best advertising is
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- Relevant
- Targeted
- Intelligent
- Conversational
How can you create ads for your products and services that meet all 4 criteria?
First of all, tailor your message – what do your customers want to know? What are they interested in? Some of your customers might want to know about your sale items, others might want to know about corporate discounts – give them the information they actually need to capture their attention.
Secondly, get smart with your advertising. Be clever, be funny and be in character for your brand, or business.
And finally, don’t just shout your message at your customers, give them a chance to give feedback, seek their input, and engage them in the process. Aladdin Chocolates in Sweden did an incredible job of this. When advertising drives a conversation and gives people an ownership stake, they’re more engaged and the message takes.
So, hopefully this post helps you with your marketing ideas. If you’re in the market to market your product, we here at CMAEON makes 1to1Real™ - a tool that can help you make your ads more relevant, targeted, intelligent and conversational. Got feedback? We’d love to hear it.
It makes no sense, for any business, to invest in technology based on a comparison of features. Today, the basic features of CRM are well-defined - any CRM will provide the basics of contact relationship management.
CRM has been around for more than a decade. It was originally designed as a tool to enable businesses to share information between sales and other various departments that dealt with customers. Those features are clear.
The next iterations of CRM were designed to better track, manage and empower the sales force - hence the brand of a CRM by that name. Again, no real "dream" here.
Through travel, I’ve had the rare opportunity to view businesses, entrepreneurs and work forces from many different industries to watch how things are shaping up and changing. From E-Health in Pharmacies, to RealEstate, Mortgage Banking and Wealth Management -every industry is shifting to become more closely connected. As our world continues to connect, pushing the envelope for change and challenges; there is little question that we continue to push the boundaries of how we become connected. Each of us is driving this change every day when we set up or manage our Linked-In or Facebook pages. Or when we create a membership on the Realestock.com portal or run searches for the tools for the businesses we run, represent, or are thinking of starting.
This begs the questions, How connected are you really? How do you get and stay connected 4 real?
I met with a good friend of mine who deals in the financial sector in the UK today. It was great to see Andre - haven't seen him since last August when the markets went to hell!
The last time we met, I was just discovering that our largest health client had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy - it was a distraction during our regular board meeting in Toronto.
In the last few posts I've been talking about "Smarter Marketing" - which is why we call "Smart Marketing" in The Connected Market Space iQ3. I talk about it here on my Video.
Do you still pay $3.00, $5.00, $10.00 per minute for international phone calls? Ever hear of Skype?
Of course if you were a business person who was paying $5.00/ minute for a phone call (if you still use the phone at all with email, SMS and your Blackberry in hand) you'd be working for the Government and have an unlimited budget. Oh wait, Governments are cutting back and getting smarter too...
In 1997 (Wow! Thirteen years ago - time flies when you're thinking), while I was a full time Professor at the University of Victoria - I wrote and published a small paper called Technomics: How Access to Information Will Change Global Business. That was before the term "search engines" was part of common, everyday discourse (and before Google was even a company).
Here we are, way after the turn of the millennium, 2009, and what was my dream in 1997 - The Connected Market Space - has become a reality with our flagship site, Realestock.com.
Over the last four days, I've talked about the dangers of developers and sales people "knowing too much" and thus not doing the jobs they should be doing. Yesterday, I spoke about what can happen when a Print Media Expert is hired to do an Online Media Expert's job. Today, I'm going to switch gears a bit, though, and wrap up this week with one of the biggest mistakes I see developers making today.
Mistake #5 - Waiting for the Market to "Come Back". The market is ripe for buyers right now. The main mistake developers make is they are waiting for the "market to come back" while at this very moment discerning buyers are looking hard at where they will buy.
Yesterday I discussed the mistake developers often make in presuming that they themselves are Media Experts. In that same vein, I will show you today how hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert is a not only an outdated but also wasteful mistake many developers often make.
Mistake #4 - Hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert. Print media is not a dinosaur - it's an albatross. The problem with print media marketing agencies is a two-headed one: First and foremost, they are excessively expensive, with no real proven ROI. At 15% - 30% , why would any well founded print media marketing company mess with the web? The fact of the matter is that they don't really use online marketing beyond instances when they are forced to. Second, on the rare occasion that they do decide to utilize online marketing strategies, their vacuous knowledge of this very different technique forces them to lean heavily on their print media background, thus costing their developer clients tens of thousands of wasted dollars.
Just as dangerous as assuming a salesperson has an intimate knowledge of media and marketing - as I touched on yesterday - is a developer who assumes that he or she has that same intimate knowledge.
Mistake #3 - Being a Media Expert. Would a developer hire a general contractor to do an architects job? "Hey, here's a piece of property, Joe. Go ahead and build something, we'll get it sold..." I don't think so, either.