Mixed Up
Companies are investing trillions of dollars in marketing campaigns in an attempt to win over the hearts and minds of their target customers, yet traditional advertising is simply not believed by the end consumer.
If word of mouth is still the most powerful tool in the marketing end game, is the marketing mix all wrong?
Blue Orb, an energy and sustainability communications company, recently conducted research on the ‘Green’ messages of the energy retailers and found only 13.2% believing the messages delivered from some of the biggest companies in Australia (the energy sector is a $52 billion segment of the Australian economy).
So if authenticity is an issue for consumers in advertising why are marketers still spending the greater majority of budgets on TV that maybe missing 80% of the consumers?
Perhaps we are as marketers are getting a little stuck in our ways. With other options such as PR, events, thought leadership driven through research and even creating employee ambassadors providing a greater return on investment, why is this?
Growth is driven by two things; research driven content (so fact based) and relationships with stakeholders. Yet marketers are using mediums and messages that lack authenticity.
Advertising a special offer still works as consumers love a real saving. AGL has a great campaign talking about $300 savings that begs notice in a market that is experiencing a 40% increase in prices (last quarter there was a 15-17% increase in NSW).
But are big social marketing campaigns or image drivers working? Coal Seam Gas is a great example of something that investors are interested in, ASX companies want see as a part of our resource boom but the media have demonised. Rallies with super models and talkback hosts are now the feature. They did a poor job of building up an industry which should have place in the economy.
Social media is no doubt a tidal wave coming some brands have got it wrong.
This burningpants blogger purchased a brand of kitty litter the other day and noticed it had a Facebook club. Surely people are not talking about that product on social media? So I went there and they have 246 members with 20 actively chatting. Is this a great number where 1.9 million households have cats and most Australian homes have the internet?
I wonder if there is some measure of impact, or whether marketers are actioning ideas without consideration of any real return.
There is no doubt that marketers today need to get a broader mix of activities and weigh up the impact of each, rather than go down the path of easy advert options.
2 Comments on “Mixed Up”
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Heather says:
Not surprised to read your comments regarding the current Marketing conundrum.
Being a marketer that has a sold Sales & Marketing background (Financial Services – Insurance & Finance), along with solid research, solution selling, managing the marketing mix and writing business plans for revenue and growth, I am aghast at the ‘modern’ tools utilised here, nothing short of being lazy.
To truly know your market, you must be passionate about it, be immersed in it, and genuinely know what motivates choices; that cannot be harnessed from any facebook, twittwer, or TV media; they are short ‘look at me’ advertorials that require masses of captial and quirky ad campaigns to gain any distinction; otherwise this colum would not be here.
After spending a few years of trying to gain a decent marketing role, I am now in the process of doing the next best thing, setting up my own Consultancy, not an easy thing to do under any circumtance.
Jenny says:
If what you say is true and companies are investing 80% of their budget on tv ads they are likely to be missing a giant chunk of the market. Not only do a lot of people no longer watch free-to-air tv when they do people are so saturated by ads that most commercials don’t even get a second glance. I rarely, if ever, watch free to air and much prefer to watch what’s downloaded to avoid the wait between episodes and most importantly the ads! That said I can’t imagine joining a facebook group to discuss doggy poop bags, so who knows what the next method of marketing will be…