The Marketing Bureau

By Brian H Meredith
From the NZBusiness"Marketing Maestro" Archive
First published February 2001

Ten years ago, Brian H Meredith had a bit of a rant about advertising. Has anything changed? "Not much" says Brian. What do you think?....

The vagaries of Magazine deadlines over the end of year period are such that I am writing this Column one day after the deadline for the February Issue – 18 December! And the Christmas advertising assault (for assault it surely is) is now in full flight (and has been for many weeks).

Advertising levels appear to be at an all time high (although I have no idea if any data supports this) as businesses struggle to grab their share of the Christmas dollar. In fact, some data does indicate that we are, at this time of the year, bombarded by around 250,000 commercial messages in any 24 hour period (ranging from the obvious television & radio advertising through to backs of buses, sides of taxis, windows displays in retailers etc.) Scary stuff eh?

This volume of advertising creates cut through nightmares (i.e. will anyone actually see your ad let alone read and inwardly digest its contents?).

This level of advertising contributes to a level of mediocrity that not only reduces the effect of that advertising but, often, actually has the reverse effect of what it intended – it can actually begin to irritate customers and prospects.

We are faced with Newspaper advertising that is typically dull & boring, television advertising that is only good for muting and radio advertising that is nothing short of GBH of the ear.

And whoever told television and radio voice overs that they have to SHOUT to get their message across?!? Not to mention the very worst manifestations of the age old advertising adage that says “If you’ve got nothing to say, SING IT!”

Add to this little lot the fact that so much advertising appears to have no clear idea of who their target market is, lacks any kind of single minded proposition and is so devoid of a “big idea” that we begin to wonder if “ideas” are no longer on the Job Description of your common or garden copywriter, and we get a worrying picture of vast amounts of time, energy and money being poured onto a marketplace that is getting increasingly irritated and cynical about the very medium itself.

And somewhere in the midst of that lot, there you are, doing your absolute best to build your business through the use of what you, or your agency, know about creating “effective advertising that sells”. And, chances are, it isn’t working.

So here are some helpful hints to minimise the pain of advertising failure and maximise the gain of effective, integrated, marketing communications.

Rule No1

Think of advertising as just one tool available in your toolkit to build and implement Marketing Communications Plans.

Rule No2

Think of Marketing Communications as the concept of using a variety of communications mediums to build & nurture long term, sustainable and mutually profitable relationships with carefully targeted and meticulously understood customers and prospects.

Rule No3

Ensure that you are able to answer the following three questions simply and coherently:

What Am I Selling?

Who Am I Selling it to?

Why The Heck Should They Want To Buy It Anyway?

Rule No 4

Develop a Marketing Communications Plan that has, at its core, SMART Objectives (Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic Timetabled). In other words, for example, what behaviours do I want to stimulate, in what target groups, what’s in those behaviours for them and by when do I want to be able to see those behaviours?

Rule No 5

Develop your Proposition or Offer (long term or short time – rules are the same). And ensure that your offer oozes benefits that can clearly be seen and understood by your target group/s (and, almost always, ensure that price cutting isn’t the sum total of your creative thinking)

Rule No 6

Plan your selection of Marketing Communications Mediums (of which, remember, advertising is but one and, in fact, may not need to be on the list at all!). No space here to tell you how to do this but call me if you need help.

Rule No 7

Work ceaselessly to develop a Single Minded Proposition That Comes Alive In A Compelling Way (credit due here to Saatchi & Saatchi for this Golden Rule – make sure you stick to it and this alone will transform your performance)

Rule No 8

Make that Proposition come alive in each and every one of the Marketing Communications mediums that you intend to deploy – consistently across all mediums.

Rule No 9

Implement your Marketing Communications Plan

Rule No 10

Carefully watch and measure what happens. Then, if it is working, keep doing it. And if it doesn’t, find out what isn’t working and subject that part of your Plan to these Rules all over again.

And remember, beyond advertising, your Marketing Communications Plan might comprise some or all of  Sales Promotion, Packaging, Merchandising, Direct Mail,  PR, Letterbox Distribution, Media Relations, Conferences, Exhibitions, Seminars, Retail Environments, e-marketing or e-commerce, Staff Training, Development & Presentation – in fact, anything that is exposed to your customers or prospects is a Marketing Communications Medium and should always be included in your Plan.

Do this and you will significantly increase the chances that you will achieve the returns from your Marketing investment that you are looking for, that you will deliver the right product, to the right people, in the right way at the right time and that you will dramatically reduce the risk of pouring hard earned money into an advertising black hole that is already overpopulated by those who are less enlightened by you.

Happy New Year and good business to you all.