When Marketers and Consumers are two worlds apart
I grew up in New York City with a view overlooking the eastern New Jersey coastline — until a certain ex-President developed the entire riverbank in “#unpresidented” fashion. Then my view went from the Hudson River and tree-covered cliffs of the Garden State to black-mirrored glass towers. But unlike most New Yorkers, I never had a complex about “New Jersey”. To this day I do not understand the jokes made about the place or the people. Which is why, when I came across this hilarious read by advertising legend Bob Hoffman, I just had to buy it. SPOILER ALERT: not much is mentioned about New Jersey itself.
Marketers are from MARS, Consumers are from NEW JERSEY is a brazen look at marketing practices and the thick-headed practioners behind them.
Hoffman has been preaching his uncomfortable truths for some time now. They are met with either horror (that they’ve been uttered out-loud) or laughter (because they are insightfully true). Unfortunately, the monolithic practitioners of marketing do not seem to change habits.
3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1) MOST ADVERTISING IS INEFFECTIVE, IF NOT A FARCE. So much work goes into creating campaigns which are supposed to bring personas to life, make consumers fall in love with brands, increase loyalty, build communities.
Advertising has always been 90% lousy
And while “the consumer” is always “at the heart” of the effort, it seems their voice (if they were even asked) rarely seems to be heard. The majority of purchases are based on convenience, availability and habits. But most campaigns go so out of their own way to make points which are ultimately irrelevant that consumers forget them, and then default to how they operate anyway.
Do I really want to carry a gallon of “farm fresh” milk all the way from the supermarket? Or will the factory-milked carton at the local 7-Eleven do?
I need to fly today… any airline that gets me there will do.
I’ve always bought Gucci because their clothes fit me best, why experiment?
Good ideas are rare. So does that mean that no advertising should be done without one? Of course not. Many brands cut their advertising budgets in Q4 in order to meet profit- and dividend targets (#P&G). Consumers’ already minimal awareness of their products drops severely and when the media-dollars start flowing again, brands have to dig themselves out from the hole of the irrelevant and forgotten before they can start having a conversation again. But at least use the message to communicate what consumers need to know:
They want [to know] it to works well, tastes good, is reasonably priced, and looks pretty. End of story!
And when such simple “copy” doesn’t breakthrough the noise to suddenly galvanize the masses, strategy is shifted to advertising the “speaker”. Enter Will.I.Am (#GreatRespect) becoming creative director for Salesforce (#MixedThoughts). Or Lady Gaga (#EvenMoreRespect) becoming CD for Polaroid (#BecauseSheOnceReleasedASongCalledPaparazzi?). It’s one thing to make a calculated partnership with a brand ambassador. Giving over the creative reigns (or worse, pretending to) to a disconnected, unrelated personality to drive awareness and connection seems desperate.
In the end, “art” is favoured over “making the sale”, coupled with ever-changing trends on which new channels to use (yesterday it was TV, today it’s Facebook, tomorrow TikTok, the day after…?) which means it’s no longer about which 50% of your marketing spend is wrong, but why 90%+ of it is.
2) DIGITAL IS A DEATH TRAP. It might seem counterintuitive (or downright irreverent, a la Hoffman) to be saying anything negative on “digital” these days. The Covid19 pandemic has forced everyone to “go digital”. Browse, buy, sell, do your taxes, learn algebra, connect with family, escape into video- and gaming-lands aplenty… we all do it from screens of various sizes and display-qualities. But when it comes to marketing through digital, the simple truth remains that no one knows where the spend goes. The New York Times deduced that 57% of online videos are never even seen while CNET established that only 37% of all web-traffic is actually human. In 2014 (when these statistics were established), about 72 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. In 2020 that peaked to 500 hours uploaded per minute. Even if fewer videos are not seen (say 45%, down from 57%), that still means that half of all videos will never been seen, and of those that are only 1 in 3 will be by a human. So where does all that digital ad spend go? It goes to feed the media-buying agencies, media-placement agencies, ad-agencies, bot-network builders, and the black hole that is the internet. And don’t forget how quickly consumers click that “Skip Ad” button or scroll away from the flashing banners. If only all the spend could be put to better use in some other way? Like at the point of sale? or the customer service department? or the innovation team?
3) LINKEDIN NEEDS A REBOOT. Hoffman makes many other excellent points about the state of advertising: how wrong it is with the 55+ community; how long it takes brands to respond to live events (#Cheesegate); the wrong attitudes and competencies (and willful blindness) of various decision makers. But as we’re on LinkedIn, we should at least see his views on how it can be improved. So straight from my fellow New Yorker’s pie-hole:
7 Fabulous Ways to Make LinkedIn Less Boring (how LinkedIn could make itself more interesting)
1. People who were born on the same day as you but look way older
2. People you used to work with who hate you and are checking to see if you’re dead
3. Super-hot nymphos who anonymously checked your profile
4. CEOs you know who have criminal records
5. Awful guys you once slept with when you were drunk and never called you and are now unemployed
6. People who have fabulously nasty stories about your boss
7. People you are connected to who have extra Super Bowl tickets
It’s all about putting things in perspective
New Jersey is a great place. Honestly. And it is as good an example as any for your typical, average consumer anywhere in the (developed) world. As Hoffman makes the point repeatedly, it would do a lot of marketing/advertising people good to go down to their local Department of Motor Vehicles office, cue for 10 hours, and observe normal people — or even speak to a few! Our “target consumers” are not to be found only in attractive personas we’ve invented in the office: the “can do it all” Pilates trainer mum; the travel-passionate hairdresser who likes to motorbike; the up-and-coming corporate attorney who likes to collect watches and Bohemian bone china. The campaign ideas needed to reach them do not have to be Earth-shattering: just get the necessary points across without confusing the h*ll out of everyone.
We just need a change in attitude across fields and definitely across seniority levels. Just that one, small thing…
P.S. For those of you still scratching your heads about what a “WAWA” is: it is a New Jersey founded iron-foundry-turned-dairy-farm-turned-convenience-store-and-gas station chain. A much more pleasant shopping experience than 7-Eleven, be sure to drop by one the next time you drive through the Big N-J!
Be sure to check out more of Hoffman’s tongue-and-cheek comments on his blog and/or newsletters:
#InsightsCaffeine #ElGrecoInsights #Marketing #Branding #StartUps #GetAbstract #Blinkist
