Creative Marketing Is Becoming An Oxymoron

Business, Advertising.

The emotional vs. rational theories of marketing - it would be more than fair to suggest that the marketing industry has been low on many of the important signs over the past decade. One reason for this low state is that the marketing industry could probably have been wrongly convened of exactly what marketing is capable of.

As an industry, it lacks the ring of confidence and its stocks of conviction are low. - put simply, there are 2 schools of thought on how marketing works: the" strong" theory - that marketing is indeed persuasive - and the" weak" theory - that marketing' s key role is one of reinforcement and reminder. We are told that marketing is, a supporter of, at best other, more direct marketing activities and a reinforecer of existing attitudes, values and predisposions. It' s apparent that the more commonly held theory today is the" Weak force" rationalist' s view that marketing' s chief role is that of maintaining or reinforcing a brand' s salience among consumers. The problem with this passive, "preach to the converted" approach is that few consumers are indeed converted. In category after category, consumers are purchasing across a repertoire of brand they perceive to be more similar than dissimilar.

Brand loyalty in most markets is a misnomer. - the missionary zeal of marketing activity and branding of past decades simply isn' t paying off. Brands, the cornerstone concept of modern marketing practice, have reached a crisis point of commodification - no differentiation, no loyalty, no impact. In the minds of many, marketing is not paying its way. It appears odd that the vast number of advertisers who both subscribe to and practice this reinforcement theory don' t realize that if marketing is indeed a weak force, than it gets weaker still as a brand matures and consumers become more familiar with it. Too many businesses are simply going from A to B, following the well - trodden, conventional business path.

Too many of today' s advertisers look happy simply to follow the crowd. - in any business, in any area, in any industry, there' s a gravity trap - a strong force field that pulls you back to the mean, back to industry sameness. With this comes conventional approaches, conventional strategies, conventional practices, conventional thinking and conventional research leading to conventional marketing. Far too many companies have gravitated into the trap of marketing convention. Convergence marketing: This trend toward" same sameness" is having a profoundly depression effect on marketing worldwide. Creative marketing is becoming an oxymoron! No one is challenging preconceived notions.

The fact is, following conventional wisdom in any industry has the effect of homogenizing competition. - a mckinsey study of 400 companies over thirty years found that even high - performing companies regress to the industry mean in 3 to 7 years. The extent and serious effect this commercially crippling convergence force actually has on a corporation is not broadly known. Recent prestige car marketing - 7 different makes, similar marketing small, 8 different models car manufacturers - All targeting the" Red Seeking Single page Reading" audience' s Convergence of Concept and Medium. A key imperative of the" branding" approach was deliberate management action to combat the natural tendency towards commodification. These were the first 5 promotions to appear in She magazine, Twenty years ago, July 1998 issue, there was a lot of difference in brands, in products and in marketing.

What happened to differentiation? : Research shows that consumers see most brands in a category as more or less the same. - they see their brands as trustmarks that have stood the test of time, that stand for quality, familiarity, value, confidence, integrity, reassurance. marketing is used to place their brand on a pedestal, to give their product at least a sense of brand presence( if not a sense of grandeur) ; a presence that influences and informs the ever - receptive respondent that, a purchase decision in favor of this brand would indeed be an astute and easy decision. The manufacturers or brand owners obviously see things differently. Inherent in this philosophy is that consistency and credentials are more critical than creativity. This is the kind of marketing that is defended, especially by major corporations and their agencies, as being" good, solid marketing" . Also, there is a higher need for awareness and recognition than for consumer interest and involvement.

Why would a brand owner challenge this approach? - this indeed is the kind of marketing that keeps a client contented! The marketing appropriately celebrates the product and, it ought to, besides be right, everyone' s doing it! Differentiation, remains a important, however aspect of marketing. Despite what you might possibly believe as a brand owner, it' s little wonder that consumers believe brands areact - alikes, look - alikes, do - alikes: brands that stand for nothing in particular and everything in general. However, as the examples above well indicate, convergence not differentiation is at present the defining force.

