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"Ten Tall Tales of Traditional Marketing That Cost You Tons" Tall Tale #1 - Advertising Sells Products By Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller
Advertising. We've all tried it at least once. For purpose of this discussion, let's define advertising as any form of marketing one pays for. From business cards, flyers, and mailers to billboards, TV spots, and newspaper display ads. Advertising is everywhere. And almost every business in world can benefit from it somehow.
The problem with advertising lies in its traditional placement in marketing cycle. Advertising usually occurs after a product or service has been conceived, designed, implemented, and even consumed - and then only when sales aren't as expected. Advertising is generally used as a surface treatment…a marketing salve. Your product won't sell itself? Nobody's using your service? Just do a little advertising and things should turn around. Not likely.
For last 50 years this has been primary approach of advertisers and agencies alike. For many years it worked. But now, traditional advertising media are dying a slow death. In 1960, it was possible to reach 90% of housewives in one week by placing ads on 3 TV networks. In 1994 average household had less than 30 TV channels. Today, average home enjoys more than 100. Newspaper readership is down, XFM radio technology is creeping in, Internet has become primary information resource for many Americans, and there are more niche magazines than ever. Market segmentation is occurring at an historical rate just as number of marketing messages we see each day is. According to market positioning expert Jack Trout, average American is exposed to 4,000 marketing messages per day.
So, it's harder than ever to reach a mass audience and impact of a single advertising message is decreasing as number of marketing interruptions per day increases. That doesn't paint a happy picture for future of advertising. Or does it?
