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Mediums Come And Go: Great Selling Ideas Are Forever
By David Hanson, Pres. H2M
I can’t help but chuckle when I see marketing companies
get all caught up in the buzz and hubbub of the “new
paradigms” of marketing. Big excitement reigns about
text messaging, rich media, poor media, product placement,
the death of “old” media (which is really better
termed ‘established media’) viral marketing, faux
word-of-mouth, landing pages, micro sites, auto-populated
forms, rules-based marketing, and on and on. All cool stuff,
but seriously, these are all simply MEDIUMS. Get sane about
your marketing and look beyond the medium. A great selling
idea can be be executed across any and all mediums. The great
selling idea is the HARD part. Medium choices are empirical,
based on quantifiable criteria, selling ideas are intuitive,
based on insights. Confuse the two at your peril.
Our forefathers in marketing faced the exact same issues of
expanding choices of available mediums when the telegraph
ended the Pony Express all the way to today when the Internet
is cutting into television habits. The point is when we remember
great ads from yesteryear we don’t discuss the medium
we saw it on, we remember the ad itself. Mediums come and
go, but great selling ideas are forever.
M&M's: The candy that melts in your mouth, not in your
hand
Fed Ex: When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight.
Nowadays, we read one week about how such and such study says
that the internet is the only way to reach young people for
marketing messages. The next week we read from another study
that “most forms of digital/online advertising are dead
in the water for reaching young people.”
Focusing on the mediums is losing the tree for the forest.
As for the “new” marketing, every marketing company
and ad agency on the planet today is acutely aware of these
new mediums and methods. Some embrace them more than others,
depending on their clients needs, but the smart ones always
base their marketing on the creation of powerful Dominant
Selling Ideas coupled with magical Creative Executions rather
than touting the flash and buzz of the new mediums themselves,
which are only communication vehicles. In short: an ineffective
Selling Idea won’t attract customers any better if it’s
in a black and white newspaper or the latest rich media flash
banner ad with all the trimmings.
And don’t be fooled by companies who tout that their
work is measurable as if that is something not available to
all. Everyone knows the only hard statistically measurable
marketing tool is direct marketing, which is just one tool
in the marketing toolbox. Measurability without a strong selling
idea is bound to show you one thing; just how bad your marketing
sucks. Measuring alone does NOT constitute good marketing.
Measuring is mandatory, whether it’s through direct
methods of conversion or broader measures of awareness and
recall or incremental sales goals. Measuring is not marketing.
That would be akin to saying the purpose of living is to eat.
It’s a requisite to any marketing effort.
So don't get all caught up in the hype of all the new "marketing
paradigms" which are really just mediums masquerading
as Marketing. They are not. Only a great selling idea can
move your business forward.
A great selling idea will always transcend any and all mediums.
dave@h2m.biz
© 2003-2005 H2M Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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© 2003-2005 H2M Inc. All Rights Reserved
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