Don't Shoot the Messenger.

by Steve Fodor.

I’ve been participating in a lot of discussions lately on social media and its benefits to the marketing mix. I’ve seen and heard points of view ranging from “it’s a panacea to our marketing issues” to “it has no applications and it’s stupid” and just about everything else in between.

What also has intrigued me is how many people are saying that “traditional advertising simply does not work.” I’m not so sure about that.

Traditional advertising is just another tool in the marketing mix. Just like social media, direct mail, e-mail, outdoor, radio – whatever – it’s not necessarily the medium’s fault if you did not see positive results from your marketing effort. I would contend that it’s your message. Media in any form is simply the messenger that delivers your brand’s proposition to the intended target audience, regardless of their age, position or social class. How you craft that message within the medium will determine your success or failure.

I watched some of the Super Bowl last weekend. And like many of my colleagues in the communications business, I was rather disappointed with the quality of the advertising messages I saw. There were many that seemed trite, tried too hard to be funny and were just plain dumb. I see a lot more advertising messages in consumer and trade publications that try to “pound” a long list benefits into the reader's head without having any real or unique point of view.

Great advertising should make your audience feel about your brand the way you feel about your best friends in life. Advertising should connect with commonalities and shared interests. It should present useful information. It should talk “with” instead of “to” people. It should respect people’s intelligence. It shouldn’t be boastful or condescending. And, if done effectively, advertising should let the reader or viewer reach a positive conclusion about your brand without having to pound benefits alone into their heads.

If you’ve tried advertising before with disappointing results, I’d suggest that you may not have an advertising problem. Rather, I would suggest that you may have a brand problem.

Flickr Photo Credit: Sir Mildred Pierce

I Don't Believe Focus Groups

by Steve Fodor

I don’t believe them. And I don’t believe in them.

Quite a bold and definitive statement coming from a person that makes his living helping companies figure out their most effective marketing communications messages.

Actually, focus groups do have their place in the world of research. But not for defining marketing messages. Here’s why I say that.

Focus groups, by their nature, force rational responses. They typically last about an hour. And the respondents are asked a series of questions. Each respondent gets to comment. And around the room the moderator goes, asking each respondent to explain why they feel that way about a topic. The respondents are being asked to rationalize why they think or feel a certain way.

Though valuable for gaining perceptions into opinions, that’s not the way people respond to a marketing message.

Human beings are motivated by emotions first, then by rational thought. Biologically, it’s how the brain processes information. Scientific research has proven that emotion stimulates the mind 3,000 times faster than rational thought.

Yet, what do most marketing communications vehicles (in any medium) seem to focus on? Rational benefits. Price. Product features. The old “hammer” approach of pounding a longer list of benefits into people’s heads.

I’m not suggesting that marketing communications should be void of product features and price. But ask yourself this question: If your brand, or product, ceased to exist today, how would it affect your customers’ lives? What would they be missing in their daily lives or jobs if you were gone today? When you can answer that, you’re on the path to discovering the true emotional benefit your brand or product provides. And, ultimately, a much stronger position in customers’ minds.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/

The Value of a Big Idea

by Steve Fodor

People often ask me, “What’s your favorite ad of all time?” Well, I have several, but one in particular stands out.

I love this ad (at right) for Volkswagen done by Arnold Communications and DDB Worldwide in 1979. Why? It’s simple and extendable. It makes the point by letting the reader reach the conclusion themselves, not by pounding a list of benefits into the reader’s head. Even the look of the ad says “simple” and “out of the ordinary” – Volkswagen brand attributes from my point of view. And the ad is timely, and timeless. It was developed during the oil embargo in the late 1970s. But it’s just as relevant today. What more could you ask for from an ad?

Whenever I show this ad as my favorite, people look at me and say, “Give me a black marker and a piece of paper and I could do that ad in about 30 seconds. Probably could draw the picture better, too.”

The value of a big idea and creativity is priceless. It’s much more than pretty pictures and execution alone.