For those of you who have had the pleasure to meet me ( :) ) and talk media/advertising/marketing you may know that my ultimate vision of a perfect communications strategy is rooted in adding value to the consumer (SEM most certainly fits into this category and SEM is large part of my life so, I will save that discussion for another post).
Now, I do not claim to be the most polished, traditionally trained marketer (my core competency and my masters education is in media) however, being in the world of modern media, you really cannot get by without a vast knowledge of marketing and advertising.
Anyone who is worth their weight in modern media has done their homework on the sister disciplines to media (I would include technology in this family as well).
At times I feel very luck not to have studied marketing in a formal environment that harbors old world thinking as, I am able to maintain a bit of outsider perspective and say to myself, "why the hell does anyone think that campaign will help promote/sell a product when the brand attributes, points of differentiation or value (or anything else that helps to form a brands USP) or touted in the campaign?" (re: WASSUP)
I was talking to a friend of mine last week and asked him his opinion on advertising that is seemingly unrelated to the product it is speaking about and he said, "You gotta keep it out there" but why not add value to the brand while keeping it "out there"? Why not attempt to engender love?
Imagine this, you are buying a football highlights DVD from Amazon and you are about to check out and choose your shipping options. You pick three day ground and it has a price tag of $3.99. As you go to complete the process you get a big Budweiser Banner that says, "The Shipping Is On Us, The Beer Is On You, Enjoy!".
A small percent of people will spend that savings on beer (yes, it will be a small number but, a number nonetheless). Another percent will spend that savings on a beer that has not yet been determined. All things being equal, if that person heads to the store with a positive image of Budweiser in their mind there is chance that the savings Budweiser was so generous to underwrite may have an effect on that consumer. Perhaps it won't have an effect. Perhaps when the DVD is shipped, it will be shipped with a coupon to save x dollars on a case of Bud.
I realize that I have not laid out some groundbreaking marketing plan (or even a radically different use of media) however, it is this type of micro persuasion that, in the aggregate can engender the type of brand love that I do not feel silly (and often time obtrusive and ignored) television commercials can engender.
Call me crazy (some do anyhow, I am used to it!)
Tags: A Valuable Circus, Micro Persuasion, Budweiser, USP, Amazon, Love, marketing, advertising, media, SEM, Adam Broitman, communications