This clearly leads to eeny - meeny - miny - mo decision - making and this clearly leads to purchasing across a repertoire of brands and this clearly is exactly what consumers are currently doing in category after category. - brands are becoming generic. We' ve seen the commoditization of brands, with no differentiation and no loyalty. We' ve seen the commoditization of marketing, nothing distinguishing, with nothing fresh, nothing rewarding. Clients appropriately hold the perception that" you can get marketing from anybody. " Creativity in marketing is now more about processing and packaging than about uniqueness or creating differentiation. marketing is now more about deference and discounting that courage and conviction. Unfortunately for the industry, we' ve also seen, in the eyes of many clients, the commoditization of agencies. The danger of security: A safe brand idea or marketing idea is in fact dangerous because it can delude the company buying it into thinking it will work for them.

Great brand ideas should frighten you when you first see them, because if they don' t they haven' t got the power to compete. - in a cluttered environment, driven by hyper, yet - competition, brand names or marketing ideas that merely fit are lost. Despite what conventional wisdom would have you believe, there is much greater danger in the the conservative, the comfortable approach, conventional than in a fresh, unique, differentiated - dare we say? - "creative" approach. Many clients currently feel secure only with ongoing reinventions of marketing that has worked in the past. Agencies are pursing safety - first marketing solutions to satisfy the client rather than reward the consumer. Moreover, risk - averse clients are not being challenged by defensive, inward - looking agencies. It seems that attempts at marketing" safety" seem to achieve more harm than good.

The sum of all this is that conventionality carries a long list of risks and a shortage of reward: the risk of using your company' s hard - earned dollars to subsidise the competition, the risk of boring consumers rather than stimulating them; , the risk of not carving out for the brand a distinctive brand stance and personality; , the risk of not being noticed; , the risk of not being remembered; , the risk of being confused with competitors saying the same thing and looking the same; , the risk of being undifferentiated; . - there are indications that insecure promoters will find the industry convention" safety" route less easy to defend in the future. Advertizing simply isn' t moving people the way it used to. Advertizing. has moved, in little more than a decade, from being measured by the millimeter. And marketing, applied in this way, is no longer paying its way. Creativity, seems to be, however hardly discussed in the present day, let alone sought after, valued or applied, understood.

Why marketing is your most potent weapon: It' s been said that marketing that significantly disturbs the status quo in a market is surprisingly rare. marketing achieves its role most successfully by being creative. - it seems companies don' t currently hold high expectations of marketing. However, there are a number of global spirits who would argue that maintaining the weak approach in this day and age is nothing short of commercial stupidity. It seems they' d rather" fit in" than" be famous. " The old ideal that" good is the enemy of the great" has lost out to" close enough is good enough" and" quick enough is better. " It seems in the present day that here is limited support for the view that marketing is a potent, powerful force capable, persuasive of transforming a company' s business. There are people who truly believe that doing the forgettable is unforgivable. Advertizing should not be regarded or used simply as a passive tool.

The true believers in the opposite camp to the reinforcement school believe that marketing is convinsing, that it can change behaviour, that it can change attitudes, that it doesn' t merely influence sales but can, create sales, indeed. - it must do something. , it must be an active weapon. , it must have an effect. It' s very difficult in today' s competitive environment to have a superior price advantage over your competition, It' s very difficult in today' s competitive environment to have a significant product advantage. , It' s very difficult in today' s competitive environment to have a marketing budget that' s significantly greater than your competition. , It' s very difficult in today' s competitive environment to have a demonstrably better distribution system than your competition. Well used, great marketing can be the last legal means of gaining an unfair advantage over your competition. Nevertheless, through your approach to marketing you can have an unfair advantage over your competition. An agency must also hold huge ambition for the clients it works with - ambition that drives it beyond the supposedly safe standard solutions. A company should have huge ambition for the effect of its marketing.

Clearly, newness is needed: a new way of looking at things. - conquest marketing: strategically and creatively, marketing ought to offer more, do more and deliver more. A new approach. We can no longer compute by being conventionally competitive. What is required now is brand separation. Competition is essential for survival, but no longer sufficient for success. The conquest approach recognizes that the future health of a brand is not about brand competitiveness.

What else does the conquest approach hold high? - it' s about brand distancing it' s about creating space around a brand lots of space. Conquest marketing recognizes that it' s a guest in the home and a guest in the mind. The conquest approach recognizes the people appreciate cleverness. Conquest marketing gets talked about, becomes part of the language and achieves social currency. A clever marketing equates to a clever product made by a clever company. Only the wonderful works.

