The End of the Branding Era
I’m not saying it’s the end of brands. There will never be an end to brands. But this notion of “branding” has got to go. And it is going quickly… although this is probably the first you’ve heard of it. I would venture to say I may be the only marketing pundit proffering this position. On top of that, it will likely be a long, long time before you hear anyone else taking this position, because all the other pundits have a vested interest in perpetuating this nonsense.
No, the marketing world will be engaging in so-called branding activities for a long time to come, despite the declining – and forever questionable – effectiveness of those efforts.
Here are the realities of life as we exit the branding era…
1. The concept of establishing “brand” in the conventional sense of the word just can’t be done anymore (if it ever could have been). That conventional branding idea is that you can establish a position for a product, service or company, ingrain it in the minds of consumers, and “own” that spot on the top of the public’s mind with relatively little maintenance.
Again, it is a dubious premise in my mind, but if we concede that it might have been possible in the past, it surely is no longer possible today.
In the “good ol’days,” assuming you had a big enough budget, you blasted away on the three national television networks and you could argue you came to “own” the category. If you could spend enough, the brand was yours.
Not so today. Too many media options. Instead of three major networks, you have a dozen or more majors and nearly countless “sub-networks.” There is also a proliferation of both local channels and sideband channels and a seemingly infinite number of satellite channels. And that’s just television!
It’s true, there are fewer newspapers and maybe fewer magazines, although I wouldn’t bet on that, but there is more radio than ever.
But the deal buster is the internet. It’s ruining everything for advertisers. They’re not needed anymore. Previously the tradeoff was, “You can enjoy our entertainment and information, but you have to take the ads with it.” No more. You can get all the information and entertainment you want, for FREE, and without ever having to watch a commercial or read an ad.
By the way, I’m dismayed by this. It makes my job and every advertising expert’s job, way, way tougher. And don’t think anybody’s got a complete handle on the internet. Most have all of a finger or two on it, and that’s it.
Think about it. You want either information or entertainment, you don’t even have to rely on a single expert or a pro entertainer. From Wikapedia to YouTube, the guy next door is providing whatever you want.
There is just no way to “be there” in the face of the right prospects, virtually all the time. Nobody has that much of a budget!
2. You no longer control your brand. You can pay the ad agencies all you want. You can do all kinds of market research and engineer the message you put out there with the precision of a brain surgeon. But it’s your customers who are in charge of your brand now.
Yes, it’s the internet again. The people are in touch with each other today. I mean all the people are in touch with all the people, all the time. You screw up and you’re screwed.
And there are a lot of ways to screw up. You come up short on anything you promise and the masses will find out about it. The consumers talk to each other on the internet. They do it formally through sites like Angie’s list, and they do it informally through facebook and twitter, and even through their own email lists. (That being the case, it blows me away that any business owner would tolerate even the slightest slight in customer service. It’s just too costly. You lose the customer and you may lose several, as the offended broadcast their unhappy experiences to friends and strangers alike.)
So your customers now control your brand, unless you commit at a higher level than ever before to control it by living up to every promise and serving customers at such a high level that all you get is praise.
And therein lies both the secret to and opportunity for exceptional prosperity. You want a good brand? Then do what I’ve always recommended. Make a lot of sales and have a ton of happy, buying customers.
And how do you do that?
Forget brand building through your advertising and use your advertising for what it was always meant to be. A ways to SELL stuff.
I don’t care whether you’re advertising on local or national TV, on radio or in print. I don’t care if you’re on billboards or banner ads. It can be direct mail or email. If you want to build brand, make sure your advertising – all of your advertising – is designed to do one of two things. Either make the sale, or get the prospect to take the next step in the buying process. And once that next step is taken, get them to take the next step and the next, for as many steps as it takes for them to finally buy.
You do that and as the branding world evaporates around you, your era of branding will have just begun, along with the increased profits that come with the right kind of branding.
THE END
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a Marketing Coach, Writer and Speaker. His new book, How To Market Your Crap When the Economy is in the Toilet, contains 12 vital strategies for unclogging the American economy, one business at a time, and is now available at a discount directly from the author. Contact Jim at 800.584.7585 or go to www.marketyourcrap.com. where you can also register for a F*R*E*E Market Your Crap Seminar.
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