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Outdated Marketing Myths

Written by: David Warshawski

Article Overview: David Warschawski, founder and president of Warschawski (www.warschawski.com), a full service PR, marketing and branding agency based in Baltimore, exposes three communications myths that will help professionals create great marketing results.

Outdated Marketing Myths

They say the truth will set you free! Hopefully the truth will help you create great marketing results.

Here are three communications myths whose time have come to an end (at least after you read this article, they should):

1. Of all the marketing disciplines, advertising will give you the maximum impact. In fact, advertising should set the strategic direction for all of your marketing efforts.

WRONG! You should have thrown that concept out with your Rubik’s Cube and Milli Vanilli CDs.

The power and persuasiveness of advertising, as we have known it, is dying. Don’t believe me? Over the last year, BusinessWeek, Fortune and Inc. magazine have all written about what most forward-looking marketers have known was coming for years -- the advertising market is deteriorating in a hurry and fundamentally in need of change.

Why, you ask? In short, we’re not your father’s audience anymore. The way in which people are moved to action has evolved. We are skeptical people, who no longer believe the credibility of advertising… can you blame us?

Years ago, advertising held greater credibility. People were more apt to believe what an institution said about itself. That has changed. Today, we need third party credibility. Someone we trust has to tell us how great a product is before we are motivated to action. Advertising has virtually no third party credibility.

Today, advertising is like white noise to most of us -- experts estimate the average person is exposed to 237 advertisements a day or 86,500 advertisements a year. Very little advertising breaks through and moves us to action, especially when more and more people use their digital recording devices to block out commercials (thank you Tivo).

As Al and Laura Ries so eloquently laid out in their recent book, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR, public relations rather than advertising is becoming the weapon of choice for smart marketers.

2. To create a powerful brand, you need to first create an impressive and memorable logo, then you need brilliant packaging and collateral, then you need an unforgettable tagline and wowing ads. Those are the foundations of a powerful brand.

BACKWARDS! Wake up and smell the Starbucks coffee!

Branding is all the rage today. Every company wants to be a brand company. “We are a brand experience company,” or “we have just completed a rebranding campaign” seems to be the new, must-have mantra of organizations.

One of the companies most often cited by marketing experts as a shining example of powerful branding is Starbucks. However, most people can’t describe the Starbucks logo to you, but they still drink their coffee. The packaging and collateral is nothing special. Starbuck’s tagline… I can’t remember one, can you?

Oh, and by the way, the company was built from the ground up through public relations techniques. It didn’t begin advertising until many years after it was successful. Today, most people can’t describe a Starbucks ad to you if you paid them.

Yet, last year 25 million consumers per week were willing to drive further, pay considerably more, and wait in line longer for the opportunity to buy their cup of coffee at Starbucks. Why? The answer is the strength of Starbucks’ brand. The emotional connection that Starbucks tries to make every consumer feel resonated strongly enough that Starbucks had sales of $3.3 billion last year.

So what is brand? Simply stated, it is the fundamental emotional experience that you want consumers to have every time they come in contact with your institution, product, or service.

Brand is not based on a logical equation. For example, Starbucks is not successful because it offers the fastest service, the most inexpensive, the most geographically convenient, or even the best tasting coffee for many consumers. These would all be logical reasons for people to buy their coffee at Starbucks.

Starbucks wants you to feel sophisticated and feel like you are part of what many brand experts refer to as a “coffee house” community. That is the D.N.A. of the Starbucks brand -- sophistication and community.

That is why every store calls their cup sizes Grande and Venti, not medium or large. It is why every store has a “barista” personally making the coffee fresh for you at a separate counter, never behind a wall or out of sight from the customer. It is why every store has tables and chairs for congregating and many have plush sofas and arm chairs. It is why they encourage people to read or work at the store and have even installed wi-fi in their stores so people can surf the Internet all day long.

If you want powerful branding, focus first on clearly defining your organization’s brand D.N.A. and finding ways to constantly express it to your customers. Your logo, tagline, and advertising play a distant second fiddle and should only be discussion points after your brand D.N.A. is completely clear.

3. Research and measurement techniques are critical for putting together a great marketing program. Without them, you can’t tell who you should target and if you’ve “moved the needle” with your work.

PLEASE! This is the agency research department’s ticket for paying off the mortgage on their new vacation home. For the majority of clients, mass research is a waste of time and money.

Sure, for about ten to twenty percent of clients, a strong research and measurement component for its marketing campaign is vital. But for the rest of you, a good marketer who is worth his or her salt can steer you in the right direction without the time and financial expense. They’ve been there and know the right direction to take without the fancy, colorful spreadsheets.

I can’t tell you how many times I see industry award entries where agencies tout the “ground-breaking” research they conducted to set the course for their program, and I just laugh. Their findings are so predictable to an experienced marketer.

As for moving the needle, most CEOs know the metrics they need for you to affect and can tell whether your program has been successful or not. All the spreadsheets in the world won’t help you if the phones aren’t ringing more, membership or readership doesn’t increase, and ultimately, if the cash register doesn’t “ca-ching” more often.

So go ahead — cut out the junk, focus on what produces results, and show no fear! It’s time to move beyond the myths so you can create exciting, goal-oriented marketing results. And please, have fun with it!


David Warschawski is founder and president of Warschawski (www.warschawski.com), a full service PR, marketing and branding agency based in Baltimore. In the past five years alone, Warschawski has won more than 100 industry awards for its work and has been voted “Boutique PR Agency of the Year.” For four years in a row Warschawski has been ranked as one of the top 15 “Best PR Agencies to Work For.” Warschawski clients include Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies.

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