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The Wethey Forecast

Campaign for Real Marketing 

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Remember you saw it first on The Wethey Forecast. It is time to put the magic back into marketing, before it is obliterated by mediocrity, short-termism, and too much pre-testing, regulation and procurement.


Had a drink last night with a client. He is a talented and seasoned marketer working at the European HQ of a global giant. He was looking chirpier than I’d seen him for a long time, and offered an unusual explanation. “It’s my new boss,” he said. “This guy is the real deal. He is clever. He is classy, and he is a pied piper too. He has only been here a few months and you can already see the effect on the brand and the whole team.”

When did you last hear anyone say that? It is rare enough to get the wow factor from a TV spot, a DM piece, a promotion, or anything on the web. Rarer still to meet a truly inspiring and charismatic marketer. Why is that?

  • Because marketing directors come and go so quickly they don’t get the chance to make an impact?
  • Because caution, often in the guise of pre-testing, kills some great ideas as surely as it eliminates obvious howlers?
  • Because regulation blunts entrepreneurialism and flair?
  • Because procurement can become too powerful?
  • Because communications directors are making inroads into marketing budgets
  • Or because the brightest people are attracted by other careers, whereas years ago marketing would have beckoned?

It is probably down to elements of all these factors – and more.

Does anyone else care? Do you feel, even out of curiosity, feel like joining my Campaign for Real Marketing? Do post me names of great marketers you work with, or have known in the past. We need to celebrate these stars and encourage more to follow in their footsteps. Names and ideas please. Or if I am wrong – and there’s a golden age of marketing out there right now – tell me.

Published Mar 23 2007, 08:15 AM by David Wethey
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Comments

by cristina c
March 23, 2007 12:14 PM
 
It is true, real marketing might be somewhere, but not out there that's for sure. And it is unlikely that it will be back soon as, instead for identifying the target audience and getting to know them, you're more interested in being politically correct and not offend anyone. Where are the great ideas that made your audience feel special? feel like they belong to a certain selected group, that made them stand out? Well, gone, that's where they are! All in an attempt to cater for all tastes they manage to cater for none! Look at is going on around you! You have a couple of trends and that's all they follow - it is green time again? Well, let's all say we're going green - that will surely make us stand out! As there's nothing more "distinctive" than saying the same thing in the same manner at the same time! This is a debate that can go on for ages, but the bottom line is - if you don't acknowledge and use the fact that we, the consumers, are individuals, and not just sheep following the same path, you might as well cut all those budgets and don't bother pretend you're working in marketing.
 
 
by Dan M
March 23, 2007 2:13 PM
 
Cristina, you are forgeting one important aspect: people are indeed like sheep! That may not be "politically correct" to say, but, from a marketer's point of view, it's all about dealing with the masses. So individualizing people is not a very good thing to do...you are promoting/selling to thousands and millions, not to 1 or 2 individuals. Great advertisements are based on the same old and working principles, that many have used before with great success. The quest for inovation is a possibility, but not a necessity. It sure is nice to imagine the creative marketer, with brainstorming sessions, mind-blowing ideas and original approaches, but, in reality...the same old dusted paths, that have been proved to work with the target public, are re-hashed, re-packaged and flavour-changed in order to appear new and shiny. Why? Because they work! Not many people are bold enough to try something new, that mught not work and cost their job. And consumers, indeed, are not individuals. Looking at them as part of the target mass is as important as finding out what they want and providing for them. Agreed, not all of them will want a silver kitchen robot that makes mashed potatoes...but 86.7% of them will!
 
 
by cristina c
March 23, 2007 4:04 PM
 
That might have been true when we had ONE manufacturer of silver kitchen robots that makes mashed potatoes but not tens and hundreds of them. The competition is too big to assume that once you're out there people will automatically come to you just because you're applying the right marketing principles! Consumers are cluttered with advertising, everybody wants to sell them something (most probably the same thing). The problem appears when they all want to do it in the same way. It's hardly possible to create new needs, what you have now is creating trends. That's where the brands come in, they appeal to the emotional rather than the rational. We talking indeed about masses but they are made of individuals, and even if we are not targeting each and everyone of them, we are targeting groups. Brands have been the big thing of the 90's, why is it that with the new millennium, we're trying to fix something that is not broken? Why not support a brand and be proud about it? Why not make your consumer stand out in a crowd? Because, thanks to the-dear-old-American-habit-of-being-politically-correct-in-any-situation, if you're saying this to your consumer, you might be offending X, whereas if you're saying that, you might be offending Y and so on..... OK, so the world is not a melting pot anymore but a salad, why don't we use the right sauce then? Be creative for a change, dare say something that appeals not to 50 millions but to half of them and does not sit perfectly well to pretty much everybody else, but at least this half might stick with you next time you're trying to sell the same old silver kitchen robot that makes mashed potatoes.
 
 
by Dan M
March 23, 2007 6:29 PM
 
There is some truth to what you are saying, i'll give you that. But...the fact that there is so much competition, almost in every field now, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be creative in order to win. There are many more principles involved in the success or failure of a product, inovation being only one (and not a must-use one) of the ingredients for an efficient recipe. The middle and, I might add, best way, is to apply old and successful techniques, but with a new twist. That is not re-inventing the wheel, but adding a little something extra, like a new tyre shape. And I don't think that the main obstacle standing in the way of creative and original brands is the politically correctness. That is just a small pebble on the road. Why aren't people more creative? It's simple: because it's not efficient, it's not cost-effective...because, as much as there is to be gained from being original, there is a huge posibility that people won't get your idea or product. So, why try it? It's as simple and material as that. Sure, in a perfect world, a dream world, your ideas would certainly apply...but, let's face it: people would rather buy a razor machine presented by a star they can associate with (let's say Beckham) than buy a new and revolutionary one presented by aliens coming from outer space in a aftershave shaped vehicle. The first concept works and has been working for ages (associate a famous figure with the product), the creative one doesn't. Why? Because humans are instinctively afraid of the unknown and attracted to the familiar. And good marketers know how to use that!
 
 
by Jamie Matthews
March 28, 2007 1:12 PM
 
Posted by Roger H 28/03/07 The fascinating thing about this business is that you get so many differing opinions on what works and what doesn't! After 30 years in the game, I'm convinced that innovation and creativity properly applied will almost always provoke more reaction than the tried and trusted. However, we are now dealing with a much more sophisticated, brand-aware consumer who knows instinctively when he or she is being sold to. So we need new ways to make our brand propositions credible and acceptable to our target audience. The correct approach today is to combine outstanding creativity with real consumer insight, so that our messages are not only distinctive but appropriate to the tergeted recipient. I'm with David...let's put the magic back into marketing.
 
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The Wethey Forecast

Musings from Agency Assessments' Chairman on agencies, clients and the business of advertising
 

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David Wethey

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