Today is Hugh Beaumont's birthday (the actor who played the Beaver's father). Yesterday I was accused of 'spamming' because I mentioned my website address in a post on a discussion group for crying out loud. I also signed up for yet another social networking site. Now, you might ask, how do all of these things tie together in my own mind? In answer, I offer the following.
Stupid Marketing Tricks - Part VIII - The Cleaver Advertising Agency
Newspaper, radio, tv and magazines are suffering massive meltdowns. The revenue is drying up. The publishing business is not far behind. Why is this so? I call it the 'Ward Cleaver Syndrome'.
Back in the late 50's and early 60's print media used to run ads that featured Dad sitting at the head of the dinner table, dressed in a crisp white shirt and skinny tie and smoking his pipe, smiling cluelessly. Mom was always serving up something like a perfectly cooked turkey in her beehive hairdo and A-frame dress, while the kids sat in their plaid shirts, buttoned up completely to the top, with a napkin sticking out of the top, sprouting their cowlicks proudly and licking their little chops. The background was normally greenish and the headline was always shouting something like 'My Family Deserves Only The Best!'
This is the year 2009. Those days are gone. However, the people who created those ads are not. And, unfortunately, many of them still want to run things.
When I listen to or read some of the rants, wails and comments of the big dogs in these industries, I get the impression that they are most likely sitting in a 50's style backyard bomb-shelter, typing it out on a Royal typewriter, or perhaps broadcasting their message using a tube style ham radio. ('Gee Beav, I guess things are changin' huh?')
Not in their world. In this, the real world.
Marketing is now 'social' in nature. 'Social' is a term that loosely means 'NO GATEKEEPERS'. It is a free exchange of ideas and information. As I have mentioned hundreds of times, you, as an individual, are on a completely level playing field against corporations that have millions in their advertising budget. You are equal. This is fantastic news for you. This is bad news for them.
This opens up a whole new can of worms, filled with both good worms and bad worms. China be damned - the Internet is all about free people and free exchange. Some of the newspapers, magazines, radio and television moguls don't like the free exchange of information. Free exchange means they have nothing to sell. Bloggers can now destroy companies. Google and Amazon are making their moves to take over the world. Blah, blah, blah.
It is only the Cleavers of the world who are getting upset, because their tightly controlled little world is crashing down. You can hear the desperation in every word they speak. The fear is as thick as the maple syrup on Mrs. Cleaver's pancakes. They are losing their control.
As a marketer in the year 2009, you can now take your message directly to your buyer. No advertising necessary. No regulation imposed. Do as you please. The market itself will determine your fate, not some editor or some publisher or some other myopic, self righteous judge of what the public may have or have not.
The field of book publishing is trying desperately to adapt. However, like everyone else, as a group they have no idea which direction to take. Unfortunately most of those in power have a June Cleaver 'The Internet - isn't that nice, dear!' kind of mindset. Too late for many of them. Many of the publishing companies appear to be more interested in FIGHTING the changes than they are in MONETIZING these positive changes. In a social environment, they will lose.
The Color Computer is gone. 8 tracks and CB radios are no more. Neither is it necessary to play by any set of rules given by any organization with Mr. Cleaver at the helm. Don't get me wrong. Beaver Cleaver's dad was a really nice guy. However, today, Mr. Cleaver would be merely clueless and completely out of touch. Try though he might, he could no longer control anything, for the world will have passed him by.
Google is not destroying any newspaper, radio, tv, magazine or publishing company. The market itself is determining that these things are no longer relevant to any degree and therefore, they will not survive in their present form.
If you are still using marketing strategies from the 1990's and before, you will not be attacked. No one will tell you. Instead, you will simply be politely ignored. Then, much like Ward, June, Beaver and Wally, you will be forgotten.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Stupid Marketing Tricks Part VIII - The Cleaver Advertising Agency
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Stupid Marketing Tricks Part II
Watching TV Is Exhausting . . .
. . . and exasperating, I might add.
Karl Greenberg of Media Daily News says it better than I ever could. However, I would also add that the same holds true for radio (especially), newspaper and magazines. The article he wrote is located here:
The public, by and large, is fed up. The use of commercial skipping technology is on an ever-upward trend. I have commercial skipping technology on nearly all my electronic devices. I call it the 'mute' button.
People want to buy. However, they do not wish to be sold. Giving the market what it wants, in the way it wants it is key, but does require a completely different set of strategies.
As I have said many times - giving your potential buyers a message, using intrusive advertising tactics not only does not work, it causes them to actually resent your message.
