Marketing Front Blog » Entrepreneurship

Is Your Advertising Causing a Drop In IQ?

Brendan Miller — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:25:10 +0000

Studies report that people suffer a drop in their IQ when they are bombarded with too many messages simultaneously. Advertising messages are no exception. One study by Kansas State University reported that the CNN-inspired scrolling tickers and headlines on television screens reduced the ability of people to remember information by 10 percentage points: the equivalent of smoking marijuana. Furthermore, consumers are taking more and more steps to avoid advertising, but often the “solution” by advertisers is to increase the number of messages in their advertisements or on their packaging.

I see this all the time among challenger brands and growth companies. They feel compelled to get every last bit of information into an ad or packaging to demonstrate that their product or service is truly superior.

The smarter solution: strip away the clutter and aim for simplicity. This may sound like a no-brainer, but for whatever reason many challenger brands do not practice the restraint they should when putting together their marketing communications. I think it may be due to the fact that they feel a need to get the most value out of their paid media space, and therefore try to cram as many messages as possible.

How is it that powerful brands like Target, Apple, Volkswagen, and In-N-Out Burger connect so deeply with their core consumers? For starters these brands communicate through imagery rather than words, and connect emotionally with consumers as a result. They strongly stand for one thing, and by simplifying their message they allow it to cut through the clutter.

New consumer behavior research supports this trend toward simplification. Research suggests that humans quick filter through a bombardment of messages at any given moment. We filter out everything except the most visual stimuli that hits us at an emotional level. This is nothing new to successful brands and advertisers (see Malcolm Gladwell’s book from a few years back: Blink).

Here are three steps to get going on simplifying your communications:

1) Distill your positioning down to its most critical emotional element. Once you’ve defined it stick to it. Move all secondary messages to your website or to the back of your packaging.

2) Use visual cues to help define your positioning. Identify colors, shapes, images, and graphics that evoke your positioning. Use these to develop your brand imagery.

3) Step away from that white space! Practice restraint when wanting to fill your communications with secondary messages. If the communication is uncluttered and engaging consumers will look at it.

Finally, consumers want to discover your brand. Brands that just throw all their marketing messages at the consumer at once lose the mystery that makes them engaging and interesting. They also are not encouraging consumers to start a conversation and most likely will turn consumers off. It’s like going out on a first date and one of the parties spending the entire time talking only about them. Interest quickly fades, not to mention it is rude. The key is to encourage consumers to discover your brand story on their terms, not yours.

Challenger Brands Must Leverage Strengths in Down Economy

Brendan Miller — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:21:21 +0000

Fast-growing companies have unique advantages in this down economy. I’ve talked to several small businesses that said they have been pretty busy over the last couple months. Understandably, they are being cautiously optimistic about their future prospects and ensuring they are focused on their strengths.

Here are the four most important areas I see to take advantage of your strengths and gain market share (let me know if you have any to add):

Leverage Lower (or more flexible) Cost Structure – Offer customers and prospects more value by giving them only what they need. Repackaging services or products into forms that are more bite size for cash strapped consumers. Being the discount provider may not be the answer long-term, but ask yourself if you can restructure your offering in a way your larger competitor can’t to make it more appealing.

Focus On Your Niche – Now is not the time to be supporting products or services that do not play to your strengths. Growing companies can develop a narrow niche. Then when things turn around begin to grow your offerings. This gives you the opportunity to develop a great reputation at what you do best during the downturn.

Connect Emotionally – Consumers are using their “gut feelings” more than usual. They want to feel better about the consumer choices. Make sure your communications are inner directed and about getting back to what is important. Growing companies have the opportunity to be more personal than their big competitors. You can deliver a story that your competitors can’t.

Less Bureaucracy Means more Innovation – Growing companies should be closer to their customers than their large bureaucratic competitors. That means you can obtain new data, and put it to use quicker and more efficiently to align with new opportunities. Don’t slow down your efforts to investigate new opportunities just because your business has slowed down. Let your competitors do that.

Is Your Marketing Bold Enough?

Brendan Miller — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:39:46 +0000

My prediction is that as the economy continues to stagnate, the agencies that will continue to reel in new business are those that are involved in social media and those that continue to do transformational work. Marketers are so desperate right now–faced with cost-cutting consumers and slashed budgets–they are finally starting to recognize that the only strategies and campaigns worth implementing are ones that are bold, and probably make them a little nervous (way to go Skittles).

