Exposing marketing myths

 

To help you empty your “mental cup” of common myths and half-truths, let’s explore some examples of inaccurate conventional wisdom about marketing.

Conventional Wisdom: There is a “Right Way” to advertise.

Truth: While there are several wrong ways to advertise, there is no right way. There is only that which works and that which doesn’t work. People who try to do things the “right way” almost never produce outstanding success. Average is not good enough in today’s competitive climate.

Conventional Wisdom: Following the rules and statistics of marketing guarantees success.

Truth: The only two things guaranteed in this life aren’t worth talking about. Competition and over-stimulation of the consumer work against advertisers. Today, you must be careful to ensure that the rules you follow are not based on yesterday’s markets and techniques.

If there is one thing more dangerous than a rule, it’s a statistic. Someone with his head in the oven and his feet in a bucket of ice water may have an average temperature in the comfortable range, but don’t try to tell him so. Relying solely on rules and statistics is a guarantee to make your advertising boring, and boring doesn’t sell. If you want to be a Master Marketer, don’t be afraid to break a few rules.

Conventional Wisdom: Creativity is the most important factor in marketing.

Truth: While copy and graphic presentation are important elements in all advertising, they are not the most critical factors.

First, you must market to the proper audience; second, you must have a compelling offer; and third, your promotions must appear in the right media. Good creative work won’t attract clients if the audience is wrong, if the offer is poorly conceived, or if the choice of media does not match the message.

Conventional Wisdom: The best advertising is the most creative advertising.

Truth: The best advertising is the advertising that produces the best results. Unfortunately, much advertising is created to serve the ad agency’s ego and not the client’s best interest. Even award­ winning ads may be ineffectual at moving products and services many times have you noticed an ad but forgot the name of the advertiser (or even worse, believed the ad was run by the advertiser’s competitor)

A good example is the long-running television campaign for everyday Battery. The ads feature a mechanical rabbit that marches through various improbable scenarios. Creative – yes. Award winning – yes. Effective – no. In surveys conducted by Video Storyboard Tests, Inc., 40 percent of consumers who voted d as outstanding attributed it to Eveready’s arch competitor, cell. Even worse, despite repeated showings of these ads, reports indicate that Eveready’s sales are declining while Duracell’s are growing.

 

An advertisement can only be considered effective if it accomplishes one of two things: (1) it causes consumers to purchase a product or service now, or (2) it predisposes consumers to buy that particular product or service the next time they are in the market. Anything else is a waste of time and money.

 

Conventional Wisdom: Marketing is always expensive.

Truth: Expensive is not always necessary or better. Many marketers over-emphasize the up-front cost of an advertising ram me such as the cost to reach a certain number of people rather than the more important gauges that tell you if your pro­gramme is profitable such as cost-per-sale or cost-per-dollar-of­ revenue. The techniques in this book explain how you can spend on marketing while producing greater results.

 

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers are so inundated with notional messages that response to advertising is decreasing.

Truth: There is some validity to this statement. In general, large-scale, mass-marketing campaigns are producing fewer responses for reasons ranging from declining viewership of network television to increased competition in every industry.

However, Master Marketers are bucking this trend by using target marketing techniques such as those discussed throughout this book.

Conventional Wisdom: Direct marketing doesn’t work well for certain industries.

Truth: While it is true that direct marketing can’t solve every marketing problem, I have, never seen an organization that could not benefit in some way from direct marketing. There are two primary reasons organizations give up on direct marketing:

1. Direct marketing may have been tried once but failed because of poor planning or improper execution of a good plan.

2. Direct marketing may be viewed only as a tool to generate leads or sell products or services. What is missed is the potential of direct marketing to help the organization in other ways, such as image building, new product announcements, attracting attendance at exhi­bitions and seminars marketing research and employee recruitment.

 

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers are no longer loyal to products or organizations.

Truth: Consumers are not inherently disloyal and they display this trait only to the degree they have been conditioned to be disloyal. Companies who place major emphasis on attracting new customers and minor emphasis on retaining existing customers should not be surprised when the latter leave the fold.

Relationship marketing techniques can forge strong bonds of loyalty between you and your customers relationship building not only transcends the marketing function but is one of the major components of a well-run affiliate marketing business.

 

Conventional Wisdom: Having best product will ensure your success.

Truth: Even the best products arid services must be promoted aggressively. A recent University of Michigan study determined that more businesses fail due to inadequate marketing than for any other reason. The fact is, most of our products are not as superior to the competition as we would like to believe. As marketers, our task is to make our products stand out from the many choices available to consumers.