The entire world of advertising is slowly moving towards being lumped under the 'spam' heading.
Do you really want your potential buyers to actually resent your methods? If so, keep shoving advertising in their collective faces. If not, draw them in with strategic publicity strategies.
To be fair here, running intrusive advertising certainly is not a Stupid Marketing Trick . . . yet.
More at http://www.freepublicitygroup.com
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Some Marketers Just Don't Get It
Ok, I will jump right in and say it.
Advertising is dead. Or nearly so.
Certainly, in the world of e-commerce, I would go so far and be so brave as to say that nearly any money spent on advertising is wasted money. Yes, it can create some awareness. It seldom creates direct sales.
There. I said it.
Look, in days gone by, people bought ads. Ads were designed to draw attention. The attention was drawn away from something the buyer wanted to do (watch a tv show, read news, etc) and presented the potential buyer with a sales message. This is interruptive. People simply don't want to hear a message that is shoved in their face while they are trying to pay attention to something else.
Again, those of you who know me know that I state that this is like shoving a hook into a fish's mouth and trying to make it bite. This does not work with fish. It does not work with people.
People have really come to associate advertising, any advertising, with spam - unwanted messages from someone they don't know and most likely don't wish to know.
In a manner of speaking, the Internet has destroyed the effectiveness of advertising. The Internet is content. People go to the Internet to get that content. They want free content. Listen and see if you can see the sense in what I am saying here.
Inexperienced marketers make the mistake of trying to CREATE interest in a product through advertising. This will never work. Ever. If I am in a hardware store shopping for a hammer, and someone shoves a flyer in my hand detailing all the benefits of using a screwdriver, I will ignore it. I will trash it. More importantly, I will resent the intrusion. You cannot CREATE interest. In this case, I want a hammer, not a stupid screwdriver.
However, if I am looking for that hammer, and some older dude at the end of the aisle starts telling me about the benefits of a new cutting edge type of hammer, and all that it did for him, I will be very interested. That, in a few sentences, is the primary difference between the Internet and traditional advertising.
People who are searching the Internet, googling about for this or that, are there because they are ALREADY interested. There is no need whatsoever to engage in a futile attempt to CREATE interest, or to try to get them to change their mind about what might hold interest for them. This is a waste of time and money. Yes, some people will look - about 1/2 of 1%, on the average. Is this effective? No. Is this expensive? Yes. Advertising is a component of marketing that is expensive and produces few results.
As a member of the Internet community, if I want a hammer, the first thing I will do is google the word 'hammer'. I am interested in hammers. What I have just done is SEARCHED. Next, I will be presented with a list of sites that contain content having to do with hammers. Now, I have moved from SEARCHING to BROWSING.
Therefore, if you are selling hammers on the Internet (and assuming that people are searching for hammers on the Internet), the key to success now is to create the impression that YOU are the leading expert in the field of say, hammers. How is this accomplished? Informative content. This is why informative websites work. This is why blogs work. This is why social sites work. Content is king.
Most likely I will ignore the hammer ads for now, however, because I know these people are attempting to sell me a hammer now. I am not ready to buy a hammer . . . yet. I want to know what is available, I want to know my choices, I want to know the cost and I want to know what others think about the different types of hammers available. I am browsing for informative content.
Others will be posting what they think. I will explore the advice they give. Now, we come to the good part . . .
All successful marketers know that the number one, all time winner in the results race is relational based marketing - word of mouth. You tell a friend about something you like. That friend tells his/her friends. Referrals are pre-sold gold to the marketer. Relation based marketing works like nothing else ever has, or ever will. It's money in the bank. If one friend tells another that you know what you're talking about, and that you provide good informative content, friend number two is gonna show up, guaranteed.
Notice that I said 'good content'. Not 'good sales pitch'.
Advertising is akin to shoving a hook into a fish's mouth. Publicity is akin to dropping a bait and wiggling it. If hungry, the fish will bite.
Relational marketing, on the other hand is one hungry fish looking at another hungry fish and saying to it's friends 'pssst . . . . come over here. This is really good!"
This is why it works so well. This is why it works better than any other strategy. This is why those who keep this in mind at all times are successful, regardless of the product or service they might be hoping to market. If you can impress others with your knowledge, and they in turn tell their friends or associates, they will come in droves. Learn how to create relationships like this and you simply cannot fail. They psychology of this has been proven time and time again. Give people what they want and they will tell their friends. No blatant advertising method can provide this. This is no comparison between the two.
So how do you get other people to tell other people? This is what I'll be covering over the coming posts - word of mouth marketing on steroids.
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