The end of Advertising as we know it

This post is rather an echo of Seth Godin's post on 24th Sept 2009. You can read the full post here

The point I find rather interesting is that this post is remarkably accurate to what I see as the sunset of mass advertising. In the continuous drive to digitise our lives, company's of the future will probably not be willing to spend so easily on advertising which is unmeasurable (i.e. billboards, newspapers, etc).

I believe that companies of the future will want to know exactly where their advertising spend is going to as well as how well it is working. Thus arbitrary figures such as "we reach 1 million people" will no longer cut it!

Companies want to know exactly how many people are receiving / reading / seeing their advertisements as well as how effective are the promotions which they are running.

So I see an end it sight, question is do the owners of traditional media see it coming?

OCBC's big marketing Flaw

A funny thing just happened to me, I just received a call from OCBC Bank. They asked if I had a home loan and when I mentioned I did not they proceeded to tell me if I was ever to consider getting a home loan I should consider OCBC bank. DONE. End of conversation which took less than 2 minutes.

2 things come to mind immediately, first off why would I bother getting an OCBC loan when I have had no prior contact with them. Do they seriously assume that from one single 2 minute call I would be interested to get a home loan from them?

Second, this lack of engagement or even relationship building on OCBC's part only confirms that they (i.e. OCBC) are only interested in selling to me.

As per my previous post, I mentioned that brands need to engage their customers. That goes for everything. Contact in any form must strive to build some kind of relationship with the potential or existing customer.

So, did OCBC make a huge marketing mistake - YES. Was their marketing technique time and money wasting - YES again! Two wrongs don't make a right.

Communicating your brand

Brands need to communicate more with their consumers. That is the gist of great branding today.

Here's an excerpt of an article found from The edge - a malaysian based newspaper. You can find the whole article here

(There is also a clear trend towards proactive consumers (prosumers). These are consumers who actively generate content for sites, communicate with brands, and network online. In Malaysia, this group is dominated by Malaysian youth aged 20-24, according to the Synovate Media Atlas Malaysia Q3 2007-Q2 2008. “Communication between brands and the consumer used to be one way. Now, it is a lot more interactive,” says Murphy. “The best brands, such as Nike and Coca Cola, invite consumers to interact, to provide ideas and feedback in exchange for rewards.")

A brand today has got to be more personal and more human. So how do you go about communicating your brand?

Well, one can start from the many fold places in the big 'ol world wide web, whether its a simple linked-in or even a facebook account. But whilst managing your on-line profile, don't forget about your other communication methods such as your consumers who have a mobile phones.

In Asia, the proliferation of data plans such as 3G is still relatively low, thus many phone holders still communicate via sms. For those of us in Asia not able to use accounts such as Twitter then they are in luck for I came across a service called Hailer

Companies such as Hailer and Twitter exist to help brands communicate. Hailer, for example allows its clients to communicate with mobile phone users who do not have data plans such as 3G thus giving potential brands the ability to communicate with millions of mobile users.

The great thing about this is, Hailer is set up on a platform which allow brands to create channels where mobile users can subscribe to. This type of setup forces brands to communicate responsibly where if a brands starts spamming its subscribers these subscribers can choose to unsubscribe to the brands channel.

Thus the ability to communicate goes both ways. Brands can now interact with its customers but in a responsible manner and consumers can now tell brands their thoughts and feelings. Gone I believe are the days where brands can be faceless and corporate.

In conclusion, the need for brands to communicate today is even more pressing then before. With the bountiful ways with which a brand can now communicate itself whether on-line or via mobile, I'm sure many will be interested to get in on the situation. So, grab your mouses and warm up your laptops and click away...

Principles for Sale

It seems these days; everything is for sale whether its opinions, integrity or principles. The idea is... throw enough money at anyone and you'll be able to buy their point of view.

To successfully build brands, I believe there needs to be integrity in the way companies or organisations go about their business. Without it, all that's left is a rotting foundation of lies.

So, the question is, are you brave enough to do what you say or is it the other way round?

Concerns for Small & Medium Businesses

Hey everyone,

Just a short note to share on the site to link to for a radio interview done on the 18th June 2009 at BFM 89.9. Its about how Small and Medium Sized companies struggle to grow their business and how marketing is a tool commonly unused by these companies. This is the link below.

http://www.bfm.my/Concerns-for-SMEs-Routes-to-Growth-SL-Liew-Visata-Creative.html

To conclude, a quote from the radio podcast - "Marketing is not beyond SME's who need to start looking at Marketing as a basic tool in their artillery"

Is FujiFilm on the Right Track?

I read a very interesting article this morning on the business times site, It mentioned that Fujifilm (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd intends to sell 80,000 units of digital cameras this year.

In the article, the Senior Executive Director of Fujifilm Mr. Paul Ho mentioned this quote

"We believe that quality products matched by a strong advertising campaign will help us to achieve our sales target." (article)

Its my personal opinion this statement is inaccurate. First of, quality products. Everybody expects a product to be of quality before they would even consider buying it. So that statement of having quality products is not a strong differentiating statement. Having a strong advertising campaign would probably buy you some buzz time but in my opinion, the payback from the ad campaign might not translate to sales.

Its true that advertising is an integral part of any marketing process but herein lies the difference, it is an integral part and not the whole process.

