Marketing Rehab
With the amount of money spent on drugs, one would think that this societal ill has affected the sensibility of those people who design and craft our ads and marketing. Because I have often said, “Are they on drugs? That ad was so stupid.” You may have the same opinion about what you see
We need a marketing rehab center. While drug rehab is serious business and needed work for those who desperately need it, we must also rehab how we market and sell. In the last 15 years, we got drunk on the high wine of easy credit and foreign subsidies. Now all that has changed and so has the buying habits and needs of so many people. Moreover, the world of financing is ultra restrictive and full of fear.
Rehab is not just about stopping the practices of taking in non-survival agents, but also getting back to basics. Getting sleep, getting some exercise, eating nutritious foods and developing holistic and ethical choices as a life strategy are all part of the rehab process.
This type of transformation is also needed in marketing. We have to get back to basics and realize that marketing has a function and that is not insulting our intelligence of trying convince us that the unimportant is absolutely required to be happy.
A recent study showed that Americans only believe 3% of the ads they see. Imagine if Madison Avenue, just down the block from Wall Street, realized that they have deviated just as much during this financial crisis.
In actual fact, Madison Avenue has more potential power as it affects the lives than Wall Street. How many people have stocks or bonds as compared to those who potentially could buy advertised goods? Madison Avenue has the power to transform our economy, while Wall Street figures out who they are and what they really do.
Now the reality is this: Your business will probably never employ Madison Avenue assistance, but nonetheless your business must go through the same transformation that country is experiencing. It need innovation, some Lance Armstrong like determination and finding its way back to the basics.
Best, Edwin Dearborn