By David Warschawski
They say the truth will set you free. Hopefully the truth will also help you create great marketing results. To spread the truth further, you need to recognize three
communications myths whose time has come to an end.
MYTH: Of all the marketing disciplines, advertising will give you the maximum impact. Advertising should set the strategic direction for all of your marketing efforts.
FACT: The power and persuasiveness of advertising, as we have known it, is dying. Over the last year, BusinessWeek, Fortune and Inc. have written about
what most forward-looking marketers have known was coming for years - the advertising market is deteriorating in a hurry and is fundamentally in need of change.
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 TiVo to block out commercials.
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 has become the
weapon of choice for smart marketers.
MYTH: To create a powerful brand, you first need to create an impressive and memorable logo, then you need brilliant packaging and collateral, then you need an unforgettable
tagline and great ads.
FACT: Wake up and smell the Starbucks coffee. One of the companies most often cited by marketing experts as a shining example of powerful branding is Starbucks,
which was built from the ground up through public relations techniques. It didn't begin advertising until many years after it was successful. Today, most of the 25 million
consumers who buy coffee at Starbucks couldn't describe that company's advertising campaign if you asked them. The Starbucks success is the strength of the brand, literally:
sales of $3.3 billion last year.
If you want powerful branding, focus first on clearly defining your organization's brand DNA and finding ways to constantly express it to your customers. Your logo, tagline,
and advertising should only be discussion points after your brand DNA is completely clear.
MYTH: 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. FACT: For the majority of clients, mass research is a waste of time and money. Sure, for about 10 to 20% 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 "groundbreaking" research they conducted to set the course for their program, and I just
laugh. Their findings are so predictable to an experienced PR professional.
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 "ka-ching" more often.
Contact: David Warschawski is founder and president of Warschawski Public Relations in Baltimore. He can be reached at 410.367.2700.