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Brick No39: The Original Sin of Marketing
By Matt Weston, Friday 6 February 2004 You can't afford to waste money on vanity costs that make no difference to your bottom line profits. I watched the Superbowl this week. I still find it ridiculous that America's national sport is only played in their country! But the most ridiculous thing about the Superbowl is the ads that are shown at half-time (and their cost). Big buck advertising agencies have lost sight of the purpose of advertising – to generate sales. They create indulgent, expensive ads that can only be used once - on Superbowl night. To paraphrase the king of copywriting, John Forde: '[The Superbowl ads] weren't good ads because they indulged in the Original Sin of Marketing . . . Vanity. And at $3.3 million a pop, it's expensive vanity at that.' His point was this: Superbowl advertising is the antithesis of results-based advertising. Superbowl ads are slick, showy and high-profile, but rarely make any impact on sales. They're all about ad agency prestige and bikini clad models; and nothing to do with benefits or the customer. Carly Simon famously sang, 'You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you.' Too right, Carly. Many big corporates with big images think that advertising is about their brand, not about their customer. Vanity is endemic in big business. We small businesses needn't catch the big business bug. Fountains in the foyer Some while back - when I was a wage-slave - I remember visiting the workplace of a prospective new supplier: a printer. It was located in the middle of nowhere, and you had to walk through the main print production room to get the Managing Director's office. Nevertheless I was 110% impressed with his operation and staff. He wasn't bothered about the frills. His only concern was delivering the best service at the best price. If you visit a printer in a prime-position, with a 'fountain in the foyer', alarm bells should start ringing. As the customer, you're paying for the fountain (and the marble statue perched on it). Your first impression is important: just make sure it communicates results, service and quality, rather than vanity, waste and self-focus. Vanity Costs So what are vanity costs? I've talked before about brochures. Every extra penny you spend glossing up your brochures needs to generate an extra penny in sales. But vanity costs can be anything that doesn't make a difference to your top-line (either short or long-term). Do you need a prime position office, corporate image, or all-singing-all-dancing website? Will it really make a difference? Time and again, I come back to this point: your business is not about you; it's about your customers. Is your money best invested in glossy, full-colour brochures; in reaching out to new customers; or providing existing customers with a better value service? As you know, I'm from the results school of marketing: I don't believe in branding for branding's sake. I want to see a return on every advert or promotion I run. Unless you can show a return on your investment, your advertising is vanity advertising - pointless and trivial. Sarah Beeny, the star of Channel 4's 'Property Ladder' teaches the same lesson week after week. If you're developing property to sell or rent focus on what your market wants, not what you want. The same applies if you're developing your business. Vanity Leadership Vanity can affect the way you look at your business as a whole. I worked with one business owner who was determined be THE market leader (even though he was a late entrant to the market). That was his vision; his self-image. But financially that position doesn't always make sense. As Peter Drucker argues in 'Managing for Results' : 'In many industries the largest company is by no means the most profitable one, since it has to carry product lines, supply markets, or apply technologies where it cannot do a distinct, let alone unique job. 'The second spot, or even the third spot is often preferable, for it may make possible that concentration on one segment of the market, on one class of customer, on one application of the technology, in which genuine leadership often lies.' The best thing about being small is that we can exploit niches, opportunities and changes. Vanity businesses focus only on being the biggest and the best-looking. They forget what's really important: results. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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