Conquest marketing recognizes that similarity and familiarity breed apathy - safety doesn' t work anymore. - conquest marketing costs much less than dull, unimaginative convergence marketing. It' s finesse not force. The conquest approach does not need a media barrage to cut through. It' s a knockout punch, not 15 round of bomb ardent. The Critical Differentiator: There exists a volume of proof that consumers don' t see brands with great marketing as more or less the same as other brands in the category. It' s brains not muscle.

They think and feel differently about brands with great marketing - they genuinely like brands with great marketing. - most companies see their brands as trustmarks that exude confidence, that have stood, reassurance and integrity the test of time; , that stand for quality, familiarity, value; . They see these brands as unique and differentiated from their competitors. As hard won as these attributes are, the trouble is that they are simply no longer enough. Further, in spite of the length of tenure and the long, long marketing history of each of these brands, how do you discern between them? For instance, there are at least 5 brands of tomato swauce available on the supermarket shelf that all reflect all of these attributes - Watties, Heinz, Roslla, IXL, Fountain. Where are the areas of future differentiation?

Once a brand starts to be referred to as' good old XYZ, beware. - familiarity always equates to favourability, however all 5 are familiar! It' s a short step from affectionate to old fashioned! Differentiation is important. Which of these 5 has a degree of contemporary emotional attachment? , Which of these 5 are seen to be old fashioned? It is important at the birth of the brand and needs to be kept important, right throughout the, and fresh entire life of the brand. What is most important is whether marketing stimulates an emotional response from the consumer.

Brand knowledge accumulates as memories and needs to be refreshed with new news. - behavioural changes gush from the emotional engagement with the brand, not from" rational" conscious engagement. His work, for the first time, recognize and admitted that it' s the power of emotions and a person' s psychological makeup that are the key decisive factors in buying behaviour. Another truly startling however little - known finding that supports this point of view comes from the work of Daniel Kahneman of Princeton who, won the Nobel, in 2002 prize for Economics. The feelings and emotional memories instilled and left by marketing can be powerful. Possibly the key outcome of conquest marketing as a differentiator is as a relationship developer.

Conquest marketing is one of the very few potent weapons that can change minds, influence attitudes and, alter memory change behaviour. - the key role of marketing now is less about selling and more about building a relationship with consumers in a honest, charming, clever, fascinating and, likeable way, importantly - helping the buyers buy, rather than simply helping the sellers sell. JP Jones, an advocate of the persuasion model of marketing, concluded in a recent study that the most successful campaigns were not" hard selling" but instead were likeable, rewarding the viewer by being entertaining or amusing and said something important about the brand. Advertizing that treats the consumer with respect, intelligence and with the familiarity of a good friend builds a fund of benevolence, an emotional bank balance that is traded or withdrawn from at the point of purchase. Consumers are not interested in brands or companies who have nothing better to talk about but themselves. If marketing talks down, insults the intelligence or patronises, it is perceived as misanthropic and turns the consumer away from the brand and company.

If a company markets in boring, a dull and expected manner, then the company is perceived as boring, a dulland unexciting. - today' s marketing - and advertising - literate consumers know what we' re trying to do to them and usually see through the clumsy attempts to influence them of companies which are not consumer - literate. Conquest marketing actively and internationally sets out to win friends. Brand marketing in the new millennium is not a battle of products, it' s a battle of perceptions, and the management and development of brand perceptions is the management and development of consumer perceptions. Like it or not, likeability must now be considered a vital component of brand marketing. Without a suitable emotional response, the message will not pass onto the conscious brain. New research into how the brain functions indicates the 1st response to a stimulus is an emotional one which precedes any rational response.

If your brand reaches that brain in a fresh and memorable way, then you stand a very good chance of being remembered fondly where it counts the most. - we know creativity is not an end in itself. Creativity is a compelling weapon to help you shape the game you play, to help you achieve differentiation from competitors and brand dominance in the hearts and minds of consumers. It' s simply a business tool - no more, no less. The point is that the more of these values you have in your marketing, the more effective you are. The fact that a concept has more likeable, persuasive, captivating, compelling, charming and talked about is not completely the point.