Being direct... AdVantage May 2006
Marketing's Problems: The Consumer Doesn't Care!
Empowered consumers will not give up their new-found control … any time soon!
It was during 2001, just before I decided to remove the GP from my car's number plate and exchange it once again for a ZN, that I had lunch with our esteemed editor John Farquar, and accepted his invitation to write a regular column for AdVantage. Being Direct has been the result of this decision and during the past number of years I have thoroughly enjoyed both doing the research into, as well as writing about those things that I have considered important to our ever-changing consumer, media and communication landscape.
Early in February this year, I again had lunch with John and on this occasion respectfully requested that I be released from the almost endless deadlines that come with writing a monthly column. My business interests exact a much greater demand on my available energy these days than that very energy is easily able to sustain! So, John and I have agreed that with effect from the March 2006 edition, my column will be featured on alternate months.
I am most grateful to him for his understanding, and hope that the halving of the frequency will mean that I can find more time to unearth even more interesting subject matter to cover. You, the reader will be the final arbiter of that, and so feel free to give your input directly to me at any time - my e-mail address is: rayj@thecustomer.co.za.
In the March column I featured the book recently published by Joseph Jaffe and called 'Life After the 30-Second Spot'. I have now had the time to complete reading this book, and besides wanting to mention (no, shout from the rooftops) that this particular Joseph is also South African by birth, I really do want to make a few additional observations about the central message contained in his book, and to once again encourage any reader who has personally felt threatened by the question mark that now seems to hang over the advertising process - to go out, get a copy and become completely enlightened by Mr Jaffe's excellent analysis of what is on the horizon.
In the opening of section II of his book, Joseph says the following: 'let's summarize: It's becoming damn near impossible to break through the clutter; creativity sucks; consumers have wised up; and waste is egregious. Television - largely lead by the (US) networks but certainly not limited to them - is in a vicious downward spiral. Advertising, the parasite that owes much of its existence to its host television, is close to the bottom of the barrel in terms of its quality, credibility, end even efficacy. Oh, and one more thing: The consumer doesn't care.'
Joseph goes on to highlight one of the core issues: the business of advertising has gone on doing the same old thing that it has always done, but somehow appears to have ignored the fact that today's consumer has changed irrevocably: 'He, or she (or even you) is devastatingly in control, armed with a whole array of weapons of the destruction of mass..'. He suggests that a solution is to completely re-think the four fundamentals of marketing - The Consumer; Branding; Advertising; The Advertising Agency.
Even as I write this I can hear the screams of anguish coming from the ad-industry protesting vehemently at the gall of Joseph Jaffe for even thinking like this, and who may even be pissed at me for having the temerity to repeat it. But, according to a press release from the American Association of Advertising Agencies published last weekend, their recent Media conference themed 'Now, Soon and the Future' which ended in Florida on Friday 3rd March, attracted a record number of delegates (around 1500) which may suggest some concern as to whether there is a crisis facing the industry in the US and across the world, or not.
The subject matter of the various presentations included, for example: 'How to Sell Nontraditional Media Ideas to Your Clients,' and 'Wireless Search Engine Marketing Strategies and Emerging Technologies.' Another presentation by Mediapost exec Joe Mandise even asked - 'Is Your Medium Ready for the Non-linear World?'
I was personally intrigued by some of the comments made by conference presider Jean Pool, COO Universal McCann when she was interviewed by Mediapost and asked about her opinion on the speed of technological change in the ad-world. She made the point that the industry has been 'talk, talk, talking' about change literally since 1985, but clearly does not seem motivated to do anything about it. As far as real change is concerned, she says: 'we are still living down near the cave-mouth…'
For some years now I have tried to highlight what I consider to be the real dichotomy between the traditional world of media (where a communication channel is owned and influenced by a medium's owner through publishing content - hoping to attract a large enough audience to be able to sell commercial access to that audience) and what is increasingly happening in the marketplace, right now.
The core difference is two-fold: the control has shifted from media owner selling something of a 'promised' and rather 'passive' audience - to any consumer with digital connections. Secondly, many consumers are no longer happy at the thought that they should be the targets (victims?) of unwanted commercial content, merely because they might choose to consume a particular communication channel.
Joe Jaffe sums it up like this: 'The old consumer was an easy target at which the corporate marketers could aim and push at all and sundry. The new consumer, however, is a mobile media maven who pulls required content from a variety of sources in a virtual multitasking frenzy'. He goes on - 'These days marketers are stumped. Instead of reinventing the process, instead of adapting to their new surroundings, instead of meeting consumers on their own terms - their marketing solution has been to hold on even tighter to their ultimate security blanket: status quo'.
Jean Pool has got it very right! Talking in the hope than change can be averted is simply not going to make any emancipated consumer go back to the old way. Get used to it.