My belief is that Fujifilm suffers from a very basic branding problem, being its name itself... FujiFilm. Fujifilm has built up its name in the consumers mind as being a camera film producing company. No one today uses films anymore in their cameras and Fujifilm has not been trying to rebrand themselves by moving away from the perception they are great at producing films to being great at producing digital cameras. So its obvious why this is a problem.

I believe that if Fujifilm does not address this problem, no matter how much advertising they spend its not going to help them gain market share.

But on the bright side, its good to know that with everyone else cutting back on advertising & promotion, Fujifilm intends to spend. That is a bold marketing move so it just remains to be seen whether or not they are spending their marketing budget correctly and on the right medium. An interesting case to follow...

A New Beginning

First of A Happy New Year to you! A new year in many aspects represents a new beginning. So what is your New Year's resolution? Could it be to take your company's brand more seriously?

There's no better time to do that than in the year 2009! As markets become harder and more difficult and as recession effects become more apparent, its clear that the companies with a good brand base would find it easier to survive.

If you have spent time building your brand, you will already have a consumer base or fan base with which to roll out your branding activities for 2009. If not again I urge you there would be no better time than to start now.

So, 2009 should be a great opportunity to build brands the only question remains is are you ready to do it?

How well do you know your customers?

Lately with the economy being as it is, I've been asking myself this question. How well do I know my customers? For myself, I have to admit that it is at times trying to get to know all your customers, but lets focus on the 20% of clients which give you 80% of your business (i.e. the 80/20 rule).

How well do you know your customers? If your answer is not very well or not at all, perhaps some of these ideas could be of use to you.

1. Newsletters: Use this technique to engage your customers in a discussion. The best method to do this would be to create a newsletter which gives your customers interesting bits of information and ultimately there could also be a Q&A section where the readers of your newsletter could submit question to you to seek your advice. This would really demonstrate your expertise in your business.

2. Co host an event with another business: This would apply to companies targeting the same consumer base but not selling similar products or services. Examples could be:

- A bank hosting a small seminar with a marketing consultant to give tips and advice to customers on the best way to market their business.

- A financial planner and an insurance agent teaming up to run a talk on savings, retirement planning, etc.

- A caterer and wine specialist hosting a wine tasting and food event entitled "matching the correct food with the correct wine".

These ideas could help you to create a better relationship with a your customers and you won't have to resort to spamming them just to remind them that you are still around. These ideas are enduring and like all marketing efforts they take time to build up momentum and gain an audience.

Been thinking about the economy

Hey there, I'm sure you've been reading on the news about the current economic situation. Well, instead to just subscribing to all that doom and gloom I think perhaps we should draw our attention to what this current situation is doing to our businesses.

First and foremost you have to understand, if you believe at this juncture that what's happening now is going to make you go bust you're most certainly correct. Thus a good point to keep in mind here is attitude. Keep that attitude in check. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said during America's Depression that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

In a manner of speaking he's right, if we submit to the paralyzing fear of the times, we'll most likely shock ourselves into doing nothing!

Secondly, I think it important to remember that continuing your marketing efforts is a must at this point. Yes, so times are bad, you don't have much cash flow to carry out much marketing efforts. Instead of worrying how much money / cash flow you have to carry out marketing activities, why not focus on what kind of marketing activities that can be carried out at a low cost. Think guerrilla style marketing.

After all that's said and done, you can't be paralyzed by the current turn of events, instead times like these are probably a call back to real marketing efforts and a cut back from all that advertising which you've probably mistaken as marketing effort. Till next time...

Company emails and websites

In my line of work with Small and Medium sized businesses, I'm constantly shocked at how little importance is placed in branding. That said, I think one of the basic requirements that all companies should have no matter how big or small is a corporate email and website.

Can you imagine meeting someone for the first time and having look through their contact details only to discover that they do not have a website and the other cardinal sin, a generic email address such as will@gmail.com or alanc@yahoo.com

Now, the first thing that comes to mind my mind when I see this is:

Is this person's business as genuine?

Is he/she going to wind up someday or is he/she here for the long term?

Having a website and proper email will help to establish in your customers mind that you are here for the long term. Bear in mind, this is to provide a psychological relief and to instill a sense of confidence in your client that you are serious in your business.

Thus, what are you waiting for? Make sure you have a website running and most of all a proper domain email. Branding wise, it will go a long way.

Packaging & Labeling, a silent salesman?

As with advertising, promotion & placement, the packaging & labeling of products are crucial steps to marketing of products that can & will become branded items. Yet ever so often, little attention is paid to this important aspect of marketing the product.

With some product packaging or labels, it appears that the product owner has no intention whatsoever to build brands worthy of its quality and promise the product deserves. If one were to asses deserving products in Malaysia, in particular, can we say that none has reached branded status as in comparison to Reebok, Nike, etc.

We, in Malaysia, had a product that has long existence, perhaps some 90 years plus or more. With available facilities, it has not touched base with the consumer movement and changes in consumer preferences to package & label its product, worthy of the trust & satisfaction the company has in the country.

Hence, it is crucially important that attention be given to packaging & labeling to allow strategic development of the product and turn it into a “branded” product. As always, the Gurus often reiterates that the packaging & labeling of a product is liken to a “silent SALESMAN”, it does not speak; but it says a lot.

Regards,

SL Liew

About the author: The post above is from one of my contributors Mr. Liew Siew Loong. Mr. Liew has been in the marketing field for the last 40 years dealing in FMCG products to food products and even high fashion. To find out more about of his profile, log on to http://www.viscreative.com/