This isn’t a time for nervous Nellies.

See “Quickest Path to Greater Profit”

Twitter: Move Beyond the Useless Post, and See Its True Potential

Brendan Miller — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:15:06 +0000

I talked with a Creative Director who said to me the other day that Twitter was a totally useless application and it was a complete waste of time. I used to share his sentiment about Twitter, but after learning how to properly use it I now see its huge potential to fuel growing companies. I hear stories everyday of companies beginning to generate new revenue from it.

I often receive useless “tweets,” but new users need to overlook these, and get on to developing a Twitter program that engages their audience. About 56% of Twitter users say they use the online social communication site for business purposes, according to Rodney Rumford, a social media guru. The figure is based on a survey of 700 Twitter users.

Twitter can be used actively (through the use of promotions and advertising) by generating buzz or passively (in which you read “comments” about your business from consumers. Used effectively, it’s a tool for growing companies to level the playing field against their much larger and entrenched competitors by developing a loyal fan base.

Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go in LA started using Twitter last year to develop sales. It sent out Twitter Alerts so fans knew where to find its delivery trucks at any given time. Now they have lines of people each night. Twittering has fueled a massive fan base and a viral following for the unique restaurant. According to a New York Times article its marketing plan included having someone be in charge of social networking for the small restaurateur. Having a social media point-person is critical to the success of any social media program.

Develop Your Core Marketing Strategy and Hold To It

Brendan Miller — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:24:37 +0000

I talk with a lot of fast-moving organic, green and natural food products companies. The great part of marketing these products is that nine out of ten times they are better: healthier, more efficacious, or better tasting. They are marketer’s dream.

The one mistake I see over and over for many of these innovative start-ups is the belief that just being “better” will be enough to get consumers to switch to their product. “Better” is not a strategy. It is a false hope. What you need is a solid strategy describing the magic that will make the product fly off the shelf. Then you need a very consistent marketing program to reinforce the strategy and to compete with the bigger competitors in the market. Too often I see companies getting marketing or product advice from people (read friends and family) which in no way reflect the general public then apply that advice very inconsistently at best. The product fails to hit the sweet spot, then they get nervous and begin discounting, then a recession ensues, and their back to making the product in their garage again.

The good news is the recession may not be having as much effect on many of these companies as previously thought. According to a report; despite the recession and their occasionally higher cost, most consumers are still buying green products. A survey by Portland, Oregon-based non-profit product certifiers Green Seal found that of 1,000 people surveyed, half are buying as many green products as before the downturn, while 19 percent are buying more. Only 14 percent are buying fewer. While sales are down overall at Home Depot, its Eco-Options label of energy efficient products are outperforming conventional merchandise sales across the board.

Now maybe the perfect times to enter this market as opportunities are still high and competitors are pulling back. Just make sure you have that strategy worked out.

Will Gen Y Be The Stimulus We Need?

Brendan Miller — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:53:03 +0000

Just as in past recessions, small business will lead large enterprises in the recovery and stimulation of the economy. Typically small businesses shed fewer jobs as a percentage of their workforce during a recession and start hiring earlier as recessions abate than their large enterprise counterparts. Many of these new businesses will feed off the cheaper labor costs and the structure adverse Gen Y population. New innovations and start-ups will come from tech savvy Gen Y’s who grew up on mobile phones, the Internet, and social networking.

Generation Y, born between 1978 and 1994, may well be on its way to becoming the most entrepreneurial generation in our nation’s history — and for very good reasons. They took their baby steps during our first true entrepreneurial decade, the 1980s; watched their parents “restructured” out of what were once lifetime corporate jobs; witnessed barriers to entry collapse as technology democratized the business start-up process.

Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine. Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35- to 44-year-olds.

Gen Y brimming with confidence ingrained into their psyche by their Boomer parents live on social media, are more networked, and more tech savvy than any other generation. They have little regard for experience, they grew up in a world where what they learned in school two years ago is already outdated. The answers to their problems have always been on the Internet. They are natural collaborators and innovators.

What should marketers do about it? Begin adopting and implementing a new model. Gen Y innovations will be driving new trends that the rest of us will be adopting and conforming too for years to come. You won’t be able to lead them (they don’t want to be led). You have to keep up with them. You engage them. You converse with them. Don’t follow every fad, but rather the principles that are driving the fads: a desire to be more connected, democratization of everything, instantaneous feedback, and full transparency (including your brand and products) will be areas this generation will be pioneering.