Jack Glasure, Chief Marketing Executive
Natural Selection
NOUN:
The process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.
The year is 1451 and Johannes Gütenberg uses a press to print an old German poem, and two years later prints a 42-line Bible. Nearly 400 years later in 1833, a single penny (US$0.01) buys a New York newspaper and opens up the first mass market for newspapers. In 1878, the first full-page newspaper advertisements appear.
Today, a person hears or sees close to 3,000 advertising messages a day. We tolerate constant daily electronic bombardment and are subject to continual information overload: printed knowledge doubles every four to five years; 4,000 books are published around the world every day; the World Wide Web grows by 1,000,000 pages every day.
By the time you were 18 years old, you had already watched 140,000 television commercials.
Add to that, the average number of brands in a supermarket went from 20,000 in 1990 to over 45,000 in 2005 with super centers now offering an overwhelming 100,000+ SKUs.
Two words sum up today’s consumer market: unlimited choice.
As a result, 65 percent of Americans feel constantly bombarded with too many marketing messages, and 61 percent feel the volume is out of control. To make matters worse, 60 percent of consumers have a much more negative opinion of marketing and advertising than they did a few years ago, and 69 percent are interested in mechanisms that skip or block advertising completely.
One-third of us would slightly lower our standard of living to live in a society without marketing or advertising; 41 percent would pay for traditionally free media (network TV or radio); and 28 percent would pay significantly more for magazines to avoid advertising saturation.
Furthermore, 60 percent of Americans feel that marketers and advertisers don't treat customers with respect; 59 percent feel that most marketing and advertising has little relevance to them; and 65 percent think that there should be more limits and regulations on marketing and advertising.
Simply stated, brands that do not adapt to the changing marketing climate will soon meet the same fate as the dinosaur.
“Modern” branding is only a 50+ year-old discipline, born of the television and the need to drive consumption to the mass market. Marketing messages were product-focused and emphasis was placed on communication about the product. Until recently, this model was the basis for virtually all marketing messages.
The brands that thrive in today’s marketplace have changed that paradigm. As well as including Product and Communication, successful brands now focus on Environment and Behavior.
A brand represents the intellectual and emotional associations that people make with a company.
"Marketing battles take place in the mind of a consumer or prospect. That's where you win. That's where you lose.” Jack Trout, “Big Brands, Big Trouble”
In today’s marketplace, having a good product or service is simply the cost of entry. The only true weapon against clutter is relevancy.
Americans report having fewer close confidants due to longer work hours and lengthy commutes. One can see the results of this phenomenon in the rapid adoption of social marketing, including wikis, message boards, online forums, and other collaborative forms of media. All these technologies fulfill a very real human need to connect.
As marketers, we must break through the clutter to develop relationships with the real people at the other end of our communications.
Marketing is no longer just about broadcasting a message to a mass audience to drive sales. Instead, it's a return to old-fashioned communication that happens to occur in a public forum. Marketing is participatory.
Product selling as a brand differentiator is extinct. It provides us with insights into the past and challenges us to understand the complex world of today’s consumers.
Brands that successfully adapt, and survive, will integrate into consumers’ lives in meaningful ways using messages that resonate with that consumer’s core beliefs, environment, and behavior. A successful brand needs to stand for something that actually matters.
Sources:
The History of the Printing Press by J. Dubo, Copyright 2006 business-cards.com
International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA), A Brief History of Newspapers
Food Institute, 2005
Yankelovich Partners, Inc.
Brand Experience in User Experience Design, by Steve Baty, July 24, 2006
Brand Loyalty: The psychology of preference by Bill Nissim
Marketing Techniques That Cut Through Clutter, Michael Fleischner, Web site: Marketing Scoop. Posted: Feb 8, 2006
Social Marketing: Reach Out and Engage Consumers, by Heidi Cohen, July 6, 2006
